圓悟佛果禪師語錄 20

English (machine translation) 20

Language: English

20.1

Compiled by Disciple Shaolong and others of Tiger Hill Mountain, Pingjiang Prefecture, Song Dynasty

20.3

Verses Spoken on Three Occasions When Emperor Gaozong, while in His Princely Residence, Requested [the Master] to Ascend the Seat

Good causes bring about good results; / Sowing millet does not produce beans. / One of great blessing and virtue cultivates it; / One of great blessing and virtue receives it. / The eighty-four thousand pāramitās / Are already fully accomplished upon the tip of a single hair. / Should you undertake it under the blow of the staff and shout, / You will walk high above the crown of Vairocana's head.

20.5

Utmost simplicity and utmost ease; / Utmost venerability and utmost nobility. / Moving back and forth upon the crowns of the heads of a thousand sages, / Inconceivable in the worldly and transworldly. / In the snap of a finger, fully perfecting eighty thousand gates; / Directly transcending, entering the ground of the Tathāgata.

20.6

Sentient Beings Are Fundamentally Buddhas

20.7

Acting simple and acting foolish, craving worldly tastes; / Idle thoughts—who cares for the ground of True Suchness? / At times obtaining a patch of fine scenery, / At the crossroads one frolics freely.

20.8

Fable

20.9

Formerly I heard of the great submergence, / Lifting twelve sea turtles at a single stroke. / Keeping this pure flower through the night, / It has not yet reached the autumn hair. / Dim and vast amidst the great forms, / How could emerging and submerging be escaped? / Just follow conditions for now; / Applying intent is truly in vain.

20.10

On Appointing Master Min as Head Monk, There Is a Verse:

20.11

Do not boast of the Fourfold [Vinaya]; cease the Śūraṅgama; / Press down the clouds and investigate thoroughly. / Do not emulate Master Liang visiting Mazu; / Rather be like Dejiao calling upon Longtan. / For seven years travelling back and forth, visiting Zhaojue; / For three years soaring, ascending the Blue Cliff. / Today troubled to serve as the first seat; / Amidst the cluster of a hundred flowers, the udumbara appears.

20.12

Instruction to the Assembly

20.13

To attend to the Way, one must attend to one's own mind; / When the mind is true, everywhere is a thoroughfare. / Directly clarify the non-arising forbearance beyond patterns; / Truly become a liberated person within this domain. / Drinking dry the West River—Elder Pang's mouth; / Seizing the wonderful joy—Vimalakīrti's body. / The eight winds and five desires cannot turn it; / Knowing how to turn the dharmacakra amidst the dust.

20.14

Instruction to the Assembly on the Memorial Day of Venerable Master Fojian

20.15

Last year on this exact day, / The mud ox entered the sea fighting. / This year on this exact day, / Throughout the realm it sheds brilliance and radiance. / The formless body of empty space, / Fojian is solemn and present. / Neither form nor mind, / Neither small nor large. / Kalpa rocks may be moved, / But within this there is no alteration. / If you wish to know Fojian's benevolence, / Let each person clarify the master within. / A single phrase accords with diverse capacities; / With sincere mind, constantly crown it upon your head. / And tell me, which phrase is it? / Eating rice and biting on sand.

20.16

Given to Chan Master Danxia Fozhi Yu

20.17

The two-three and four-seven initially had no gap; / Displaying great majestic light, manifesting the precise transmission. / Guarding and cutting off the pass and ford, do not lightly let anyone pass; / When the grass is deep, who pays regard before the Dharma hall?

20.18

Three Verses Given to Chan Practitioner Zeyan

20.19

Investigating Chan until reaching the place of non-investigation; / Fathoming the mystery until exhausting the very end of the mystery. / Drinking when thirsty, eating when hungry, just like this; / In the worldly and the transworldly, no traces remain.

20.20

Dynamic contrivances are all useless furniture; / Mysterious marvels become entirely worn-out straw sandals. / Iron forehead and copper head surpassing buddhas and patriarchs, / Grasped horizontally and held upside down, buried in a single pit.

20.21

In the red dust, who discusses attaining the Way? / In the cold valley, there is no one who can make spring. / If you truly recognise the meaning of holding up the flower and subtly smiling, / Every single performance is ever new.

20.22

Given to Chan Practitioner Ruoping

20.23

Assisting and supporting the mountain monastery, the merit is already established; / Shouldering the burden for a long time, the resolve is ever firmer. / The Yunmen Hermitage was built, surmounting Mount Oufu; / In the heavens, above high heaven, there is yet another heaven. / Recovering and restoring the ancient, pure sanctuary; / In future days, we will witness the fine reputation spreading. / Host and guest accord with each other, joining like glue and lacquer; / Together upholding and sustaining Linji's Chan.

20.24

Seeing off Chan Worthy Zhizu

20.25

A single phrase received in direct dynamic encounter; / A thousand diverse paths cut off from grasping. / Coming and going, ever like a mirror; / Clamour and stillness, steadfast as a mountain. / At the tips of a hundred weeds, lofty and steep; / The solitary cloud beyond the world, at ease. / As you walk along, grasp it firmly; / You should elucidate the transcendent barrier.

20.26

Seeing off Head Monk An Returning to Deshan

20.27

The envoy does not bring disgrace upon the mandate; / In confronting dynamic potential, value independent response. / Quiet meditation strokes the tiger's whiskers; / Every step transcends what is beyond the ordinary. / Not only arranged beneath the bright window, / But set upon the Chan bed, pressing against the sheer cliff. / Raising the mallet and holding up the whisk, unleashing heroic eloquence; / Golden tones and jade resonances, like rushing thunder. / For ninety days, eminent and free, holding up the lineage essentials; / Patch-robed monks in great numbers constantly follow your style. / The methods of untying knots and removing bonds are sharp; / Driving away the ox and snatching the food are all the more composed. / With the summer retreat ended, thinking of the mountains and wishing to return, / Settling the single matter of Wuling. / Crawling through the burrows of principles inside the chest; / As you travel along, have no fear of lacking an intimate friend. / At the point of departure, you ask me for a farewell piece: / A diamond cage within a chestnut burr! / A short song requires dozens of yards; / A long phrase needs only two or three words. / The golden-haired lion knows how to turn its body; / Such a one is an outstanding person in the monastic grove. / Before long, from the solitary peak, a great roar: / Five petals on one flower, heaven and earth are spring.

