大慧普覺禪師語錄 14.2

English (machine translation) 14.2

Language: English

14.2.1

Huang Deyong requested a general discourse. The master said: "The retired scholar Huang Duanfu of Shaowu had faith toward the Buddha Vehicle and knew of this matter. He donated his family property to establish a hermitage, named it after Yuanwu, and repeatedly sent letters begging to share a branch of Yangqi's Buddhadharma. Because he was making great benefits for sentient beings, Yunmen did not dare to grant it lightly. He also entrusted the Academician Wu Yuanzhao to plead earnestly time and again, yet still I did not dare grant it casually. Unfortunately, Duanfu suddenly passed away. I heard that when he was about to die, he called his two sons and repeatedly instructed them, saying: 'If you can invite a genuine hermitage-dweller from Yunmen for me, then I shall die without regret.' Having spoken, he departed forever. His two sons did not forget their father's dying wish; they asked Academician Yuanzhao to draft a statement and sent a special envoy to invite the Chan practitioner Miguang to serve as the master of the hermitage. Seeing their utter sincerity, I then had him comply with the request. Now Deyong and his brother have come specially to this hermitage, generously donating funds to provide offerings, and requesting this mountain monk to give a general discourse and uphold the ancestral tenets in order to repay the grace of the protective blessing of all the sages. And yet, what is called the ancestral tenets? How are the ancestral tenets upheld? The Buddhadharma of recent times is deplorable: heterodox teachers preach the Dharma like the sands of the Ganges, each setting up their own sectarian style, each speaking of the marvelous and extraordinary, successively fabricating views to delude and mislead later generations beyond count. Those who investigate Chan do not possess the eye for choosing the Dharma, and those who act as teachers have unclear eyes of the Way, resulting in such a state. At first, Yunmen did not know Yuanzhao. Later, in Jiangxi, I saw the postscript he provided for the 'Brahmacārya Chapter' of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, in which he claimed that he had an awakening through the 'Brahmacārya Chapter' and did not doubt the tongues of the old masters in the world. At that time I already grasped his main drift, and immediately said to the brethren: 'This person has only awakened to having no brahmacārya, nothing more. He has already had his face smashed by a heterodox teacher's seal. If Yunmen meets him, I must make every effort to save him.' When we met in Changle, he promptly came to consult and enter my room. Thereupon, I shattered his point of awakening with just two sentences, saying: 'What you have awakened to is what Yongjia called "rashly declaring emptiness while casting aside cause and effect, recklessly inviting calamities and misfortune." ' Furthermore, I cited for him the passage in the 'Brahmacārya Chapter' that he had mistakenly used as evidence, saying: '“With respect to the body, nothing is grasped; with respect to cultivation, there is no clinging; with respect to phenomena, there is no abiding. The past has already ceased, the future has not yet arrived, and the present is empty and tranquil. There is no agent of karma and no receiver of retribution; this world does not shift, and that world does not alter. Among these, what phenomenon is called brahmacārya? From where does brahmacārya come? To whom does it belong? Whose essence is it? By whom is it performed? Is it existent or non-existent? Is it form or non-form? Is it sensation or non-sensation? Is it perception or non-perception? Is it conditioning or non-conditioning? Is it consciousness or non-consciousness? Observing in this way, the phenomenon of brahmacārya cannot be apprehended.” If based on this you cite evidence claiming that having no brahmacārya is true brahmacārya, that is slandering the great prajñā, and you will enter hell as swiftly as a shot arrow.' Furthermore, I told him: 'Nowadays, the various heterodox teachers in all quarters each say for themselves, "I have attained unsurpassed bodhi." Each speaks of unorthodox views, deceiving both the Hu and the Han, arbitrarily distorting and forcing interpretations onto the ancient masters' causes and conditions for entering the Way. Some take having no words and no speech, remaining silent for a long time, as the matter before the empty kalpa; they instruct people to cease and desist, desisting until they resemble earth, wood, tiles, and stones. Yet fearing that people will say they are sitting in the ghost caves beneath the black mountain, they then immediately cite the words of the Patriarchs as proof, saying: "Because it is clearly and constantly known, words cannot reach it. When one has desisted until one is like earth, wood, tiles, and stones, it is not a matter of dark obliviousness; it is thoroughly awake and distinctly vivid. Walking, standing, sitting, lying down, attend to it at all times. Merely cultivate like this, and after a long time you will naturally tally with the fundamental mind." Others take shedding emotional defilements and not establishing conventions as their approach; whenever an ancient master's gong'an is cited, they claim they have already understood it. Or when the master asks, "It is not mind, it is not buddha, it is not a thing—how do you understand it?" they immediately say, "The Venerable Monk might as well be awake." Or they say, "Where has the Venerable Monk come from?" Or they say, "One must not add a sharp point atop an arrow." Or they say, "How many people have you deceived?" Or they recite it once more, saying, "It is not mind, it is not buddha, it is not a thing." Whenever they are asked about the ancient masters' causes and conditions, they all take responsibility at the point of citation, understanding it at the striking of flint-sparks or the flash of lightning. Once it is cited, they have already understood it; whatever is asked, they do not entertain it at all, calling this carefree, uninhibited, and attaining great bliss. Others take the principle that the triple world is mind-only and the ten thousand phenomena are consciousness-only as their primary doctrine, citing a class of similar cases among ancient masters as proof. They take seeing with eyes and hearing with ears as the locus of strength; among all points of penetration, there are none that do not awaken through seeing things, and none that do not awaken through hearing sounds. Whenever they make any provisions, they imitate similar points among the ancient masters; when someone asks a question, they merely stick fast to the practitioner's question and answer, calling it "concurring with the unborn upon the words," just like people of Fuzhou splicing hemp, calling it seamless and not falling into emotional defilements. As when a monk asked an ancient worthy: "How does one escape the triple world?" He replied: "Bring the triple world here, and I will escape it for you." Or one said: "What do you call the triple world?" Or one said: "If you understand this monk's question, escaping the triple world is not difficult either." As when a monk asked Fayan: "What is a drop of water from the Caoxi source?" He answered: "It is a drop of water from the Caoxi source." Huichao asked the Venerable Monk: "What is the Buddha?" He replied: "You are Huichao." Citing things of this sort as evidence is either completely right or completely wrong. Furthermore, consider the discussion of Yaoshan giving instruction to the assembly at night, saying: "I have a phrase; when the bull gives birth to a calf, I will speak it to you." A monk came out of the assembly and said: "The bull has already given birth to a calf; it is just that the Venerable Monk does not speak it." Yaoshan said: "Bring a lamp." The monk then returned to the assembly. Later, Fadeng spoke out, saying: "Tell me, is the one born a bull calf or a heifer calf?" Speaking on their behalf, he said: "Twins were born." When deliberating, they also understand it as the unborn upon the words. When Yaoshan said, "I have a phrase; when the bull gives birth to a calf," that was already speaking it. Therefore, this monk grasped it and immediately came forward, saying: "The bull has already given birth to a calf; it is just that the Venerable Monk does not speak it." It is truly seamless, revealing no sharp edges. Fadeng questioned: "Tell me, is the one born a bull calf or a heifer calf?"

