虛堂和尚語錄 4

English (machine translation) 4

Language: English

A genuine patch-robed monk possesses eyes that penetrate the barrier; at the rustling of wind or the stirring of grass, he discerns the incoming dynamic completely. This is because his practice is secure and intimate, not falling before the sound or after the phrase. Having attained it so wonderfully, when it comes into action it naturally covers heaven and earth. How could he be mentioned in the same breath as those who cling to grass and attach to trees! When the blind ass of Jibei first arrived at the rapids of Gao'an, he could not yet kick and trample, but went back into Mount Huangbo, peeking his head out and revealing his shadow. Look at how that old fellow tested people's eyes: the moment he saw him, he cast out a snapped string, saying, 'Coming and going like this—when will it ever end?' Although he had not yet deployed his poisonous hand, it was already dead ten parts to nothing. [Linji] then made a formal confession, saying, 'It is only because of a grandmotherly heart.' Still fearing it was not genuine, toward the perilous spot [Huangbo] gave him another squeeze, saying, 'Dayu talks too much! When I see him, I'll give him a thrashing.' This little bit surpasses an arrow dipped in poison; if one's vision falls even slightly short, there is no doubt of losing body and life. However, since his stride was already high, the pitfall was set in vain; instead, he gave Huangbo a slap, saying, 'Why talk of waiting to see him? Strike him right now!' This is already treating a donkey's saddle tree as his father's jawbone. Father and son accorded in dynamic without a single seam; only then did [Huangbo] say, 'Lead this lunatic away to join the hall.' Both of them lost their advantage. How can this compare to those nowadays who illegitimately occupy the teacher's seat, enveloping learners with real dharmas, nurturing talent with comfortable quarters, seeking succession through giving up robes and yielding food, and drawing each other along to make their own faction flourish? Bitter indeed, bitter indeed—the true sound has died out! When ancient venerable masters acted on the blade of a sword to seek a person, they still could not obtain half a one; how much less with rules and measures! If one is a true, genuine patch-robed monk possessing eyes that penetrate the barrier, he will not willingly die under the words of Huangbo and Linji."

4.4

Instructing Attendant Miaoyuan on Illness

4.5

The Buddha is the Great Physician King, skilled at observing all ailments. If sentient beings believe and take his medicine, there is no illness that cannot be cured. For from the beginning, he himself was deeply afflicted with this illness. After six years on the Snow Mountains, examining materia medica, on the night of the eighth day of the twelfth month, his illness was thoroughly cured; in a state of no-mind he obtained this formulary, declaring, 'Remarkable! All sentient beings possess the wisdom and virtuous marks of the Tathāgata, but because of delusional clinging, they fail to realize it.' Thereupon, rising from beneath the Bodhi tree, he went to the Deer Park; in three months he regulated their faculties, and five people were liberated. Then he was able to use his medicine skillfully. Not only were Great Master Sengcan and the Short Uncle deeply afflicted in their vital organs with this fatal illness, but the ancestral masters with great eyes in both the Western Heaven and this land have all suffered from this illness. Even if Lu Ban and Bian Que had eyes that penetrate the barrier and the dynamic to bring people to life, they would not know the source of this illness. Handing down the seal to one another, they in turn used this illness to liberate the sentient beings of the great earth, bringing light and ease to both those sitting and those standing. Now observing Master Yuan's illness, could it not be this? Otherwise, tranquil on the outside but agitated within, the form remaining while the spirit wanders, emerging here and sinking there, laboring without achievement—then the worldly illness of impermanence would manifest at all times, and could the Tathāgata's medicine not save him? If you step upon the foundation of the Tathāgata's true illness, the illness will naturally vanish and the medicine be discarded. When illness is received like this, there is no illness that cannot be healed."

4.6

Instructing Attendant Wuyin

4.7

When a beginner studies the Way, he is like a monkey from the deep mountains bound by an iron chain. Seeing people, he feels estranged and just keeps leaping about until his body is exhausted and his breath spent. Only then is he taught skills: thrusting spears, wielding staves, carrying water, or striking balls. When he has practiced until he is thoroughly proficient, only then can this chain be removed. Before the wind, beneath the moon, beside the water, or at the base of the clouds, leave him to what is natural. If you suddenly call out, 'Sun the Eldest, come here!' he will instantly leap before you; and when you ask him about the skills he has practiced, it will be like fire bursting from water. If you investigate thoroughly in this way, how could it not be marvelous? There are those who simply say, 'Xutang is old in years and lonely at heart.' Little do they know that a dog does not choose a poor home."

4.8

Instructing Head Monk Ruzu

4.9

Only when name and reality correspond, and practice and understanding are both complete, treating patch-robed monks from the four quarters with a great, impartial mind, can one occupy the curved wooden chair. Moreover, one must withstand attacks from all eight directions, giving and taking as occasions arise, so that neither the deviant nor the correct can advance, penetrating to where the Buddhas and patriarchs cannot set their eyes, causing the student's mind to die and thoughts to extinguish, whereupon he can vigorously arise and awe-inspiringly transform—only then can one be worthy of this title. If there is even the slightest hairsbreadth given to another to grasp, one becomes a sinner against the Buddha-dharma. How much more so if one is cowering and timid, half-dead and half-alive, tossed topsy-turvy by the twenty-four solar terms, unable to be master of oneself! For those like this to try to make the monasteries flourish and serve as a standard for later learners—would that not be difficult? An ancient worthy said, 'Great Master Bodhidharma came empty-handed and went empty-handed.' This was already raising dust and winnowing dirt, condescending for the sake of the present age. Among the seven hundred eminent monks at Huangmei, each and every one sought the Buddha-dharma; only Postulant Lu was illiterate and attended solely to pounding rice. Therefore, the robe and bowl of the Western land were secretly transmitted to him. This gate is truly not easy to approach. If one inherently has spiritual bones, without waiting for the raising of eyebrows, the blinking of eyes, or roundabout, clever expedients, one immediately overturns the old ulcerous den of those from of old, shouldering with one's whole being this single move of coming empty-handed and going empty-handed—would that not be delightful? What worry could there be that name and reality, practice and understanding, would not shine brightly in this age?"

