宏智禪師廣錄 9
English (machine translation) 9
- Language
- English
9.1
True vigor is departing from delusion. Dharma offering is free from blemish. Wondrous adornment follows conditions. Wise expedient means is unbound. Vairocana's nature is empty, yet the wisdom body is clear and distinct; Samantabhadra's pores encompass the Dharmadhātu layer upon layer. Looking up to it, it is lofty; drilling into it, it is hard. It can be steeped in dark dye without turning black, ground without wearing thin. The nighttime tide of the vast ocean of coral drinks in its radiance; the spring tune of the campaka groves washes away its cold hue. Evening out all things, the butterfly flutters in a dream; cutting off the flow, the gull keeps its covenant. At Linglongyan Temple in Siming, I gathered bundles of bamboo splints and dwelt on the mountain for nearly thirty years. The assembly gathered and endured poverty, personally going forth with begging bowls, while still relying on monks assigned to convert others to beg sequentially for provisions. To sketch this illusory form requires coarse words, so that wherever people meet, it may serve as an aid to conversation. Now that the monastic compilation is to be carved on blocks, family ugliness should not be broadcast. Furthermore, he who knows it is foolish; he who speaks of it is at fault. The Patriarch certified it through personal arrival; the Buddha expounded it fearing people would become lost. Facing the wall, the lamps connected; the mind emptied, light emanated. The spirit roams its depths; luminously self-illuminating, its substance is empty. The Way attains its wholeness; continuous as if existing, its function is subtle. The nostrils cannot be carried even by a cart; the tongue cannot be extended even when pulled with pincers. The Patriarch's intention is thoroughly plumbed and clear; the Buddha's work is radiant and complete. The sword brandished in the void moves freely without obstruction; the pearl receiving shadows matches what it embraces or leaves behind. Clouds and birds have no fixed pattern; the wind-chime resonates of itself. The chirping of autumn insects, the patterns of wood-boring worms: tradition says the vessel of the Buddha's selection is one and the same, yet when pointing toward the Way, the lineage is whole while speech is only half. The monk Shiyan requested this preface. Written by Zhengjue on the day of the summer retreat in the twenty-seventh year of Shaoxing [1157].
9.2
Eulogies on Portraits of Reverend Jue of Tiantong in Mingzhou.
9.3
Compiled by Attendant Shiyan.
9.4
Eulogies on the Portraits of the Six Generations of Patriarchs, with Preface.
9.5
When Tiantong was begging for food in Huangyan, Superior Yongxiang brought out portraits of the Six Generations of Patriarchs and entrusted me to compose eulogies for them. Investigating the reason why they became patriarchs: they directly illuminated the primary matter. The establishment of causal conditions is entirely the business of descendants. Did not the Patriarch say: 'Not walking in the same tracks as ordinary people and sages, transcendently he is named Patriarch'? The luxuriant branches and distant streams, responding to dynamic functions, wondrously attain the root source and naturally accord with it. This can be understood without words. Now, happily rejoicing and bowing my head, I offer this eulogy:
9.6
First Patriarch, Chan Master Bodhidharma
9.7
The transmission in the West was not yet finished; / Traveling east, he sought its counterpart. / The atmosphere of the Great Vehicle was far-reaching; / Spring came early to Shaolin. / Facing the wall for nine years, / Anxious to find the right person. / With three bows the marrow was transmitted; / He obtained a worthy successor. / Reed flowers and the bright moon, the night boat turns; / The water is distant, the sky is low, autumn colors connect.
9.8
Second Patriarch, Chan Master Dazu
9.9
Standing in snow up to his waist, / Seeking the Dharma, he severed his arm. / With resolve, he forgot his physical body; / With no-mind, he tallied with his own self. / Clearly and ever knowing, / His knowing was subtle and minute. / Wondrously, it did not rely on the mouth; / Directly, the robe was transmitted of itself. / At the season when all merit returns to the father, / He turned empty space around, severing all reliance.
9.10
Third Patriarch, Chan Master Jianzhi
9.11
The Way has no selection; / The lineage is neither shortened nor extended. / Birth and death are external attachments; / Pure and spotless is the family transmission. / Seeking sin, its nature is empty; / Open and vast, the great sameness. / Wondrously exhausting, the objective realm of ability perishes; / When the dynamic turns, it borrows function instead. / Empty and luminous, it illuminates itself without mental consciousness; / The ocean moon and the miraculous rhinoceros connect with the nighttime spirit.