14.2.2

And he answered on his behalf, saying, 'Twins.' They also merely understand it as conforming to unconditioned non-arising through the words, saying, 'He himself asked about bullocks and heifers, and then answered for him, saying, "Twins." Nothing left over at all—even the Buddha's eye cannot catch sight of it.' They take such words as hitting the bullseye without exposing the blade's edge and without wasting energy. Furthermore, for instance, an ancient pointed to a stone and asked a student, 'Is this stone inside the mind or outside the mind?' The student replied, 'Inside the mind.' The ancient worthy said, 'What desperate rush are you in to put a stone inside your mind?' People in the assembly deliberate over this, saying, 'He should not have answered with inside or outside. If answered with inside or outside, then dharma would have something left over.' So they offer the remark, 'What a very fine stone!' Or they say, 'I deeply appreciate this question.' Or they say, 'What do you call a stone?' Or they say, 'Yes, yes.' Or they say, 'In front of the dharma hall.' Or they say, 'Thank you, Master, for the instruction.' Or they say, 'Does the reverend still know shame?' Or they say, 'You are making a fool of me!' Whenever answering such sayings, they merely wrap it up with a single phrase, calling it 'dense and seamless' and calling it 'not running astray.' Views like this are very numerous in the monasteries. Others say that all words have nothing at all to do with it; whenever they bring it up, they first glare wide-eyed, like a child suffering from infant convulsions who sees ghosts and spirits, grasping it only in the staring brows and glaring eyes, and they erroneously quote the words of ancients as evidence: 'If you bring it up without looking, you are mistaken; if you intend to deliberate, in what kalpa will you awaken?' When bringing it up, one must look with the eyes, merely bringing up the words of the ancients once to alert oneself, calling it 'not dwelling on words and phrases.' Such as the cypress tree, washing the bowl, the three pounds of hemp, and the like—if they can get past one of them, they brush aside the rest without wasting any more effort. This sort of thing, compared to flint-struck sparks or flashes of lightning, only adds glaring eyes and raised brows, yet each and every one claims to have grasped the Patriarch's nostril. It would be better not to slander those ancients! For example, when bringing up a monk asking Yunmen, 'What is the phrase that penetrates the dharmakāya?' Yunmen said, 'Hiding the body in the Northern Dipper. How do you understand it?' The student then glares wide-eyed and says, 'Hiding the body in the Northern Dipper!' If the teacher provisionally checks him, he shouts several times in succession, 'Hiding the body in the Northern Dipper! Hiding the body in the Northern Dipper!' thinking that he holds firm and is master of himself, not being swayed, and the teacher, unable to do anything, also calls him genuine. Only then does the teacher ask what his meaning is. Thereupon he offers the remark, 'Even the Buddha's eye cannot catch sight of it.' Or he says, 'Raise your head and look beyond the heavens.' Or when asked, 'What is the meaning of the Patriarch's coming from the West? The cypress tree in the courtyard,' he immediately offers the remark, 'One branch to the south, one branch to the north.' Or he says, 'Able to be master of all phenomena, not withering with the four seasons.' All the above reside in the glaring eyes and raised brows when bringing it to mind, and then delivering a matching phrase, considering it extraordinary. Blind fools! It is not that when glaring eyes and raising brows there is Chan, and when not glaring eyes and raising brows there is no Chan; it is not that when bringing it to mind there is Chan, and when not bringing it to mind there is no Chan. Others, seeing Yunmen speak like this, then mistakenly understand, saying, 'When bringing it to mind, it is so; when not bringing it to mind, it is also so—there are not two different kinds.' Those like this are even beyond rescue. Still others do not pay attention to anything at all; as soon as one mentions the buddhadharma or mentions awakening, they go mad, and they erroneously quote the words of ancients, saying, 'Originally there is no person of delusion or awakening; one only needs to settle it today.' All the ancient encounters they call 'establishing the provisional' and also call 'establishing what is genuine,' lying only in not deliberating over the buddhadharma. Whenever there is a question and answer, they respond based on the facts one by one, ordinary and without affairs: heaven is heaven and earth is earth, exposed pillars are wood, vajra-guardians are sculpted from clay, when hungry eating food and when weary sleeping—what else is there? Have you not seen what Reverend Zhenjing said: 'Do not understand it as having no affairs; having no affairs binds people's minds.' Often those poisoned by 'no affairs' actually consider these words to be wrong. Others, seeing that the ancients' gong'ans cannot be deliberated upon through rational paths, then produce an irrelevant phrase and answer it offhand, calling it 'mysterious and wondrous,' calling it 'not involving paths of meaning,' and calling it 'leaping free right at the dynamic moment.' For example, when a monk asked Zhaozhou, 'The myriad dharmas return to the one; where does the one return?' Zhaozhou said, 'When I was in Qingzhou, I made a cloth robe weighing seven catties.' Regarding things of this kind, how many people mistakenly deliberate, saying, 'This monk posed an extraordinary question; if Zhaozhou did not have an avenue of escape, he would have been at a loss.' They say, 'The myriad dharmas return to the one; the one has nowhere else to return. If it had somewhere to return, there would be a real dharma.' Therefore Zhaozhou saw through it, and with wondrous function at the dynamic moment, he brushed it off in reply, saying, 'When I was in Qingzhou, I made a cloth robe weighing seven catties.' How extraordinary! Others deliberate, saying, 'The myriad dharmas return to the one; where does the one return? If the one had nowhere to return, it would fall into emptiness. Therefore Zhaozhou said: "When I was in Qingzhou, I made a cloth robe weighing seven catties." This turning-word of Zhaozhou is truly extraordinary, falling neither into existence nor nonexistence; he answered it wonderfully.' Others say, 'Yunmen speaks like this only because he fears people will attach to things; if one does not attach, that is the Patriarch's essential mind. One only needs to realize this matter, unattached, free and at ease; not departing from reality where one stands, where one stands is reality—what else is there?' Or if asked, 'Before your parents were born, what was your original face?' they immediately say, 'No attendant responds to the reverend,' taking karmic consciousness as their vital essence. Followers like this are all madmen running outside. There is yet another sort who know that their own dharma eye is not bright, that their Chan does not win people's trust, and that they have no means to instruct students. They themselves have never listened to the teachings, so they make petty peddling at the lecturers' places, snatching a phrase or half a sentence to bewitch the deaf and vulgar. Master Linji said, 'There is a kind of blind bald soldiers who take ideas from the scriptural vehicles and deliberate them, turning them into phrasal meanings, just like holding a lump of dung in their mouths and spitting it out to others—they are truly unbearable!'