4.10

Instructing Chan Practitioner Ziwen

4.11

When the outstanding individuals of antiquity traveled a thousand li, they did not seek rare treasures but begged for a single word. Since the master could not restrain himself, he inevitably set forth directly the essential path of entering the Way. If there was blood beneath the skin and one knew where to return beyond words, it was not in vain. In recent years this trend has flourished greatly: no sooner does one enter the assembly than he first seeks Dharma words with a scroll as thick as an ox's waist, making it an ornament for the gate of investigation and study; what is urgent and critical is tossed into the armor of indolence. Meanwhile, the old bald soldiers of the great quarters unleash their flowing eloquence, carving and chiseling literary adornments, and string them along, causing newly learned bhikṣus to swallow this fox-saliva, unable to free themselves their whole lives—truly lamentable! When Luzu met a monk, he sat facing the wall; when Magu saw a monk, he immediately shut the door. Like a flash of lightning or a spark of flint, whether grasped or not, both fall into the secondary. How would they be willing to follow my kind and fall into language? Therefore, for high mountains and flowing waters, only an attuned listener is valued; at the gates of the music of Zheng and Wei, one must quickly cover one's ears."

4.12

Instructing Li Xin'en (Wubo)

4.13

The ancestral master Bodhidharma came from the Western Heaven across a hundred thousand li of waters and clouds to this land. First confronting the sovereign of Liang, he struck the sounds of the great yellow bell; yet though the imperial hearing was impartial, the musical phrasing missed the mark. Thereupon he severed the river on a reed and sat facing the wall at Shaolin, directly sitting until cutting off [all things], standing wall-like at ten thousand fathoms. As months and years went by, his fragrant wind blew in all four directions. There was one who, bound by names and forms, skillfully sought how it was: facing that place where he stood wall-like at ten thousand fathoms, he grasped the essential intent, bowed three times, and stood according to his place; whereupon [the master] said, 'You have obtained my marrow.' From this point onward, the lineages split and branches diverged, transmitting and upholding that single move of standing wall-like at ten thousand fathoms, arranged like chess pieces across the empire, luminous as the sun and stars. Without great strength, great faculties, and great conditions, this is ultimately difficult to enter upon. Last year, the autumn heat burned like fire; your excellency came from afar wearing a lone hat, arriving directly at my thatched hut, where I was blessed with an encounter with your refined manner. In the course of your speech, I already knew you were a person within the Buddha Dharma. Contemporary literati anxiously chase after noble ranks and high salaries; how could they have spare moments to attend to this? Unless one had personally received the prediction on Gṛdhrakūṭa rooted in one's very nature, who could accomplish such a thing? Now, having been bathed once more by your polished letter laying bare your innermost feelings—showing self-reproach and remorse, and earnestness toward the Way—this can truly be known. You mentioned that your past karma is deep and heavy, and your body has fallen into worldly toil. Yet if, before a single thought arises, you illuminate and shatter the cycle of birth and death, without falling into the emotional calculations of sacred and profane, you will be an arhat who has stepped beyond the dust. What doors and windows could peer into you? What textual patterns could measure you? What birth and death could be feared? What Buddha-way could be inquired into? The iron sphere is a pure, compassionate gate, lacking not the slightest hair's breadth. Thus the ancients bequeathed half a sentence or a single word as good medicine for the world, wishing to cure sentient beings of the disease of daily turmoil and clinging to being or non-being. Little do people know that they in turn take the grasping disease to be medicine—truly lamentable! As for that which you teach, think, and do, appearing as if there were two people—these all arise from the tethered thoughts of floating dust. If you can trace what is thought to its depths, there will then be three people; three people are one person, one person is three people, and up to hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of people are just one person, while one person is just hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of people. Sweep this one person away into Silla and Daṇḍa! Then gently turn back and say: 'Ha! Who are you?' Arriving here, it is just like Sudhana entering Maitreya's pavilion: the most wonderful realms are all present before one's eyes. I fear only that deep faith may not reach it, thereby only increasing confusion and distress. Just take responsibility where there is no place to lay a hand, and find enjoyment where there is nothing to attain; this is the first-rate, direct, and simple Dharma gate. Although you know the sickness, being unable to remove it is to create your own obstruction. Please look toward that place that stands wall-like at ten thousand fathoms, and naturally there will be nothing you think of that will not yield.

4.14

Instruction for Chan Practitioner Xin of Japan

4.15

The utmost essential of the Buddha Dharma originally knows no difference between distant lands and foreign domains. It requires only that the person possess an uncommon mettle, fiercely summon spirit, directly sit until cutting off all gain, loss, right, and wrong, have firm faith and hold fast, stand solitary and towering without setting up any livelihood, and serenely illuminate impartially, spiritually self-possessed; by no means make wild conjectures within the nest of ignorance. The moment sacred measures are harboured, the passes and connections do not clear; you must turn further to that other side, like thunderous wrath in a blue sky, whirling winds, and scattered snow, so that everything is naturally free of obstruction. Only then will you secretly tally with the marvel of the utmost essential; you need not worry that the great affair of itinerant pilgrimage will go unaccomplished, nor fret that leaky thoughts of birth and death will not be cast off. Reaching the ground of no-reliance and no-desire, where principle and phenomena blend and merge, and meritorious striving cuts off duality, only then can you bring forth the treasures of your own house to relieve the solitary and base, without having made in vain the long journey over whale-swelling waves to visit good spiritual friends. Now you wish to return to your old capital; the moon is bright and the wind is high, and your arrival is expected within days. Go and use what you have attained from the masters to instruct those of great capacity, enabling everyone throughout Japan to achieve buddhahood without remainder—truly this will not fall short! If, perchance, views and interpretations still linger, causing you to fall into limits and bounds, you must cross the ocean once more; this old fist will never strike in vain.