9.12
Fourth Patriarch, Chan Master Dayi
9.13
Receiving the robe of Quzhi, / Holding the seal of Vairocana. / The Master sat on the Western Mountain; / His reputation shook the East. / Like the pollen consumed by bees—the nourishment of spring honey; / Like the pearl in the clam's gut—conceived by the nighttime moon. / Far-reaching vapors present auspicious signs; spiritual branches burgeon alongside. / Niutou was received as Layman Rong; / Flowers and birds no longer came to fuss outside the hermitage.
9.14
Fifth Patriarch, Chan Master Daman
9.15
The son of an extraordinary woman, / The successor of Shuangfeng. / Transmitting the robe, the world praised his wondrous youth; / Planting pines, I feel ashamed of my declining years. / Two lives before and after; / One mind through ancient and modern. / A solitary luan bird dances in the wind before a crystal mirror; / A great whale gallops by moonlight through the coral forest. / 'The barbarian took the bowl and went,' people said; / For several nights in the spring threshing room, no sound of the pestle was heard.
9.16
Sixth Patriarch, Chan Master Dajian
9.17
A woodcutter of Guangnan, / A postulant of Huaixi. / A bright pearl rolls on a platter; / Pure gold emerges from the smelter. / Penetrating forms and images, neither ordinary nor sacred share the same dust; / Continuing the radiance, the lineage naturally knows no night. / As all stars encircle the dipper's bowl, / As all streams rush toward the lower sea. / Abandoning the bowl-bag, he fled; / It could not be lifted, and was earnestly sought back. / It was not the wind or the banner that waved, / Revealing that emotion transcended the objects themselves. / The leaves fall and return to the root—when arriving, there was no mouth; / The hundreds of thousands of samādhis are but one hair on nine oxen.
9.18
Before the Old Teacher of Tiantong put brush to paper, the nostrils of the ancestral teachers had already been pierced through all at once. Having no other choice, he brought forth these words again, pointing directly face to face, so that when someone reads these eulogies, there is no separate eulogy—knowing the source beneath the words is one's own eulogy; seeing these patriarchs, there are no separate patriarchs—silently tallying with them is one's own patriarch. If it is like this, then the features of the Buddhas and patriarchs are upright, yet their outward glamour is not flaunted. The five petals on a single flower—everywhere is spring scenery. Alas! Day and night, who does not rise and sit, appear and disappear together with the ancestral masters? Yangshan said: 'I do not say you saw it; it is just that there is no difference.' Colophon by Zhenxie Qingliao.
9.19
Chan Master Tiantong of Siming composed these eulogies on the portraits of the Six Generations of Patriarchs; their meaning is genuine and their language wondrous, transcending the Buddhas and surpassing the patriarchs. Within the brush and ink of a person with clear eyes, there are naturally unique openings, which cannot be matched by worldly learning of literary composition. His daily output was very rich; my regret is only that I have not seen it all. When later students read these eulogies, they will know that the great good friend lodged his wondrous intent in this work; how could it be forgotten? Written by the old Chan monk Shigui on the tenth day of the third month in the guihai year of Shaoxing [1143].
9.20
Senior Zong of Xuedou, having painted the Master's portrait, presented it to the administrator of Tiantong to hang in a wall niche, requesting words to be written upon it:
9.21
The wondrous storehouse has no neighbor; / Ultimately it has no body. / The principle of pure emptiness is real; / The secluded spirit is singularly divine. / In an instant it returns to form; / The wisdom of self-illumination is intimate. / The cold clouds carry the intention of snow; / The distant sky touches the autumn ford. / Through conditioned arising, the Buddha-seed appears; / Awakening gives birth to illusory dust. / Words delicate, voice soft—the resonance of a phoenix fledgling on Dan Mountain; / Eyes deep, brows heavy—the frown of a lion in the sandalwood grove. / Borrowing position: host and guest along the road; / Borrowing function: lord and minister within the gate. / The Dong waters flow in reverse; / Looking toward Yunyan, he half consented. / Caoshan got mad on wine, / Knowing that Qingrui was not completely impoverished. / At the head of the curved-wood couch, grasping the fly-whisk, / The mind-transmitted single phrase is bestowed upon the right person.
9.22
Senior Wu of Daning painted the Master's portrait and requested a eulogy:
9.23
Eyes alive, skull dry; / The marvel is seen where subtle nuances shift. / A fish dives into water and the autumn traces become even more emerald; / A crane perches in the pine and its moonlit dream remains cold. / The spirit responding to the call abides in the valley; / The pearl adapting to color rolls on the platter. / On whom do shadows and echoes cling? The eyebrows find their function; / Chipping away the plaster leaving room to spare, the nose is uninjured.
