大慧普覺禪師語錄 14.2.3

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.