大慧普覺禪師語錄 2.8

2.8

Ascending the hall, a monk asked, "Xuefeng went three times to Touzi and nine times to Dongshan; why did he attain the Way at Mount Ao?" The Master said, "Peddling Yangzhou while inside the house." The monk advanced and said, "Later, while living in a hermitage, a monk knocked on the door; Xuefeng thrust himself out and said, 'What is it?' The monk also said, 'What is it?' Is there any superiority or inferiority?" The Master said, "If superior, then all is superior; if inferior, then all is inferior." The monk advanced and said, "Why did Xuefeng lower his head and return to his hermitage?" The Master said, "Suspicion kills the people of the world." The monk advanced and said, "The monk brought this up to Yantou. Yantou said, 'If at that time I had spoken the final word to him, no one in the world could have done anything to old Xue.' What is the final word?" The Master said, "If you do not sleep in the same bed, how do you know the quilt is torn underneath?" The monk advanced and said, "Yantou said, 'Xuefeng was born on the same branch as me, but does not die on the same branch as me. If you want to know the final word, it is just this.' What does this mean?" The Master said, "To kill a person, you must use a person-killing knife; to bring a person to life, you must use a person-enlivening sword." He then said, "An ancient worthy said: 'Creepers climb directly to the top of the cold pine; pale clouds drift smoothly in and out of the great void. The ten thousand phenomena are fundamentally at ease; it is only people who agitate themselves.' Also, in the teachings it says: 'Ordinary beings see all phenomena only following after appearances; failing to understand that phenomena are without appearances, they therefore do not see the Buddha.'" He then held up his fly-whisk and said, "Is this appearance, or is that non-appearance? At present, right before our eyes, all the vast array of myriad phenomena, seen by the eyes and heard by the ears, are entirely the Dharma—when have they ever been agitated? Since they have never been agitated, what thing does [the scripture] teach to follow after appearances?" Again holding up his fly-whisk, he said, "This is non-appearance, but how is it understood? Since there is nothing that can be understood, where do you see the Buddha? Tell me, is the ancient worthy right, or is the teaching right? What is 'right' anyway? If you can dissect this clearly here, Śākyamuni is not earlier, and Maitreya is not later. Even though this is so, you still cannot avoid having your nostrils pierced by this mountain monk's fly-whisk." Again holding up his fly-whisk, he said, "Follow appearances, and your nostrils are pierced by the fly-whisk; do not follow appearances, and your nostrils are pierced by the fly-whisk. See the Buddha, and your nostrils are pierced by the fly-whisk; do not see the Buddha, and your nostrils are pierced by the fly-whisk." He then looked around at the assembly and said, "How can you avoid this fault? / In the end, the water must surge toward the ocean; / In the close, the clouds will certainly seek the mountains to return." Striking the meditation couch, he descended from the seat.