9.24
Senior Hui of Wanshou painted the Master's portrait and requested a eulogy:
9.25
Empty and without trace, / Continuous, its substance is as if existing. / Prominent and without peer, / Exactly so, its function is not laborious. / Radiance pierces the night, the moon is clear and still; / Clouds emerge from the mountain—obtaining without obtaining, / Hearing without hearing. / The transmission of Shaolin was silent; / The smile on Vulture Peak was joyful. / Dragons and thunder send off the fish burning its tail; / Mist suddenly cloaks the leopard, the tiger displays its bright stripes. / Evening out all things, drifting along, / The wandering dream seems to follow the butterfly away; / Forgetting machinations, vast and expansive, / Pure leisure is shared with the white gulls.
9.26
Senior Cui of Baofu painted the Master's portrait and requested a eulogy:
9.27
In youth eating dates, the teeth were yellow; / In old age sated with salt, the goiter vanished. / The hare shares its lunar spirit entering the rhinoceros horn; / The bee gathers flower nectar returning to the honey chamber. / The source is deep, the stream long; / Substance is bright, function luminous. / Lofty and grand, / Splendid and magnificent. / As sandalwood seal-incense burns away, silent and without speech; / Accompanied by a black rattan staff, leaning against the rope couch.
9.28
Senior Rong of Qingtan painted the Master's portrait and requested a eulogy:
9.29
The waters of the home mountain are still, forgetting their location; / Befriending fish and birds, in motion forgetting you and me. / Who transmits this attainment of silent stillness? / The distinct school raises itself up. / Spring has not yet returned to the ice pitcher, yet there is not a trace of grime; / The moon has already risen over the jade forest, and there is such clear radiance. / Placidly abiding in this vehicle of our school, / How could one willing ruin the sons and daughters of others' families? / The bowl of Huangmei is laughed at for being stolen by night; / The robe of Shaoshi is suspected of being given in vain. / Square, it thoroughly penetrates the terrestrial regions; / Round, it encompasses the celestial vaults. / The spirit emerges in seclusion, and the empty valley responds to the call; / Sound transcends obstruction, and the frost bell is suddenly struck.
9.30
Senior Monk Gong of Guangxiao Had the Master's Portrait Painted and Requested a Eulogy
9.31
The inquirer is not intimate; / The transmitter is not genuine. / The nature silently completed / Illuminates emptiness with spiritual potency. / Placidly abiding without form, / Mysteriously wondrous, beyond compare. / Heating the furnace to cast its vessel, / Blowing wind and mist to make its spring. / Establishing all illusions, / Disclosing utmost purity. / The master's hand swings the axe with a sharp blade, / Removing the dust on the tip of the nose like mud from a fly. / His hewing is trustworthy, / But receiving it is difficult for a person. / The towering pine / Stands luxuriant alone through the test of snow; / The tottering boulder / Has nearly been shattered by the wrath of thunder.
9.32
Senior Monk Yi of Rengren Had the Master's Portrait Painted and Requested a Eulogy
9.33
Phrases from itinerant wandering are intimate; / Traces of dwelling in the mountains are stale. / In silence there is remaining flavor; / In words one returns to losing the genuine. / Gold sends forth resonance and transcends obstruction; / Jade is carved with patterns and loses its purity. / The capacity within the breast; / The spirit beneath the eyebrows. / A tiger three days old has the mettle to devour an ox; / In the vast sea of ten thousand leagues are scales that swallow ships. / The nature attained fully lifts the nostrils; / The transmission of mind does not hang on the lips. / In the courtyard of white snow, / The gentleman waist-deep stands alone; / At the chessboard beneath red banana palms, / The man who once watched his axe handle rot.
9.34
Senior Monk Hui of Nanming Had the Master's Portrait Painted and Requested a Eulogy
9.35
The whiteness of his hair—the snow of green mountains is cold; / The cool detachment of his eyes—autumn returns to distant waters. / The dynamic mechanism turns on its own—the nocturnal Dipper has a handle; / The vital energy is clear of itself—the River of Stars has no waves. / The valley responds with sound, forgetting form; / The pearl receives color without a blemish. / The tide recedes in the ocean, flat and pure; / Clouds withdraw in the vault of heaven, empty and broader still. / The myriad transformations arise and cease, while silently he observes their source.
