密菴和尚語錄 1.8

1.8

On the twenty-second day of the eighth month, he held the opening of the hall at this monastery. Having offered prayers for the Emperor, he then took up incense and said: "This pinch of incense has been kept for a long time; wishing to hide it, it becomes all the more apparent. Today, humans and devas gather everywhere, and I cannot avoid laying it bare from the very beginning. In former years, returning from itinerant practice in Jiangxi, I intended to go to Siming. Just as I reached Master Zhi at Wuzhou, I was misdirected by onlookers—fellow brothers—and stumbled into Mount Mingguo in Quzhou. There I saw an old venerable monk, severe and uncompromising, exceedingly cold and unapproachable. Having already compounded error upon error by making three prostrations, right down to the present day my regrets cannot catch up. Be that as it may, every injustice has its head and every debt its master. I burn it in the brazier to make an offering to the Great Venerable Ying'an, the eighteenth generation residing at Mount Tiantong, so as to repay the kindness of his dharma milk." Thereupon he gathered his robes and took his seat. When the questions and answers were concluded, he said: "The ancestral masters' mind-seal resembles the function of the iron bull: when it moves, the seal remains; when it stays, the seal is broken. The myriad phenomena of the cosmos, light and dark, form and void, sentient and insentient, are decisively stamped by this single seal, with not the slightest leakage, not the slightest deviation, not the slightest arising or ceasing, not the slightest movement. Like gold bartering for gold, like water washing water, it completely cuts off extraneous conditions and towers beyond all realms of existence. Using this to toast the Sage Emperor, may his life be as long as heaven and enduring as earth; using this to pray for the worthy magistrate, may he be like Yi Yin and the Duke of Zhou; using this to bring peace and joy to the living populace; using this to bring well-being and blessing to all under heaven; using this to propagate the Great Teaching; using this to uphold and establish the orthodox lineage. Although it is like this, tell me, where is this seal right now?" After a long pause, he struck his whisk and said: "The carved bow is hung high, the beacon smoke extinguished; ten thousand nations sing in chorus, rejoicing in great peace."