圓悟佛果禪師語錄 4.21

4.21

Requested by a donor, the Master ascended the seat. A monk asked: "Under the gate of the ancestral masters, not a drop of water leaks through; before a person with clear eyes, it is certainly difficult to open one's mouth. I wonder, how does the Venerable guide people?" The Master said: "Flinging a hole-less iron hammer right in your face." The monk said: "Though the road of Jiangeling is perilous, those who travel by night are even more numerous." The Master said: "Arrest this fellow!" The monk said: "Having secured Annam, one worries again about the northern frontier." The Master said: "Add another one behind the back of the head." A monk asked: "The phrase prior to sound is not transmitted unless to a sage; without having drawn close to it, one is separated as if by a great chiliocosm. What is the phrase prior to sound?" The Master said: "Chattering tongue!" The monk said: "Like a great mass of fire, approaching it scorches one's face; how can one draw close to it?" The Master said: "You can only look up to it with reverence." The monk said: "What about pushing down the Great Statue of Jiazhou and riding the Iron Ox of Shanfu backwards?" The Master said: "A reckless fellow!" The Master then said: "Mind is not Buddha; mind and Buddha are both negated. Wisdom is not the Way; wisdom and the Way are both cast aside. Arriving here, gold dust, though precious, forms a cataract when falling into the eye; rare food, though delicious, is hard to feed to someone who is full. If you are a transcendent person, you must know transcendent matters. If you sustain it in a transcendent manner, it was not thus before King Bhīṣmagarjitasvararāja and on the other side of the empty kalpa; it was not thus from Vipaśyin Buddha down to the kingdom of Sāgara; it was not thus when a flower was held up on Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa and Mahākāśyapa smiled; nor was it thus when Shaolin faced the wall and Shenguang severed his arm. Why? If it were thus, they would have blunted and hindered one another. Since it is not thus, how should it be chanted and raised? Therefore it is said: 'The Buddhas did not appear in the world, yet preached for forty-nine years; the ancestral master did not come from the west, yet Shaolin has wondrous secrets.' If one recognizes the ancestral masters and Buddhas, right where one is, one transcends immediately. Those of superior capacity and sharp faculties share the same wind over a thousand leagues; severed in two with a single cut, upon hearing it brought up they are stirred to the bone and marrow and act immediately. Acting as master wherever they are, whatever conditions they meet become the lineage; as the grass bends and the wind blows, the complete dynamic alone is revealed. Just at such a moment, how do you express the phrase that does not rely on a single thing? Long revealed solitary amidst myriad phenomena, the complete body appears atop a thousand peaks."