4.16

Instruction for the Postulant Zhichao

4.17

An upāsaka is one among the fourfold assembly in our Buddha's congregation. Purely maintaining ascetic practices and serving the Buddha and Saṃgha, he puts the work of the Way first and is only later ordained. After the World-Honoured One entered cessation, the teachings of the Way reached far into the Five Indias; among the Buddha's shrines and monks' lodgings, there were none without them. When the teaching entered China, the Sanskrit terms were translated and corrected into Tang language, naming them 'postulants' (xingzhe)—which is indeed a title for those possessed of virtue and practice. As their numbers grew vast, from the Han and Tang dynasties onward, official bureaus were established to test knowledge of the scriptures for ordination. When exceptional talents and outstanding figures throughout the realm braved cold and heat to exhaust the scriptures in debate and put their training to the test, those among them who passed the Saṃgha examinations were granted yellow certificates by the court and shaved their heads to become monks. Only then, with clouds on their shoulders and silk cords on their heads, treading hazards and wading dangers, not shrinking from distances of thousands of li, did they seek masters and inquire after the Way, thoroughly illuminating the study of human and divine nature and destiny. After long brewing, the cultural brilliance shone forth; kings and ministers honored them, and they became teachers of humans and gods, their every word and phrase splendid and supreme, serving as models for later generations. This has been the universal standard from past to present, the general pattern of those who leave home. After the crossing to the South, because our teaching was seen to flourish daily, silk paper was issued to be exchanged for paper currency, with the intent that those who obtain it would be few and those who enter would be rare. Little did they know that things change with circumstances: once fallen into the realm of profit, a hundred schemes entangled together to contrive methods for purchase and payment. For those who obtained it, though their forms and robes were different, they sank or floated in the sea of worldly affairs; while those who failed were scorched by poverty and grew old and died in the mountains and marshes. As for wanting someone like the ancients to roam freely in the sea of teachings, investigate the texts and meanings, and put on the Dharma robes having tested their attainments—such can no longer be found. Zhichao has served as an attendant for a long time; whenever he sees patch-robed monks coming and going, being tested and examined, or shouted at and scolded, he leans on the table and listens through the wall, which stirred up his roots of goodness. Holding paper, he bowed low, wishing to request the medicine of the Dharma. This old monk could not help but laugh heartily: though there is no Buddha here, it can still emit light! Yielding to the brush, I have recorded a fraction of an outline to reward your diligent labor, yet above all, not a single speck of principle of the Buddha Dharma shall defile your ears. Reflect on this!

4.18

Prefaces and Colophons

4.19

Preface to the Diamond Sūtra

4.20

Entering the city holding the bowl, washing the feet and sitting cross-legged at ease—fortunate to be naturally lovely, yet for no reason Subhūti stepped forward and uttered 'rare and wonderful!' His tricks thoroughly exhausted, even if he explained entangling vines section by section and word by word, in the end it could not be annotated. The Chan practitioner Zixiu, knowing where he fell short, led thirty-two people and made every effort to wipe away his shame. If, before the tip of the brush was raised, he could rescue that yellow-faced old fellow, would that not be magnificent? As for drawing out the paper and moving the ink, the sword has long since passed by.

4.21

Colophon on a Sanskrit Manuscript of the Heart Sūtra

4.22

A horizontal hook and three dots, like the moon and stars—the old barbarian exhausted all his stratagems, but in his whole life could not bring it out. If one further adds twists and turns, claiming to have obtained it from overseas, how is it different from the person of Chu mistaking a chicken for a phoenix? If you wish to attain it thus, you must bring about the point where clear-eyed translators throughout the entire earth have no place to open their mouths; only then will it accord with this intent.

4.23

Colophon on the Calligraphy of Upādhyāya Ying'an

4.24

Yuanwu said: 'The fellow from Qizhou has attained it indeed, but he lacks an awl behind his head.' When he met Huqiu and saw the ox pass the window lattice, he was brilliantly and suddenly emancipated, continuing the authentic succession of Dongshan, like the blazing sun shining in the sky eclipsing the light of the stars; whenever a single word or fragment of his writing reached the rivers and lakes, those who obtained it were like those finding a luminous night-gem. His Way moved people like this! I once associated with the patch-robed monks of Lotus Peak; beholding his calligraphy and ornamentation, the brushwork was crisp and vigorous, its manner soaring as if in dance, commanding awe in people.

4.25

Eulogies on Portraits

4.26

Self-Eulogy

4.27

Without opening a mouth that scolds people, his compassion would be hard to see; / Without interrogating the patch-robed monks' sicknesses, his masterhood could not be shown. / Resembling him brings calamity to the gate; / Differing from him, Fenglin reproves him. / The painter's brush is practiced, yet knows not him; / White hair straggly—who is this? Du!

4.28

Requested by Elder Xuan of Penglai

4.29

The dynamic of pecking from within and tapping from without, a shove on the edge of the cliff; / Tigers roar and dragons chant, two times nine is eighteen. / Chan Practitioner Xuan is naturally a fierce adversary; / Learning from him, how could it stop at merely blinding the eye on the crown of the head?

4.30

Requested by Head Monk Miaoyuan

4.31

The Way cannot be transmitted; the appearance cannot be painted. / Coldly sitting in deep clouds, glaring like a tiger at the myriad monstrosities. / The source is far, the stream is long, extinguishing the orthodox lineage; / Not like a blind donkey following the great herd.

4.32

Requested by Attendant Wuyin

4.33

Bickering and barking, driven by thunder and galloping like lightning; / Lowering hands, not yet wandering beyond the forms; from the empty sky protrudes a tiny hair. / Before the eyes, it is hard to conceal; in desolation, who knows it? / The father stole a sheep, and the son testified to it; / Let the dark wind blow through myriad kalpas!

4.34

Requested by Canon Prefect Benli

4.35

Spring mountains in ten thousand folds, autumn water in a single line. / Awesome in style and manner, where can reality be sought? / Appearing and disappearing across the great earth, giving complete life and total death; / The Chan grove groans in distress—a single-horned qilin.

