宏智禪師廣錄 5.15

5.15

At an informal gathering, a monk asked: "What is the season when needle and thread run through?" The Master said, "Walking forward finely, coming along densely within it." The monk said, "Lamentable: on the day of departure, the face was like jade; yet one sighs that on returning, the temples are like frost." The Master said, "Casting open the two ends, how do you discern what is in between?" The monk said, "Family ugliness must not be aired outside." The Master said, "How would you utter an extraordinary phrase?" The monk said, "Arriving here, one sheds the body into a single color, not keeping to the common style." The Master said, "A single stretch sits [all] to death." The monk said, "I recall: a monk asked Yunju, 'When there is nowhere at all to learn, how does one establish oneself?' Yunju said, 'There is no place to establish oneself.' The monk said, 'Why labor at Buddhist affairs?' Yunju said, 'Not the same as Xinghua.' I wonder: what does this mean?" The Master said, "Just like the elder's going just now." The monk said, "Though having a mouth, it is hard to speak." The Master said, "Not the same as Xinghua." The monk bowed. The monk asked: "I recall: Yunyan asked Daowu, 'What does the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion use so many hands and eyes for?' Daowu said, 'Like a person in the night reaching back with a hand to search for a pillow.' I wonder: what does this mean?" The Master said, "Without mind, it is able to function; functioning, it is naturally without mind." The monk said, "If so, then it is exquisitely clear on all eight sides, all eight sides exquisitely clear." The Master said, "Where it responds, nothing is brought along; throughout the entire body, it can transform." The monk said, "Why did Daowu then say, 'Speaking indeed speaks too much, yet it only says eighty percent'?" The Master said, "He distinguishes the seasons of 'throughout the body' and 'the whole body.'" The monk said, "Just as to 'throughout the body' and 'the whole body,' how far apart are they?" The Master said, "Separated by merely the breadth of a single thread, it becomes tens of thousands of miles." The monk said, "How is it when pushing through that single thread?" The Master said, "It fits precisely with that time." The Master then said: "A monk asked Yunju, 'When there is nowhere at all to learn, how does one establish oneself?' Yunju said, 'There is no place to establish oneself.' The monk said, 'Why labor at Buddhist affairs?' Yunju said, 'Not the same as Xinghua.' Arriving here, not a speck can be placed. You must reach the very bottom and exhaust it completely, where there is no place for you to make reasonings and distinctions, no place for you to be vague and indistinct. Like letting go one's hold on a hanging cliff, directly letting go of everything completely—only then do you accord with Yunju's practice. Just because at that time it is not the same as Xinghua. Again, Yunyan asked Daowu, 'What does the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion use so many hands and eyes for?' Daowu said, 'Like a person in the night reaching back with a hand to search for a pillow.' At that time, equipped with so many hands and equipped with so many eyes, one makes no before and after, nor does one engage in thinking. Right at such a time, what is that which is able to respond? Have you not seen it said: 'In the eyes it is called seeing; in the ears it is called hearing; in the nose it smells fragrance; on the tongue it speaks; in the hands it grasps; in the feet it runs. When recognized, it is called the buddha-nature; when not recognized, it is called the conscious spirit.' If you make reasonings and make arrangements, that is precisely the continuous flow of karmic consciousness. Therefore Venerable Changsha said: 'Practitioners of the Way do not realize the true, / Solely because they have always recognized the spirit of consciousness; / The root of birth and death for countless kalpas, / Fools call it the original person.' You must thoroughly return before you understand how to perform such transformations. If you recognize sounds and forms, recognize grasping, recognize salty and bland, none of it is correct. Simply let go of the spirit of consciousness completely, and you will respond just like this—similar to a mirror reflecting images or a valley echoing sounds. For this reason, Old Śākya divided into hundreds of thousands of myriads of bodies, and the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion was equipped with a thousand hands and eyes: entering right concentration in a man's body, arising from concentration in a woman's body; entering right absorption in a single dust mote, arising in samādhi from all dust motes. And tell me: right at such a time, how is it? Spreading wings, soaring through the clouds of the six directions; beating the wind, stirring the waters of the four seas."