大慧普覺禪師語錄 15.3

15.3

Master of the Hermitage Fu requested a general discourse. The Master said: "Master of the Hermitage Fu has entered the hall and hung up his pouch; he has arranged an offering for today and furthermore invited Yunmen to give a general discourse for the assembly. Tell me: what can be said to hit the mark? If it is a matter of meeting sharp blades and vying for victory, dying together and living together, direct pressing and lateral lifting, coming across and going vertically, twisted roots and gnarled knots, interlocking angles and woven patterns—as far as all of you are concerned, these are truly children's games, trivial household matters not worth bringing up. Since this is not permitted, please each of you untie from your waist the almanacs of many years, and listen to Yunmen tell an ancient story.

I remember: The Second Patriarch asked Bodhidharma, 'Your disciple's mind is not yet at peace; I ask the Master to pacify it for me.' Bodhidharma said, 'Bring your mind here, and I will pacify it for you.' The Second Patriarch remained quiet for a long while and said, 'Seeking my mind inwardly, outwardly, and in between, it is utterly unfindable.' Bodhidharma said, 'I have finished pacifying your mind for you.' The Second Patriarch thereupon rested at that very moment.

Furthermore, the Third Patriarch asked the Second Patriarch, 'Your disciple's body is afflicted with wind sickness; I ask the Master to repent my transgressions.' The Second Patriarch said, 'Bring your transgressions here, and I will repent them for you.' The Third Patriarch remained quiet for a long while and said, 'Seeking my transgressions inwardly, outwardly, and in between, they are utterly unfindable.' The Second Patriarch said, 'I have finished repenting your transgressions for you.' The Third Patriarch thereupon rested at that very moment.

These two sayings—those in the monasteries who present and chant them are as numerous as hemp seeds and millet grains, and those who misunderstand them are as plentiful as rice and grain. If they do not understand them as mind and nature, they understand them as mystery and subtlety; if not as mystery and subtlety, then as principle and phenomena; if not as principle and phenomena, then as direct and straightforward; if not as direct and straightforward, then as extraordinary and wondrous; if not as extraordinary and wondrous, then they interpret them at the sparks struck from flint and flashes of lightning; if not at the sparks struck from flint and flashes of lightning, then they toss them into the armor of nothing-to-do; if not tossed into the armor of nothing-to-do, they call them two gong'ans of the ancients, and beneath three rafters before seven feet of sleeping mat, with eyes shut and closed, they sit in the ghost cave beneath the Black Mountain, calculating and guessing. If you employ this whole string of reasoning seeking to clarify this matter, it is very much like leaving Zhengzhou through the Cao Gate—fortunately having no connection whatsoever.

Since this is not permitted, how then should it be understood? Yunmen's face is already three inches thick; I will clearly break it open for you all. First of all, do not misunderstand what I say: Bodhidharma brought an uncarved seal from the Western Heavens and stamped it right onto the Second Patriarch's face, smashing it open. The Second Patriarch obtained this seal without shifting a single hair, and stamped it onto the Third Patriarch's face, smashing it open. From then on, one person transmitted what was false, and ten thousand transmitted it as real, conferring the seal from one to another in succession, all the way to Mazu of Jiangxi. Mazu obtained this seal from Master Nanyue, and then said, 'Ever since the rebellion, for thirty years I have never lacked salt and paste.'"

The Master gave a shout and said, "The pattern of the seal has emerged! Chan Master Baizhang Dazhi obtained this seal from Mazu, flipped over, and leaped into the wild fox cave of five hundred lives ago, popping his head in and out, refusing to return even to this day. Master Huangbo obtained this seal from Baizhang, and then said, 'All of you people are just fellows who swill dregs of wine. Tramping about on foot like this, how could there ever be the present day? Do you know that in all the Great Tang empire there are no Chan masters?' Master Linji obtained this seal from Huangbo, and then was able to act as an overt daytime thief everywhere, implicating his descendants down to the present. Master Xinghua obtained this seal from Linji, and then knew how to temporarily borrow a question from Yunju to serve as stalking-grass. Master Nanyuan obtained this seal from Xinghua, standing like a wall a thousand cubits high directly on this lump of red flesh; a monk asked, 'What is it like when the ancient hall is rebuilt?' He said, 'The tiles of the Mingtang insert into the eaves.' The monk asked, 'In that case, the adornment is fully complete?' He said, 'Cutting the grass, the snake's head drops.' Master Fengxue obtained this seal from Nanyuan, and then said, 'As for the eyes of trainees, you must directly bring great functioning into presence; do not constrain yourselves to petty matters. Even if you attain it prior to words, you are still bogged down in husks and deluded by seals; even if you are thoroughly versed beneath the phrase, you cannot avoid wild views encountered on the road. All of you have hitherto had understandings that split into light and dark; now I sweep them all away for you at once. You must each be like a lion's cub, roaring once with bristling mane, standing like a wall a thousand cubits high—who would dare look at it with a direct eye? If anyone looks, their eyes will be blinded!' Someone asked, 'When speech and silence involve detachment and subtlety, how can one penetrate without transgressing?' He said, 'I always remember Jiangnan in the third month, / where partridges cry and a hundred flowers are fragrant.' Master Shoushan obtained this seal from Fengxue, and holding up a bamboo comb, asked the students, 'If you call it a bamboo comb, you touch; if you do not call it a bamboo comb, you turn away.' Someone asked, 'What is the Buddha?' He said, 'The bride rides the donkey, the mother-in-law leads it.' Master Fenyang obtained this seal from Shoushan, and said, 'Under Fenyang's gate there is a Xihe lion sitting right in the doorway; whenever anyone comes, it bites them to death. What expedient means will you use to enter Fenyang's gate and see the man of Fenyang?' Master Ciming obtained this seal from Fenyang, snapped Linji's vajra-king precious sword in two, and used only a fishing line to stir the water. Master Yangqi obtained this seal from Ciming, and then went to where there is no smoke or fire, beside dead firewood. Master Baiyun obtained this seal from Yangqi, and then added a little where there was much, and took away a little where there was little. Master Wuzu obtained this seal from Baiyun, selling cheaply the board-carrying fellows, adding three pounds of flax as weight—stagnant goods for hundreds of thousands of years, with nowhere to put his whole body. My late teacher Yuanwu obtained this seal from Wuzu, and scattered all at once his three hundred and sixty joints and eighty-four thousand pores into your bosoms."

The Master abruptly took his staff, drew a line in front, and said, "You must not cross the boundary!" Raising it up again, he said, "This band of clumsy old fellows have their lives completely in the hands of Yunmen. Right now, facing the assembly, I will shatter this seal for them, so that future descendants may each have a different livelihood and avoid taking empty echoes for real and dulling each other in turn." Thereupon he struck the staff once and said, "The seal is smashed into a hundred miscellaneous pieces! But tell me: in what place do this band of old fellows settle down and establish their lives? Do you still see them?"

After a long while, he said:
"Eyelashes and eyebrows have all fallen away, / making the onlookers laugh without cease."

He struck once again and gave a shout.