大慧普覺禪師語錄 12

English (machine translation) 12

Language: English

12.1

Presented to the Emperor by Subject Yunwen, Abbot of Nengren Chan Monastery on Mount Jing and Dharma Heir, Chan Master Huiri

Before the Mountain of Right Awakening he lost his capital;
for three weeks his heart was stifled with gloom.
Then he went to the Deer Park to seek an advantage—
he deserved a thorough beating with overturned cudgels!

12.4

Mañjuśrī Inquires after the Illness

12.5

When was the Layman ever sick?
This illness arose because of the inquiry.
Two eyes facing two eyes,
the world's physicians all fold their hands.

12.6

Bodhisattva Guanyin

12.7

In the past, the Tathāgata of Right Dharma Brightness;
in the present, Avalokiteśvara.
Eyes view all sounds;
ears listen to all wondrous forms.
Both aspects are utterly extinct;
who receives this teaching?
This teaching is also extinct;
who delivers this teaching?
The one who can see and what is seen,
the one who can hear and what is heard—
turning back to contemplate the observer and listener,
these also do not exist at all.
Great is Guanshiyin,
who swiftly expounds such a Dharma!
This Dharma is inconceivable,
and those who hear it are exceedingly rare.
I now use a single hair
to measure the emptiness of the dharmadhātu everywhere;
making these illusion-like words,
I praise this true and real form.

12.8

Guanyin Entering Samādhi

12.9

Regarding the various kinds of sound-characteristics in the world,
the multitude listens with their ears, not seeing with their eyes.
Only this Great Being can view them with eyes,
closing the eyes and contemplating carefully to perform the Buddha's work.
Toward the sphere of the eye nothing is grasped;
the same holds for ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind.
Excellent! The mind penetrates the emptiness of the ten directions;
the six sense organs mutually manifest such a meaning.
Eye and form, ear and sound, nose and fragrance,
body and touch, mind and thought have no distinction.
One should contemplate with this contemplation;
to grasp this as real becomes false imagination.
If one departs from false imagination and grasps a real phenomenon,
one is confounded turn by turn and loses the original mind.
Once the original mind is lost, one follows inversions
and cannot see the Great Being's wondrous physical form.
There is no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind;
the meaning of their mutual manifestation is also extinct.
There is also no wondrous physical form of the Great Being,
nor are there various kinds of sound-characteristics.
If a disciple of the Buddha can make such a contemplation,
they will forever leave behind the worldly suffering of birth and death.

12.10

Layman Vimalakīrti

12.11

Sitting coldly in the city of Vaiśālī, a hundred ailments broke out at once;
had Mañjuśrī not arrived, there almost would have been no conclusion.

12.12

The Ninth Patriarch, Venerable Vasumitra

12.13

Sitting in silence for fifty springs, without joy and without wrath,
walking seven paces east and west, he shook off his former spirit.

12.14

The First Patriarch, Great Master Bodhidharma

12.15

When coming, he had already lost his front tooth; when departing, he had only a single shoe.
Across the Onion Ranges he met Song Yun, fully exposing his clumsy deportment.

12.16

Mahāsattva Fu

12.17

Above heaven there is no Maitreya; beneath the earth there is no Maitreya.
The clappers and the door-mallet—what, in the end, are they?

12.18

The Sixth Patriarch, Chan Master Dajian

12.19

A village fellow carrying firewood and selling kindling, his surging tongue was unmanageable.
He said himself that when he came he had no mouth at all, yet he stirred up wind and waves on flat ground.

12.20

Elder Li

12.21

With wisdom the size of a single hair's tip, he measured the emptiness of the dharmadhātu everywhere.
Wisdom and emptiness have no inherent nature; emptiness and wisdom are within each other.

12.22

Layman Pang

12.23

Sons and daughters do not marry; following conditions, they sell bamboo strainers.
How could an outsider ever know this kind of flavour?

12.24

Venerable Zhaozhou

12.25

The cypress in the courtyard has no roots; empty space has bones.
Utterly dull and obtuse, like a falcon soaring across the sky.
When heat arrives, taking the cool; when cold, burning wood scraps.
This indeed is what is called the ancient Buddha Zhaozhou.

12.26

Venerable Chuanzi

12.27

A sudden oar strike across the mouth cut off the mysterious path; only then did the way of Yaoshan begin to spread.
Three inches off the hook, no news remains; only then does one board the prajñā boat on the sea of awakening.

12.28

Venerable Linji

12.29

Squeezing juice out of a steelyard weight, knocking marrow out of dry bones;
completely lacking any restraint, doing nothing but showing off his mouth.
Why speak further of the three essentials, the three mysteries, and the four selections?
It is just like seeing ghosts and spirits at the crossroads in broad daylight. Bah!

