大慧普覺禪師語錄 5.6

5.6

Arriving at Tiantong, [the Master] was invited to ascend the hall. A monk asked, "How is it when temporarily borrowing a question to serve as shadow-grass?" The Master said, "I have no such leisure time." [The monk] advanced and said, "Could that not be the Reverend's reply?" The Master said, "It is." [The monk] advanced and said, "If so, then today I have heard what was never heard before." The Master said, "What was it that you heard?" [The monk] advanced and said, "Before the drum was beaten, I already heard the Reverend speak." The Master said, "What was spoken?" [The monk] advanced and said, "I also know that the Reverend is sometimes like this, sometimes not like this." The Master said, "A mistaken footnote." [Another monk] asked, "Zhaozhou visited a hermit and said, 'Is there? Is there?' The hermit held up his fist. Zhaozhou said, 'The water is shallow; this is not a place to moor a boat.' What is the meaning of this?" The Master said, "A fist." [The monk] advanced and said, "He visited another hermit, and that hermit also held up his fist; why did Zhaozhou instead say, 'There is giving and there is taking away'?" The Master said, "It is also just a fist." [The monk] advanced and said, "Since it is just a fist, why did he test and discern at the two places?" The Master said, "You just look at both places." [The monk] advanced and said, "I wonder, when the Reverend meets with the Tiantong assembly today, is there any place where he acts for people's sake?" The Master said, "There is." [The monk] advanced and said, "Great kindness is hard to repay." He then bowed. The Master then said, "Lowering a ten-thousand-li hook to halt a thousand-li dark steed; spreading a heaven-covering net to catch wave-surging kuns and whales—this is what the old man of Tiantong routinely employs. Today Yuwang, having come especially into the mountain to pay respects, obeys the host's discretion as a guest and is ordered to ascend this seat. Coming to this point, what can I say that will do? Could speaking of mind and speaking of nature do? Could speaking of the profound and speaking of the wondrous, speaking of principle and speaking of phenomena do? Since none of these will do at all, I cannot just stop like this. Since I cannot stop, and yet cannot speak of mind or nature, speak of the profound or wondrous, speak of principle or phenomena, could spreading worldly convention do? If so, that is called hoisting a sail with the wind—not yet the patch-robed monk's function. Although this is so, briefly borrowing the host's majesty, I shall meet this occasion together with the great assembly. Tell me: just now, what occasion is it? The inchworm's bending is merely seeking to stretch; smashing the flat-peach pit, one gets to see the kernel inside. Once the kernel inside is seen, this path transcends ordinary feelings. And tell me, how do you say a phrase that transcends ordinary feelings? Do you thoroughly understand? / His radiant gaze shatters the four continents; / the one who presides over this path is none other than he." [The Master] spoke again: "Just now I received the Abbot venerable elder's citation of a monk asking Xianglin: 'What is the matter beneath the patch-robe?' Xianglin said, 'Fire burns the mountain in the twelfth month.'" The Master said, "These are Xianglin's words; the Abbot brings them up today; Yuwang follows along in the rummaging, yet does not dare to approve. Why not dare to approve? If choosing buddhas lacks such an eye, even if a thousand autumns pass, what would it avail?"