宏智禪師廣錄 1.198

1.198

At an informal gathering he said: Śākyamuni appeared in the world, humbling himself to comply with people. Bodhidharma came from the west, pressing the freeborn into servitude. The robe was transmitted to Kāśyapa—specious and false. The Dharma was entrusted to Shenguang—treating nothing as something. Just because the ancestors were not thorough, calamity was brought upon their descendants. From this, five leaves from one flower illuminated the various regions. Either completely bringing forth the correct verdict with great function and great capacity, or borrowing position to illuminate function and borrowing function to illuminate position; attaining verification under the blow of a staff, or undertaking realization under a shout; picking up a blade of grass to make the sixteen-foot golden body, or amidst enjoyment and use manifesting a thousand hands and eyes; or turning about to walk among different species, waving hands and going off to that other side. Since faculties and capacities are mostly not uniform, expedient means are seen to be numerous. Roads spread across the sky, and vines cover the ground. Even if for ten thousand miles there is not an inch of grass, the pure ground still bewilders people; when the vast sky is without a speck of dust, the clear sky still deserves a beating. What is more, setting foot on the road of Bhīṣmagarjitasvararāja, stretching out across Xinghua's gate, step by step not colliding with things, mind and mind without a dwelling place—carefully inspecting it, all of this is an affair on the side of meritorious cultivation. Have you not seen what the ancients said: "The Buddhas did not appear in the world—forty-nine years of speaking; the ancestral teacher did not come from the west—Shaolin has wondrous instructions. If one recognizes the ancestors and Buddhas, right on the spot one transcends them"? Brothers, tell me: before the Buddhas and ancestors were born, what is the phrase that transcends them right on the spot? Do you understand? The arms are long, but the sleeves are short; the feet are thin, but the straw sandals are wide.