圓悟佛果禪師語錄 20.153

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!