宏智禪師廣錄 5.35

5.35

At an informal gathering, a monk asked, "When completely naked and bare, how does one practice?"
The master said, "Prior to the kalpa of emptiness there is nowhere to abide; that person never engages in thinking."
The monk said, "Without using oars or paddles, the boat's bottom drops out; coming and going, one never carries a flotation bladder."
The master said, "Tell me, how does one come and go?"
The monk said, "Turning the head toward the path amid the pines, faintly the moon is bright once more."
The master said, "It is somewhat similar, but it is not quite it."
The monk said, "What about when coming and going attain the wondrous?"
The master said, "The wooden figure puts on boots at midnight and departs; the stone maiden wears a hat at daybreak and returns."
The monk said, "Across the vast sky, before dawn, wild clouds lie horizontally; at the ancient ferry without wind, the night toad (moon) reaches its zenith."
The master said, "Just as to responding to circumstances and adapting flexibly, how should one be?"
The monk said, "Holding an over-the-head staff in hand, encountering spring, dotting singular blossoms."
The master said, "Dead people innumerable on level ground!"
The monk said, "Ultimately, when responding to circumstances, how does one adapt flexibly?"
The master said, "Avalokiteśvara buys a sesame cake; opening her hand, it is a steamed bun."
The master then said, "This is an immeasurably great affair. The Buddhas realized this one affair, radiating light and expounding the Dharma for all people. The Patriarchs awakened to this one affair, extending their hands and transmitting the mind for all people. If you are a clear and discerning fellow, do not follow the Buddhas, do not follow the Patriarchs, to study Chan and study the Way, to study Buddhas and study the Dharma. It is solely oneself willing to desist, willing to rest, willing to let go, willing to drop [everything]. At that time, not a single thread clings, not a speck of dust lingers. Let it be unified with heaven and earth, equal to empty space. All affairs dissolve; all minds blend together. Vast and expansive, it is the one true human substance. If horn and head are exhausted, tracks and traces extinguished, crossroads cut off, and mental thoughts forgotten, this is a thoroughgoing time of no birth and no death. I do not tell you to take a step back, nor do I tell you to take a step forward. The Buddhas of the three times simultaneously realize this time; the Patriarchs of the six generations simultaneously awaken to this time. It requires that at this time one lucidly illuminates and penetrates, quietly embodies and attains. If you recognize the dharma that gives birth, then together with the myriad forms and dense array of phenomena, the wriggling and squirming sentient beings, within them all is the single path, all is the single nature. You must recognize the primal mark. If you do not see the primal mark, then disparity occurs, and you fall into transmigration. Have all of you yet seen the primal mark? The Buddhas are born at such a time; the Patriarchs appear at such a time. If you do not recognize it at that time, you will follow earth, water, fire, and wind, forms and sounds, follow the large and small, follow the high and low. If you recognize it at that time, moving a step is my step, obtaining a phrase is my phrase. Therefore it is said: 'If one person crosses over, nine people also cross over; if one person does not cross over, he drags down nine people.' All affairs are oneself; all phenomena are oneself. At the eye, perform the Buddha-work of the form realm; at the ear, perform the Buddha-work of the sound realm. Smells, tastes, tangibles, and mental objects each perform Buddha-work. Like six brothers managing the estate of a single family. Master Nanquan said, 'At eighteen, I already understood how to establish a home and set up an estate.' If you do not penetrate and recognize it at the time, admiring and sighing from a cliff afterward is already [looking where] the sword has long since departed. Furthermore, fabricating strange things within sense bases, sense objects, and dharmas, saying, 'Isn't what is heard Buddha? Isn't what is seen Buddha?' Using sense bases, objects, and consciousness to make Dao and principle—even if you arrange them smoothly and assemble them successfully, it is far, far off. At that time, when hands and feet cannot manage, it is again seven topsy-turvy and eight upside-down. In what place can you wash your head and face clean? In what place can you set your hands and feet firmly? You just let a single thought last ten thousand years, let white mold grow on the sides of your mouth, and there will be a time of resonance. The ancients never took a single word or single phrase to this side for people; they only taught you to finish with that side and then come to this side to practice. If that side is not finished, taking a bit of knowledge and a bit of view to describe it beneath the mind ground, looking at the flurry of confusion, how many streams of thoughts are pouring out! In a single kṣaṇa, how many rounds of arising and ceasing? If that side is resolved, birth is exhausted and death is exhausted. Therefore it is said: 'Both arising and ceasing are fundamentally left behind; this is called the eternally true.' It is also said: 'Hearing and the heard are both exhausted; awareness and the awared are both emptied. Empty awareness is supremely perfect; the emptiness and the emptied are extinguished. Arising and ceasing having been extinguished, quiescent extinction manifests.' Only when reaching that time does one enter the realm of perfect penetration. Therefore, the perfect penetration realized by the twenty-five great beings was in all cases stepping back to come to oneself. Even smelling incense and contemplating the nose each has an entry point. You must exhaust the root source and penetrate from top to bottom; only then is it your dwelling place. Nowadays, a sort of fellow takes words from Chan books to make Dao and principle, to make Buddha and Dharma—when will they ever finish? If you only constantly rest of yourself, not following along with earth, water, fire, and wind, you will constantly transcend birth and death. An ancient said: 'First, do not bring anything; if you bring something, it will not be similar. If perchance you bring it, you must throw it away.' Venerable Yanyang asked Zhaozhou, 'How is it when not bringing a single thing?' Zhaozhou said, 'Lay it down.' Yanyang said, 'Since I do not bring a single thing, what is there to lay down?' Zhaozhou said, 'If so, then carry it away.' Brothers, normally do not carry anything along, and you will be a person of the Dao with nothing to do, not manifesting bodily forms within the three realms. A person of true color ought to go on in this way. Take care!"