12.30

Venerable Yunmen

12.31

Opening the mouth of Xuefeng, giving vent to the energy of Muzhou,
hands in his sleeves with solemn composure, glaring like a watching tiger.
As I say these words, there is speech without meaning;
sparks from flint, flashes of lightning—bah, what dull hesitation!
Dragging his kāṣāya, who knows who he is?
If someone can continue the final phrase, I allow that you have met him in person.

12.32

Venerable Budai (Two Selections)

12.33

Cultivating none of the three thousand deportments, entirely disregarding the eighty thousand subtle conducts,
merely waiting for a certain person in the bustling marketplace, he was called a destitute rogue by people.
Having long abandoned the inner court of Tuṣita, even if returning, he has lost the way he came.
I prostrate to the World-Honoured One Maitreya: how did you attain such a broad mind and vast belly?

12.34

Shouldering a solitary staff, with a pair of broken wooden clogs hung on its end,
gathering the opening of the cloth bag with all his might, no one knows what is inside.
Walking through the bustling market in dishevelled spirits, coarse and unruly, without any shame;
if I encounter him at the assembly of the Dragon Flower, I will surely strike out his front tooth.

12.35

The Holy One of Jinhua

12.36

Who recognizes the Holy One of Jinhua? Running into a pig's head, he ate it at once.
Although he had neither love nor hate, what can be done about the loss and gain?
He caused degenerate monastics to also claim, 'Adverse actions and conformable actions are beyond heaven’s measure.'
Had it not been for the final move, even until today it would be hard to explain with words.

12.37

Master of the Nan'an Cliff

12.38

Words presented to him were all called secret phrases;
who knew this old fellow was neither wondrous nor mysterious?
Direct and unhidden, a lotus amidst fire meeting the occasion;
whoever understands this intention sits upright and raises his own fist.

12.39

Yan Fahua

12.40

Revolving the dhāraṇī samādhi, speech and silence originally without hindrance;
tucking up his robes and wearing clogs to run through the streets, he was mocked as strange by contemporaries.
Asked where he resided, he replied, 'I do not understand.'
Stepping forward, deliberating and speculating—bah, an unyielding lacquer bucket!

12.41

Chan Master Xuedou Mingjue

12.42

The boundless expanse of Lake Tai’s thirty-six thousand qing is the master’s mouth. The towering heights of Dongting’s seventy-two peaks are the master’s tongue. Without moving his mouth and without wagging his tongue, what he has spoken, what he speaks now, and what he will speak is neither deficient nor superfluous. Turning back the raging waves and lifting what had fallen, curing fatal illnesses deep in the organs, this is how the master bore the Great Dharma and led this Path. As for flying the kun-peng within the pore of a lotus fiber, or placing Mount Sumeru upon the eyelash of a midge, there is no measure of spaciousness or confinement. Having been born after the master, I did not know him in person; my uttering these words upon viewing his portrait today is solely to let the icchantikas, ignorant ordinary beings, and degenerate persons of ruined faculties know that our school possesses the wonder of direct pointing in single transmission.

12.43

Venerable Yangqi

12.44

Walking among different species, dragging the plow and pulling the harrow;
chestnut burrs and iron rings—what sort of talk is this?

12.45

Venerable Baiyun Duan (Two Selections)

12.46

Where there is little, subtracting further; where there is much, adding again.
Bodhidharma did not understand, and returned instead to the Western Heaven.

12.47

Eating when hungry, drinking when thirsty; sitting at leisure, sleeping when tired.
Killing a person with bare hands, blood splashes to the Brahmā Heaven.

12.48

Venerable Wuzu Yan (Two Selections)

12.49

Completely bare, having an undergarment without trousers;
daring to vie with the Sea God to contest which is wealthier.

12.50

Talking grand nonsense, bearing the Buddhas and Patriarchs;
seven and eight are fully complete, yet do not make three and five.
Village songs and communal dances are pathetic, luring sons and grandsons into playing with mud.

12.51

Venerable Xiyu Duan

12.52

Bowing at dawn beneath the quilts, departing or staying as swept by the wind;
addressing Minister Zhang by name, insulting Old Man Yuanzhao.
Two punches overturned Venerable Butuo;
turning back, a single sentence cursed the demonic monk to the ground.
Just look at these few moves, no need to ask him about Chan and the Way;
this is a golden-haired lion cub, while foxes and jackals bark in vain.

