大慧普覺禪師語錄 16

English (machine translation) 16

Language: English

16.1

Presented by Abbot of Nengren Chan Monastery on Jingshan, Dharma Heir, Chan Master Huiri, Your Subject Yunwen

Executive Fu requested a general discourse. The Master said: “Fellow Daoist Fu, Miaoxi did not know you initially. Last year, passing through Hengyang, you specially came to visit me. At our first meeting it was like old friends, solely because your faith reaches to this matter of the Great Cause. Why is this? Have you not seen that in the Avataṃsaka assembly, Bodhisattva Jñānaśīrṣa asked Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī: ‘Son of the Buddha! How does a bodhisattva attain bodily, verbal, and mental karmic actions without fault?’ Mañjuśrī replied: ‘By skillfully applying their mind, they attain all supreme and wondrous merits.’ For his sake he expounded the one hundred and forty great vows within the four postures of walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, calling them the great merit of untainted and pure practice. These merits all arise from the ground of faith. Therefore Mañjuśrī, universally serving as an unasked friend for those who have already brought forth faith, asked Bodhisattva Bhadraśrī in verse: ‘I have now explained for the bodhisattvas the pure practices the Buddha cultivated in the past; you too, within this assembly, should expound the supreme merits of cultivation.’ Bodhisattva Bhadraśrī replied to him in verse, saying therein: ‘Manifesting in the world through the majestic power of the Dharma, one attains the ten stages and the ten masteries.’ This also speaks of the meaning that the initial bringing forth of the mind arises from the ground of faith. At the very end, when Sudhana arrived before the Pavilion of Vairocana, Maitreya explained for him the one hundred and twenty kinds of bodhicitta, which also has this meaning. Among them was an analogy that said: ‘Like the roar of the lion-king, hearing it, lion cubs all increase in courage and strength, while other beasts, hearing it, all scurry and hide. The roar of the bodhicitta of the Buddha, the lion-king, should be known to be just like this: the bodhisattvas, hearing it, increase in merit, while those with attaining [minds], hearing it, all retreat and scatter.’ This too has this meaning. Once one has the faculty of faith, that itself is the foundation of becoming a buddha. Suddenly according with one's current functioning, one immediately realizes anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi. Just like Old Man Śākya, at first before the Mountain of Right Awakening, he lifted his head and saw the morning star appear, suddenly awakening to the Way. He then sighed: ‘How marvelous! All sentient beings possess the wisdom and virtuous marks of the Tathāgata, but because of delusive thoughts and attachments, they do not realize it.’ This means that from the buddhas of the ten directions above down to the four kinds of births in the six paths, wriggling and crawling beings, at the place of my awakening, are stamped definitively with a single seal of the seal of equality, without any distinction whatsoever. Look! As soon as the yellow-faced old man was awakened, he immediately saw things so vast and great. Thereafter, giving rise to kindness and exercising compassion, in the ocean of birth and death he did not cling to this shore, did not cling to that shore, and did not abide in the midstream, yet he could ferry the sentient beings on this shore who wished for the other shore, without abiding in the midstream of birth and death. This principle likewise does not go beyond the seed of one's own faith. Therefore Layman Wujin, in his preface to his commentary on the Ocean-Eye Sūtra, said regarding the Buddha's accomplishment: ‘The initial awakening uniting with the fundamental is called Buddha.’ Although he was a layperson, he saw through clearly and recognized the root. This means that at the time of initial awakening, giving rise to faith from the morning star, one suddenly awakens to the fact that one's self-nature is originally buddha, and that the sentient beings of the great earth are without any distinction whatsoever. Wujin called the initial awakening uniting with original awakening only then becoming a buddha. If Chan practitioners can clarify things in this way, and then rest body and mind to recognize their original face, they must not be careless. When the ancient sages attained it, right at the place of attainment they extinguished the mind of arising and ceasing, yet they did not abide in the realm of extinction either—this is called ‘extinction manifesting before one.’ In the realm of extinction they obtained two supreme qualities: first, above, uniting with the buddhas of the ten directions, sharing the same power of kindness with the Buddha Tathāgata; second, below, uniting with the sentient beings of the six paths, sharing the same compassionate longing with all sentient beings. This is what was mentioned earlier as giving rise to kindness, exercising compassion, and rescuing those in the evil destinies. Sentient beings, because of unawakening, transmigrate through birth and death; if those who are awakened first have no compassion, how can the realm of sentient beings be emptied? Truly know that the Buddha's grace is difficult to repay. Today, fellow Daoist Fu has asked Miaoxi for a general discourse, not merely to cultivate merit in posthumous dedication for his late father, but also wishing to explain some Chan sicknesses for the assembly present here. Thus Liu Zihou took the Tiantai teachings as his compass, saying that Chan sicknesses are the most numerous—true indeed are these words! The teachings of Tiantai Zhiyi subsume all phenomena under the three contemplations of emptiness, conventionality, and the middle, teaching people to hold to the root and cultivate. Chan has no written words; one must awaken to get it. Miaoxi, from the age of seventeen, doubted this matter, and investigated it for precisely seventeen years before finally obtaining rest. Prior to attaining it, I often reflected: ‘I am now so many years old; I do not know where I came from before I took birth here in South Jambudvīpa.’ My heart was pitch-black like lacquer; I completely did not know where I came from. Since I did not know where I came from, this was the greatness of birth. ‘When I die after a hundred years, where will I go then?’ My heart was as dark and indistinct as before, not knowing where I would go. Since I did not know where I would go, this was the greatness of death. This is called ‘impermanence is swift; birth and death is a great matter.’ Have you people ever harboured such doubts? Right now you sit and stand dignified, solitary clarity vividly distinct; expounding the Dharma and listening to the Dharma, guest and host intermingle. Miaoxi flaps two strips of skin, his teeth clattering, drumming beneath the navel wheel, raising the vapor of congee and rice, chattering away in his mouth, speaking right here. The speaker is sound; this sound is everywhere inside your skulls, and your skulls are together inside Miaoxi's sound. When you die on another day, where will this realm be settled? Since you do not know the place of settlement, crashing into a donkey's womb or a horse's belly you will not know it; being born into a joyful heavenly palace you will not know it either. Chan fellows: when asked about what they usually gather from sūtras and treatises, there is nothing they do not know; literati: when asked about what they learn from the Nine Classics and the Seventeen Histories, there is likewise nothing they do not know. Yet, leaving behind words and cutting off conceptual thought, if you ask them about the matter inside their own house, five pairs out of ten do not know it, while they know the matters of other people's houses. Understanding clearly like this, they merely come into this world in vain for a turn, and in the future will receive retribution according to their karma, in the end not knowing where their own fundamental destiny and primary celestial body will land—is this not sorrowful! Therefore the ancients, arriving here, were as if saving their heads from burning, seeking masters to resolve doubts, wanting their mind-ground to open through without doubting birth and death. However, there are those who know it through learning, and those who know it from birth. Who is one who knows it through learning? As when a monk asked Zhaozhou: ‘I have just entered the monastery; I beg the master for instruction.’ Zhaozhou said: ‘Have you eaten your congee yet?’ The monk said: ‘I have eaten my congee.’ Zhaozhou said: ‘Go wash your bowl.’ At these words the monk suddenly had a great awakening, rested right then and there, and immediately knew the destination of birth and death. Miaoxi often says it was not easy—this monk had power! Zhaozhou took a carrying pole of a hundred and twenty catties and with one thrust placed it on his shoulders; this monk bore it, ran a hundred and twenty li in one breath without turning his head, like directly conferring the status of Brahmā upon an ordinary mortal. His mind was at total peace, able to give rise to the power of kindness and exercise compassionate vows. This is one who knows through learning. Who is one who knows from birth? As when Zhaozhou was a novice, he went on pilgrimage with his primary master to Nanquan. It happened that Nanquan was lying down. After his primary master made prostrations, Zhaozhou then made prostrations. Nanquan asked: ‘Where have you recently departed from?’ Zhaozhou said: ‘I recently departed from the Auspicious Image.’ Nanquan said: ‘Did you see the Auspicious Image?’ Zhaozhou said: ‘I did not see the Auspicious Image; before me I only see a reclining Tathāgata.’ Nanquan then arose and asked: ‘Are you a novice with a master, or a novice without a master?’ Zhaozhou said: ‘A novice with a master.’ Nanquan said: ‘Which one is your master?’ If it were the Chan fellows of today, they would step forward, snap their fingers, draw a circle, give a shout, give a slap, shake their sleeves and leave, letting out this sort of foul breath. Look at Zhaozhou: he slowly stepped forward and said: ‘The first month of spring is still cold; I humbly wish the Venerable Monk ten thousand blessings in his venerable health.’ Nanquan then called the karmadāna, saying: ‘Arrange for this novice in another quarter.’ The next day he came again and asked: ‘What is the Way?’ Nanquan neither used the staff nor gave a shout, neither talked of the mysterious nor spoke of the wondrous, neither dragged in sūtras nor cited treatises, nor did he bring up the gong'ans of the ancients, nor did he speak of phenomena, nor did he speak of principle. He merely told him straight: ‘Ordinary mind is the Way.’ Because Zhaozhou had already understood the ordinary mind, he then asked: ‘Does it still rely on an intention to approach it?’ Nanquan said: ‘To intend toward it is to deviate.’ Zhaozhou said: ‘Without intending, how does one know it is the Way?’ Nanquan said: ‘The Way does not belong to knowing, nor does it belong to not knowing. Knowing is false consciousness; not knowing is neutral oblivion. If you truly reach the Way of no doubt, it is like the great emptiness, vast and open—how can you forcibly make right and wrong within it?’ At these words Zhaozhou had everything settled. Nanquan said: ‘The Way does not belong to knowing, nor does it belong to not knowing.’ Guifeng called it ‘numinous awareness.’ Heze called the single word ‘knowing’ the gate of all wonders. Sixin of Huanglong said: ‘The single word ‘knowing’ is the gate of all disasters.’ To meet Guifeng and Heze is easy; to meet Sixin is difficult. Arriving here, one must possess the eye that transcends conventions; it cannot be explained to others, nor transmitted to others. Therefore my late master Yuanwu said: ‘Zhaozhou's Chan is merely on the skin of his lips; one can do nothing with him. Like one skilled in military tactics, he travels without carrying provisions: using your water, grass, and provisions, he kills you instead.’ A scholar asked: ‘Does the Buddha not go against the vows of sentient beings, is this so?’ Zhaozhou said: ‘It is so.’ The scholar said: ‘I wish to beg for the staff from the Venerable Monk's hand, may I?’ Zhaozhou said: ‘A gentleman does not snatch away what another loves.’ The scholar said: ‘I am not a gentleman.’ Zhaozhou said: ‘This old monk is not a buddha either.’ Another monk asked: ‘What is the meaning of the Patriarch?’ Zhaozhou knocked on the leg of the meditation bench. The monk said: ‘Could it just be this?’ Zhaozhou said: ‘If it is, take it away.’ Another monk asked: ‘Everywhere they speak only with their mouths; how does the Venerable Monk instruct people?’ Zhaozhou showed him by kicking the brazier with his heel. The monk said: ‘Could that be it?’ Zhaozhou said: ‘You have just recognized this old monk's heel.’ Another monk asked: ‘What is Zhaozhou?’ Zhaozhou said: ‘East Gate, South Gate, West Gate, North Gate.’ The monk said: ‘I am not asking about this.’ Zhaozhou said: ‘Didn't you ask me about Zhaozhou?’ Another monk asked: ‘What is the Way?’ Zhaozhou said: ‘The one outside the wall.’ The monk said: ‘I am not asking about this way.’ Zhaozhou said: ‘Which way are you asking about?’ The monk said: ‘I am asking about the Great Way.’ Zhaozhou said: ‘The Great Way leads to Chang'an.’ You must not understand it as ‘no affairs’; you must not understand it as ‘mysterious and wondrous’; you must not understand it as ‘extraordinary’; you must not understand it as ‘ordinary.’ Zhaozhou is not in ‘no affairs,’ not in ‘mysterious and wondrous,’ not in ‘extraordinary,’ not in ‘ordinary.’ Where is he in the end? Those with eyes, discern it! This old fellow sometimes said: ‘Before leaving home, I was driven by bodhi; after leaving home, I drive bodhi. You people are driven by the twelve two-hour periods; this old monk drives the twelve two-hour periods.’ He also said: ‘I do not like to hear the single word ‘buddha’.’ If he did not even like to hear the single word ‘buddha,’ then Bodhidharma was clearly some old stinking barbarian, the bodhisattvas of the ten stages are dung-carrying men, equal and wondrous awakening are base worldlings, bodhi and nirvāṇa are hitching posts for donkeys, the twelve divisions of teachings are ledgers of ghosts and spirits and paper for wiping pus from sores, and the four fruits, three sages, initial mind, and ten stages are ghosts guarding ancient tombs. If you have not reached this realm, you will not understand anything. Students run rashly with big strides, taking a single phrase of Chan to deal with people, but it is not this principle at all! Therefore, in Miaoxi's room, I often ask Chan fellows: ‘If you call it a bamboo comb, you infringe; if you do not call it a bamboo comb, you turn away. You must not speak words, you must not be without words, you must not think and deliberate, you must not make conjectures, you must not shake your sleeves and leave—absolutely nothing is allowed! If you snatch away the bamboo comb, for now I allow you to snatch it away. If I call it a fist, I infringe; if I do not call it a fist, I turn away—how will you snatch it then? Even if you say: ‘Please, Venerable Monk, put it down,’ for now I put it down. If I call it a bare pillar, I infringe; if I do not call it a bare pillar, I turn away—how will you snatch it then? If I call it mountains, rivers, and the great earth, I infringe; if I do not call it mountains, rivers, and the great earth, I turn away—how will you snatch it then?’ Elder Zhoufeng said: ‘I see the Venerable Monk's topic of the bamboo comb as like having confiscated someone's property, yet still demanding that they pay goods.’ Miaoxi said: ‘Your analogy is extremely wondrous! I truly want you to pay goods. Having nowhere to produce them, you must seek the path of death: throwing yourself into a river or stepping into fire, risking your life, only then do you die. Having died, you slowly come back to life again. If called a bodhisattva you rejoice; if called a thief you flare up in anger—just as before, you are only the person of former days! Therefore the ancients said: ‘Letting go of one's hold on the hanging cliff, one acknowledges and shoulders it oneself; reviving after total extinction, one cannot be deceived.’ Arriving here, one first tallies with the topic of the bamboo comb.’ He then spoke a verse, saying:”
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16.3