20.28

Seeing off Chan Elder Fansi to Inhabit a Hermitage at Mount Wan

20.29

Escaped from halter and reins, completely shedding the bridle; / Utterly without the finest tip [of dust] that could admit investigation. / When the young colt tramples, who can endure it? / Before the platform of the Governor of Wan, go dwell in the hermitage.

20.30

Seeing off Attendant Da Going to Wuling

20.31

In former days Linji dispatched a general / To test Dejiao's carrying out of the decree: / Seizing him fast, he gave him a thrust, / Truly distinguishing the sounding pole and shadow grass. / Three times the National Teacher called, / And at each sound there was nothing he did not take in; / "You failing me, or me failing you"—such dynamic sharpness / Directly penetrates the crown of a thousand sages' heads. / The ancients once served as incense-attendants, / Their capacity and vessels alert like this. / You have served with towel and pitcher for several years, / And should yourself have attained the correct destiny. / Now, returning from the imperial capital, / You will travel straight into the realm of Wuling; / Mustering your fine spirit, / You must also recognise Chan sickness. / Cut off phrases before the wind, / Snatch the handle of the buddhas and patriarchs; / Coming back, boast proudly: / A formidable general is truly fierce.

20.32

Sending Off Practitioner Xiu

20.33

Without taking off your conical hat, you tested Juzhi; / With a single phrase, you struck out an ancient buddha. / Now returning to your old Cloud Hermitage, / Having thoroughly called upon the kalyāṇamitras of all quarters, / Eminent is the eye on the crown of your head, / Blazing brightly like the radiant sun. / Exert yourself to transmit and uphold the inexhaustible lamp, / Taking up in succession Moshan's ancient footsteps.

20.34

Sending Off Various Alms-Gatherers (Nine Verses)

20.35

Open, unimpeded, and spiritually luminous, stamping the heels, / In its application, it is not separated by a speck of dust. / Having traversed the Realm of Vairocana in the Flower Treasury, / Seize fast the hundred billion bodies of the Sage (Muni). / The eight treasures and seven jewels are all mine; / Penetrating left and piercing right, who is my neighbour? / Wearily labouring beings surge on, worthy of an outstretched hand: / Such is an unbound person who penetrates all directions.

20.36

Bright is the moon among the trees; / Drifting are the clouds at the horizon. / Coming and going, they are not burdened; / Waxing and waning, they are fundamentally boundless. / Flowing into water, the light is ever pure; / Becoming rain, its intent is uncommon. / Streams and mountains for thousands of miles— / Who would allow debates on their sameness and difference? / At the tip of Kāśyapa's banner pole, / This old fellow once babbled; / Fully understanding how to undertake it, / How have the patriarchs ever differed? / If you wish to clarify this matter, / You must skillfully observe the season and occasion. / When you meet such a person, / Remove the dust from his eyes, / So that before the gate of North Mountain / Cloud-cloaked monks gather like fish scales, / Skilfully displaying vast [means] / To overturn the Black Dragon's lair. / Above the crown of the heads of a thousand sages, / There is a great sky-breaking road; / Only a person without mind / Can take wide strides upon it. / Just like walking on level ground, / Walking a thousand times each day, / Wishing to guide all the world / To go along together like this. / When you let your hands hang down and enter the marketplace, / You must skillfully engage in mutual responsiveness; / Meeting in bustling places, / You should seize the dynamic moment fast. / As if passing through a diamond cage, / Please impart it with all your heart; / Returning to the Hall of Good Dharma, / Strike the great Dharma drum. / Face to face, openly reveal the seals of the three essentials; / With full dynamic function, directly clarify the True Dharma Eye. / Bring it to Jiangxi to manifest the fundamental lineage; / Three days of deafness leaves no tricks remaining. / You must let go of your hold facing the solitary peak, / Regardless of an abyss tens of thousands of yards deep; / If you wish to know how to catch the brocade-scaled fish to your heart's content, / Leap quickly into the terrifying waves.

20.37

The four dispositions and four relations of host and guest, / The three mysteries and the three essentials, / Sparks struck from flint and flashes of lightning— / These are the models handed down by Linji. / Since you practice Linji Chan, / You must also check yourself: / Illumination and function beneath the shout are marvelous, / Slaying and reviving at the staff's end are verified. / Using this to enter suburbs and marketplaces, / Greatly rouse Jiang Wei's courage: / Glorious as a phoenix's radiance, / Survey the seven jewels at a single glance. / The rankless true person of the lump of red flesh— / How do you view him going in and out of the sense gates? / The staff's tip enforces the decree before the wind; / Beneath the shout, his liver and gall turn cold. / Without setting up ranks, how can one serve the Buddha? / Only with true discipline can the mind find peace. / Sprawling across the tips of the hundred grasses, function freely; / Thrust your hand into the Black Dragon's cave and overturn it. / If you wish to see a patch-robed monk's full spirit: / Innumerable conditions cannot obstruct him; / Great affinity is accomplished in the spit of a hand, / Never believing that life's road is hard to travel.

20.38

Turning the transcendent mechanism of a thousand distinctions, / Snatching the banners and seizing the drums, show him no quarter. / Turning the body, crouching on the ground with full power to kill and revive— / Only then are you a golden-maned lion's cub.

20.39

Drinking up the waters of the West River as though it were nothing, / How could an adept still rely on mechanisms? / Letting the ground of nature be as level as a whetstone, / The merit of becoming a buddha returns to the blink of an eye.