12.53

Venerable Huiri Ya

12.54

Sunken and rugged, rocky and unconstrained;
with a shout and a roar, ten thousand people lose their nerve.
Sitting at ease on a folding chair, overturning chasms and toppling mountains;
wielding the sword that kills and gives life, releasing the bonds of birth and death.
Not falling into worldly conditions, how could he dwell in loneliness?
Opening up the three essentials and three mysteries of Jibei, holding forth the final move of Guanxi.
The reflection of Huiri sinks into Guxi; a mud ox rams and snaps the auspicious qilin’s horn.

12.55

Venerable Jiyin (Juefan)

12.56

Head like a ladle, face like a dish;
mouth without a tongue, speaking without exhaustion.
Affirming yet denying, identical yet distinct;
planting flowers in emptiness, pulling out hidden wedges.
A dead wooden snake, living like a scorpion;
striking the poisoned drum, skull splits open.
Who is it? The nectar is extinguished.

12.57

Venerable Caotang Qing

12.58

His awe-inspiring, solitary style is rare in the world; his green eyes blaze with the brilliance of lightning.
To the poor fellow he points out the jewel in his garment; the rich man he makes return stripped bare.
With a poisonous hand he is used to cooking buddhas and patriarchs; in his great furnace he constantly employs great tongs and hammer.
Do inferior demonic offspring know yet? This is the true white-browed elder of our house.

12.59

Venerable Yuanwu (Three Selections)

12.60

Phrases of great Dao and complete virtue praise the master’s portrait: 'Here there are not two ounces of gold; commoners buy three sheng of wine.'
Talk that transcends the buddhas and surpasses the patriarchs praises the master’s Chan: shaving a square bamboo staff round, covering a purple fleece rug.
Nothing can illustrate it, nothing can describe it; this is precisely clinging to a donkey-tethering post, so how much less can one speak of it?
Having sat in seven bodhimaṇḍas, having three times received imperial decrees—this is just like leaving through the Cao Gate in Zhengzhou: fortunately, there is no connection!
Setting this aside, what after all is it?
South of the Yangtze and across the two Zhe provinces, spring is cold and autumn is hot.
Send word to all quarters: do not wag your tongues.

12.61

Wind and thunder for a tongue, empty space for a mouth,
responding to the capacities of living beings, roaring the lion's roar.
The light of his eyes shatters the four continents, startling the Dharmakāya into hiding in the Northern Dipper;
this is a true descendant of Yangqi: at his shout, Mount Sumeru runs backward.

12.62

This old fellow has no place to stick an awl, yet is not poor; he possesses a priceless jewel, yet is not rich.
Viewing all goods, he does not rejoice; encountering all evils, he does not fear.
One move brought forth fully in broad daylight, yet not the finest hair is revealed.
Sometimes he conceals his body in flint sparks, yet interpenetrates within lightning flashes.
He blocks up Linji's three mysterious gates and cuts off Yantou's final phrase.

12.63

Venerable Purong Ping

12.64

Manifesting the mark of non-action, striking the poisoned drum;
practicing causeless compassion, slaying buddhas and slaying patriarchs.
If one perceives Purong like this, Miaoxi does not dare concede to him.
Coming straight forth, like a dragon, like a tiger;
with one hammer strike shattering great empty space, to this day there is a breach that no one can mend.

12.65

Venerable Changling Zhuo

12.66

Heavy as a mountain, stern and cold as iron,
shattering the Vairocana seal, sitting upon patch-robed monks' tongues.
Branching out from the spiritual source, the source is pure and the stream flows clear;
pointing to the sun as cold, calling the moon hot.
Saying this is Changling, dust is added to your eyes; saying this is not Changling, I know you have not glimpsed him yet.
Is it? Is it not? Both are superfluous talk. Is it real? Is it false? Grasping the moon in water.
If you now want to see this old man, you must raise your eyebrows and discern:
the great statue of Jiazhou takes a blow, and the iron bull of Shan Prefecture bleeds.

12.67

Venerable Foxing Tai

12.68

Accustomed to speaking of the Chan of the five houses, he did not transmit the mysterious and wondrous to others.
In his later years, one matter was truly extraordinary: after finishing his meal, he stretched out both legs and slept.

12.69

Venerable Fodeng Xun

12.70

His natural disposition was exceptionally free and relaxed; the clarity of his mind surpassed that of ordinary men.
The marrow atop Linji’s crown, the pupil in Yangqi’s eye.
At the tip of his staff, killing and giving life are illuminated; beneath his shout, intimacy and estrangement are revealed.
A solitary luan bird without a companion, a lion that does not run with the herd.
The legitimate heir of Fojian of Mount Zhong, the Dharma brother of this monk of Mount Jingshan.