"I do not care even for the single word 'Buddha'; / What birth-and-death could have anything to do with me? / Confronted face-to-face in the present moment, there is no evading it; / Why speak of the Śūraṅgama's meaning of the eight returns?"

16.4

Chan practitioner Yue requested a general discourse. A monk asked, "Linji instructed the assembly, saying: 'Sometimes I take away the person but do not take away the environment; sometimes I take away the environment but do not take away the person; sometimes I take away both person and environment; sometimes I take away neither person nor environment.' What is taking away the person but not taking away the environment?" The Master said, "Three thousand miles away, doubts and disputes cease." The monk proceeded, "What is taking away the environment but not taking away the person?" The Master said, "Pull out the wedge in your eye." The monk proceeded, "Linji said, 'The warm sun brings forth life, spreading an embroidered carpet upon the earth; the infant's hanging hair is white as silk.' I wonder if this is the same as or different from the Venerable's answer?" The Master said, "A dog that chews on a human shit-stick is no good dog." The monk proceeded, "What about when 'the king's decree has already circulated throughout the empire, and beyond the frontiers the general puts an end to smoke and dust'?" The Master said, "Just now it was still tolerable; now it is even more wretched." The monk asked, "'For the Bhagavāns of the ten directions, there is a single road to the gate of nirvāṇa.' I wonder: is Lady Wang dead or alive today?" The Master said, "Alive or dead?" The monk proceeded, "'From past to present it should never fall; distinctly it is right before the eyes.'" The Master said, "Pull out the arrow from behind the head." The monk proceeded, "What if a person comes who, throughout the twelve hours of the day, does not rely on a single thing—would the Master still receive him?" The Master said, "What do you call 'a single thing'?" The monk proceeded, "One cannot repeat the verse again." The Master said, "Obstructive enough to kill a person!"

The Master then said: "'Alive or dead? Neither gain nor loss; do not say, do not say; there is principle and there are phenomena.' If you gain an entry point in the place where there is principle and phenomena, you will merely be bobbing up and down within the scriptural vehicles. If you gain an entry point in the place of neither gain nor loss, I dare guarantee that throughout the twelve periods of the day you will still have no place to settle your body and establish your life. Since you have no place to settle your body and establish your life, you do not know where Lady Wang has landed. If you know Lady Wang's whereabouts, then you know your own place to settle your body and establish your life. Tell me: right now, is Lady Wang alive, or is she dead? Is she unborn, or does she not die? If you say she is unborn, what can be done about death? If you say she does not die, what can be done about birth? If you say she is both alive and dead, that again is frivolous discourse. If you say she is neither alive nor dead, that again is a contradictory statement. Even if you depart from the four propositions and extinguish the hundred negations, directly like a bright mirror facing the stand or a brilliant pearl in the palm—when a barbarian comes, a barbarian appears; when a Han comes, a Han appears—under the feet of each and every person it is cleanly naked and brightly distinct, birth and death are like dreams, illusions, and flowers in the sky, and coming and going are like floating clouds and the moon in water—still, this is not yet the ultimate place. Even if you see in accordance with reality that past birth was originally never born and today's extinction was originally never extinguished, this too is speaking of dreams where there is no dream. Why so? Born yet unborn is the image in a mirror; extinguished yet unextinguished is the moon in water. Right at such a time, where is Lady Wang's point of emergence? If you can understand thoroughly, Lady Wang right now walks hand in hand with all of you, together entering the Tathāgata's great sea of tranquil extinction. If perhaps you cannot, 'There are cold and heat that curtail your life; there are ghosts and spirits that envy your blessings.'"

The Master also said: "This was Senior Jinyue's intention in requesting this old fellow Miaoxi to preach the Dharma for his mother, Lady Wang. But how is the Dharma to be preached? Have you not heard it said: 'The Dharma cannot be seen, heard, sensed, or known. If one practices seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing, this is merely seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing, not seeking the Dharma.' Since seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing cannot serve to enter the Way, could it be that not seeing, not hearing, not sensing, and not knowing is it?" After a long pause, he said in a loud voice: "What else could it be? Miaoxi has preached with all his might, yet can only preach up to here. This matter definitely does not lie in words. Therefore, the past sages appeared in the world one after another, each using skillful means, chattering and lamenting, solely fearing that people would become bogged down in words. If it lay in words, the five thousand and forty-eight fascicles of the great Canon preach the provisional and the real, preach existence and non-existence, preach the sudden and the gradual—how could they be without words? Why then did Bodhidharma come from the West and say: 'A separate transmission of the mind-seal, not establishing written words and speech, directly pointing to the human mind, seeing one's nature and becoming a buddha'? Why did he not speak of transmitting the mysterious, transmitting the wondrous, or transmitting speech and words? It was only desired that each person directly clarify their own original mind and see their own original nature. Having no choice in the matter, speaking of 'mind' and speaking of 'nature' was already a great mess. If you wish to pull out the roots of birth and death completely, you must by no means memorize what I say. Even if you can recite the entire great Canon like pouring water from a pitcher, that is called carrying dung in, not carrying dung out; instead, it becomes a slight obstruction to your own right view and knowledge so that it cannot appear, and your own spiritual penetrations cannot be revealed. You will merely play with the light and shadows before your eyes, comprehending Chan, comprehending the Way, comprehending mind, comprehending nature, comprehending the extraordinary, and comprehending the mysterious and wondrous. It is much like swinging a stick to hit the moon, vainly wasting mental energy—the Tathāgata called such people pitiful.

