大慧普覺禪師語錄 24.18

24.18

The eye that distinguishes dragons from snakes and the dynamic capacity to capture tigers and rhinos—unless one is a person who transcends all measures and is unattached to worldly dusts, one will take such speech as playful discourse. Therefore, the ancestral style of Linji has found successors difficult to come by. In recent times, the crowd who study phrases mostly vie with sharp tongues and boast of fluency, gladly taking talking nonsense and babbling as unrestrained freedom, and wild shouting as the fundamental principle. A push and a shove, like sparks from flint or flashes of lightning; unable to deliberate, they burst into hearty laughter, calling it quick-witted dynamism that does not fall into the sense-faculty of intellect. Little do they know that it is precisely karmic consciousness playing ghost-tricks with its eyes—is this not deceiving others while deceiving oneself, misleading others while misleading oneself? Have you not seen: when Linji was attending Deshan, Deshan turned around and said, 'May I ask you something?' Linji said, 'What is this old fellow talking in his sleep for?' Deshan made to take up his staff, whereupon Linji overturned the meditation couch; Deshan then desisted. Tell me, when the two old fellows engaged in such dynamic promotion, was there any room for deliberation? Truly we know that the trampling of nāga-elephants is not what donkeys can bear. Unless one genuinely possesses such an eye and attains such application, one cannot avoid calculating and guessing within gain and loss. Furthermore, when Linji was together with Puhua in Zhenzhou attending a meal at a patron's house, Linji asked, 'A hair swallowing the great ocean, a mustard seed containing Mount Sumeru—is this wondrous spiritual power, or is it fundamentally so?' Puhua kicked over the dining table. Linji said, 'Too coarse!' Puhua said, 'What place is this to speak of coarse or fine?' Linji desisted. The next day, they again attended a patron's meal together. Linji asked again, 'How does today's offering compare to yesterday's?' Puhua again kicked over the dining table. Linji said, 'Granted, but it is too coarse!' Puhua said, 'Blind fellow! In the Buddha-Dharma, what coarse or fine is spoken of?' Linji again desisted. Tell me: when Linji desisted twice, was there any room for deliberation? If there was, how would you deliberate? Chan practitioner Chongmi has been in the monasteries the longest; he was often able to deliberate, expound, and critique everything, considering himself entirely sorted out in every way. Later he finally realized his error, immediately brushed it all aside, and applied his effort at the place where there is no deliberation. Only now has he caught sight of it and gained full trust in it, realizing for the first time that this matter cannot be transmitted, cannot be learned, cannot be calculated, and cannot be deliberated. Attending me as I came south, accompanying me on the lonely shore for four years, upon my bringing up the late master's presenting to the practitioner Jishou the phrase 'Not mind, not Buddha, not a thing', he suddenly picked up a roasted bean by the fire brazier and ate it. From then on, he had no mind to pursue even the wondrous offerings of Xiangji, though he still could not do without a meal of steamed cakes and noodles. Because he came to take leave of me to return temporarily to Zhejiang, bringing this scroll to request instruction, I further presented him with two verses, which say: