密菴和尚語錄 1.193

1.193

冬至小參：「却物為上，逐物為下，若論戰也箇箇力在轉處。古人拈一機示一境，無不精徹淵奧、廓徹聖凡，恰似壯士架千鈞弩百發百中，為他末上著脚手處牢固，外物搖撼不動，終有成立之節。衲僧家出一叢林入一保社，多歷年所，己躬大事不能發現，蓋為末上著脚手處遲緩，坐在脚頭脚尾，聽不出聲、見不超色，如蠶作繭自縈自縛，十二時中無片時快樂，至竟終成廢人。而今若要直截與生死作頭底，無非向一念欲起未起時提起，一刀兩斷，自然內空外空、有為空無為空，四方八面空索索地，覓其空處了不可得。到箇裏回頭一覷，驀地冷灰裏豆爆，如關將軍入大陣，[拚-ㄙ+云]其性命不見有百萬兵眾。當恁麼時，如何共語？如何湊泊？還肯說向人麼？秉殺人刀活人劍，與一切處為祥為瑞、為冤為害，便見頂門上時時一陽來復，脚跟下日日萬彙發生。撥草瞻風，便具緇素眼目，秤斤定兩，毫髮不差。一切處恰恰地，天自高地自厚，飢飡渴飲一切尋常。到遮境界便是一員無事道人，方敢稱為行脚高士；其或未然，莫將閑學解，埋沒祖師心。」復舉：「祖師道：『心隨萬境轉，轉處實能幽，隨流認得性，無喜亦無憂。』」師云：「大小祖師，抓頭不知痒處。」

Informal sermon on the winter solstice: "Repelling things is superior; pursuing things is inferior. If one speaks of battle, each person's strength lies in the turning point. When the ancients took up a single mechanism or showed a single state, none failed to thoroughly penetrate the deep and profound and clearly comprehend both the sage and the ordinary, just like a mighty warrior drawing a thousand-pound crossbow, hitting the mark a hundred times out of a hundred. Because the place where their hands and feet were planted at the outset was solid, external things could not shake them, and they ultimately had the integrity to establish themselves. When patch-robed monks leave one monastery and enter another community, spending many years yet failing to bring about the revelation of the great matter of their own persons, it is because their planting of hands and feet at the outset was hesitant. Sitting at the head or the tail of their feet, hearing without going beyond sound, seeing without transcending form, like silkworms spinning cocoons, winding and binding themselves, throughout the twelve periods of the day they do not have a single moment of joy, ultimately ending up as ruined people. Now, if you want directly to put an end to birth and death, there is nothing other than taking it up at the moment when a single thought is about to arise but has not yet arisen, cutting it clean in two with a single knife. Then naturally, inside is empty and outside is empty, the conditioned is empty and the unconditioned is empty, empty and vast in all four directions and eight dimensions, and when you look for that emptiness, it cannot be found at all. When you arrive here, turn your head and take a look: suddenly, beans pop in the cold ashes, like General Guan charging into a great battle array, risking his life without seeing the army of a million men. At such a time, how can one speak with him? How can one approach him? Would he still be willing to explain it to others? Wielding the killing knife and the life-giving sword, acting everywhere as auspicious omen or as enemy and harm, one then sees atop the crown of the head that at every moment the single yang returns, and beneath the heels daily the myriad things sprout forth. Parting the weeds to watch the wind, one possesses the eyes that distinguish black from white; weighing ounces and fixing pounds, one is not off by a single hair. Everywhere is completely apt; heaven is naturally high, earth is naturally deep; hungry, one eats, thirsty, one drinks—all is ordinary. When you reach this realm, you are a person of the Way who has nothing to do, only then daring to be called an eminent practitioner of wandering; if not yet so, do not take idle intellectual learning and bury the mind of the patriarchs." He further cited: "A patriarch said: 'The mind turns along with the myriad conditions; the place where it turns is truly profound. Recognizing the nature as one follows the flow, there is neither joy nor sorrow.'" The master said, "Great and small patriarchs, scratching their heads without knowing where it itches."