14.2.3

When Yuanzhao first saw me speak like this, although he had doubts in his mind, his mouth remained stubborn, and he even sneered at this mountain monk. That evening he came into my room, and I merely asked him the huatou of "a dog has no buddha-nature"; thereupon he could make no headway at all, and only then did he realize that in investigating Chan one must have awakening. During his ten-day stay in Changle, he entered my room twenty times, exhausting all his clever tricks without being able to do anything about it; only then did he become flustered. This mountain monk spoke honestly to him: 'There is no need to display clever tricks. You must snap it in two with a snap and break it off with a crash before you can withstand birth and death. What end will there ever be to displaying clever tricks?' I further said to him: 'Do not be flustered; if you cannot investigate it in this life, investigate it in a future life.' Thereupon he came to believe and trust, and so took his leave. After more than ten days, a letter suddenly arrived from him together with ten verses on ancient cases, all of which concerned the encounters I had questioned him with in the room. In the letter he said: 'On the road to Yanping, I suddenly had an awakening; I truly dare not deceive myself any longer, and now I believe that this matter is not obtained from others.' One verse among them said: 'It is not mind, it is not a thing. / Not being a thing, the whole body is a string of golden chain-bones. / When Zhaozhou called upon old Nanquan, / he was able to say that Zhenzhou produces radishes.' This mountain monk was extremely doubtful about it. At that time Chan monk Guang asked: 'Judging from this verse, has he settled birth and death or not?' Yunmen said to him: 'Whether he has settled it or not, go ask Yuanzhao instead.' When Guang's letter was received, it said: 'When I met the Academician, everything was just as the Ven. Master said.' Assembly, tell me: what was said? Bah! Doubts kill the people of the world; let those with eyes discern it! Those who investigate Chan nowadays do not ask whether birth and death have been settled or not; they merely seek quick results and just want to understand Chan. There is not a single one who does not talk about principles. Seeing that this donor, the supervising secretary, loved to talk about principles, I gave him a case without principles to examine: a monk asked Yunmen, 'What is the Buddha?' Yunmen said, 'A dried piece of shit.' Fearing that he would understand it through principles, I told him beforehand: 'You must not say that the Dao is in excrement and urine, that the Dao is in weeds and tares, or that the Dao is in rubble and tiles; that one clarifies the mind through forms or reveals principle by attaching to things. You must not say that everywhere is true, or that every speck of dust is entirely the original person, and the like.' When he examined this phrase, he could not do anything with it; he exhausted all his energy trying to look into it, but in the end could not see through it. Suddenly one day he realized that this matter cannot be penetrated by means of principles, and so he said, 'I have had an awakening,' and consecutively composed several verses to present his understanding. One said: 'Great Void is vast and boundless, forcedly given a name; / Even Sengyou could not paint it. / What need is there to seek the source and inquire of the truth? / Not a single phenomenon can match the sentiments.' Another said: 'Having arrived home, how could one speak again of the journey? / When spring arrives for the ten thousand trees, they flourish naturally on their own. / If one meets a superior person who inquires, / the sun disk rises at the eastern edge of Fusang.' Another said: 'After passing halfway through the year, all seeking is cut off; / the wondrous secret was transmitted in vain at Shaolin. / At leisure I play a tune on a stringless lute; / the clear breeze and bright moon are my two bosom friends.' Another said: 'Letting go of one's hands over the hanging cliff is truly no lie; / roots and dust are suddenly exhausted with nothing left over. / Only now do I know that the Buddha-Dharma is not much; / running outside to seek it only makes one more estranged.' This mountain monk said to him: 'Writing verses is all well and good, and speaking of principles is also fine, but you are only getting further from the Dao.' Refusing to accept this, he composed another verse, saying: 'Above all, avoid talking of the mysterious and speaking of the wondrous; / how could one bear to follow sounds and pursue forms? / Sweep away even this single