4.36

Requested by Attendant Wubu

4.37

Scheming more clumsily than a dove, yet imposing in age like a tiger; / Hearing of him, intent is surely extinguished; those who see him find him hard to behold. / In the end, he knows not host from guest; / The black-lacquered bamboo spatula strikes straight across the face— / Between master and disciple, who says there is no help rendered?

4.38

Requested by Head Monk Fayun

4.39

Babbling and cooing, how could one know? / So cold and wretched, one cannot bear to look; hand and face shifted east and exchanged for west. / Clasping hands, the master craftsman shatters the patch-robed monk's doubts: / Walking to where the water ends, sitting to watch when clouds arise.

4.40

General Discourse on the Burning of Incense Before the Summer Retreat at Shuanglin

4.41

Compiled by Attendant Fayun

4.42

The ancestral masters of antiquity were straightforward when guiding people: whenever there was a question, they simply broke attachments right where the question arose, with no substantial doctrine at first. Later on, [their words] set up targets that invited arrows, taking shape in verbal expressions, which led to general discourses. General discourses first originated with Venerable Zhenjing; since the Three Buddhas, all have given general discourses, which were nothing other than angry scoldings, rebukes, spurnings, proddings, instructions, and encouragements to make patch-robed monks of great resolve strive vigorously in their work. The general discourses of masters in recent times occasionally given are still largely in literary styles; they do not show how the ancients straightforwardly guided people, but greatly resemble essays and policy discourses in the examination halls. When one examines where they come from, they are merely words on medicine labels, unable to cure people's sicknesses, merely causing the later degenerates to copy, collect, and secretly treasure them in confusion to serve as their fundamental investigation. Little do they know that in our King's treasury there is no such sword. Deshan said: 'There are neither buddhas nor patriarchs; Bodhidharma was originally an old, stinking bearded barbarian; old Śākyamuni is a dry piece of shit; the twelve-division teachings are ghost-and-spirit registers; the four fruits and three worthies are ghosts guarding old tombs—all of them cannot even save themselves.' Though this was an expedient for a time, it was already painting a snake and adding legs. Linji said: 'In former days, this mountain monk paid attention to the Vinaya, and for decades I opened and searched the sūtras and treatises; only later did I realize they were worldly remedies and outward displays. Thereupon I threw them all away at once, gave rise to the intention to investigate Chan, and met good spiritual friends; only then did my eye of the Way become clear and distinguish the corrupt from the upright. It was not that I understood this at birth from my mother.' These too are words with which the ancients did not deceive people. Practitioners today do not attain the marvel; their sickness lies in lacking sufficient self-confidence; their sickness lies in gain and loss, right and wrong; their sickness lies in self-view and stubborn clinging; their sickness lies in limited ruts; their sickness lies in not being free from dynamic circumstances; their sickness lies in taking a little to be sufficient; their sickness lies in [attachment to] a single teacher or single friend; their sickness lies in collateral lineages and separate factions; their sickness lies in constraints of status and appearance; their sickness lies in having grown arrogant so that all their life they cannot be humble. These several kinds of sicknesses are the catalysts that obstruct the Way; everyone has them. What is essential is for each person to take a step back and wipe them completely clean, making it so there is no entrance through which to operate, and proceed along an ancient road grand and open—without constraint or check, without hindrance or obstruction; picking it up and using it immediately, touching it and killing immediately; releasing and taking away according to the moment, without the slightest particle of stagnation—like rolling a round boulder from atop a thousand-fathom cliff. When auspicious light appears in days to come, setting a model for later generations, it truly will not be a disgrace. If there is a single thought of seeking the Buddhadharma, one will instead be covered by the two words 'Buddhadharma', like oil entering flour, seeking escape in vain. From my youth, this mountain monk was inclined to investigate and study; I sat for one or two years with scarcely any entry, only feeling that my mind and eye were both clear. Later, wandering among the rivers and lakes, although I drew near to others, when they saw that you were not a creature of this kind, who would be willing to refine you? One could only lament to one's own shadow in the wind, leaving it to going and staying. Later at Jinshan, I happened to meet my late master Yun'an, who invited me to Zhashang and allowed me to enter his room. Yet I was simply not allowed to utter a turning phrase; as soon as I opened my mouth he would say: 'Take it slowly, do not be rash.' In the room he constantly brought forward the case of 'the ancient sail is not yet hoisted'; as soon as I opened my mouth, he would scold me. One day in the attendants' quarters I thought about it: What is so difficult to understand about 'the ancient sail is not yet hoisted'? In truth, it is merely the matter before a single bubble has arisen, the matter before a single thought has stirred. That monk was also clever, making the ancestral master turn around and enter his rut. Seeing clearly where he came from, Yantou gave him a thrust right across his mouth, which is called 'receiving a cow from someone and returning a horse to him'; why would he not let someone utter a turning phrase? Thereupon, shouldering this load of understanding, I went to the abbot's quarters to present it. Before my voice had ceased, the late master said: 'Why don't you shut your dog mouth, go to a quiet place and intimately embody it? Every day you just come here arguing over the rights and wrongs of the ancients; when will there ever be an end?' When I returned to the quarters, I felt anxious and restless; suddenly I understood the talk of 'the ancient sail is not yet hoisted', the talk of 'the pure practitioner does not enter nirvāṇa', and the other nearby and shallow phrases gradually became clear to me. The next day, hearing the drum beaten for entering the room, the late master saw that my demeanor was somewhat different; putting aside the talk of 'the ancient sail is not yet hoisted', he asked me about 'Nanquan cuts the cat'. This mountain monk immediately offered a turning phrase: 'The great earth cannot bear it.' The late master lowered his head and smiled. Even though it was like this, after half a year my mind was as noisy as before; when pressed by others, I still could not make a move. Later, I looked at the talk of Shushan's memorial tower; for three or four years, one day without mind, I suddenly understood the occasion of the ancient buddha of Daling emitting light; only then did I attain ease, no longer deceived by others. Taking up the phrases I had examined before and giving them another look, they were vastly different from what I had seen previously; I truly knew that this matter definitively does not lie in words. When on pilgrimage I reached Hanshang, I spent the summer at Yuquan in Jingmen. Because of reading Juefan's *Biographies of the Saṃgha's Jewels*, I saw the case of