大慧普覺禪師語錄 11

English (machine translation) 11

Language: English

11.1

Respectfully presented by his imperial servant Yunwen, dharma heir and abbot of Nengren Chan Monastery on Mount Jing, Chan Master Huiri.

11.2

Verse upon the Emperor's Request to Ascend the Hall While in the Palace of the Heir Apparent

11.3

Throwing open the eye in the top of the head, / Shining through the great chiliocosm; / Having become a king of the Dharma, / He attains sovereignty over the Dharma.

Great capacity, great vessel, great power, / Shoulder the great matter, beyond the ordinary. / On the tip of a single hair the message is conveyed; / Manifest clearly throughout the entire realm, not hidden away.

11.6

The Master Elaborates Four Verses on the Eulogy for the Imperial Portrait Bestowed [by the Emperor]

11.7

Arising and ceasing are unceasing, / Like the moon in water; / Intangible to grasp or touch, / The marvel lies in distinguishing.

11.8

Permanently abiding yet non-abiding, / This is the true meaning. / A single scroll of painting / Shines to heaven and mirrors the earth.

11.9

Complete enlightenment, empty and bright: / The barbarian arrives, the Han appears. / A single dot of numinous light / Transforms into myriad changes and thousands of forms.

11.10

Appearing according with things, / Clearing the entire world; / Unmoved in spirit and demeanor, / His spirit swallows Xiang Yu.

11.11

Verse on the Small Gathering upon Welcoming the Canon in Hui'an County, Quanzhou:

11.12

Bowing the head to the Great Guide of the ten powers, / Alone honored and beyond comparison in the three realms. / Manifesting the realization of buddhahood and turning the wheel of the Dharma, / Widely expounding the boundless ocean of sūtras. / The mental thoughts of sentient beings differ from moment to moment; / The wheel of Dharma turned is likewise distinct. / The merit of the wheel of Dharma is immeasurable; / Exhausting thought and draining strength, none can fathom it. / A great scroll of scripture resides in a single mote of dust, / In measure equal to the three-thousand great chiliocosm. / In the world there are wise and thoroughly penetrating people, / Endowed with the divine eye, who fully see and know it. / Breaking open the dust mote to bring forth the scripture to perform the work of buddhas, / They generate no conception of real or unreal. / Furthermore, with the space of the boundless dharmadhātu, / Taken into a single pore of the Buddha's body, / Sumeru, the Iron Encircling Mountains, and the great ocean / Are each accommodated without tightness or crowding. / If a single hair is thus, all the rest are likewise; / The Guide's skillful means are also like this. / Thought after thought pervading all pores; / Thought after thought realizing adamantine wisdom; / Thought after thought accomplishing the awakening of buddhas; / Thought after thought fulfilling Samantabhadra's vows. / Yet not giving rise to frivolous conceptualizations, / Nor abiding in profound realms; / Like a dream, like an illusion, like the moon in water, / Like an udumbara flower appearing in the world. / Thus constantly turning the great scroll of scripture, / With utterly no turner and nothing turned. / All buddhas and all bodhisattvas of the three periods, / Śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, gods, humans, / Hells, asuras, ghosts, beasts, and the like, / Each and every one relies on the power of this scripture. / I now, together with all the sons of the Buddha, / Each arouse a supreme and rare thought, / To gather this scripture back into a single mote of dust, / Securely abiding in the Dharma treasure-house of Vairocana.

11.13

Verse upon Inspector Zhuang Quanbo's Request to Ascend the Hall on Behalf of the Late Pacification Commissioner

11.14

Recently among those who study the Buddha, / Rarely do we see one who is not inverted: / Only devoted to gathering topics for talk, / Abandoning the great to pursue the small; / Obscuring the direct and immediate matter, / Walking in circles on the outside. / In the end, that single step— / When have they ever made it clear? / Only Layman Zhuang / Was genuine without falsehood or pretense. / Severing the root of afflictions / Like a fierce fire burning dry grass. / Once the mind-ground is at peace, / How could the realm of demons disturb it? / Let you be in tumultuous clamor; / I remain constantly quiet and still. / In the end revealing the true return, / Like slipping off a tattered cloth gown; / Sitting cross-legged and entering dhyāna, / The bright moon over the clear pool. / Passing through the checkpoint of birth and death, / Smashing the priceless jewel: / A firm and upright great hero, / When one is resolved, all are resolved.

11.15

Academician Fang Requests an Ascent of the Hall, Citing the Tale of Prince Nezha

11.16

Flesh and bone completely returned to father and mother; / One knows not which one is Nezha. / Turning his body over on the tip of a single hair, / On each and every hair-tip there is no discrepancy at all.

11.17

Verse upon Palace Intendant Zhao's Request to Ascend the Hall

11.18

Recognizing it before words, one is already at the horizon; / Taking it up after phrases, the road turns ever farther. / With a single strike the iron barrier is crushed to powder; / Water and sky broad and wide, wild geese fly in slant.

