大慧普覺禪師語錄 13.3.2

13.3.2

At first, upon hearing the striking of the bamboo make a sound, he suddenly had a great awakening, and within the awakened mind news was completely cut off. It was just like Maitreya snapping his fingers and the tower's gates swinging open, bidding Sudhana to enter; Sudhana's mind rejoiced, and having entered, they closed again—it is precisely this principle. Once news was cut off at the place of Xiangyan's awakening, the matter before his parents were born abruptly appeared before him. As soon as he composed a verse, there was already an expedient means for helping others; the commentary noted below: 'No longer relying on cultivation or practice, / In every movement upholding the ancient way, / Not falling into silent mechanisms, / Everywhere leaving no traces. / Comportment beyond sound and form— / Those of reached realization throughout the directions / All call it the supreme capacity.' One often sees Chan fellows who love to go everywhere asking the elders questions; where the elders have nowhere to put their mouths, they then explain it for them—as if afraid Xiangyan had not spoken clearly enough, they must add further commentary. There is also another sort of person who says, 'Because of striking an object and making a sound, there is an awakening.' If someone asks him, 'Just try to speak of it,' he then strikes an object to make a sound, saying, 'How utterly distinct! What connection is there?' This is greatly like trying to scratch an itch by pounding one's boot with a fist—how could one ever find joy in that? Furthermore, do you not see: in former days, when Reverend Juzhi was residing in a hermitage, a certain nun wearing a conical bamboo hat came directly around his meditation cord-seat once, saying, 'If you can speak, I will take off my bamboo hat.' Juzhi could not speak at that moment. The nun flicked her sleeves and walked away. Juzhi said, 'Why not stay a while?' The nun said, 'If you can speak, I will stay.' Juzhi was speechless again. After the nun left, Juzhi sighed to himself: 'Though I am a fellow with a manly body, I am still not equal to a woman.' He then wanted to burn the hermitage and go down the mountain. Suddenly, that night, he dreamed of a spirit who said, 'The Reverend need not go down the mountain; just wait, for an embodied Mahāsattva will come to expound the Dharma for the Reverend.' After a few days, Reverend Tianlong indeed arrived. Juzhi thereupon related the previous incident to him. Tianlong said, 'Ask me, and I will speak for you.' Juzhi said, 'If you can speak, I will take off my bamboo hat.' Tianlong then raised one finger; Juzhi suddenly had a great awakening. Later, whenever he was asked a question, he only raised one finger, often saying, 'I attained Tianlong's one-finger Chan, and have not exhausted its use in an entire lifetime.' Reverend Langye Jiao once composed a verse: 'Juzhi's one finger makes it known to you: / The fledgling hawk born in the morning soars to clutch the sky. / Without the strength to lift a tripod cauldron and uproot mountains, / The thousand-mile black steed cannot easily be ridden.' Look at this verse: it precisely understands this one-finger Chan with clarity. How could this be learned? At Juzhi's side was an attendant boy who, whenever he saw someone ask about matters, also learned to raise a finger in response. Someone said to Juzhi, 'The Reverend's boy is also extraordinary; he too understands the Buddha Dharma. Whenever someone asks him, he raises a finger just like the Reverend.' Juzhi heard of this, and one day secretly placed a knife in his sleeve, called the boy near, and said, 'I hear that you also understand the Buddha Dharma; is that so?' The boy said, 'It is.' Juzhi said, 'What is the Buddha?' The boy immediately raised his finger; Juzhi seized him and severed it with the knife. The boy cried out and ran out; Juzhi then called after the boy. The boy turned his head, and Juzhi said, 'What is the Buddha?' The boy unwittingly raised his hand, saw no finger, and suddenly had a great awakening. Remarkable! Indeed one knows that the Buddha Dharma cannot be transmitted and cannot be learned: Juzhi's realization was not on the finger, and Xiangyan's awakening was not beside the striking of the bamboo. Tell me: where is it? I have spoken it all at once; do you still understand? This matter is neither difficult nor easy: miss it by a hair's breadth and you are off by a thousand miles. I advise all of you to take a step back and examine yourselves; everything is fully present as it is—just take responsibility for it directly, without wasting effort. If you intend to stir even a single hair, you will immediately be thousands and tens of thousands of miles away, completely disconnected. Since all of you are here, you must give rise to a sense of shame; you cannot let time pass lightly. If you do not preserve sincerity, with what in prajñā will you consume the offerings of the faithful? Do you not see what Chan Master Fenyang Wuye said: 'Look at the ancient virtuous persons of the Way: after attaining their intent, in thatched huts and stone chambers, they cooked rice in broken-legged pots and ate, passing twenty or thirty years. Fame and gain did not disturb their minds, wealth and treasures were not in their thoughts; deeply forgetting the human world, they concealed their traces among cliffs and groves, not coming when summoned by rulers, nor attending when invited by feudal lords. How could they be like us, who covet fame and crave profit, drowning in worldly paths, like petty merchants harboring modest wishes and forgetting the great fruit?' Indeed! Brothers, in those days there was already such talk; if they were made to see where we act nowadays, it would truly shame one to death. Brothers! Time is to be cherished; time waits for no one. Let each of you summon your spirits and break completely through, so that you do not receive the shelter of the Buddha in vain, nor betray your lifelong aspiration to study the Way. Recently, Senior Monk Dao came from Xuefeng, repeatedly requesting to enter the abbot's room, saying: 'Solely because impermanence is swift and the matter of birth and death is great, while my own affair is not yet clear, I beg for instruction.' Thereupon I cited Mazu's 'It is not mind, it is not Buddha, it is not a thing' to instruct him to contemplate it, and further annotated it once for him: you must not understand it as a principle; you must not understand it as having nothing to do; you must not understand it as a flint-spark or lightning-flash; you must not calculate under the root of discursive intellect; you must not take responsibility at the point where it is raised. It is not mind, it is not Buddha, it is not a thing—what should it be? He was then beset by doubt and dared not open his mouth again. Today, however, he came to burn incense and bow, saying: 'Miaodao's study of prajñā is beset by many demonic hindrances; I wish to request that this evening, before the assembly of humans and devas, you promote and expound prajñā so that I may rely on it for repentance, wishing that all sentient beings in the dharmadhātu may abruptly awaken to the profound prajñā and together repay the Buddha's benevolence.' Yunmen said: 'The ancient sages had a saying: "A fearful mind is hard to generate, and a wholesome mind is hard to arouse; to deliver others before delivering oneself is the Bodhisattva's initial aspiration. To know fear of transgressions and turn one's mind toward the Way is likewise rare."' Thereupon I complied with his request and made repentance on his behalf. Now tell me, since the nature of transgression is neither within, nor without, nor in between, with what do you repent? Yet there is no sage who has transgressions, nor is there any ordinary mortal who is free of transgressions. When ordinary mortals commit transgressions, they all arise from the deluded mind, having no true substance whatsoever. Even though they have no true substance, when receiving retribution, one must also undergo it in delusion, following like a shadow follows a form, impossible to escape.