9.36
Senior Monk Jian of Zuyin Had the Master's Portrait Painted and Requested a Eulogy
9.37
Who can transmit this face? / Body and mind are natural. / A mirror containing ten thousand images; / An ocean swallowing a hundred rivers. / The brocade loom moves and colored threads pass through; / The jade thread penetrates and links with the golden needle. / Preaching the Dharma with borrowed mouth; / Frightening people with an empty fist. / Equality cannot be displaced— / Let the crane's legs be long and the duck's legs short. / Adaptable, following transformations— / The lines of Kun are broken and Qian is joined.
9.38
Senior Monk Zhao of Jingju Had the Master's Portrait Painted and Requested a Eulogy
9.39
The true vehicle is gate-less—Buddhas and Buddhas share the same Way. / Facing the wall there is a phrase—Patriarchs and Patriarchs have empty minds. / Dwelling quietly beyond the bounds, wisdom enters the circle's centre. / Borrowing function to illuminate silent stillness; / Borrowing companions to enter the worldly cage. / Pervading the ten directions, / Blending the three periods of time. / Land by land, dust mote by dust mote, all preach the Dharma together; / Seeing and hearing interchange, naturally communicating with each other.
9.40
Senior Monk Hui of Baoyuan Had the Master's Portrait Painted and Requested a Eulogy
9.41
The water in autumn is clear; / The moon in winter is bright. / The myriad mechanisms have ceased; / The three times are equal and even. / With dust cleared away, one returns to dwell in the Dharmakāya; / With illusions arising, one emerges from the Buddha's mouth. / Covered by the vast sky, / Sustained by the great earth. / All the patriarchs share his Way; / The myriad beings walk with him. / A fly-whisk of turtle hair held upright; / A staff of rabbit horns resting horizontally across his knees. / Without a single thing borrowed from elsewhere, / He beckons the simpleton monk to serve as witness.
9.42
Senior Monk Ren of Rengren Had the Master's Portrait Painted and Requested a Eulogy
9.43
The nature of the great round mirror; / The mind of the wisdom of equality. / An old hare lies in the cold—the cave of the clear, brilliant moon; / A great whale gallops through the sea—the shimmering forest of coral. / Across a thousand leagues snow churns and waves stretch indistinct; / In a hundred rivers the tide rises and the waters run deep. / The peng bird beats its wings and the kun fish sheds its shell; / The chick chimes in as the crane calls from the shade. / Responding as appropriate, the blade glides freely; / When meeting, there are those who appreciate the tune.
9.44
Head Monk Hui Had the Master's Portrait Painted and Requested a Eulogy
9.45
A withered and worn appearance, / Striving along, bent and sluggish. / The craggy monastery is exquisite; / The cloud pine winds and twists. / The cold splendor of late autumn chrysanthemums; / The clear resonance of the frost bell at dawn. / Land by land, dust mote by dust mote, the affair of samādhi— / Where would an appreciative friend not be met?
9.46
Prior Zhang Had the Master's Portrait Painted and Requested a Eulogy
9.47
Dim and boundless— / The shadow of the cold wild goose vanishes, autumn is distant and the mist is blue. / Silent and alert— / The old silkworm finishes its cocoon, the wind is high and the leaves fall. / When the heavenly mechanism is still, it comes alive; / Where the circle of the Way is empty, it is numinous. / Submerged like the ocean, stabilizing like Mount Song; / Strong like Qian, tranquil like Kun. / The sea churns as the peng takes flight with soaring spirit, / And the fish that swallows ships sheds its skin; / The fog parts as the leopard transforms with brilliant markings, / And the tiger roaring at the wind is fierce. / Before the lamp of Shaolin had been continued, / The man of Luoyang stood waist-deep in the snowy courtyard. / When the robe of Huangmei was about to be transmitted, / The wild barbarian ancestor shifted his steps on the pestle and mortar. / When things are not burdened by sentiments, stepping onto the ice is swift; / If a fish burns its tail, the smell of lightning and fire is pungent. / The myriad dust motes tower high in echoes and shadows; / The samādhi sports in beholding and listening. / Halting and limping, his walking is confident of itself; / Stammering and babbling, his words are not taken lightly. / The family tradition is austere; what fine descendants! / His mind is wintry, as pines and cypresses are tested by snow; / His countenance is pure and white, as the River of Stars contains the stars. / The crane calling from the shade is lean yet long-lived; / The turtle nesting in the lotus is small yet ancient. / Before the game of chess disperses, the woodcutter's axe handle has rotted.
