圓悟佛果禪師語錄 5.14

5.14

Requested by Layman Benran, the Master ascended the hall and said: "Without hanging a single thread, the stark naked frame is still there; where there is not a flake of cloud for ten thousand miles, the blue sky is still there. If you do not exhaust it completely, you will inevitably be entangled in roundabouts. Even if you cut off everything, you have already fallen into the trap of the Buddhas and Patriarchs. Arriving here, how do you bring it up? How do you hold it aloft? Even though it is like this, from ancient times there has been a ready-made gong'an, and I cannot avoid holding it aloft: An ancient one said, 'I have a great illness that cannot be cured by the worldly.' A monk later asked Caoshan, 'I wonder, what illness is it?' Caoshan said, 'An illness that cannot be bunched together.' The monk said, 'I wonder, do all sentient beings also have this illness or not?' Caoshan said, 'If sentient beings fall ill [with it], they are not sentient beings.' The monk said, 'Does the Venerable also have it?' Caoshan said, 'I am just searching for where it arises, but cannot find it.' Great assembly! This illness cannot indeed be cured by the worldly; it requires an expert of the fundamental lot to pierce his crown with a diamond awl right where its point of arising cannot be found, and administer a dose of medicine, directly causing the Patriarch-illness, the Buddha-illness, and the illness of the profound and wondrous—dynamic conditions and objective realms—to be swept away completely, cleanly liberated without abiding in the dynamic of liberation. Arriving here, one refuses to remain caged or trapped; call him and he will not turn his head. Ancient sages did not arrange him; to this day he has no abode. Just this 'no abode' is already an abode. You must directly undertake it over on the other side of a thousand and ten thousand peaks. Casually picking up a dynamic or raising a phrase, totally extract the nails and pull out the wedges, unstick the glue and untie the bonds for others. What further talk of directly pointing to the human mind? What further search for seeing one's nature and attaining Buddhahood? Right at such a time, how is it? Without borrowing the strength of an iron awl, smash the den of the Buddhas and Patriarchs!"