dried piece of shit; / everyone together has no understanding.' He also sent a letter saying: 'Examining this phrase, the path of language is cut off and the locus of mental activity is extinguished; there are no words to say and no principles to extend; not the slightest thought of cultivation and study arises; knowing nothing and understanding nothing, not engaging in thinking and not entering pathways of reasoning, it is truly peace and happiness.' This mountain monk said to him again: 'This is an extraordinary principle. If the phrase "dried piece of shit" could be settled by speaking like this, then "a saw cutting a steelyard weight," "three pounds of hemp," "a dog has no buddha-nature," "swallowing all the water of the West River in one gulp," "it is not mind, it is not Buddha, it is not a thing," "phrases and no phrases are like wisteria leaning on a tree," and "this very mind is Buddha" could all be spoken of in this way. Since it cannot be so, you must be awakened before you attain it. If you are awakened, the matter is of one family; if you are not awakened, there are ten thousand differences and a thousand distinctions—to be off by a hair's breadth is to lose it by a thousand miles. You must be extremely meticulous.' Let people say that Yunmen treats donors discourteously; as long as my mind does not betray people, my face has no look of shame. Seeing that this mountain monk informed him with such utmost sincerity, he only then realized that the Buddha-Dharma shows no personal favoritism, and came to believe and trust. Once he believed, I only had him look into: 'What is the Buddha? A dried piece of shit'—also only wanting him to snap it in two with a snap and break it off with a crash. If, because he was an official who gave up his wealth to build a hermitage, purchased estate fields to support the assembly, and even made offerings to this mountain monk, I were therefore to consider him correct, then all the poor fellows across the great earth would have no share in investigating Chan. Not only would I lose a good spiritual friend's eye for discerning people, but I would also mislead him for hundreds of kalpas and thousands of lifetimes; this is no small matter. This summer there have also been several patch-robed monks who refuse to apply their efforts where energy is saved, but merely hustle about in a feverish flurry, also coming to present understandings and compose verses on ancient cases. When Yunmen said to them: 'It is not this principle,' they would immediately say that I was holding fast and unwilling to let them pass. Let me ask you for now: 'Have you let yourself pass or not?' Zhaozhou said: 'In other places it is hard to see and easy to recognize; here it is easy to see and hard to recognize.' Yunmen usually asks students: 'If you call it a bamboo comb, you clash with it; if you do not call it a bamboo comb, you turn your back on it. You must not utter a word; you must not be without words.' In five pairs out of ten their eyes are gummed up with sleep; even if some display cleverness and present their understanding, they exhaust their efforts only to say the word 'understood,' or they come and snatch the bamboo comb from my hand, or they flick their sleeves and walk off. Aside from these, the deviant interpretations are beyond count, and not a single one has blood beneath the skin! An ancient worthy said: 'This matter is like an eighty-year-old grandfather entering the examination hall; it is no child's play. If it could be cobbled together, thousands upon tens of thousands would have cobbled it together already. Since it cannot be cobbled together, you must be awakened before you attain it; beyond this there is no other principle.' If you truly had awakening and the teacher deliberately said you were wrong, he would also incur no small karmic retribution. Today, on the occasion of the celebratory vegetarian feast, I have brought this up for the great assembly, because Huang Duanfu's knowledge of Yunmen's existence began with Yuanzhao; monk Guang's going there to dwell in the hermitage was also due to Yuanzhao; Duanfu's two sons providing the vegetarian feast today and asking this mountain monk for a general sermon is also due to Yuanzhao; and Yunmen's weaving this tangle of vines is also due to Yuanzhao.

14.2.4

"Since it is like this, tell me: in the final analysis, what about Yuanzhao's affair?" After a long pause, he said: "Wait until he personally comes to Yunmen this winter, and at that time I will explain it thoroughly to all of you." Striking the meditation bench, he stepped down from the seat.

Linked texts (1)

大慧普覺禪師語錄 — Classical Chinese