20.40

Sending Off Huigong, Dispatched in Advance to Pingjiang

20.41

A single phrase held up alone surpasses patriarchs and buddhas; / Piercing painfully like needles and awls, it penetrates to the bone. / Leaving the gate, immediately act as a lion's cub: / Conquering rivals and startling the herd with leaping prowess. / Pingjiang has been the lair of heroes since ancient times; / Go, go, and first convey this message! / This journey is not taken in vain: / Pure breezes from eight directions rise from your robes.

20.42

Sending Off Jingyuan, Dispatched in Advance to Piling

20.43

Directly bringing it up, cut off a thousand distinctions; / Who would believe that true elegance emerges from the direct lineage? / To enter the marketplace and open a single thread of a path, / In an ordinary manner, open the udumbara blossom. / Skillful in dedicated replies, not dishonouring the mission, / One truly sees the three eyes of Maheśvara upright. / Leading the multitudes of spirits to walk together, / Clearly and directly cut through the path of Caoxi.

20.44

For Surveillance Commissioner Yang Wujiu

20.45

What you called upon and comprehended in the imperial capital in former days, / How could it be any different from now? / Casually seizing the mood to bring it up again, / The whole hall holds its bellies in hearty laughter.

20.46

Holding the life-vein of the buddhas and patriarchs in hand, / Releasing or gathering it up is none other than this. / Having already reached the place where one lets go of the cliff edge, / From the beginning, there have never been many crucial turning points.

20.47

Shown to a Good Friend

20.48

This matter fundamentally has neither facing nor turning away; / You must firmly and fiercely exert yourself in practice. / The true vajra eye is your entire body; / When ten thousand conditions come to encroach, pay them no heed.

20.49

Verse on the Case of the Girl Candrottarā

20.50

Fundamentally, the true body penetrates the root source; / Entering the mountain by the same path, there is only this gate. / Already abiding in the Tathāgata's great liberation, / The supreme jewel within the palm shines across heaven and earth.

20.51

Verses on Huanglong's Three Barriers

20.52

"How does my hand resemble a buddha's hand?" / At will, picking flowers and plucking willows; / Suddenly touching a serpent's head, / You cannot escape being bitten by it.

20.53

"How does my foot resemble a donkey's foot?" / Zhaozhou's stone bridge and log footbridge; / If it suddenly kicks up a leather ball, / It will collapse the three mountains and five peaks.

20.54

"Everyone has a place of birth:" / Squatting down, there is no ground in which to bore. / If your eyelids suddenly burst open, / Beware lest the bottom of your bucket be kicked out.

20.55

Verses on the Three Poisons

20.56

Ravines are hard to fill with a single thought of desire; / In the Avīci hell for eternal eons, how can the suffering be borne? / Awaken to all phenomena being like an illusion; / Take care not to allow the mind to give rise to greed for a moment.

20.57

I have not seen anything in the world to be a greater calamity; / For burning up merit, nothing surpasses anger. / In every situation, agreeableness and adversity must both be accommodated; / With joy, equanimity, kindness, and compassion, transcend the six sense dusts.

20.58

The rākṣasa of fundamental ignorance is completely foolish, / Veiling one's true body and stirring frantic impulses. / Fiercely wield the vajra sword of prajñā, / Cut that fellow off forever, let go of your hands, and return.

20.59

Delusion arises entirely due to these three fellows, / Dragging one through the six destinies and four modes of birth. / Suddenly subduing them without effort, / One is directly in accord with the ocean of Vairocana's nature.

20.60

Portraits and Eulogies

20.61

Ven. Muzhou

20.62

Pungent and peppery, / Snarling and growling. / Recognizing Jibei as a great tree, / Squeezing Yunmen so that he fell down a steep cliff. / His dynamic sharpness was peerless, / His words were like dry firewood. / This indeed was Straw Sandals Chen.

20.63

Śarīra of Ven. Sixin

20.64

This is the old tiger of Huanglong; / After the fire, his true śarīra are crystalline. / For ten thousand years, like the sun emerging into the world, / Serving as a model for kalyāṇamitras. / Throughout his life, his mouth rebuked the buddhas and scolded the patriarchs; / Here, at last, the reality of it is verified. / Left behind for his Dharma sons and grandsons to transmit, / Releasing light wherever they touch, constantly shaking the earth.

20.65

Great Master the Sixth Patriarch

20.66

I bow my head to the true ancient buddha of Caoxi, / Who served as a kalyāṇamitra for eighty lifetimes. / Manifesting as unable to read worldly texts, / He spoke in eloquent verse off the cuff, penetrating the treasury of Dharma. / Leaves falling back to the roots for hundreds of autumns, / His adamantine body remains steady on the rock of Shao. / Dazzling like the bright sun illuminating the vast sky, / Radiant like the dragon's pearl shining upon the Supreme Ultimate. / Concentration and wisdom, completely luminous, expand equal compassion; / Echoing what is sought just like an empty valley. / The sands of the Ganges may be counted, but his virtues are immeasurable, / All springing forth from the power of that fellow's vows of compassion.

20.67

Ven. Yangqi

20.68

The three-legged donkey gallops about; / He understands how to say, "The mouth of the alms bowl faces the sky." / Bearing his heavy burden of a hundred and twenty catties, / Pulling plows and dragging harrows, / Without reason he ruined Ciming's Chan.

20.69

Ven. Baiyun Duan

20.70

How could Yangqi's eye behind the head be intimate? / How many people can penetrate the gold dust? / Upholding Linji, / With a single punch he knocked down Yellow Crane Tower; / Splitting open the Second Patriarch, / The nostrils still hang over the upper lip as before.

20.71

Ven. Wuzu Yan

20.72

"A patch of idle farmland in front of the mountain; / Pines and bamboos drawing the wind constantly brush against people." / Talking of mind and speaking of nature— / Here with this old monk, that is foul-mouthed! / Selectively peddling and selling cheap: / The board-carrying fellow adds to the scale three pounds of flax.