Senior Monk Ju visiting Langye. Langye asked: 'Where have you recently left?' Ju said: 'Zhejiang.' Ye said: 'Did you come by boat or by land?' Ju said: 'By boat.' Ye said: 'Where is the boat?' Ju said: 'Under foot.' Ye said: 'Without walking the journey, what is the single phrase?' Ju struck him once with his sitting cloth and said: 'Fabricating elders are as plentiful as hemp and millet.' And he walked right out. Langye went in person to the travelers' quarters and asked: 'Could you be Senior Monk Ju? Just now it was improper for me to offend you.' Ju immediately shouted and said: 'In what year did the elder reach Fenyang? When I was in Zhejiang, I had already heard your name, but your understanding is only like this; how did your name spread throughout the universe?' Langye said: 'This one's fault,' and made prostrations. Such was their meeting, so clearly shown; yet further down in Juefan's biography, he added a few sentences, saying that Langye once brought this up to Ciming, and Ming laughed and said: 'Ju's view can barely save himself, but you were defeated and fell; how can you guide people?' Reaching this point, this mountain monk could not help but close the volume and heave a long sigh: If that were really so, what distinction between black and white would there be? When the two great beings met, it was like a dark dragon playing with a pearl, a hungry hawk snatching food—what mess was there? If it were like this, what good Ciming would one seek? Juefan's knowledge and views were vast; he had annotated the *Śūraṅgama-sūtra*, and his writings upholding the school and establishing the teachings pervaded the monasteries; how would he be willing to blind the eyes of later students with useless words? For two years at Nanyue, I wished to find a fellow traveler to resolve this suspicion, but could not find one. When I reached Yunju, in the quarters there was a copy of the *Extensive Records of Dahui*, very worn. People said: 'There was a Chan practitioner who copied it when exiled in Meiyang and left it in the quarters.' I borrowed it to read; after only two or three fascicles, I happened upon this very case. Dahui said: 'I always laugh at Hong Juefan's insistence on randomly making far-fetched interpretations. When Senior Monk Ju said: "Fabricating elders are as plentiful as hemp and millet," he had already lifted Langye up to the Brahmā heaven.' Seeing this, this mountain monk felt as if doused with ice and snow in the summer heat, and it again verified what this humble one had held; Dahui truly had the peerless eye of the school! In the sentences following, he also said: 'This is the realm of the great beings Mañjuśrī and Samantabhadra, not to be measured by ordinary feelings.' He also said: 'While at Zhenjing's place, Juefan did not experience much breakthrough. Because of circumstances he left the monastery and parted from the master too early; therefore he had places where he arrived and places where he did not arrive. For example, when he compiled the case of Longya visiting Cuiwei: Ya asked, "What is the intention of the ancestral master coming from the West?" Wei said, "Pass me the meditation board." Ya passed the meditation board to Cuiwei; Wei took it and immediately struck him. Ya said, "Strike if you will, but there still is no intention of the ancestral master coming from the West." He also asked Linji, "What is the intention of the ancestral master coming from the West?" Ji said, "Pass me the cushion." Ya passed the cushion to Linji; Ji took it and immediately struck him. Ya said, "Strike if you will, but there still is no intention of the ancestral master coming from the West." He also asked Dongshan, "What is the intention of the ancestral master coming from the West?" Shan said, "Wait until the Dong river flows backward, then I will tell you." Arriving here, his mental paths were severed and his contrivances exhausted; he could only bow.' Later students, their eyes already unclear, seeing that he succeeded Dongshan, say that when he saw Cuiwei and Linji back then, he had not penetrated—one dog barks at an illusion, and a thousand monkeys snarling take it for real. Yunmen had his breakthrough seeing Muzhou, yet succeeded Xuefeng; only Xuedou saw through to his marrow. In his verses on antiquity, right at the start he says: 'In the Longya Mountains, the dragon has no eyes.' These words are pungent and hard to approach, for his functions were mostly like this. Just as when versifying the passage distinguishing vision in the *Śūraṅgama*: 'When I do not see, why do you not see where I do not see? If you see my not seeing, it is naturally not the characteristic of not seeing. If you do not see where I do not see, it is naturally not an object; how is it not you?' Old Śākyamuni bared it completely and exposed it cleanly, speaking so clearly; yet he versified: 'The whole elephant and whole ox are no different from cataracts; / From the beginning, adept masters shared the name of groping. / If you now wish to see the Yellow-Headed Old Man, / In kṣetra after kṣetra and dust after dust, you are halfway on the road.' For instance, like the blind men groping the elephant: though they know the elephant, they do not see the whole elephant; like Cook Ding carving the ox: though he carves the ox, he has not grasped the whole ox. If one reaches the stage of the whole elephant and whole ox, it is called the extremity of principle where sentiment is forgotten; yet Xuedou says: 'Even if you reach the whole elephant and whole ox, how are they different from illusory cataracts?' He simply took what old Śākyamuni pointed out to show people and overturned it all at once. Whenever this old fellow operated, every move was arsenic and wolfsbane, yet Juefan said: 'Xuedou blamed him as a blind dragon in dead water.' Clearly it was the living intention of the patriarchs, yet he understood it as a dead doctrine! He clearly said: 'In the Longya Mountains, the dragon has no eyes; / How could dead water stir the ancient style? / Meditation boards and cushions cannot be used; / They should only be entrusted to Master Lu.' This is on par with 'fabricating elders are as plentiful as hemp and millet.' Fearing people would not understand, Xuedou further composed a verse: 'Once entrusted to Master Lu, what is to be relied upon? / Do not, while sitting and leaning, continue the lamp of the patriarchs. / Worthy of facing the evening clouds that return without merging, / The distant mountains stretch boundlessly in green layer upon layer.' Here, thousands of gates and tens of thousands of doors are broken through at once. It was not that Juefan did not know where Xuedou settled things, but because his function was of a single moment, his error was for a thousand ages. If a practitioner of the Way does not experience the monkey dying once, how can they distinguish the corrupt from the upright? If they do not experience the monkey reviving once, how can they escape birth and death? Just now there were so many tools and fixtures; patch-robed monks temporarily hang up their bottles and bowls for ninety days—if they do not push through, they fail the great matter of itinerant pilgrimage; if they push through, it is like a commoner being appointed prime minister, the joy of a lifetime. If this is not yet so, even waiting until Maitreya descends to transform beings, and the kalpa of emptiness enters nirvāṇa again, coming forth again to guide without end, one still will not have settled the matter. Why is this?" Striking with the whisk: "I advise you to put on your robe and sit where you have attained it; do not snap pine branches to brush away moss traces. You have been standing long.

