大慧普覺禪師語錄 9.10

9.10

A donor requested the Master to take up the fly-whisk for the reading of the Canon: "The Buddha's true Dharma-body is just like empty space; responding to things, it manifests its form, like the moon in the water." Raising his staff, he said: "Old Śākya has arrived! Right atop Senior Monk Gao's staff, he manifests the wondrous form-body and broadly proclaims to the great assembly: 'Within the treasury of Vairocana there is a great scroll of scripture, equal in measure to the trichiliocosm, recording the matters of the trichiliocosm entirely without remainder. With my pure divine eye, I observe that this great scroll of scripture is inside a single dust particle. Tonight, before the assembly of gods and humans, I shall establish a great expedient, break open that single dust particle, bring forth this scroll of scripture, and bring benefit to sentient beings!'" Striking [the floor] once, he called out to the great assembly: "The single dust particle has been broken open, and the great scroll of scripture has come forth: there is sudden and gradual, provisional and real, half and full, center and border, principle and phenomena, fruit and cause; hundreds of thousands of dharma gates and immeasurable wondrous meanings, all worldly and world-transcending dharmas are entirely within it. Can you people still have complete faith in this? If you can have complete faith, you will transcend the three realms, cross the sea of suffering, and attain its use unto the end of future time. If you cannot have complete faith, Old Śākya will retreat back into the staff!" Raising it, he then said: "If you call it Old Śākya, it is again a staff; if you call it a staff, it is again Old Śākya. Old Śākya pierces through the staff; the staff pierces through Old Śākya. Right at this very moment, is it sudden or gradual? Is it provisional or real? Is it half or full? Is it the center or the border? Is it principle or phenomena? Is it cause or fruit? Is it Old Śākya or is it a staff?" He gave a shout and said: "Sudden cannot be attained, gradual cannot be attained, provisional cannot be attained, real cannot be attained, half cannot be attained, full cannot be attained, center cannot be attained, border cannot be attained, principle cannot be attained, phenomena cannot be attained, cause cannot be attained, fruit cannot be attained, Old Śākya cannot be attained, the staff cannot be attained, the single dust particle cannot be attained, the great scroll of scripture cannot be attained, the present expounder of the Dharma cannot be attained, the listeners to the Dharma cannot be attained, and this very 'cannot be attained' cannot be attained either." He then drew a line with his staff and said: "Drawing a line that cuts through the entangled vines." Raising it again, he said: "Right at this very moment, what is the nostril of each and every person?" After a long pause he said: "Where the thousand sages have gone no one knows; / the long sword leaning against heaven chills men with its menace." He struck [the floor] once more, and then brought up the case: "Long ago, an old woman offered money and requested Master Zhaozhou to turn the Great Canon. Zhaozhou stepped down from the meditation couch, circled it once, and said: 'The turning of the Canon is finished.' A person returned and reported this to the old woman. The woman said: 'I originally asked for the turning of a whole canon; why did the Master turn only half a canon?'" The Master said: "Those in the assembly deliberate, saying: 'What is that other half of the canon?' Some say: 'Circling it once more; or snapping the fingers once, or giving a cough, or giving a shout, or clapping the hands once.' Such views are simply shameless. If it is that other half of the canon, not only if Zhaozhou had circled it once more—even if he had circled it hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of times, from the old woman's standpoint it would still be only half a canon. Even if he were to circle Mount Sumeru hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of times, from the old woman's standpoint it would also be only half a canon. Even if all the old masters under heaven were also to circle it hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of times like this, from the old woman's standpoint it would still be only half a canon. Even if the mountains, rivers, the great earth, and all myriad phenomena, grasses and trees, each possessed the mark of a broad and long tongue and with different mouths spoke the same sound, turning it from today until the end of future time, from the old woman's standpoint it would also be only half a canon. Do you people wish to know the old woman?" After a long pause he said: "Letting you gaze at the embroidered mandarin ducks, / she does not pass the golden needle to anyone."