20.73

Ven. Zhenru Zhe

20.74

An elder of the monastic groves peerless in the world, / His awe-inspiring light commands four hundred prefectures. / With a single blow, the iron barrier is smashed to powder; / His kindness is so great it can hardly be repaid by dew and rain.

20.75

Requested by Elder Danxia Fozhi Yu

20.76

Rousing thunder and lightning bolts, / Standing sheer as a wall of red flesh; / Shooting stars and flashing lightning, / Linji's life-vein: / That fellow abruptly leaps out. / Suddenly squeezed out through the sense gates, / Originally there is not a single thing. / The three mysteries and three essentials shine brilliantly; / Entrusted to Fozhi, / They smash people's dens / And redress the grievance for the ancestral founders. / Bah!

20.77

Requested by Elder Huazang Min

20.78

Linji's True Dharma Eye / Is extinguished along with this blind donkey. / Father and son do not transmit it to one another; / Divine immortals possess secret formulas. / How could he care about bringing disaster upon his sons and grandsons? / He merely seeks to remove the dust from their eyes. / When meeting someone, give him a good thrust, / But be sure not to speak of it to him.

20.79

Requested by Head Monk Daozhu

20.80

Scattering true pearls inside the purple silk curtain; / Holding up the nostrils outside the moonlit screen. / Three essentials and three mysteries beneath the phrase: / Who has personally attained their genuine import? / The rankless true person of the sense gates— / Let him stand a head above the crowd.

20.81

Requested by Rector Fansi

20.82

Holding up alone Linji's True Dharma Eye, / Secretly entrusted in the dynamic moment to this blind donkey. / The rankless true person is a dry piece of shit; / Beneath the staff and shout, names and forms are severed. / That year, the tiger bit at the gathering of Haihui; / Today, at Ou Peak, it is brought up to him. / Yuanwu does not spare his two eyebrows: / In the flames of the great furnace, a lotus flower blooms.

20.83

Requested by Sūtra Keeper Weizu

20.84

Sweeping away buddhas and patriarchs, / Leaving no life remaining. / An iron tree blossoms; / The divine steed casts ten shadows. / Yuanwu transmits the Linji Chan: / A sudden thunderclap abruptly shakes the tops of a thousand peaks.

20.85

Requested by Scribe Fayi

20.86

Treading down the conjured city, / Not lingering at the place of jewels; / Directly cutting off all mechanisms, / Penetrating through the tips of the hundred grasses. / Brandishing Linji's hair-severing blade, / Steering Ciming's giant ship. / Their heads and horns resemble each other; / Their dispositions and kinds accord with each other. / A single shout with full dynamic function distinguishes host and guest; / You must believe that that fellow has attained freedom.

20.87

Requested by Monastery Director Ziwen

20.88

Awe-inspiring as a fierce tiger emerging from a deep forest, / Luminous as the silver moon wheeling through the great clarity. / Looked at from afar, he is dignified; / Approached, he is warm. / He opens the upright eye of Maheśvara upon the crown of the head, / And abruptly reveals the rankless true person through the sense gates. / Who can comprehend this? / How could it be expressed in words? / Entrusted to Ziwen.

20.89

Requested by Chan Guest Daoyuan

20.90

The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye of Linji / Abruptly reveals three heads and six arms. / Angrily dashing down the imperial bell, / Casually sporting with spiritual powers. / Yuanwu delivers a single punch right to the chest, / Locking fast the patch-robed monk's nostrils.

20.91

Requested Praise by Chan Practitioner Deke

20.92

In the eye there is a pupil; / on the crown of the head presses a finger. / Setting loose the diamond cage, / the entire world cannot lift it. / To grasp this requires that person / having a backbone made of iron and teeth made of gold. / Walking thus, one ruins children and grandchildren; / walking not thus, one comes off slightly better. / Wiping out the true eye beside the blind donkey, / Yuanwu's scenery shakes heaven and earth.

20.93

Requested Praise by Attendant Jingyuan

20.94

All his life he spoke only stubborn Chan; / colliding with the stubborn head, it is like an iron wall. / Stripping off the snare and severing the heels, / gathering up the great earth, it is pitch-black. / In his later years he grew even less talkative; / brandishing the vajra hammer, he smashed nest and cave. / If hereafter you wish to recognize Yuanwu's face, / I have once and for all held it out for that person.

20.95

Requested Praise by Rector Fazhao

20.96

Vastly encompassing without exterior, / subtly entering a hair's tip, / manifesting the Jewel Flower King, / everywhere is a place of practice. / Establishing and sweeping away, / the true body is majestic. / A single word stands like a precipice, / flourishing and resplendent. / That person's face— / who can bring it forth? / Yuanwu's chestnut burr, / directly encountered, allows no negotiation; / Kebin's handle of words is broadcast through all quarters.

20.97

Requested Praise by Court Gentleman Han

20.98

Turning the uppermost barrier, / a thousand sages must step back. / Only one within it is permitted; / a single track must be opened. / At Juci shedding all conditions, / offering sincerity, he believes in this matter; / vowing to harbor no mixed mind, / constantly arrows oppose each other. / His appearance presents a mountain-rustic demeanor; / sitting, he is not sheltered by tall trees. / Pressing down the staff, the proper decree is enforced; / upholding that single phrase. / Sudhana bows before him; / his spiritual demeanor is fully exposed. / Their affinities are naturally the same; / how wonderful, a famed father and son!

20.99

Requested Praise by Master of the Canon Weibiao

20.100

This move is atop the crowns of a thousand sages; / Linji established the great Dharma banner. / Over a myriad-fathom precipice releasing the body, / he can swallow in a single gulp the waters of the West River. / Spark from flint and flash of lightning are still dull; / wings added to a tiger's shoulders are surely without peer.