4.43

General Discourse on the Installation of the Head Monk at Lingyin

4.44

Compiled by Attendant Jingtan

4.45

The move on that side of Sound-of-Majesty: ancient, venerable patch-robed monks forgot their bodies and lives to put it forcefully into practice, striving to ensure that the style of holding up the flower and facing the wall would not fall to ruin, hoping to repay the profound kindness of the buddhas and patriarchs. In recent years, the monasteries have grown withered and degenerate; students do not ground themselves in the ancestral model, but soak themselves in external studies, nourishing their ignorance. Although they dwell in groups of hundreds and thousands, none have been heard of who, like scorched tortoise cracks, can exterminate the barbarian seed-line for the final age—how truly lamentable! If one conducts itinerant pilgrimage like this and meets people like this, the benefit is slight indeed and the harm extremely grave. Struggling on until one's hair turns white and one's teeth grow yellow, when the lone lamp shines by itself, one is far inferior to a rustic who meticulously cultivates white karma and is free in coming and going, for he lacks so many corrupt views and bad perceptions. The short senior uncle of Shushan sought the Way with great urgency. One day in Guishan's community, he heard [Guishan] address the assembly, saying: 'An eminent itinerant pilgrim must sleep right within sounds and forms, sit and lie down within sounds and forms, before it is obtained.' Shushan immediately came forward and asked: 'What is a phrase that does not fall into sound and form?' Guishan raised his whisk. Shushan said: 'This is a phrase that falls into sound and form.' Guishan then returned to the abbot's quarters. The old man knew his sickness lay here; toward the place where the thousand sages cannot fix their eyes, he communicated a bit of news, yet sat firmly in the family hall, revealing no sharp edges. Having failed to tally, [Shushan] then took leave of Xiangyan. Xiangyan said: 'Why not stay a while?' Shushan said: 'I have no affinity with the upādhyāya.' Xiangyan said: 'What encounter failed to tally? Try to cite it and let us see.' Shushan cited the previous talk. Xiangyan said: 'I have a saying.' He then said: 'When speech arises, it is not sound; before form, it is no thing.' These words were in response to Guishan's capacity, pointing out and sparking Shushan. When that dwarf heard this, his eyes came alive at once. He then said: 'Truly, there is someone here!' He then urged Xiangyan: 'I shall depart for now; when you, elder brother, have a dwelling place, I will come back to see you.' Toward evening, Guishan asked Xiangyan: 'Is the short ācārya who asked about the matter of sound and form still here?' Xiangyan said: 'He has already departed.' Guishan said: 'What did you say to him?' Xiangyan said: 'I said to him: "When speech arises, it is not sound; before form, it is no thing."' Guishan said: 'What did he say?' Xiangyan said: 'He deeply approved of it.' Guishan broke into laughter and said: 'I thought that dwarf had some strength, but it turns out he is merely here. If this fellow goes forward and happens to have a dwelling place, though near a mountain, he will have no firewood to burn; though near water, he will have no water to drink.' Upādhyāya Ying'an said: 'Nowadays, seeking someone who embodies "when speech arises, it is not sound; before form, it is no thing" is already hard to find; furthermore, if you want to understand Guishan's words, can you itinerant pilgrims distinguish black from white? Do not stubbornly hold yourselves high behind people's backs. If you cannot tell warp from weft, you do not deserve the name of a genuine patch-robed monk.' Shushan also spent the summer at Jinluan Temple in Hubei. At night, he heard a monk cite the encounter where Upādhyāya Lan'an of Changqing in Fuzhou addressed the assembly, saying: 'There is a phrase, there is no phrase, like a vine clinging to a tree.' When Shushan heard this, he said: 'I have a turning word; I must go and question that old fellow.' When the summer ended, he went into Min to see Upādhyāya Lan'an, who was also called Upādhyāya Guishan; Chancellor Pei, when governing Min, had invited him from Guishan to reside at Changqing. When Shushan arrived there, he happened to meet the master plastering a wall. Shushan straightaway asked: '"There is a phrase, there is no phrase, like a vine clinging to a tree"—are these the upādhyāya's words?' Guishan said: 'They are.' Shushan said: 'If suddenly the tree falls and the vine withers, where does the phrase return?' Guishan set down his mortar board, laughed heartily, and returned to the abbot's quarters. Shushan said: 'From three thousand li away, I sold my cloth wrap and came specially for this matter. Why does the upādhyāya not speak for me?' Guishan said: 'Attendant, give some money to this short ācārya and send him away. Another day, a one-eyed dragon will point it out for you.' Later he went to Mingzhao and cited the previous talk. Zhao said: 'Guishan's head is upright and his tail is upright; it is only that he met no one who knew the tone.' Shushan said: 'If suddenly the tree falls and the vine withers, where does the phrase return?' Zhao said: 'You make Guishan's laughter turn fresh again.' Shushan had an awakening on the spot and said: 'So Guishan had a blade within his laughter!' Nowadays, the brothers only know how to look forward and cannot look behind. The moment you seek within Guishan's laughter, you are already mistaken; you must give an intimate turning word right at the point where there is a phrase and there is no phrase like a vine clinging to a tree. Leaving aside the many idle entanglements below, only then will you avoid having Guishan and Mingzhao inspected by people through a thousand ages. If you stubbornly take hold of setting down the mortar board, laughing, and returning to the abbot's quarters, and making Guishan's laughter turn fresh again, blindly practicing Chan and blindly verifying, passing it down like that and drifting away, merely recognizing the sounds and forms from others' mouths, then for your own part there will never be any time of awakening; when played out to the extreme, it ultimately becomes a spoken defeat. Shushan returned again to Dongshan. One day, hearing that late at night [Dongshan] intended to secretly transmit the Precious Mirror Samādhi, passed down from Yunyan, to Caoshan, Shushan hid himself under a table to listen stealthily. Waiting until the transmission was finished, he came