大慧普覺禪師宗門武庫 1.70

1.70

嚴陽尊者見趙州，有僧問：「如何是佛？」云：「土塊。」「如何是法？」云：「地動也。」「如何是僧？」「喫粥喫飯。」又問：「如何是新興水？」云：「前面江裏。」師云：「似這般法門，恰似兒戲相似，入得這般法門，方安樂得人。如真淨和尚拈提古今，不在雪竇之下，而末流傳習，却成惡口小家，只管問：『古人作麼生，真如又如何下語，楊岐又如何下語？』爾管得許多閑事，瘥病不假驢駝藥。若是對病與藥，籬根下拾得一莖草，便可療病，說什麼朱砂、附子、人參、白朮？」

When Venerable Yanyang met Zhaozhou, a monk asked: 'What is the Buddha?' He said: 'A clod of earth.' 'What is the Dharma?' He said: 'The earth shakes.' 'What is the Saṅgha?' 'Eating gruel and eating rice.' He also asked: 'What is the newly emerging water?' He said: 'In the river out front.' The Master remarked: 'Dharma methods like this are just like child's play; only when one can enter such dharma methods can one bring peace and joy to others. For example, when the Reverend Zhenjing brought up the ancients and moderns, he was not inferior to Xuedou. Yet the later followers who transmitted his teachings turned into foul-mouthed petty types, who merely ask: "How did the ancients put it? What turning word did Zhenru give, and what turning word did Yangqi give?" You concern yourselves with so many trivial matters! Curing an illness does not require donkey-loads of medicine. If you give medicine in response to the illness, even a single blade of grass picked at the foot of a hedge can cure the disease; why speak of cinnabar, aconite, ginseng, or atractylodes?'