20.101

Requested Praise by Chan Practitioner Shengju

20.102

The night-shining talisman illuminates the sky; / the hair-severing sword gleams on snow. / Divine majesty is chill and solemn; / red radiance is dazzlingly fierce. / Before the mouth opens, cut off at the head; / wishing to enter the gate, shout in the face. / When style and substance match, one can sustain the family; / this place does not permit a single drop to leak through.

20.103

Requested Praise by Senior Chan Practitioner Ruoping

20.104

Piling high the patched robe, / pressing down crosswise the staff, / intentionally upholding the outline, / severing all artifice. / Setting loose the single dynamic of the transcendent, / a thousand sages lose their souls and胆 [courage]. / If someone here shoulders it, / they instantly see that a thousand and a hundred matters are resolved. / From the tip of Yuanwu's staff, a single drop of Chan: / all eighteen rapids of the West River swell.

20.105

Requested Praise by Worthy of Chan Tanwan of the Dhūta Rock Hermitage

20.106

Atop the winding boulder, / crosswise pressing the staff, / his pure countenance is dignified, / never possessing any artifice. / Applying neither chestnut burrs nor diamond cages, / having no love for casting molds or drawing likenesses, / atop the Dhūta Rock he casually struck out with his fist: / landing on that person, it is immeasurable.

20.107

Requested Praise by Hall Prefect Huaizu

20.108

Lean yet robust, / old with lingering resonance, / flapping two pieces of skin, / expounding the Dharma without stint, / sweeping away emotional consciousness, / leaving not the slightest trace. / Seven places of practice, / just like an instant. / There is a monk regardless of danger and ruin / who stubbornly insists on charging into the snowy blade. / Bah!

20.109

Requested Praise by Chan Practitioner Wenhao

20.110

Min and E wash their elegance, towering in the southwest; / the atmospheric grandeur winds and coils, densely emerald blue. / Outstanding talents have arisen from ancient times; / how could frozen pus be allowed to participate lightly? / Not leading oneself to stain village and lane, / relying on the tongue's root to wield profound talk. / Obtaining permission to abide in leisure, Hao sees it directly; / carrying it back, he first ties thatched grass for a hermitage.

20.111

Requested Praise by Junior Master Yunyu

20.112

Sun-face and moon-face appear together; / seal in the air and seal on water are both manifested. / Before dynamic sharpness, no omen or trace remains; / beyond the pattern, all shouldering is also severed. / Father and son are closest of kin, yet their paths diverge; / each has a round halo atop the crown. / Fearing only that it be explained clearly to others, / how could this gate ever be negotiated?

20.113

Verses Requested by Chan Practitioners for Portraits (Twenty Verses)

20.114

Emerging from foam and phantoms, / a withered tree and rotten stump, / the crown lacks a divine bone, / the forehead lacks a round pearl. / Having once been bitten by the poisonous dragon of the ocean assembly, / happily chasing the wind, a heavenly steed. / Devising a thousand kinds of cleverness, / in truth there is not a single thing. / If you look relying on this, / to the end you will not know him. / Before primal chaos divided, / there was no such face. / Once foam and phantoms flared up, / all ten kinds were complete. / In the mind not a fine speck of dust is established; / at the corners of the mouth billows surge. / There is only one specialty: / he loves smashing the lacquer bucket.

20.115

Suddenly angry, suddenly delighted, / completely depending only on you; / most fond of deceiving people, / wagging the lips and working the mouth. / Patience-grass grows all over the ground; / when was Dharma water ever sprinkled? / Pouring out heart and guts, a single phrase of Chan; / these children still show auspicious omens.

20.116

Cast out from the mold, / old awl Foguo. / Where the myriad conditions cease, / sitting upright when not speaking; / shifting for an instant into movement, / exerting full awe-inspiring power. / Serving people to the very marrow, / sparing not his two eyebrows.

20.117

Briskly moving like Hongyao, / limping like Yunmen, / utterly lacking the reality of the two elders, / vainly storing the writings of the two elders. / Putting down the comprehended matter, / searching for a broken earthen basin: / a dust speck on the precious mirror, / a wisp of cloud in the autumn sky.

20.118

Seen once, it is seen right away; / completing the original face. / The nimble hand with paints / appears in response to conditions. / Gradually nearing the following of the heart's desire, / he appears ever more robust. / Using only the diamond cage and chestnut burr, / it must undergo a thousand smeltings and a hundred refinings. / Releasing the hand over a myriad-fathom cliff, / atop the crown opens wide the true eye.

20.119

Phantasmally emerging to form an appearance, / the real is stored within it. / Standing tall with bone and eye, / the four seats give rise to a breeze. / Transmitting the untransmittable mind, / revitalizing the unrevitalizable lineage. / In old age leaving the imperial capital, / late in life dwelling at Ou Peak. / Just this lacks mutual turning; / understanding rests with that person. (Bah!)

20.120

Within the phrase there is no Chan; / beyond the pattern there is no mystery. / Face to face, unseen; / utterly impossible to transmit. / Moist and gentle as jade, / solitary and round as the moon; / its aura flatters rivers and sources; / its light streams through the great thousand.

20.121

Patched robe rugged and craggy, brisk and lively; / fragments of remnant clouds enveloping the towering mountain. / Standing like a wall of myriad fathoms, impossible to approach; / no Buddha, no patriarch, no stick, no shout. / Swallowing in a single gulp all the waters of the West River— / this is Yuanwu's head-on move.

20.122

Form manifests without form; / mind emerges from no-mind. / Like a seal stamping space, / far transcending past and present. / Entering the lion's cave, / roaming the sandalwood forest. / Slipping off reins and bridle, / treading on thin ice and facing the deep. / If you wish to know where Yuanwu stands: / the solitary peak of myriad fathoms looms steep.

20.123

Inside the flaming red furnace a speck of snow is set; / outside the night-shining screen a gold lamp is trimmed. / In the myriad-fathom cold pool ice reaches the bottom; / atop the peak of Wonderful Height jade edges tower. / These are all the places he roams; / responding generally to myriad dynamic sharp points, originally never absent. / In old age Yuanwu lowers a single hand, / asking: who is capable like me?