out, clapped his hands, laughed loudly, and said: 'Dongshan's Chan has found its handover, yet it also suffers the prophecy of Wuben!' Later, not breaking his promise to Xiangyan, he went straight to Dengzhou. One day Xiangyan ascended the hall, and a monk came forward to ask: 'What is it like when one neither admires the many sages nor honors one's own spirit?' This phrase was asked by Shitou when he was sent to Nanyue; Master Rang said: 'Your question is too lofty; why not ask downward?' Shitou said: 'I would rather sink in kalpas forever than seek liberation from the sages.' He then returned to Qingyuan. At that time, Xiangyan answered the monk's question, saying: 'The myriad workings cease; the thousand sages do not carry [it].' Shushan, seated below, made retching sounds and said: 'What kind of talk is this?' Xiangyan asked: 'Who is it?' The assembly said: 'Senior Uncle.' Xiangyan said: 'Do you not agree with this mountain monk?' Shushan came out from the assembly and said: 'Indeed.' Xiangyan said: 'Can you say something, Senior Uncle?' Shushan said: 'I can.' Xiangyan said: 'Try to speak and let us see.' Shushan said: 'If you bid me speak, you must first pay the courtesies due between teacher and disciple.' Xiangyan then stepped down from the seat, spread his sitting cloth widely, made three prostrations, and asked as before. Shushan said: 'When the myriad workings cease, there is still a thing present; when the thousand sages do not carry it, it is also obtained from others. Why not say: approval and assent cannot be whole?' Xiangyan said: 'What does one approve of, and to whom does one give assent?' Shushan said: 'Approving is approving of the thousand sages; assenting is assenting to one's own spirit.' Xiangyan said: 'Even granting you this, you must still suffer thirty years of diarrhea. Even if you reside on a mountain, near the mountain you will have no firewood to burn, and near water you will have no water to drink. Remember this clearly!' Later, when he resided at Shushan, it was indeed as foretold. By the twenty-seventh year, when his illness subsided, he said: 'Brother Xiangyan foretold thirty years of diarrhea for me; now three years are lacking.' Every time after eating, he would gouge with his hand and vomit it out to fulfill the previous prediction. Later he asked Jingqing: 'When approval and respect cannot be whole, what do you say?' Qing said: 'The whole returns to approval and respect.' Shushan said: 'What about "cannot be whole"?' Qing said: 'Within that, there is no road for approval.' Shushan said: 'Only now is this sick monk's wish satisfied.' When patch-robed monks come to this point, can you investigate it thoroughly? Can you see the guts of the two elders? At that time, if Xiangyan had answered that monk appropriately, why would he have had to step down and prostrate to Shushan? If Shushan had clearly exposed Xiangyan, how would he have incurred the affliction of diarrhea? Coming to this place, one must possess some patch-robed monk's eyes before it will do. Seeing injustice on the road today, this mountain monk will decide this gong'an as an offering to our patch-robed monks of the five lakes and four seas. Xiangyan's answer to that monk's words was like a sacred turtle bearing a diagram; the short senior uncle's incurring the affliction of diarrhea was a boat flowing with the current. Even if everyone on the whole earth were made to suffer diarrhea, there would not necessarily be anyone who nods askance. Why? A single fitting phrase is a donkey-tethering stake for ten thousand kalpas. Therefore, gold is tested with stone, and people are tested with words. If your eye of the Way is clear, can it be said that there is no one in the world today? Coming to this place, cleverness and strong memory cannot be used, and wave-like eloquence and speculative talk cannot be used; you must feel shame yourself once before it becomes ultimate. When Upādhyāya Baiyun Duan saw Yang Cigong's outer collection, in it was a verse revealing the essential宗旨 of Caodong: 'The phoenix of Cinnabar Mountain comes to the towering pavilion, / In the secret hall the Xiaoshao music plays nine rounds. / The rustic old man knows not the preciousness of the yellow roof; / On the six avenues he still listens to the crack of the quiet-whip.' [Baiyun] then said: 'He is an extraordinary person who has seen through the core of the ancients. In the declining period of Dongshan, fearing that the Dharma gate would gradually wither, he used the three phrases of the Diamond Prajñā, set up the five ranks of lord and minister, and established the three types of leakage, like a great furnace forging later students, so that each one would hold his own original deed and inherit the ancestral fields and gardens.' Later, because of a public discourse, Dahui made a feint to the east while attacking the west, offering slight criticism. Since students lack correct views, they often behave like dwarfs watching a play; but if the five ranks of the Dong school can be lightly criticized, then Linji's three mysteries and essentials, four selections, four hosts and guests, and four照 and uses can also be criticized. Just like Fenyang's ten knowledges being identical with the real, Fushan's nine belts, and Huanglong's three barriers, they are like state weapons: born of necessity, originally devoid of real meaning. Foyan was gathering support in Wuzu's assembly; when he had just returned to Foguo, the moment they met, [Foguo] said: 'What about Linji's three phrases?' Clearly, this was chiseling a hole to let in a thief. He pondered for a night, and the next day said to Foguo: 'I have understood the encounter of the three phrases.' First, he turned down his thumb, saying: 'This is the first phrase.' Then he turned down another finger, saying: 'This is the second phrase.' Thereupon he gave Foguo a slap, saying: 'This is the third phrase,' and hurried off with a loud laugh. Foguo cited this to Wuzu. The patriarch said: 'Quite good, isn't it? Moving the strings, one discerns the tune; when a leaf falls, one knows autumn.' The Master of Wuwei, having been appreciated by Baiyun, composed a verse and sent it to him: 'For ten years I have heard the name of Yang Cigong; / He has the writing capable of rousing our ancestral style. / Dividing three into six, adding a little bit, / He brings the golden crow red at midnight.' Because of this, Cigong went to Shu Prefecture and visited Upādhyāya Duan. In their night conversation, [Duan] thoroughly understood what this old man had attained. The next day he ascended