9.48
Chief Postulant Zhishu and the Assembly of Practitioners Had the Master's Portrait Painted and Requested a Eulogy
9.49
A back spotted like a pufferfish, teeth like an old whale; / Skin like a chicken, hair like a crane. / Renounced the household in the northwest, / Traveled on foot in the southeast. / In selecting Buddhas, he reached emptiness, awakening to emptiness; / In treating others, he eliminated medicine and disease, curing medicine with disease. / Clouds rise in the evening ravine; / The moon sets over the autumn pool. / The turning mechanism of biased and upright; / The square and round of mortise and tenon. / The spring dream of the butterfly flutters softly, making all things equal; / The wilderness covenant of the white gull drifts lightly, leisurely and joyful. / Wondrous contact is non-confrontational; / What action does response require? / A sword swung through the air leaves no mark on either side; / A pearl receiving shadows reflects self and other alike. / His refined demeanor is craggy; the tone of his intent, twisted and unyielding. / Halting and limping, what kind of detached unworldliness is this? / Stammering and babbling, not an empty lasso.
9.50
Investigator Tang Shouxiang Had a Portrait Painted and Requested a Eulogy
9.51
His form and demeanor are decrepit; / His appearance is cold and withered. / The wilderness clouds are idle of themselves; / What cliff tree ever grows old? / The nature is originally still, wondrously preserved; / The essence is fundamentally true, emptily clear. / In the illusory world responding to various conditions, / The fallow field does not choose its grass. / Gazing through wind and mist to the end, the wild goose's shadow is dim; / Sky and water connect, the autumn scenery boundless.
9.52
Court Gentleman Qian Had a Portrait Painted and Requested a Eulogy
9.53
The supreme, pure, luminous mind / Blends past and present. / The air of the River of Stars is clear and autumn is vast; / The light of the Ox and Dipper is cold and the night is deep. / The dynamic mechanism is distinct—the brocade shuttle spits forth threads; / The Way is continuous—the jade thread joins the needle. / The moon ripples on the coral sea; / Spring returns to the campaka grove. / The skillful means to adapt to each and every phenomenon; / The bosom that transcends obstruction in each and every dust mote. / Who could dislike the differentiated images in a bright mirror? / The empty mountain naturally responds with a matching sound.
9.54
Zhang Hanxiang Had a Portrait Painted and Requested a Eulogy
9.55
The crown of his head is covered in white snow; / Across his eyes stretch green waves. / Clear frost moistens the handle of the Dipper; / On the ancient wall hangs the dragon shuttle. / The flower of Shaolin has not grown old; / The mirror of Caoxi does not need polishing. / How much has he attained? / Not much has been passed down in his family. / Thoroughly seasoned by the clouds and waters with three bamboo strips, / He has angled all the rivers and lakes with a single straw raincoat.
9.56
Tax Supervisor Zhang Had a Portrait Painted and Requested a Eulogy
9.57
Delving secretly into its beginning, / Placidly abiding as if empty. / The essence is luminous without end; / The vital energy is clear and abundant. / Snow on the Taihang Mountains burdens the roofs; / Ice on the Yellow River bears carts. / The tiger whose markings transform in the leopard's mist; / The fish that burns its tail in the dragon's thunder. / Wind and mist are moist and gentle; / Grass and trees stretch out in brilliance. / Every sense organ and every dust mote is completely clear; / Every phenomenon and every thought is just so. / The practitioner of the rice-pounding shed received the robe and bowl; / One can trust that the mind transmission does not depend on books.
9.58
Estate Steward Zhixuan Had the Master's Portrait Painted and Requested a Eulogy
9.59
Frosty cranium and snowy mustache; / Ravine-like eyes and craggy brows. / The source of the Kunlun Mountains—I occupy it; / The chiseling of Hundun—who wields it? / Where the flying geese vanish, the autumn sky is vast; / When the scent of blossoms is dense, the spring days are long. / All dust motes transcend obstruction; wondrous contact has no flaw.
9.60
Chan Practitioners and Fund-raisers Had a Portrait Painted and Requested a Eulogy
9.61
Clouds stretch across his shoulders; / Snow covers his crown. / Empty and vacuous, nurturing wisdom; / Motionless, forgetting conditions. / The moon shines on the coral— / The ocean radiates light, banishing night. / The pine produces amber— / Its roots hold resin through many years. / The nature is solely equal; / The Way models itself on nature. / The pincers and hammer are held in his grip; / The staff and whisk are applied with his fist. / The leopard's mist spreads across the wilderness of catalpa trees; / The dragon's thunder roars through the river of peach blossoms. / The autumn of the monastic groves of clouds and waters / Blends with the demeanor of seasoned maturity; / The spring of grass and trees in streams and mountains / Was once brewed amid the wind and mist. / The diligent study of descendants; / The family transmission of Buddhas and Patriarchs. / The passing through of needle and thread; / The linked flames of the niche lamp. / It was said that Longmen had no overnight guests, / Yet now turtles and cranes have all become immortals.