20.124

A sharp blade slashes empty space; / a divine arrow pierces the red sun. / Using a mouth that swallows the ten directions / to blow this flute without holes. / Thus for thirty years, / not expending the slightest bit of strength. / Cast at random on the straight hook, / brocade scales still bite. / If you have eyes, shoulder it yourself; / beware of seeking it from him. / Great potential must burst forth suddenly; / great function must cut straight through. / Master Ma and Old Baizhang / needlessly already leaked it; / Linji called for fire to come, / cutting off the tongues of the whole world. / This elder leans upon the rope chair / and also must speak like this. / Speaking or not speaking, across ten thousand leagues / a single round moon in the blue sky.

20.125

Sitting precariously upon a winding boulder, / his spiritual demeanor is stark and stern. / Crosswise holding the mountain staff, / opening wide the crown of a thousand sages. / Who is Saindhava? / Grasping before words are uttered; / a swath of scenery, / snatching person and snatching realm. / In late years Yuanwu is ever more profound: / atop Mount Huayin, a hundred-foot well.

20.126

Standing where he is, one can become a Buddha; / killing a person without blinking an eye. / Smashing the nest and cave of birth and death / requires an extraordinary fellow. / Yuanwu has always upheld this move; / before the wind, white clouds were once shouted into scattering. / Seeds of the household can follow along; / the seven-star sharp sword shines brilliantly.

20.127

Within the phrase is a way of escaping; / jutting out atop the heads of a thousand sages. / Facing the dynamic, all snaring is severed; / penetrating through boundless realms. / Throughout life grasping this Vajra King, / four shouts and three mysteries are grasped beyond the pattern. / Confronting the face, pressed too elaborately; / only by the blind donkey is the life transmitted.

20.128

Directly facing, fully real, / disregarding distant or close. / Tiger's head and swallow's chin / do not exhaust his spirit. / Holding shut the pass and ford, letting nothing slip by, / boundless lands of ocean worlds are his neighbors.

20.129

In the vastness of the great void, through whom does one awaken? / Turning the body, back-leaping, a true lion. / Penetrating top and bottom without obstruction, / across a thousand craggy peaks booming a single phrase. / Slightly opening Yuanwu's uppermost barrier, / stride broadly into the ocean of floating-banner lands.

20.130

The Way is not in paints; / Chan is not in the facial form. / Forced to depict it, / what likeness can praise make of it? / For now, taking what is already at hand, / I speak once for you: / seeking the divine pearl in the Red Waters, / finding it was due to Xiangwang. / Old awl Yuanwu, / in old age has no artifice. / Chan Practitioner Ying, take it away; / rolling up white waves that inundate heaven.

20.131

Originally without a face, / jutting out at sixty-seven. / Now you forcefully paint his likeness; / the crown lacks three eyes. / In seven places entering bustling monasteries; / recently somewhat tranquil. / If one further weaves entangling vines, / how could there ever be a day of rest? / Thirty years later, show it to people: / Yuanwu never had a nest or cave.

20.132

A cloud in the vast sky, / dust on a bright mirror. / Within formlessness, / suddenly manifesting this body. / Examining the real and investigating the subtle, / what is taken as true? / Not departing from this, / the one move is closest. / Penetrating it cleanly and freely, / one becomes neighbors with the ancients. / The Way is beyond form and appearance; / the name endures with supreme fairness. / Manifesting the physical body, / the fundamental essence is entirely empty. / Seeking a grasp on it, / it is neither west nor east. / Moon reflected in the clear pool; / wind rustling the ancient pine. / Fully complete, Yuanwu— / who recognizes that person?

20.133

Throughout the body there is no reflection or image; / filling the eyes, radiance is born. / Movement and function are steeper than mountains; / speech and silence deeper than the sea. / Across vast kalpas, just thus; / within it, there is no change. / If you can leap out of Yuanwu's diamond cage, / you must believe that great accomplishment is fundamentally without a master.

20.134

Requested Praise by Chan Practitioner Zhenru

20.135

Just this face: / seeing one is seeing ten thousand. / If one is someone within this, / when the hand is close, the eye is ready. / Foguo responds to conditions; / Yuanwu is realized. / Just thus, encountering him everywhere, / a single beam of divine light is originally uninterrupted.

20.136

Requested Praise by Chan Practitioner Zhenliao

20.137

The painting has spirit, depicting him alive; / Yuanwu sits firmly, dignified as ever. / Scenery fully exposed, pressing his knees; / deafening his body, raising his eyes to look straight ahead. / Atop Ou Peak guarding the essential crossing, / letting the black crow and jade hare revolve across the blue sky.

20.138

Miscellaneous Writings

20.139

Harmonizing with Lingyuan's Song of Dozing

20.140

Muddled and ignorant, / without grasp or handle, / dazed and intoxicated, utterly beyond taboo. / Allowing the moving light to shift shaking the earth, / regardless of winter or summer, only dozing. / The flavor within this the Buddha does not know; / vainly calling out to clams and spiral shells. / Releasing the body, not caring, lying at the bottom of the water; / when inspiration strikes, constantly leaning against the cloth bag. / Breathing like thunder, who pays heed? / Ordinarily one seldom sees a time of waking. / Having no waking time / truly has a reason: / one must understand the central aim in dozing. / Always sleeping soundly until daybreak; / even if the Buddha comes, he cannot lift his body up. / Even if rays of light spread across the great thousand, / in the end it cannot be exchanged for my worry-free state. / Comparing distant and close, all is lost; / do not exhaust inquiry into the spiritual root of dozing. / If someone accords with it, they practice together; / while asleep, one must know it is even more seamless.