12.71

Master Zhuan Gui

12.72

Praising Zhuan is Miaoxi; reviling Zhuan is also Miaoxi. Praising him or reviling him each has its reason: those who praise him do so because he possesses the patch-robed monk's true eye; those who revile him do so because he is steeped inside a vinegar vat. Someone said: "A lineage teacher like Zhuan can be neither praised nor reviled; fine gold and beautiful jade naturally have their fixed value, and praising or reviling him merely adds to idle gossip." Miaoxi heard this and smiled without answering; he merely clapped his hands, clicked his teeth three times, and let them divine by tortoiseshell or strike roof tiles as they pleased.

12.73

Master Tiantong Jue

12.74

A great furnace and bellows forging buddhas and patriarchs, / Fierce tongs and hammers tempering mortals and sages; / He raised Caodong when it had already fallen, / And applied acupuncture to the fatal depth when death was certain. / Expert at preaching the essentials of the Dharma, / Never straying into subtle extremes, / Without rising from his seat, / He transformed bramble patches into the palaces of Brahma, Śakra, and the devas and nāgas, yet remained non-active and non-doing. / His spirit serene, settled, and numinous, / With snowy brow and bushy eyebrows; / The master artisan conjured it forth, yet would not let Sengyou know; / Hung in the empty hall, Master Liang Bao is still confounded. / This is the old veteran of Tiantong; / Who else could be Miaoxi's kindred spirit?

12.75

Master Puming Lin

12.76

Unobstructed in all situations, he attained great ease; he is Bodhidharma's backbone and Śākyamuni's cranium. Such is the Old Man of Puming, one who dares to stand in opposition to all dusts.

12.77

End of Chan Master Dahui Pujue's Eulogies on Buddhas and Patriarchs

12.78

Chan Master Dahui Pujue's Self-Eulogies

12.79

Requested by Participant in Determining Governmental Matters Li (Hanlao)

12.80

This fellow's offenses are beyond measure; he ought not to have provoked scholar-officials. He had a dagger concealed in his smile, which killed our ancestor Bodhidharma. Without knowing what ancient feud it was, he brought about disaster and calamity unceasingly. Senior Monk Gao! Yes! Be alert; do not let your words stumble into error.

12.81

Requested by Judicial Commissioner Wu (Yuanzhao)

12.82

This rustic monk—few people can get near him. With his coarse bamboo comb of black lacquer, even if a buddha comes, he strikes a blow. Not an autumn hair of human sentiment does he have, but tens of thousands of insolent ways. When compassionate, Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva cannot match him; when wrathful, an asura king can hardly be compared to him. An obnoxious and hateful person in the world is an ācārya such as this; why would anyone paint him and make offerings of food?

12.83

Requested by Academician Zheng (Shangming)

12.84

Having investigated Yuanwu's Chan, / He shoulder-borne Muzhou's board; / Having penetrated the ancestral barrier, / He blinded the eye on top of his head. / Pitch-black inside his belly, / Perfectly level in his heart; / His temperament invites people's hate, / When it erupts, he cares for nothing. / Taking a blow from a Gong County tea flask, / He smashed the white porcelain bowl of Raozhou to pieces.

12.85

Requested by Bureau Director Cai (Ziying)

12.86

Violent by nature, / Arrogant in conduct; / What Chan does he speak of? What Dao does he discuss? / There is a witless fool who follows custom in delusion and inversion. / Bureau Director Cai, do you see it yet? / If you deny it to his face, that is the custodian stealing his own charge.

12.87

Requested by Court Gentleman for Instruction Cai (Zhengqing)

12.88

Pointing east and drawing west with his hand, / Babbling wildly and talking nonsense with his mouth. / Accustomed from birth to weaving entanglements of vines, / His natural innocence does not stem from fabrication. / There is Cai Zhengqing, who constantly comes to touch base. / Water flows toward the wet, fire moves toward the dry; / Round as a horse's face, according to whatever people fancy.

12.89

Requested by Court Gentleman for Instruction Cai (Chunqing)

12.90

Bah, you ignorant fool, / Half silly and half witless! / Swapping black beans for people's eyes, / You love exceedingly to take advantage. / One day when you die and enter hell, / You are bound to plunge into the boiling caldrons of Naraka; / Even a buddha will not be able to save you, / No matter how much Fenglin clicks his tongue at you.