9.62
The vital energy is clear, the water autumnal; / The bones are cold, the wood withered. / Willow trees with blue eyes in deep spring; / Mountaintops with white heads in early snow. / Possessing the marks of a great being, / He falls into emptiness without alarm. / Possessing great strength, / When the wind blows, he falls right over. / These subtle points are difficult to transmit; / Tell the painter he has done it carelessly.
9.63
The knots of the pine are old and hard; / On the cliff edges frost falls early. / Gulls are at leisure on the boundless sand; / Geese vanish into the vast grey mist. / The hexagram images: Qian is connected, Kun is broken; / Formed implements: the compass is round, the carpenter's square is square. / Meeting in the bustling marketplace, I casually bring it up: / The neighbor on the east has a short ladle, the neighbor on the west a long one.
9.64
Profoundly silent, placidly abiding; / The Way transcends seeing and hearing. / True illumination is fundamentally present; / Wondrously exhausting new merits. / The spirit of the empty valley fills the trichiliocosm; / The shadow of the bright moon multiplies into hundreds of millions of bodies. / Unfixed, like duckweed on flowing water; / Unbound, like flying birds and moving clouds. / Attaining it has evidence; / Employing it requires no strain.
9.65
A wide mouth and high nose; / The spirit is tranquil, the mind empty. / The snowy reeds along the shore stretch into the distance; / Water and sky share the same autumn hue. / On a cold night, the Northern Dipper lowers its golden handle; / When the moon sets behind the western hills, it conceals the jade bow. / The true mechanism turns gracefully; / Illusory existence is completely harmonized. / The ancient Buddha naturally merges with the exposed pillar; / Turning the hand up, turning the hand down—observe the adaptations.
9.66
Amid cliffs and ravines is the bright spring of grass and trees; / Over rivers and lakes is the spirit of wind and mist. / Hair and beard are wild snow; brows and eyes are autumn streams. / In profound silence he enters the cave of the cold toad; / Complete and luminous, he nurtures the treasure of the old clam. / Step by step entering the dust; / Gate by gate transcending the body. / Grieve not over the tune of the scorched tail at the fingertips; / Delight in the red-tailed fish upon the hook.
9.67
The body is at leisure, not classed among types; / The mind is still, emotions do not flow. / A crescent moon shines brightly on its own; / A solitary cloud drifts leisurely forever. / The thinning hair on his crown is white as high mountain snow; / His brows and eyes are cold and clear as an ancient ravine in autumn. / Taking that subtle touch of spring breeze, / Bestow it upon the grass and trees, pervading the ten directions.
9.68
The Taihang Mountains wind and twist; / The Yellow River surges and flows. / Liver and gall are clear and clean; / Breast and chest are vast and empty. / Before a fresh breeze arises from his lips and teeth, / White snow has already reached his brows and beard. / The silence of Shaolin has no other explanation; / The rice pounding of Huangmei was illiterate. / Having seen through to the original face of man, / How would names and words dare recklessly explain it?
9.69
The waves of consciousness have dripped dry; / The belly is bound loosely. / The mouth rolls with billows, and the sea is vast; / Hair hangs down like snow, and the mountain is cold. / Wondrously transmitting the family tradition through the skull's eye; / Skillfully manifesting supernatural powers from the lump of red flesh. / Following along together— / Without a blemish from hammer or chisel.
9.70
The mountain is covered in snow—his whole crown is white; / The water is deep in autumn—both eyes are clear and cool. / The hexagram lines first formed images; / Skin and bones naturally formed a shape. / The uncarved simplicity prior to Hundun; / The spiritual potency before Yin and Yang divided. / The Way was transmitted by the Buddha who does not emerge in the world; / The meaning is fully prepared in the sūtra whose title is not opened. / Responsive, like clouds and moon; functioning, like thunder and lightning. / Having steadfastness, he embraces the sea and stabilizes the peaks; / Having no tether, he drifts like a severed reed and floating duckweed.
9.71
Sitting foolishly, collapsed and spent; / the mountain is empty, the gorge dry. / Leaving and entering between subtle and detached; / going and returning between bias and upright. / A pine of thousand-year-old amber— / the crane's nest cold in its dream; / coral in the midnight moon— / the whale stirs chilly waves. / When full merit is exhausted, / how hard can it be to borrow a road? / Turning the step to return, in the monastic grove is an overflowing gentle warmth; / opening the mouth to speak, across the Milky Way vast billows surge. / Meeting someone on the Way who can act, who would dare deceive them?
