宏智禪師廣錄 5.42

5.42

In an informal gathering, [the master] said: Phenomena have no coming or going, no movement or turning. Sometimes, atop an isolated peak, one cuts off the ten directions; sometimes, at the bustling market gate, one divides the body into hundreds of millions. Therefore it is said: 'Coming and going are not by form, hence there is no vessel into which it does not shape; motion and stillness are not by mind, hence there is no resonance to which it does not respond.' Such talk is permissible within the gate of establishing transformation; for the person of the Way, none of it can be applied. Brothers, what about the practice of a person of the Way? Remember a case of an ancient, which I bring up for you to examine: Long ago, Senior Monk Yi asked Dongshan, 'Does suchness pervading dwell in front, or does not-suchness pervading dwell in front?' Dongshan said, 'Suchness pervading dwells in front; not-suchness pervading also dwells in front.' Yi said, 'Does suchness pervading distinguish superior and inferior, or does not-suchness pervading distinguish superior and inferior?' Dongshan said, 'Suchness pervading distinguishes superior and inferior; not-suchness pervading also distinguishes superior and inferior.' Yi said, 'How are this and that distinguished?' Dongshan said, 'They are distinguished, and also not distinguished.' Yi said, 'What is being distinguished?' Dongshan said, 'Suchness pervading.' Yi said, 'What is not being distinguished?' Dongshan said, 'Not-suchness pervading.' Yi said, 'Could it not just be the matter of the whole body and not the whole body?' Dongshan said, 'It is not that principle.' Yi said, 'What principle is it?' Dongshan said, 'It is the principle of suchness pervading and not-suchness pervading.' He added, 'Senior Monk Yi, do you want to know? It is like an eighty-year-old woman marrying a three-year-old boy: though she is grown in years, she is summoned and commanded by that three-year-old boy, unable to be free.' Later, a monk brought this up and asked Caoshan, 'What is the eighty-year-old woman?' Caoshan said, 'Tangled white hair continuous with snow on the head.' The monk said, 'What is the three-year-old boy?' Caoshan said, 'Not acting as master.' The monk said, 'Why does he not act as master?' Caoshan said, 'Have you not heard it said: nothing can surpass a three-year-old boy?' The monk said, 'Since she is an eighty-year-old woman, why does she marry his three-year-old boy?' Caoshan said, 'Only when one is like an eighty-year-old woman does one understand how to serve him.' The master said: Brothers, I have cited it. But how do you put it into practice? If you are a seasoned practitioner of high virtue, you will be without doubt right under it; if you are of later entry and initial capacity, you must be very careful. Senior Monk Jue tonight does not spare his eyebrows to draw legs on a snake for you: Senior Monk Yi asking like that is much like holding a jasper branch in hand and knocking at night on a jade door, waking someone to put on a seamless robe, startling birds roosting on budless branches. Dongshan answering like that can be called slicing open the clam's belly to yield a thousand-year glow, raising the golden hammer high and smashing it with one blow. Old Man Caoshan completely mastered the master's transmission: truly, the family was prosperous and the men heroic, the father strict and the son talented. Down to the present day, the ancestral style has not fallen, and the family regulations constantly endure. May I ask all of you: what are the family regulations of Caodong? Do you want to understand? 'The great whale drinks dry the water of the vast ocean; / The Kunlun man embraces a branch of coral.'