宏智禪師廣錄 5.14

5.14

At an informal gathering, a monk asked: "Venerable Yanyang asked Zhaozhou, 'When not bringing a single thing, how is it?' Zhaozhou said, 'Lay it down.' What does this mean?" The Master said, "Piling it up over the head, he comes; washing the entire body clean, he goes." The monk said, "Taking away sense-bases and sense-objects, all is empty; vast and completely pervasive, it encompasses worlds like grains of sand." The Master said, "Nor is there any principle of pervasiveness." The monk said, "How then can it be that the valley echoes yet is ever hollow, and the jewel emits light yet illuminates itself?" The Master said, "That is still the season of responding." The monk said, "How to achieve exact correspondence?" The Master said, "The sword has long since fallen in the water, yet you are only now notching your boat." The monk asked, "What is taking away the person but not taking away the environment?" The Master said, "Completely concealing one's own body, shadows manifest throughout the entire realm." The monk said, "What is taking away the environment but not taking away the person?" The Master said, "Vastly sweeping all away without a thread of hair remaining, everywhere dividing the body to pervade the great trichiliocosm." The monk said, "What is taking away neither person nor environment?" The Master said, "Yesterday was the twenty-ninth; this morning is the thirtieth." The monk said, "What is taking away both person and environment?" The Master said, "Sit down upon your tongue." The monk bowed. The Master then said: "Brethren, there are those who say: 'For thirty years, twenty years, three years, five years, I have practiced like this in the monastic groves, and I say that I am investigating Chan and studying the Way.' If one has never reached the very bottom, what use is it? You must only let go, causing everything on the ground of the mind to be entirely empty and completely exhausted. This is the original season. Therefore it is said: 'All things are born from the ground of the mind.' When all that is born is removed, it is still the original ground of the mind. This ground of the mind is equal and all-pervasive; all-pervasive, there is nowhere it is not present, nowhere it does not fill. Since forms arise upon the ground of the mind, throughout all the ten directions and the three times, not the slightest thing comes from outside—all manifests from right here. Then one knows: 'The ten thousand dharmas are the light of mind; all conditions are illuminated solely by the nature. Originally there is no one who is deluded or awakened; one only needs to understand today.' Mind has neither form nor shadow; facing conditions, it immediately illuminates. Therefore, one borrows empty space as the substance of the myriad forms, and borrows the myriad forms as the function of empty space. All phenomena are merely the conditioned reflections of deluded thoughts upon the ground of the mind. For example, clear water forms waves on account of the wind; only because the wind ceases do the characteristics of motion cease accordingly, not that the water ceases. If within your mind-ground you retain so many characteristics such as good and evil, those are precisely the waves upon the water. When the wind ceases, the waves cease; it is not that the water ceases. When characteristics of good and evil are exhausted, it is not that the mind ceases. This original affair cannot be emptied out. If one is a person who sits in Chan, when the dust stirs in the wind and the grass moves, one naturally sees through it. One must not say this is expounding sūtras and treatises—this is what Patriarch Aśvaghoṣa stated. Clear and distinct, it is truly clear and distinct. If you all reach such a season, it will naturally be just right and fitting. An ancient said: 'The person sitting on top of a hundred-foot pole, / Though having attained entry, is not yet true. / At the top of the hundred-foot pole, one must take a step forward; / Throughout the worlds of the ten directions, the entire body is revealed.' This is the entire body responding and manifesting. Sometimes one takes away the person but not the environment: standing toweringly upon all dharmas. Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara takes money to buy a sesame cake; putting down her hand, it turns out to be a steamed bun. Where could any stray sounds and forms come from? Sometimes one takes away the environment but not the person: recognizing it on the tips of the hundred grasses, grasping it at the entrance of the bustling market; the foolish skin-bag barring the street and cutting across the lane, knocking and bumping everywhere. Sometimes one takes away neither person nor environment: level and smooth, every single dharma is ready-made. When a person is even-tempered, they do not speak; when water is level, it does not flow. One coming from the east sits in the east. Thus, when Venerable Yanyang asked Zhaozhou, 'When not bringing a single thing, how is it?' Zhaozhou said, 'Lay it down.' The Venerable said, 'Since I do not bring a single thing, what should I lay down?' Zhaozhou said, 'In that case, carry it away.' Is this not such a season? Sometimes one takes away both person and environment: news is completely cut off, edges and corners disappear; penetrating top and penetrating bottom, like a jewel emitting light, the light still illuminating itself. Being so adaptable—only this is a patch-robed monk. If it is not so, in the twelve periods of the day, where are you going and coming? Take care."