9.72
Wonderfully transmitting the true, shifting and transforming with spirit. / Barefoot on the kalpa of emptiness along the path of going back; / white-haired borrowing a companion, a person returning again. / Having no mind to distinguish object and self, / where could roots and dust alight? / Smoky willows and orioles blooming in exuberant bustle: / a time of great peace, springtime for all.
9.73
Gleaming cold pupils; / wisps of greying temples. / The posture of hills and ravines; / the tone of mist and clouds. / Taking a seat with mind empty; / myriad forms within the ocean-seal. / Hollow at the center, Qian becomes Li; / stirring within, Gen turns to Zhen. / Moving like clouds, its function is at ease; / flashing like lightning, its dynamic is swift. / A barbarian who gathers no dust; / the ancestor of Huangmei directly transmitted [it] with a wink of the eye.
9.74
Steadfastly transmitting mind; / lucidly forgetting conditions. / Leaves falling in white dew; / clouds dispersing into blue sky. / Jade hubs pushed by the hare / wash open the night colors; / from a silver cage the crane emerges, / flying across the chill mist. / Borrowing function to illuminate position; / borrowing a companion to enter the marketplace. / Responding without error, the principle is equal; / functioning without toil, the Way is natural. / When meeting one who knows, / at once open your fist.
9.75
With snow on the crown resisting spring, / cold eyes pierce through a person. / Wrapped in a rain-cape amid rivers and lakes' rains; / floating a dipper upon the ford of the Milky Way. / Clumsy, forgetting contrivance, carrying a jar; / wondrous, untransmittable, chiseling a wheel. / Valley birds and cliff flowers are naturally sound and form; / throughout the ten directions everywhere appear bodies like dust motes in Buddha-lands.
9.76
Demeanor craggy and severe; / brow and eyes warm and gentle. / Branching out from a single vein, / issuing from the source at the Kunlun Mountains. / The hundred streams swallowing the tide / descend to the roots of coral. / Clear and distant wind and mist are the traces of autumn; / lofty and lush grass and trees are the bounty of spring. / The shuttle on the ancient wall is the bones of a slumbering dragon; / the jade ring in the cold pool is the soul of the night moon. / Aged hair and thinning beard, / snow on the crown and silk on the chin. / A square head like a chisel; / a blunt mouth like a mallet. / Meeting him, casually enjoy it; / accustomed to taking advantage. / Venerable Chen whose straw sandals were cheap; / repaying Teacher Wang for the broth money. / When phenomena do not fit worldly passions, / with equality one attains the learning of stillness and wisdom. / When the mind has nowhere to abide, / one naturally sees the moment of subtle detachment.
9.77
Pines and rocks through the winter cold; / clouds and the moon high and leisurely. / Wild snow upon the hair and beard; / autumn ripples between brows and lashes. / Functioning, he wields the handle of wisdom; / resting in stillness, he enters the ring of the Way. / The awakening mind is luminous and clear; / illusory matters are varied and distinct. / The vitality of grass and trees / naturally attains its charm; / the atmosphere of the monastic grove: / who would begrudge the news of spring?
9.78
Snow soaking the roots of the hair; / autumn emerging from the ridges of the eyes. / A guest beside the bright moon spring; / a monk up in the tower of pure breezes. / Tides overturn the fly-whisk, trampling dragons and elephants; / winds whirl up horns of a ram, transforming into the Kun and the Peng. / Presiding over Buddhist affairs, he is most despised by people.
9.79
A rustic of the Three Rivers; / a guest of the communities of the Two Zhe regions. / Quiescent and abiding, encompassing principle and wisdom; / wondrous touch transcending roots and dust. / Black rattan walking on foot: the affair of the monastic grove; / blunt ax dwelling in the mountains: a body of clouds and water.
9.80
A skeleton of withered wood; / traces of wild clouds. / Shining, the night colors are polished by the moon; / silent, autumn enters the empty pool. / Revealing half a body to the three thousand worlds; / accomplishing ninety thousand miles in a single breath. / Responding to conditions according to type— / far more than hundreds of billions.
9.81
Craggy mountains bear traces of autumn; / faint clouds have no rooted home. / Entering to the depth of the ultimate single silence; / emerging to form the gate of samādhi. / Functioning without toil, quiescent as if abiding; / settling does not make it clear, stirring does not make it turbid.
9.82
Jet-black pupils; / gardenia-yellow skin. / Wisdom serene, illuminated by the clear moon; / body at ease, unbound by wild clouds. / Comprehensively joining hands with Venerable Chen; / minutely nodding approval to Teacher Wang. / Needle and thread: openly linking and secretly stitching; / tones and melody: clapping oneself and playing alone. / Who do you say this is? / The grandson of Furong, / the son of Danxia.
