圓悟佛果禪師語錄 4.25

4.25

Court Gentleman for Instruction Liu requested [the Master] to ascend the hall. A monk asked: "Above the sword-wheel flies the great precious light; before Tiger Eye Peak the essential teachings of the lineage are widely opened. Since you are a person of the transcendent, you must clarify transcendent matters. What is the transcendent matter?" The Master said: "Sit upon the tongue." The monk advanced: "This is still a matter of the descending." The Master said: "Indeed, it cannot be turned." The monk advanced: "When one who completely covers heaven and covers earth comes, where will the Venerable Monk show his head?" The Master said: "For now, stand a thousand li away." The monk advanced: "How about when meeting face to face without the slightest gap?" The Master said: "Already suffered a dot on the forehead." The Master then said: "Throughout life, it was solely through this that we knew each other; drawing our seats together, we discussed the mind to its ultimate subtlety. In the blink of an eye, five years have suddenly passed; in the human realm, in vain I only recall your image and demeanor. The view and understanding of the buddhas and patriarchs is the root source of birth and death; through ten thousand generations it does not shift or alter by a single hair, and a thousand sages cannot exhaust its direction. Its birth is lightning and flint sparks—to bring it up must be completely real; its extinction is jade turning and pearls revolving—the entire body leaves no shadow. Therefore it is said: 'The multitude of spirits shares one source, provisionally named Buddha; though the substance exhausts and the form perishes, it does not become extinct; though the gold melts and the uncarved block disperses, it ever abides. In the one it manifests the all and universally encompasses; in the all it manifests the one and leaves no land unpervaded. Identical with antiquity and identical with the present, tallying with objects and tallying with the self, the correct substance is as such, neither arising nor ceasing.' Therefore it is said: 'Arising, ceasing, going, and coming are fundamentally the wonderful true suchness nature of the Tathāgatagarbha.' Thus, arising has never arisen, ceasing has never ceased, going has never gone, and coming has never come—in every respect it is the substance of the Tathāgatagarbha, the correct nature of true suchness. Dare I ask the Palace Attendant and Commissioner: right now, in what place are you? Do you fully understand? Without birth and without abiding, everywhere is the complete body."