12.91

Requested by Grand Master Chu (Yanlun)

12.92

The portrait of Miaoxi of Yunmen, / Painted by Layman Yuntai; / Sharp and dull do not complement each other, / Yet unrolled and hung in the empty hall. / Miaoxi is dull within sharpness, / So dull as to be muddle-headed; / Yuntai is sharp within dullness, / So sharp as to be untrammeled and carefree. / Now sharp and dull are both hung on the wall; / The lion turns around, obliterating every trace. / Traces gone, / Then smudged out, / Delivered all at once to Grand Master Chu: / oṃ maṇi dhāre sili suru.

12.93

Requested by Controller-General Zhao (Bangli)

12.94

If one calls you a good person, you hate evil too severely; / If one calls you an evil person, you cherish the worthy and delight in the good. / Yet between the two paths of good and evil, you are completely without regret. / (Bah!) / What a fine self-righteous fellow, / Talking loftily without boundaries! / As for becoming a buddha and acting as a patriarch, take it slow; / This gong'an is entrusted to Controller-General Zhao.

12.95

Requested by Judicial Investigator Xu (Requested on his behalf by Senior Monk Chongmi of Shouyuan)

12.96

Where stillness does not waver is just where you should apply effort; / If you wish to know my true form, step out of the aggregates, realms, and entrances. / At the tip of a single hair, the lion somersaults; / Upon a lump of red flesh, a precipice of ten thousand cubits stands upright. / Chongmi, calm and serene, do you know it or not? / The iron ox gave birth to a jade kitten.

12.97

Requested by Magistrate Liao (Liyi)

12.98

I praise my own portrait—who can thoroughly comprehend it? / Fire and wind are warm and moving, earth and water are solid and wet; / They all belong to direct perception; if you deliberate in mind, you miss it. / To approach and elucidate it is false and unreal; / To turn away and abandon it is soil, wood, tile, and stone. / My uttering these words is like an arrow hitting the target; / If you seek elsewhere apart from this, you are deluded, bewildered, and witless.

12.99

Requested by Registrar Zhu

12.100

Old Pang once ascended to Mazu's hall; / Gulping down the West River, he was peerless. / Now Miaoxi and Layman Zhu / Face-to-face are clear and distinct, with nothing concealed.

12.101

Requested by Supervisor of Affairs Wen (Ziqing)

12.102

If one calls you too alert, from time to time you indulge in muddled confusion; / If one calls you too narrow-minded and impatient, on occasion you accommodate things. / Since you act as a teacher of gods and humans, as soon as you open your mouth you show contempt; / In the glorious Fortunate Eon, there has never been such a buddha! / A word sent to Wen Ziqing: / Do not trust this thief.

12.103

Requested by Person of the Way Tang

12.104

This honored one cannot be grasped: / Suddenly joyful, suddenly wicked. / Joyful, his gentle warmth is like spring when a hundred flowers bloom; / Angry, his thunder and lightning, wind and clouds, burst forth all at once. / Acting in such a manner, if he is not an asura king, / He is a golden immortal, a Great Awakened One. / Person of the Way Tang, pack it up tightly; / There is no need to unroll it when you meet people—roll it up and put it away in a corner of the wall.

12.105

Requested by Lady Jiang (Household of Shaoming)

12.106

He is originally a man of Xuanzhou, / Born and raised in Ningguo. / In front, he does not revere Śākyamuni; / Behind, he does not respect Maitreya. / His family was poor and had no food to gobble, / So he left home and went to take refuge with the Buddha. / Traveling on foot through various regions, / South of the River and across the North; / No sooner had he investigated Linji's Chan / Than he became a broad-daylight thief. / In his eyes there are pupils, / But in his belly not a dot of ink; / Just like a lame ācārya, / He can talk the talk, but cannot walk the walk.

12.107

Requested by Person of the Way Wuzhuo

12.108

You request my eulogy and in turn praise my true form: / In the great sea not a single drop is left, / On Mount Sumeru not a speck of dust remains. / Taking contention as rectitude is not rectitude; / Taking scrutiny as discernment is not discernment. / The elephant king turns around, the lion roars and stretches; / His nature cannot be grasped: a flash of joy, a flash of wrath. / An enemy to buddhas and patriarchs, / A kinsman to demons and non-Buddhists; / Believing yourself right while others do not agree, / Thinking yourself divine while others do not deem you divine. / Acting as a good spiritual friend in this way, / You should drink three to five pints less of sour vinegar!

12.109

Requested by Person of the Way Chaozong

12.110

A single white staff strikes both buddhas and patriarchs; / Chan practitioner Chaozong is bold and fearless. / Having my portrait painted, he comes to beg for a eulogy, like posting hexagram charms on the demon gate. / Thirty years from now this saying will gain great currency; / Let anyone divine by tortoiseshell or strike roof tiles as they will.