11.19

Assistant Administrator Li's Hermitage of Transforming Things (with preface, [by] Taifa)

11.20

The Old Man of the River Moon inscribed the room where he lived as 'Transforming Things', taking the meaning from the Śūraṅgama Sūtra: 'If one can transform things, one is identical with the Tathāgata.' He sent a letter requesting an inscription. Miaoxi Zonggao made an inscription for him, saying:

11.21

"If one can transform things, / One is identical with the Tathāgata. / Bah, Gautama! / Cheating and terrifying the foolish and naive! / Things have no self-nature, / And I too do not exist. / Who is the one that transforms? / Vainly exhausting mind and hands. / Knowing there is no self-nature, / What thing is it again? / A sudden stir of emotional dust, / Grasping at empty space and feeling for bones. / This hermitage is unconditioned; / Who is the person dwelling within? / Endowed with the eye on the top of the head, / Try discerning who is distant and who is close."

11.22

Privy Councilor Fu's Hall of Wondrous Heights (with preface, [by] Jishen)

11.23

Privy Councilor Lord Fu, perusing the great teaching of the Avataṃsaka, disported in the ocean of Vairocana's nature. Wherever he lodged, he displayed the name 'Hall of Wondrous Heights', taking the meaning of the dharmadhātu's superior bliss and wondrous heights to perform buddha-work for self-enjoyment. He sent a letter requesting an inscription. Miaoxi So-and-so made an inscription for him, saying:

11.24

"Hall of Wondrous Heights: / Wherever you arrive, / Before the signboard is hung, / It has fallen into the secondary. / Like a fierce blaze / Harboring mosquitoes and gnats; / Intending to undertake it, / Deluded calculations arise. / Master Deyun: / How could he have any contrivance? / On another peak, / It is also broad and open. / Dwelling in the buddha-stage, / What is there to rely upon? / I compose this inscription, / Letting you speculate at will."

11.25

Vice Minister Wei's Pavilion of the Pure Mind (Bangda)

11.26

Grand is the vast, quiescent mind, / Like empty space without discrimination! / Arousing the mind to seek purity is itself defilement; / How much more to compare it with the various buddha-lands! / It is also like objects seen in a dream: / What is seen, though existing, cannot be grasped. / Thoroughly penetrating thus without doubt, / The meaning of the pure mind appears brightly. / When this meaning appears, it is difficult to fathom, / Transcending all forms and free from speech. / In past, future, and present worlds, / Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and śrāvakas, / And all sentient beings endowed with consciousness, / Equally and truly understand according to this meaning. / Excellent is this extraordinary, transcendent person, / Who merely uses this pavilion to expound this meaning; / Having expounded it, he then rests according to conditions, / Also without difference from within a dream. / With the mouth born of my father and mother, / I speak this unsurpassed, wondrous gāthā, / To adorn the vast, quiescent mind, / And bring benefit to all who come.

11.27

Vice Minister Xiang's Veranda of Freedom from Heat (with preface, [by] Bogong)

11.28

Layman Xianglin built the Veranda of Freedom from Heat overlooking a pond in his residential garden, intending to erect the Continuous Radiance Belvedere on the northern embankment, taking the meaning from the Avataṃsaka of the four rivers flowing from the palace of the Great Dragon King Anavatapta, and the blossoming groves and jeweled trees with intertwining shadows and continuous radiance. Lord Han of Legu, the Policy Critic, composed a record for it. The layman came requesting humble words from me, whereupon I spoke this verse:

11.29

"A valiant and vigorously striving, transcendent person, / Titled the Great Layman Xianglin, / Abides in the unchanging, true place, / Yet constantly acts in accord with all buddhadharmas. / Not performing worldly, inverted karmas, / Accomplishing superior, world-transcending skillful means, / And able within these skillful means / To magically manifest all inconceivable realms. / Further, within these inconceivable realms, / Manifesting various extraordinary matters: / Blossoming groves and jeweled trees all radiate light, / Intertwining shadows and continuous radiance reflecting each other, / Their light and color pure like diamond, / Which none in the world can destroy. / Again like the great jeweled pool of Anavatapta, / Flowing out in four directions and entering the sea; / This sea is vast and boundless, / Yet does not exceed a single pore of the layman. / Radiating bright light from a single pore, / Eighty-four thousand emit at the same time; / Without troubling the layman to turn his tongue-mark, / He merely uses this light to proclaim the wondrous Dharma. / This Dharma is just this bright light; / He does not depart from this light to preach this Dharma. / The great sea and the pores are also thus; / This is the Xianglin meaning of freedom from heat. / This meaning is like empty space, immeasurable, / Encompassing each and every worldly appearance. / I now, with these meaningless words, / Briefly put forth a single hand for the layman: / When the Buddha's sons come to ascend the Veranda of Freedom from Heat, / The wondrous sand of myriad jewels opens the doors and windows."