20.141

Inscription on the 'Ruoxu' (As if Empty) Hermitage of Cultivator of the Way Ruoxu

20.142

Cultivator of Chan Ruoxu pitched a hermitage as he went along and sought a name from old Foguo. Therefore I gave it the name 'Ruoxu' (As if Empty), thus gathering the three into one, yet not departing from the fundamental lot, Chan, or the teachings. Yongjia said, 'The substance is like empty space, without shores or banks.' A Buddhist sūtra says, 'The Buddha's true dharmakāya is just like empty space.' Hunyuan said, 'Profoundly stored as if empty.' Xuanni said, 'Full as if empty.' It is said: 'Drop by drop of water, drop by drop of ice; / just so ordinary, hollow inside and out. / Sense roots and sense objects severed from duality, / the six gates mutually functioning. / Joyfully abide in this hermitage / of the eighteen unshared dharmas. / If you seek a crack or chink, / it is brightly and clearly seamless. / Responding to things without conditioning, / who makes it a phantom dream?'

20.143

Refuting the Falsely Transmitted Treatise on Bodhidharma's Embryonic Respiration

20.144

The Great Sage of the West appeared from Kapilavastu, manifesting boundless wondrous functions and revealing unique, surpassing causes innumerable as the dust-motes of the realms, beyond conception, to awaken and enlighten all sentient beings. His methods—whether direct or inverse, opening or closing—yielded leftover words and scriptures that brim and overflow the precious treasuries; yet only toward the end did he finally disclose the one real message, calling it a special transmission outside the teachings, transmitting alone the mind seal. Ever since the Golden-Hued Old Man, clearly and unbrokenly, it has treated only of directly pointing to the human mind and seeing into one's nature to become a buddha, establishing no steps or stages and giving rise to no intellectual views. Those of sharp roots and superior wisdom burst through right within the cave of ignorance and slip alive out of the root-stock of afflictions, immediately transcending to realize great liberation. Therefore the four-times-seven of India and the two-times-three of this Eastern Land were all dragons and elephants treading, masters superior and disciples mighty. Dynamic encounters, words and phrases, activities, speech and silence—those of capacity for the supreme vehicle grasp them beyond the usual norms; on the spot their karmic obstacles dissolve like ice, and they shoulder it directly. In all other hours, they are naturally able to maintain and unify it, crossing the world, cutting off the flow, and suddenly tallying with the buddha-ground, yet still unwilling to soak in dead water; giving voice to that which penetrates the profound mystery and surpasses buddhas and ancestors, shaving away dynamic conditions and severing written proclamations, like laying hand to the Tai'e sword—with such chilling divine majesty, who would dare approach? An adept master, accurately weighing and calculating, scolds the slightest trace of transcendent or descending, wondrous nature, principle, or function, for it has never been a weed planted from the start; only when one is fully complete straight through, thoroughly forged and walking on firm ground, does he slightly let him pass, still fearing that at another time he might fall into the weeds and burden others, blinding the eye of the true Dharma. Alas, seeing a whole pack of blindly flailing wild foxes who have never even dreamed of the ancestral masters, yet falsely transmit that Bodhidharma handed down 'embryonic breathing' to people, calling it transmitting the Dharma to save deluded minds! They even cite the most senior ancestral masters of old, such as Master of State An and Zhaozhou, claiming they all practiced this breath control; and they boast of the First Patriarch's single shoe and Puhua's empty coffin, asserting that these arts were verified in them, so that their whole bodies slipped away, calling this 'the wondrous unity of form and spirit.' People in the world deeply cherish this body, fear the panic of the thirtieth day of the twelfth month, and vie to pass along methods of 'returning to the real'—on New Year's Eve looking at their shadows and calling to the master, so as to divine days and months, listening to watchtower drums, checking the 'jade pond', and inspecting the glint of the eyes, taking these as methods for liberation from birth and death. This is truly deceiving the common alleys, fabricating falsities, and inviting the sneers and contempt of lofty individuals! Furthermore, there is a class who falsely attribute to the First Patriarch an 'Exposition of Embryonic Breathing', to Zhaozhou a 'Separate Song of the Twelve Hours', and to Layman Pang a 'Gāthā on Turning the River Chariot', secretly instructing and handing them down to one another to practice, in order to seek longevity, shedding the whole body, or hoping for three or five hundred years of life. Little do they know that this is truly delusional thinking: clinging views, though originally rooted in good causes, unconsciously fall into the wild weeds. Yet heroic and brilliant men, who engage in lofty talk and great debate, looking down upon the ancestral masters, often believe in them. How could they fail to realize that having lost their footing, they 'drew a tiger only to end up with a wildcat'? Caught out by those with discerning knowledge, great reach, and clear eyes, who in the assemblies only observe silently with pity: could the style of Śākyamuni and the successive ancestors amount merely to this? If they had ever reflected upon the beginning and end within themselves, it would naturally be plain to see. Those within the seas who study this Way are as numerous as rice plants, hemp, bamboo, and reeds; those of lofty discernment and far-reaching vision will certainly not drift along. Fearing only that beginners, having newly aroused their aspiration and not yet having penetrated the inner sanctum, might encounter those of overweening pride and be led into this forest of wrong views despite their concentrated resolve and far-reaching strides—making a single mistake at the start that leaves them sunken forever with no turn-back—and seeing this current gradually broaden so that none can check it, I have put forth these clear words, hoping that those with the resolve for great liberation and great dhāraṇī will be able to discern it, enter together into the great ocean of unproduced sarvajñā, and steer a small boat to ferry across all classes of beings, causing the wondrous essence of the true Way to flow boundlessly. Would that not be joyous?

20.145

Discerning the Spurious

20.146

Throughout this old fellow's life, I have long dwelt in monastic assemblies and everywhere visited kalyāṇamitras, fond of investigating all the lineage traditions; though I have not penetrated every single one to perfection, I have grasped eight or nine out of ten, and have also integrated and shown them to disciples without acting rashly. I do not know who stole this mountain monk's name for broad learning and attributed this wild talk to have come from this mountain monk. Looking upon it makes one break out in sweat and blush red. Moreover, this old fellow is not yet dead, and already I see such a mess! I ask patch-robed monks with eyes to examine it carefully, and not mistake fish eyes for bright pearls.