12.111

Requested by Senior Monk Zhoufeng

12.112

Untrammeled and carefree, accepting and rejecting; / Careless and ragged, neither real nor false. / When guests arrive, they must be received; when thieves arrive, they must be beaten. / A single bamboo comb, above heaven and below heaven; / Striking head-on whether facing or clashing, letting anyone offer a price. / Bah, you rustic monk, talk less grandly! / Guinian, take it and hang it in the high hall; / Let them praise him or let them revile him as they will.

12.113

Requested by Chan Practitioner Dingxu

12.114

Body and mind are as one; / Outside the body nothing remains. / Bah, this blind donkey— / I hand him over to Dingxu.

12.115

Requested by Chan Practitioner Yunwen

12.116

Yunwen hears his own nature; / His own nature is separated from hearing and the aggregates. / My true portrait is also like this, / Far transcending the crowns of a thousand sages.

12.117

Requested by Chan Practitioner Yongxuan

12.118

Proclaiming my true form, / I proclaim and speak for you: / Blink your eyebrows; / Great skill appears as clumsy.

12.119

Requested by Chan Practitioner Siyao

12.120

Two ears sticking straight up, a narrow mouth; / Thin eyelids and nostrils exposed. / For a lifetime his tongue has run on recklessly; / When did he ever sing the barbarian tune?

12.121

Requested by Chan Practitioner Wuben

12.122

One thousand seven hundred foolish patch-robed monks / Surround this old fellow of ignorance. / Delicacy and refinement he has not an ounce of, / But coarse roughness he has seven or eight bushels of. / Never has he entered tranquil Chan meditation; / All day long he rushes along the corridors. / His way of handling people is laughable too; / He allows no one to carelessly open their mouth. / Blind flails and blind sticks serve as his compassion; / Right or wrong, he strikes them straight across the spine! / Presiding over the Dharma and acting as a lineage teacher like this, / He in vain continues the lineage of Śākyamuni's descendants. / Ben, Chan practitioner, by no means learn from him; / If you learn from him, you too will end up useless and inept.

12.123

Requested by Chan Practitioner Fabao

12.124

This insolent fellow, rare in the world: / Living in the Buddha's house, wearing the Buddha's clothes, / Gobbling the Buddha's rice, and speaking ill of the Buddha; / Full of wrath, lacking compassion. / Painted to resemble him, it is off by a hair's breadth; / Chan practitioner Bao should know this for himself.

12.125

Requested by Chan Practitioner Shoujing

12.126

Wrath and folly are not yet eliminated; / Mind, intellect, and consciousness remain inverted. / Talking of Chan, he opens his mouth at will, / Sweeping his tongue about recklessly. / Those who give alms to you do not gain a field of merit; / Those who make offerings to you fall into the three evil destinies. / This is the rustic monk of Yunmen, / Definitely not a bogus abbot.

12.127

Requested by Chan Practitioner Zunpu

12.128

Linji burned Huangbo's Chan board, / Xiangyan wept over Guishan's staff; / The old rustic of Yunmen imitates them, / Also pulling off this sort of trick. / What is this sort of trick? (Bah!) / The iron bowl handed down holds food for cats; / The patched kasaya is dipped into an ink basin. / The ancestral estate is utterly ruined; / I wonder what he will hand down to his descendants?

12.129

Requested by Chan Practitioner Seng'e

12.130

All his life this fellow has been stubbornly obstinate in vain, / Yet before others he deliberately displays soft indolence. / Planting brambles along the path to nirvāṇa, / Fastening bolts firmly before the gate of liberation. / Without distinguishing the three kinds of sickness of the Dharmakāya, / How could he know the Śūraṅgama's meaning of the eight returns? / In vain holding the Shaolin holeless flute, / Idly playing it across the Miluo bend.

12.131

Zen Practitioner Zhengyan Requests a Eulogy

12.132

Knocking bones out from empty space, / Making a nest within a flash of lightning. / If someone asks of Miaoxi's family style: / Aside from this, there is no other thing.

12.133

Zen Practitioner Zuchuan Requests a Eulogy

12.134

Slovenly, just like a monk from Sichuan; carefree, completely like a guest from Zhejiang. He turns particularly to the time before feelings arise to bring forth Baoci's single partition. His venerable nature is unfixed, impossible to fathom: seeing small, he dislikes the fly's eye as too broad; seeing large, he calls great empty space overly cramped. How can a master of this sort receive offerings from humans and devas? Better to give him a slap across the cheek.