the hall and said: 'From antiquity to the present, those who speak of principle and phenomena are as thick as hemp, bamboo, reeds, and rushes, and those who understand Chan are even more numerous everywhere. But seeking a person of the house is like selecting the moon from the sky. Yang Cigong, the worthy magistrate of Huangmei, has been renowned for more than ten years; last night he unexpectedly favored me with a visit, and he turns out to be a genuine person of our house. The length of the ladle handle, the size of the pot—though we have not inspected them one by one, looking at his reckoning, it is exceedingly clear. One might say that, just as when in Dongxi, at the time flowers bloom and leaves fall, one repeatedly intended to cast gold into a Zhong Ziqi, chattering on at length without end, yet trusting it; for an adept, water and milk blend together. In the world today, who is a person of the house? I do not say there are none at all, but a genuine person is hard to find.' Upādhyāya Ben'an Yong resided at Gushan; his practice of the Way moved Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and patch-robed monks rushed to him, so that great elders like Songyuan Xiuyan and Xi'an Wuyong all went into Min to observe his methods, thinking that Shimen's gate could be entered. One day, sounding the drum, he opened the room; his sharp dynamic and subtle functioning were solitary, free, and reliant on nothing, so that they all gathered their robes, glanced askance, and dared not approach. Having stayed for one or two summers, each dispersed. Looking at it, this old man could only make people die, not make people live; only Xiuyan lingered a little longer. During the Jiading era, this mountain monk saw him at the Western Stūpa of Yuwang. The old man spoke of matters during the Gushan period; pointing with his hand to the portrait of Mu'an, he said: 'I let down that old upādhyāya.' Then pointing to the portrait of Fozhao, he said: 'I had my huatou turned by that old rascal.' Deeply moved, he both wept and laughed, grief and joy attacking each other at once; there must have been something in his heart. His usual instructions were mostly ballads. In Upādhyāya Wuzu's assembly, there was also a monk named Senior Monk Jue. One day in the room, the patriarch cited: 'Śākyamuni and Maitreya are his slaves; who is he?' He gave a turning word, saying: 'Dark Zhang the Third, black Li the Fourth.' Wuzu approved it. Yuanwu, in the attendants' quarters, said: 'The upādhyāya should examine him further; I fear it is not genuine.' The next day, sounding the drum again to enter the room, the patriarch cited the previous talk and asked again. The monk said: 'I said it to the upādhyāya yesterday.' The patriarch said: 'What did you say?' As the monk was about to open his mouth, the patriarch struck a fist across his chest, saying: 'It is not!' The monk had an awakening on the spot. Later, seeing that Wuzu's gate was desolate, he went back to the assembly of Iron-foot Fu of Changlu. Later, appearing in the world, he resided at Kaisheng outside the city of Hezhou, and brought forth [the Dharma] for Old Fu. On the day he offered incense, he suddenly felt a point of pain in his chest, and right from that painful place an ulcer broke out, and he died. Inheriting the incense without tracing back its origin—its clear retribution was like this! In the world today, those who claim succession by merely catching the wind are like hemp and millet; if every single one suffered ulcers and died, when would it end? Moreover, during that, how do they recognize cause and effect, and know where they come from? Now, receiving the abbot's command to the assembly, causing this mountain rustic to receive the tablet and discuss the teachings with the brothers, this too is a weighty responsibility of the monastery. Since I dare not sit at ease, I fear that morning and evening I must open the room to meet with you gentlemen. From ancient times, forging with tallies in the room has been regarded as paramount; in recent times, the teacher's model is not strict, patch-robed monks pay no heed to it, and the Dharma gate's neglect has come to this. When Ciming saw Fenyang, for two years he was not permitted to enter the room. One day, in deep yearning, carrying incense, he went to the abbot's quarters and pleaded earnestly: 'I, for the sake of the great matter of birth and death not yet being clarified, braved the military ranks to come to your seat. It has now been two summers, and I have not yet been granted permission to enter the room with the assembly; fearing I will lose the original aspiration of leaving home, I look to your compassion, Upādhyāya.' Fenyang took up his staff and beat him, saying: 'What kind of evil acquaintance are you, coming to peddle me?' Just as Ciming began to voice his regret and apologies, Fenyang covered Ciming's mouth with his hand, and Ciming suddenly experienced great enlightenment. This is just like a great general facing the front in battle: with one slash cut in two, victory and defeat are decided at once; hesitation brings defeat. As cited just now, when Shushan saw Guishan and also examined Xiangyan, could this marvelous principle be fathomed by one perception, one view, one dynamic, or one realm? If you have an innate spiritual bone and have planted the seed of prajñā, and on the rush mat you struggle through every thread and strand, penetrating beyond words to grasp it directly in hand, you will not only see Shushan's examination of Xiangyan, but also understand how Fenyang and Ciming harmonized as teacher and disciple. If it is not so, buy a few more pairs of straw sandals, run and tread around the four continents, make the soles of your feet broad, and say, 'I am an itinerant monk,' talking Chan and the Way whenever meeting people, your mouth like a spinning wheel. Do not let it happen one day that, like a rat entering a cow's horn, with the road at its end and nothing to rely on, the four great elements and the five aggregates fall apart, and the conditions of a thousand hardships and ten thousand bitternesses will be obvious without speaking. An ancient worthy said: 'The road ahead is vast and hazy; one knows not where one goes.' If suddenly there is a fellow who disregards life and death and comes out to exert all his strength for the assembly, this mountain monk will say: 'Hold on for a while; wait until I hang up the tablet, and then come to discuss it. You have been standing long; take care.'

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虛堂和尚語錄 — Classical Chinese