Whenever the ancients uttered a word or half a phrase, they set up a vajra-ring or a chestnut-burr, having you swallow it and having you penetrate it. If one is an outstanding, uniquely liberated person who transcends emotional dust and goes beyond rational nature, what kind of monkey-tamer's props or offerings to inspect ghosts and spirits would a vajra-ring or chestnut-burr be? Because you cannot realize in a single thought that conditioned arising is unborn, and merely make your living entirely around mind, intellect, and consciousness, as soon as you see an ancestral teacher open his mouth, you search for the mysterious and wondrous in his mouth. Consequently, you are flipped head over heels by the ancestral teacher; you still do not know the whereabouts of your own fundamental destiny, beneath your feet is pitch black, and as before you are just a lacquer bucket. Take, for example, the dialogue on taking away the person but not taking away the environment that the Senior asked about just now: he only knew how to recite it from a book, and when I answered him according to the Dharma, he could not comprehend it again; before one section of questioning was finished, he asked another, just like villagers playing a game of passing the word. Now, not begrudging vocal karma, I will entangle in vines and annotate it for you all once.

One day Linji showed the assembly, saying: 'Sometimes I take away the person but do not take away the environment; sometimes I take away the environment but do not take away the person; sometimes I take away both person and environment; sometimes I take away neither person nor environment. Do you understand?' After a long pause, he looked left and right, and stepped down from the seat. This very thing is the vajra-king precious sword. As I said yesterday, put centipedes, venomous snakes, scorpions, and all kinds of poisons into a single jar, and try sticking your hand inside to pick out one that is not poisonous and see. If you can pick it out, you will indeed have a slight accord with this matter; if you cannot pick it out, it is simply that your capacity is dull and you have lacked spiritual bones from past lives—you cannot blame Miaoxi. When Linji uttered those few words of idle talk back then, his original face was fully present; it is simply that you cannot see it. If you grasp this meaning, then ever since the disorder of the Hu barbarians, for thirty years you will lack neither salt nor sauce; chanting praises on the bell tower, planting vegetables under the bedposts, and the like—you will not need to ask anyone, and will naturally know where each and every thing lands. When the ancients offered an expedient, was it an idle opening of the mouth? You must know that within the soft mud there are thorns.

At that time, there was the practitioner Kefu, who understood Linji's meaning, and stepped forward to ask: 'What is taking away the person but not taking away the environment?' Linji at that time—who knows where he got so much idle talk—matched it together just right and said: 'The warm sun brings forth life, spreading an embroidered carpet upon the earth; the infant's hanging hair is white as silk.' Do you all understand? 'The warm sun brings forth life, spreading an embroidered carpet upon the earth' is the environment; 'the infant's hanging hair is white as silk' is the person. Of these two lines, one preserves the environment, and one takes away the person. Kefu also composed a verse, saying: 'Taking away the person but not taking away the environment, / It naturally carries a contradiction.'" The Master said, "What contradiction is there?" "'Intending to seek the profound purport, / Does one conversely blame deliberate thought?'" The Master said, "Falsely accusing another of a crime." "'The dragon pearl shines brilliantly; / The shadows of the toad-cassia tree sway gently.'" The Master said, "Why didn't you speak like this earlier?" "'Face to face there is no discrepancy, / Yet one must still be trapped in the net.'" The Master said, "Vaguely resembling a tune, it is barely listenable, / Yet again it is blown by the wind into a different key. This verse basically rests upon 'The dragon pearl shines brilliantly; the shadows of the toad-cassia tree sway gently.' For these two lines are the environment. When the student asks about not taking away the environment, 'Intending to seek the profound purport, does one conversely blame deliberate thought?' The main idea is simply that it cannot be deliberated or conjectured; the one who deliberates and conjectures is the person. Missing the single move presented face to face, one is immediately trapped in the net of words. This verse of Kefu's specifically clarifies 'The warm sun brings forth life, spreading an embroidered carpet upon the earth,' which is why it has the lines 'The dragon pearl shines brilliantly; the shadows of the toad-cassia tree sway gently.' This is preserving the environment while taking away the person; hence it says, 'Face to face there is no discrepancy, yet one must still be trapped in the net.' In the principle of taking away the person, ghee and poison travel the same road; only one with eyes can distinguish them.