12.135

Zen Practitioner Miaodao Requests a Eulogy

12.136

This rustic monk has immense ignorance: / Lacking gentleness, full of narrowness, / Loving to scold others with a quick tongue. / Benefiting from the Buddha's shade, yet breaking the Buddha's precepts; / Unenergetic, ever indolent; / Slandering prajñā, an offense filling the heavens; / Entering hell, never regretting it. / Those who hear him detest him; those who see him find him strange; / Stirring up the monastic community, especially insufferable. / Consuming the offerings of the faithful in vain for thirty years, / Emerging in another life to repay old debts. / In all this, there is only one strong point: / He can say that the ocean around Jiyu has no cover.

12.137

Zen Practitioner Chongmi Requests a Eulogy

12.138

Buddhas and patriarchs have secret words; / If spoken, they are no longer secret. / Secret Chan paints my true portrait; / The secret meaning has already leaked out. / Like splitting sandalwood incense, / Piece by piece, its essence is no different. / The secret meaning is right within it; / The secret is also spoken like this.

12.139

Zen Practitioner Wenjun Requests a Eulogy

12.140

Bah! This board-carrying fellow / Has never known anything at all. / Having once eaten one meal to the full, / He forgot the hunger of many years. / At every stir he touches on people's taboos; / Striking blindly, he does not recognize the occasion. / Throughout his life without a livelihood, / Empty-handed he seeks an advantage.

12.141

Zen Practitioner Ruban Requests a Eulogy

12.142

True or false—a pair standing alone as rivals; dependent or biased—water soaring into the void, while the wind is still, the moon is not absent; immediately false, immediately true—poison and ghee. Arriving here, who can recognize him?

12.143

Zen Practitioner Fahong Requests a Eulogy

12.144

Without ever having moved his tongue, / The entangling vines have already covered all under heaven. / Casually striking empty space, / Cracks immediately form under his hand. / Fahong has depicted my true portrait, / Seeming like Puhua of Zhenzhou. / Now I write a eulogy on top of it, / Wishing to make it a fine tale for the monasteries.

12.145

Zen Practitioner Deguang Requests a Eulogy

12.146

Where there is virtue, there must be light; / Its light is without interval. / Name and reality must correspond; / It is neither blue, yellow, red, nor white. / Investigating thoroughly the Chan on the crowns of buddhas and patriarchs, / This is no casual deceit or intimidation. / What I have penetrated through investigation / Is only for use in the Nirvāṇa Hall, / Not paying heed to a fabricated Chan master's three thousand eight hundred brushstrokes. / I bear witness for him: / In future years he will serve as a model.

12.147

Head Monk Ruohuai Requests a Eulogy upon Returning to Yangyu Hermitage

12.148

I have great affinity with Min, / Dreaming by night and thinking by day without interruption. / In another day I will surely return to Yangyu, / To make my end inside the Laṅkā Room.

12.149

Elder Xuefeng Kong Requests a Eulogy

12.150

Huikong scratched my itch; I once pricked his sore spot. Sore spots itch, itchy spots ache; not walking the same path with the thousand sages, how could he share use with patch-robed monks? Do not say that inside broom-bamboo there are no coin tubes, or that in an artemisia grove there are no beams and pillars. Although domestic shame must not be aired outside, it must also make the eyes of all quarters fixed and shaken. Now each has no choice: let him paint this kind of incompetent, frozen snotty-nosed fellow. Just hang it in the corner of the wall to let comers gaze up and revere it, burning incense of turuṣka, priyaṅgu, aloeswood, and sandalwood during the six periods of day and night, making an offering to the ancestors of seven generations.

12.151

Elder Shishao Requests a Eulogy

12.152

Though painted in hundreds of thousands of copies, / Altogether it is just this. / Shishao, bear it well: / The seventh generation of Yangqi.

12.153

Zen Practitioners Request Eulogies (Four Verses)

12.154

Bah! Exterminator of the barbarian seed, / His face is truly detestable! / Crossing a bridge, he immediately breaks the bridge; / Gaining a road, he immediately blocks the road. / Though wishing to force himself to be gentle, / In the end he stirs up people's anger. / All matters are like this; / Who dares come close to him? / A beggar's pouch is originally empty, / Yet he always boasts of wealth matching a rival state. / Hearing tell of King Yama, / He inevitably feels fear. / Stop uttering great boasts, / Disliking buddhahood and refusing to do it.

12.155

Wrinkled and shriveled like a sun-dried date, / Lightly touch him and immediately he is vexed. / His body wears the Tathāgata's three robes, / While his mouth slanders the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha treasures. / Never giving a speck of dust to others, / Not seeking a single hair from others. / Suddenly shutting his eyes and entering the Yellow Springs, / He is bound to make an uproar with Old Yama.

