大慧普覺禪師語錄 3.21

3.21

Ascending the hall, a monk asked: "Does a person of great cultivation still fall under cause and effect or not? The former Baizhang said, 'He does not fall under cause and effect.' Why did he fall into the body of a wild fox?" The Master said: "Whenever meeting someone, just bring it up like this." The monk asked further: "Just as the latter Baizhang said, 'He is not blind to cause and effect,' why did he shed the body of a wild fox?" The Master said: "Whenever meeting someone, just bring it up like this." The monk asked further: "If someone were to ask Jingshan: 'Does a person of great cultivation still fall under cause and effect or not?' I wonder what the Venerable would say to him?" The Master said: "I would say to him: 'Whenever meeting someone, just bring it up like this.'" He then said: "'A person of great cultivation falls under cause and effect.'" Striking the meditation couch once with his fly-whisk, he said: "It is not apart from this news. 'A person of great cultivation does not fall under cause and effect.'" Striking the meditation couch once again, he said: "It is also not apart from this news. Falling and not falling are cancelled out with a single stroke of the brush; then what do you call cause and effect?" Striking the meditation couch once more, he said: "It is also not apart from this news." Then, raising the fly-whisk, he addressed the assembly: "The news from five hundred lives before is present; there is no need to search for it elsewhere in your mind."