He also asked: 'What is taking away the environment but not taking away the person?' The answer was: 'The king's decree has already circulated throughout the empire; beyond the frontiers the general puts an end to smoke and dust.'" The Master said, "'The king's decree has already circulated throughout the empire' takes away the environment; 'Beyond the frontiers the general puts an end to smoke and dust' preserves the person without taking him away. The verse says: 'Taking away the environment but not taking away the person, / Seeking words, where is the real?'" The Master said, "One must also be on guard in quiet places." "'Asking about Chan, Chan is false; / Investigating principle, principle is distant.'" The Master said, "A good thing is not as good as nothing." "'The sun shines, cold light is faint; / The mountains are distant, emerald colors fresh.'" The Master said, "A poor boy brooding over old debts." "'Even if you understand the mysterious, / It is still dust in the eye.'" The Master said, "Rising by oneself, falling by oneself. Do you want to understand 'The sun shines, cold light is faint; the mountains are distant, emerald colors fresh'? These two lines are the environment. 'Even if you understand the mysterious, it is still dust in the eye' immediately takes it away. The rest, taking away both person and environment, and taking away neither person nor environment, were all answered following the words and according to where the student asked.

He also asked: 'What is taking away both person and environment?' The answer was: 'Bing and Fen have cut off news; dwelling alone in one region.' This immediately reveals the countenance of taking away both person and environment. The verse says: 'Taking away both person and environment, / From the beginning the correct decree has been executed.'" The Master said, "Already fallen into the secondary." "'Regardless of buddhas or patriarchs, / How could it speak of the feelings of sages and ordinary people?'" The Master said, "Buying stones, one gets clouds thrown into the bargain." "'Intending to challenge the hair-blowing sword / Is like a blind turtle encountering a piece of wood.'" The Master said, "Those who know the law are afraid." "'Stepping forward to seek a wondrous understanding, / It specifically slashes the goblin.'" The Master said, "The first arrow was still light; the second arrow goes deep. 'The correct decree having been executed, it spares neither buddhas nor patriarchs.' Arriving here, advancing or retreating, life and death are entirely in the master's hands, like a hair-blowing sword whose edge cannot be crossed.