12.156

Above, not a single tile to cover his head; / Below, not an inch of ground to plant an awl. / Stripped stark naked over his whole body, / What idle breath does he fight over with others? / Unable to do anything about a bit of ignorance, / What is he saying about the meaning of the Patriarch's coming from the West?

12.157

An iron snake in his grip, / Its poisonous vapour dazzlingly bright. / Hesitate and fail to come forth, / And it strikes right across the mouth.

12.158

Holding the Torch and Entering the Stūpa

12.159

Applying the Fire for Karmadāna Yan

12.160

This senior monk understood that the nature of the five aggregates is empty and awakened to the selflessness of all phenomena. No sooner did he sense discord in the four great elements than he knew it was the gathering of causes and fruiting of results. Two or three days in advance, bathing, shaving his head, and writing his final words with his own hand, he asked me for a handful of fire. Not looking back at the divine light of ten thousand miles behind his head, how could he cling to the mysterious barrier and golden lock before his eyes? The foolish lump of ignorance and karmic consciousness—he checked through them all from the beginning. Of such patch-robed monks who have finished the matter, how many can there be in the world? Since Karmadāna Yan was like this, there is still one more thing that must be spoken plainly: if you travel to Tiantai and Yandang, convey my words to the Broken Stove-Hearth of Mount Song.

12.161

Applying the Fire for Zen Practitioner Chong (Chong usually wore only one large bamboo hat)

12.162

Everyone has the four great elements; Zen Practitioner Chong alone possessed the five great elements: besides earth, water, fire, and wind, there was also the greatness of a single bamboo hat. This hat is internally empty, externally empty, and internally-and-externally empty; it encompasses the desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm. What need to mention Mount Sumeru, the Iron Encircling Mountains, rivers, and great seas? The myriad forms and dense phenomena are all inside it, without constriction and without narrowness. And now the four great elements have already fallen into discord; only the great hat endures forever. This great hat is exceedingly marvelous: chanted once, chanted twice, chanted three times—it is not sold when expensive, nor sold when cheap. Ultimately, how is it? Let it be cast together with Zen Practitioner Chong into the samādhi of firelight!

12.163

Applying the Fire for Temple Director Fadeng

12.164

Pointing to the shrine with the torch, he said: 'This is the Dharma-Lamp that has already been extinguished.' He raised the torch again and said: 'This is the fire of undefiled wisdom.' The fire of undefiled wisdom lights the Dharma-lamp; whether lighted or extinguished, nothing is inadmissible. Temple Director, do you understand? After the ashes fly and the smoke disperses, a single udumbara blossom.

12.165

Applying the Fire for Zen Practitioner Chao

12.166

Beneath the mountain, the wheat is yellow and the silkworms are done; / A band of dead men escorts a living fellow. / The living man's body is like iron vajra, / Entering the red forge once again right now.

12.167

Entering the Stūpa for Zen Practitioner Yue

12.168

Holding up the bones, he said: 'At Vulture Peak they spoke of the moon; at Caoxi they pointed to the moon; today Miaoxi holds up the moon. Examining it thoroughly in detail, for the moment it cannot be wiped out. Why is this? Because this master completely leaked out the whole mechanism. Having leaked it out, look, look! It is the Mid-Autumn Festival again; there is nothing fit to compare with it—let him speak of it himself.'

12.169

Entering the Stūpa for the Two Zen Practitioners Yi and Zhao

12.170

Raising the bones in his left hand, he said: 'This is Yi of Meizhou.' Raising the bones in his right hand, he said: 'This is Zhao of Raozhou.' One understood Chan, one understood the teachings. Though each walked his own way, in the end they arrived at the same time. Tell me: what is the matter of arriving at the same time? In the pond of whose villa could a pair of mandarin ducks fail to be painted?

12.171

When the Master approached passing away, having personally written his final memorial, the attendant monk begged for a gāthā. The Master said in a stern voice: 'Can one not die without a gāthā?' Thereupon he wrote in large characters:

12.172

'Birth is just like this, / Death is just like this. / Having a gāthā or having no gāthā— / What great fuss is that?'

12.173

When an ancestral teacher leaves words, strictly avoid misunderstanding them; one must recognize the locus of genuine practical function before verifying the great sovereign, liberated, peaceful, and joyful Dharma. Written on the tenth day of the late summer month in the jiashen year of the Longxing era [1164 CE] by Layman Ziyan, Zhang Jun.

12.174

Recorded Sayings of Chan Master Dahui Pujue, Fascicle 12: Eulogies for Buddhas and Patriarchs

Linked texts (1)

大慧普覺禪師語錄 — Classical Chinese