虛堂和尚語錄 4.45

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.'