He also asked: 'What is taking away neither person nor environment?' The answer was: 'The king ascends the jeweled palace; the rustic old man sings folk songs.' The verse says: 'Taking away neither person nor environment, / The deliberating intention does not deviate.'" The Master said, "Do you understand? This phenomenon abides in its phenomenal position." "'Host and guest speak no different words.'" The Master said, "The characteristics of the worldly realm are permanent." "'Question and answer are both complete in principle.'" The Master said, "You cannot add a single hair, nor take away a single hair." "'Treading upon the moon in the clear pool.'" The Master said, "There is still this present." "'Piercing through the blue sky.'" The Master said, "Labor without merit." "'Unable to clarify the wondrous functioning.'" The Master said, "As soon as you stir, you are wrong." "'Sinking into the conditionless.'" The Master said, "Returning to abide in the original place. This is the gong'an that the Senior inquired about just now, called the Four Selections. If you wish to clearly understand Linji's meaning, just look at what he instructed at that time. How to look? 'Sometimes I take away the person but do not take away the environment; sometimes I take away the environment but do not take away the person; sometimes I take away both person and environment; sometimes I take away neither person nor environment.' If it is like this, then it is correct. If you take it as 'Sometimes I take away the person but do not take away the environment; sometimes I take away the environment but do not take away the person; sometimes I take away both person and environment; sometimes I take away neither person nor environment,' then it is no longer correct. Therefore my grandfather-master Wuzu had a saying: 'What is the meaning of the Patriarch's coming from the West? The cypress tree in the courtyard.' If you understand it like this, it is not correct. 'What is the meaning of the Patriarch's coming from the West? The cypress tree in the courtyard.' Only when you understand it like this is it correct. Do you all understand? As for talk of this kind, do not say that you cannot comprehend it; Miaoxi himself cannot comprehend it either. In my gate there is no comprehending or not comprehending; like a mosquito on an iron ox, there is no place for you to put your beak.

You must trust that when the ancients extended compassion, there was Dharma and no Dharma; if they did not extend compassion, when the eye of the Way was not yet opened and the Great Dharma was not yet illuminated, how could you avoid searching in other people's mouths for Chan, for the Way, for the mysterious, and for the wondrous? Having searched and found it, you only fear people will know; and when it comes time to speak, you again fear speaking it all, so that in the end there is nothing left to say. This is an limitless Dharma; if you intend to exhaust its whereabouts with a limited mind, do not make a mistake! Take, for example, the World-Honoured One at the assembly on Vulture Peak: before hundreds of thousands in the gathering, he held up a flower and showed it to everyone, and only Kāśyapa broke into a smile—when did he ever fear people knowing? And when was it ever transmitted in a secret room? Here with me, the Chan is permitted for you all to hear, but not permitted for you all to understand. Regarding the Four Selections explained and annotated above, if you all hear them together and understand them together, was Linji's intention really like this? If it were only like this, how could the Linji school have reached today? When you hear Miaoxi speak thoroughly, you will assume it stops at this. I tell you truly: 'This is slander of the first order.' If you hold on to a single stroke of the character yuan, that very thing is the root of birth and death. What you all have learned throughout the various quarters—the mystery within mystery, the wonder within wonder—what kind of shit Chan is that? Constantly stuffing it into your skin-bags, you assume there really is such a thing! Do not make a mistake!

Seniors! If you truly want to practice Miaoxi's Chan, take everything you have learned in the various quarters and sweep it away into other world realms; knowing nothing, understanding nothing, empty your minds and come, and I will investigate it together with you." He then spoke a verse, saying:

"A monk of Wuzhu named Jinyue,
Requested a general discourse for his mother, Lady Wang.
Miaoxi then ascended the curved-back chair,
Chattering and lamenting, freely wagging his tongue.
From the beginning, the Dharma is inherently free from verbal explanation;
It requires no deliberation or discrimination.
What need to speak of hell and heaven?
The four sages and six ordinarles are completely obliterated.
Even if demon kings wish to cause trouble,
The vajra precious sword cuts them off right at the head.
Lady Wang raised a son who seeks to practice Chan;
This single thought alone will never perish.
In the snap of a finger, all dharma gates are suddenly illuminated;
Śākyamuni and Maitreya are equally surpassed.
Just like the poison-smeared drum placed before the hall,
With a single strike, all who hear it have their brains split open.
Boundless afflictions are entirely cleared away;
Past karma and ancient calamities melt like snow in boiling water.
For her, I proclaim once more the ultimate phrase:
Motionless, ten thousand miles of a single strip of iron."

He gave a shout and stepped down from the seat.

16.5

General Discourses of Chan Master Dahui Pujue, Fascicle Sixteen

Linked texts (1)

大慧普覺禪師語錄 — Classical Chinese