11.30

Magistrate Cai's Small Hermitage (with preface)

11.31

Layman Kuaihuo built a hermitage on the sunny side of Nanyue and named it 'Small', taking the meaning from Venerable Shitou that although the hermitage is small, it contains the dharmadhātu. The layman wished for me to write its signboard, so I spoke this verse:

11.32

"This hermitage is neither small nor large; / Truly laughable is Shitou fabricating wonders in vain. / Not knowing that the dharmadhātu is just this hermitage, / He forced the claim that this hermitage contains the dharmadhātu. / Now, if you wish to know the person dwelling in the hermitage: / In the midst of myriad phenomena, the body is exposed alone. / Miaoxi writes this signboard for the hermitage, / Wanting it to be close neighbors with the great void."

11.33

Zhuangyuan Wang's Veranda of Peaceful Sitting (Shengxi)

11.34

"Not manifesting body or mind in the three realms: / How can restlessness compare to a state of confusion? / A message sent to the one sitting peacefully in the veranda: / Take a good look at the crescent moon sinking below the front stream."

11.35

Policy Critic Han's Valley of Joy

11.36

"People say ultimate joy is in this valley; / Who believes that joy is moved by the valley? / Distributing joy equally to those who are not joyful: / Only this is called the true joy of a great hero."

11.37

Hall of the Six Purities

11.38

Neither tranquil nor agitated is this source of the Dharma;
when facing the situation, do not resent that provisional designations remain.
It directly takes an extraordinary, heroic soul
to enter this boundless, vast gate.
The ten thousand environments interlace, originally non-dual;
the six windows day and night have never been dark.
Reflecting on Layman Pang, his affairs were no different;
when a sword is hurled through empty space, how could there be a trace?

11.39

Hermitage of Mingling with Dust

11.40

Dust lacks self-nature;
grasping the real, it is established.
Attempting to harmonize its light,
both identity and light are lost.
The outer is not wide;
the inner is also unblocked.
This principle is not unreal,
yet neither is it real.
The host within the hermitage
is like jade dwelling in stone.
Making such a contemplation,
a thousand ages are a single breath.

11.41

Contemplating My Hermitage, for Bureau Director Yu (Zicai)

11.42

All things are complete in me;
my contemplation never ceases.
The wise turn back to contemplate the 'me',
free in every direction.

11.43

Good Abiding Hermitage for Layman Huang Zhitong

11.44

The person inside Good Abiding Hermitage
has never had an abode;
just this unestablished mind
is the place to settle one's body.

11.45

Thanking Layman Ziyan (Vice Minister Zhang)

11.46

Ziyan shared the gift of Jianxi tea;
Miaoxi repaid with a Qingzhou robe.
Receiving a cow, one returns a horse;
front three-three and back three-three.

11.47

Replying to Pacification Commissioner Liu (Fangming)

11.48

Transmitting messages on the tip of a brush—
how can that compare to forgetting speech and severing views?
Late at night, a single wheel of the moon in empty space;
its pure light, across a thousand miles, shines on us together.

11.49

Sent to Layman Wugou (Vice Minister Zhang)

11.50

In the imperial park the jade pool has just thawed;
among mortals, willows again droop with spring.
In the mountain hall I sit all day burning incense,
constantly recalling that talkative man of Vaiśālī.

11.51

Shown to Layman Wang (Nansou)

11.52

On the tip of a single hair are boundless lands;
definitively, conscious discrimination cannot fathom it.
When you directly avoid giving rise to crooked, treacherous views,
the sun and moon within the gourd are naturally long-lasting.

11.53

Shown to Zhou Zichong Copying the Avataṃsaka Sūtra

11.54

Universal, particular, identical, different, formed, and destroyed;
orderly deployment is perfectly fused without obstruction.
A speck of dust entering all lands is not vast;
lands entering all specks of dust are not cramped.
At the tip of the layman's brush it is proclaimed with ease;
the ocean of results and source of causes are spontaneous.
I now speak a verse in praise,
together realizing the one real dharmadhātu.

11.55

Shown to Layman Liaoran (Juzhi)

11.56

Zheng Liaoran of Shakang in Changle
did not keep to his proper lot, insisting on Chan study;
he claimed he had reached the place where there is nothing to investigate—
[babbling foreign words] *gela guan'er mijiannian*.

11.57

Shown to Lady Han (Zicang's Residence)

11.58

Deliver a phrase where speech cannot reach;
before the wind, cut off the paths of a thousand differences.
Surpassing buddhas and transcending patriarchs is only right now;
standing like a wall ten thousand cubits high, with no mutual interplay.

11.59

Shown to Senior Monk Dabei

11.60

With a single blow, shatter the cave of birth and death;
at that moment, both ordinary and sage leave no trace.
Turning back to laugh at Zhaozhou, whose mind would not rest:
even in old age, he still ran east and west.

11.61

Shown to Senior Monk Yi of Xiangyun

11.62

Snatching away the patch-robed monk's staff,
in that instant he has no trick left.
Under the shout, the iron eye suddenly opens,
directly seizing the summit of a thousand peaks.

11.63

Shown to Chan Practitioner Dingsu

11.64

On his forehead stands upright the eye of Maheśvara;
behind his elbow hangs slanting the life-snatching talisman.
Blind the eye! Untie the talisman!
On Zhaozhou's eastern wall hangs a gourd.

11.65

Shown to Chan Practitioner Miguang

11.66

Holding up a turtle's hair, laughing merrily;
with one blow, ten thousand layers of barriers are unlocked.
The supreme joy of a lifetime is right today—
who says a thousand miles brought me here in vain?

11.67

Shown to Chan Practitioner Zuyuan

11.68

At the edge of a cliff of ten thousand fathoms, let go of the body;
arising, one is alert and clear as before.
Eating when hungry, drinking when thirsty, entirely without trouble—
why debate whether the past man is the man of today?

11.69

Shown to Chan Practitioner Zunpu

11.70

Swallowing whole the buddhas of the three periods
is merely the work of a hired laborer in our house.
How could that compare to Pu's uselessness:
on the tip of a single hair, he forgets all contrivance.

11.71

Shown to Attendant Faquan

11.72

Prior to words, surpass buddhas and patriarchs;
the disc of the sun is directly at high noon.
Throw open the barrier of the three essentials;
strike the poison-smeared drum.
Once the supreme capacity is released,
do not ask about a thousand-pound crossbow.
Cast away, it brooks no barrier;
grasped together, it lacks mutual interplay.
Bah, old Gautama!
Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!

11.73

Shown to Chan Practitioner Yong

11.74

Acting before the signal is clumsy;
turning unprompted already reveals ugliness.
How can one bear further flapping two strips of skin—
does that not merely gouge out empty space to cut windows?
A wooden horse whinnies in vain amid fire;
a mud ox bellows fruitlessly on the waterbed.
Chan practitioner Yong, listen to my words:
when pressed to the edge of the cliff, you must let go your hands.

11.75

Seeing off Chan Practitioner Zhi

11.76

Straight out, straight in;
straight walking, straight sitting.
Elder Chan Practitioner Zhi,
you must just be like this.
Originally complete of itself,
it sets up no coursework.
When hungry, eat rice;
when cold, face the fire.
It rests not with Gautama,
nor does it concern Bodhidharma.
If you formulate thoughts to deliberate,
you will conversely suffer calamity.
In speaking these words,
I have already incurred verbal fault;
before those with clear eyes,
it is a total conversational lapse.
I ask you to practice these words,
and not forget the grinding of bone.

11.77

Seeing off Sūtra-Keeper Si of Falun Soliciting [Funds for] a Bell

11.78

Turned downward it is a bell; turned upward it is a cauldron.
This is naturally the Falun family style;
how could Miaoxi dare gallop along with it?
Chan Practitioner Si firmly requested,
so taking up the brush and facing the paper, I suddenly had a sharp awakening:
a single sound directly pierces the summit of Sumeru.

11.79

Seeing off Chao, the Monk-Overseer

11.80

When the bottom of the tub falls out, the great earth is broad;
where the life-root is severed, the blue pool is clear.
Take this speck of snow upon the red furnace,
and scatter it in the world of mortals as a lamp illuminating the night.

11.81

Sent to Senior Monk Fusheng

11.82

The true person's eighteen realms are originally empty;
thirty-one people share the surname Lü.
Scattered to wander the mountains, each occupies a peak;
yet the thirty-one people dwell together once again.

11.83

Sent to Dharma Nephew Chan Master Hua of Guizong

11.84

Sitting astride the highest peak of the golden wheel,
a thousand phantoms and a hundred monstrosities spontaneously hide their tracks.
In recent years I have received true tidings again,
saying that Yangqi's direct lineage continues unbroken.

11.85

Seeing off Senior Monk Liaoming Returning to Changlu

11.86

People say that from under the staff filial sons emerge;
I say loving the child makes one blind to ugliness.
The Senior Monk of Changlu comes like this;
Miaoxi wastes a mouthful of talk in vain.
Let the four seas spread false rumors:
a jackal can produce a lion's roar.
Who says I have nothing to give him as he leaves?
Under my shout, Mount Cakravāḍa runs backward.

11.87

Verses of Chan Master Dahui Pujue, Fascicle Eleven

Linked texts (1)

大慧普覺禪師語錄 — Classical Chinese