20.147

Buddhist Rites

20.148

For Master Fazhen of Zhihai Entering the Casket

20.149

Śākyamuni showed extinction between the twin trees, reclining in the auspicious posture; Fazhen of Zhihai has concluded his work, sitting erect upon his seat. For forty years his reputation in the Way stood high; in his seventy-first year his life's conditions ended. His virtue spread throughout the realm; his fame galloped beyond the seas. Men and devas looked up to him with reverence; court and commonalty bowed down in veneration. We had hoped he would forever serve as a raft and bridge, perpetually glorifying the buddhas and ancestors; how could we have expected him to withdraw his hand in the midst of busyness, pulling himself away from the hustle and bustle? At last, in the imperial capital, he conducted great Buddhist affairs; now, before the jade tree is buried, he first enters the cloud casket. The gong'an is ready-made; a decisive settlement must be made. Since the great assembly is already on the march, feel free to swing your arms; if one's tricks do not match the ledger, they become omens and auspicious signs, boundless and limitless. We ask the venerable master to step forth from the abbot's quarters.

20.150

Raising the Mourning for Master Foyan

20.151

For thirty years practicing the Way, the foremost person on the seas; / suddenly departing thus, one sees only that it is not bitter. / Although this is so, you must know that Foyan was never born and never died, never went and never came. At just such a time, how is it? Pointing to the casket, he said: 'I was born on the same bough as Xuefeng, but I do not die on the same bough as Xuefeng. If you wish to know the final phrase clearly, I invite the entire assembly to raise it in one voice.' He then said, 'Alas! Alas!'

20.152

Applying the Torch for Master Foyan

20.153

On the day the Tathāgata entered nirvāṇa, / between the twin śāla trees, / he released the samādhi fire, / and jhāpita'd his golden body. / When there is a precedent, follow the precedent; when there is no precedent, follow custom. The late Chan Master Foyan of Mount Bao spread the Way across the four seas, and his name was heard throughout the nine provinces. In twenty years he held three great monasteries; having retired from the seat at Mount Bao, he sat in ease on Zhongshan. With the chestnut burr he employed throughout his life, he drove off the plowman's ox; with the diamond cage entrusted to him by Yangqi, he snatched away the starving man's food. Transmitting and maintaining the One Great Matter, uplifting the transcendent dynamic, patch-robed monks gathered like clouds, and all quarters looked up to him in admiration. Who would have thought that in the snap of a finger, he would cut off the head of the reward and transformation buddhas; and in the midst of talking and laughing, we would suddenly lose the true eye of men and devas? Now heaven and earth are vast and empty, person and environment are desolate; snow glistens on the lofty mountain, wind blows clear across the great wilderness; behind the round crown of his head, the sign radiates ten thousand miles of divine light. Great assembly! At just such a time, do you fully understand? Look: within the red flames reaching across the sky, / the udumbara blossoms forth, and the great earth turns to spring!

20.154

Applying the Torch for Chan Practitioner Miao

20.155

Yesterday one was truly pitiful; / today another is even more mournful. / Turning the body, he treads the path of Caoxi; / his wondrous form stands tall without change. / Master Miao loved to practice Chan, / wishing to stand shoulder to shoulder with ancestors and buddhas; / desolate, departing thus— / a single lotus in the midst of fire. / Arising, like a floating cloud suddenly emerging; / dying, like an empty flower abruptly vanishing; / behind the crown of the head, round like empty space, / in the end neither mind nor buddha. / Great assembly! Behold the single beam of red light, / blazing through the nest of the unproduced!

20.156

Applying the Torch for Great Master Fozhen

20.157

Bodhi directly before the eyes is true liberation; / the true eye on the crown of the head illuminates heaven and earth. / Penetrating through the barrier of birth and death, / vast and clear, without arising or extinction. / Great Master Fozhen: throughout his life, every drop of water was a drop of ice; valiant, cutting through nails and severing iron. The entire world respected his character; all who heard or saw him admired and sighed in praise. Leaping out from among the palace attendants, he cultivated practice in the ranks of patch-robed monks. Emperor Yuansheng conferred an honorary name; the Empress bestowed the ordination certificate. He astounded the crowd and subdued the assembly, standing beyond peers and leaving ordinary ranks behind. We thought there lay ahead a journey of ten thousand miles; who could have expected that a hundred years would be like an instant? Now, turning his body and departing for long, he has broken through the diamond cage and chestnut burr; the halo behind the crown of his head manifests the great fire-heap of the unproduced. Fozhen, Fozhen! Swiftly fix your eyes, safeguard your cloud journey! Just as the single torch of red light is raised, roam freely atop the crown of Vairocana!

20.158

Applying the Torch for Master Fan

20.159

A loyal minister does not fear death, hence he can establish the great affairs of the world; a brave warrior disregards his life, hence he can achieve great fame in the world. When patch-robed monks penetrate and escape birth and death, fearing neither peril nor ruin, they can establish the discipline and order of the buddhas and ancestors. Master Zhaojue's dynamic sharpness was towering and steep, his wisdom and eloquence flooding the heavens; under his elbow he held the tally, and on the crown of his head he possessed the eye. He wielded the spirit of shouting away the white clouds, and brandished the pincers and hammer that smash through empty space. Once returning to the Brocade City, twice dwelling in mighty monasteries, he cleaved open the thorny path and cut off the pass of right and wrong, receiving beings and benefiting life, glorifying the sun of the Buddha. At the crossroads, with a single move, he shook himself free and walked off, surpassing the past and illuminating the future, straight from head to tail. Now that he has arrived here, worldly conditions may be called complete; at the very end, diligently cut off—the road ahead is a heap of raging fire. Great assembly, tell me: where, ultimately, does he go? Raising the torch, he said: 'Raging flames reaching to the sky cannot detain him; / the precious moon in the midst of the sky remains eternally round.'

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圓悟佛果禪師語錄 — Classical Chinese