9.83
Craggy mountains catch the early snow; / deep waters bring autumn first. / In stillness, the echo of an empty valley; / in movement, the flow of leisurely clouds. / Pitying himself for keeping silent outside the bounds; / who will roam with him in the center of the ring?
9.84
The bearing of clouds and mountains; / the likeness of water and moon. / The capacity of the great sea; / the measure of the great void. / Receiving, it is truly without mind; / responding, each and every thing is free from characteristics. / Following conditions, there is illumination— / wondrous without leaving a trace; / thoroughly devoid of reliance— / empty without drifting away.
9.85
In silence there is mind-to-mind transmission; / do not observe it by means of characteristics. / In the smoky nest, the crane dreams; / in the moon's cavern, the toad is cold. / In stillness, ten thousand conditions are tucked inside the nostrils; / in laughter, a hundred affairs appear upon the eyebrows. / Now with beard and hair half-speckled with white, / he has faced the Way in the monastic grove, braving a hundred hardships.
9.86
Just this person, / everywhere dividing his body: / the moon in the midst of myriad waters, / spring atop hundreds of flowers. / Not outside a single phenomenon, / not receiving the various dusts. / What was raw is ripe, what was distant is close. / In silence he speaks, in stillness he is wondrous. / When the bowl holds food, once sated he is pleased; / when the staff enters his fist, hungry he lets loose anger.
9.87
A single characteristic is without characteristic, its measure equal to empty space; / a single body is many bodies, all things together in spring. / Moving, it is clouds emerging from the mountain peaks; / resting in stillness, it is the spirit residing in the valley. / Manifesting forms and preaching the Dharma, / in every land, in every dust mote.
9.88
Look, look at the transformations on the tip of a hair! / The spring breeze does not melt the snow upon the crown; / autumn colors naturally polish the chill of the pupils. / Laughing widens the face, stretching both brows; / having partaken his fill, his belly is three hoops wide. / Sitting on the bent-wood seat, / holding the black rattan staff, / he casts the mold of buddhas and ancestors / and brings to life the atmosphere of the monastic grove. / Do not come pulling whiskers from the tiger's mouth; / who would dare scratch an itch upon a snake's head?
9.89
The cold mountain bears traces of snow; / news of spring enters the flower roots. / How could creation be without a handle? / Distinctions naturally have their gate. / Emerging and submerging, / all receive this grace.
9.90
The skull thoroughly dry; / the nostrils feel spacious. / Vastly emptying the three times; / not establishing the tip of a hair. / Face weathered by wind and frost; / body and mind cold as water and the moon. / Passions and dust completely purified— / the myriad forms viewed all at once.
9.91
Cold shoulders naturally held high; / hungry eyes somewhat enlarged. / Thin fist gripping the black rattan; / silently occupying the bent-wood seat. / Wordless, yet uniquely wondrous; / when there is a chant, who joins in harmony? / Autumn polishes the color of the water—supremely clear, without a blemish; / spring enters the flowering branch—wondrously devoid of set rules.
9.92
Thinning hair half-white; / smiling face slightly red. / Wild waters in autumn have no reflection; / the monastic grove in spring achieves merit. / Profuse flowers in a tangled butterfly's dream; / the sky is far, swallowed by the flying goose. / Pray tell, how many divided bodies are there? / Following each other north, south, west, east.
9.93
A lump of flesh on the tongue; / two slices of lip-skin. / Sometimes preaching the Way and talking of Chan, / suddenly rolling thunder and flashing lightning. / Shadows of myriad workings dissolve; / the merit of the single color turns. / Originally not a single thing: the mirror has no stand; / Hu and Han leave no trace—what is there to be seen?
9.94
His manner exceedingly foolish; / his bodily form an old monk. / The ridge of his brow feels heavy with shadow; / his breathing in stillness is clear again. / Before the two polarities have shown signs, / a single point is round and bright. / Frost washes the Dipper and Ox constellation wet; / an autumn clearing, the Milky Way lies horizontal. / Do not let a hair's breadth taint the empty nature; / facing the ring of the Way, there is perpetual great peace.
9.95
Body and mind of mountains and wilderness; / face like grass and ashes. / Silently speaking a single phrase, / dark and light are completely encompassed. / The dynamic flows like fire from the sky's lightning; / movement stirs like thunder from the earth's yang. / All such matters of transformation, exhaustion, and passage— / you are told they all come from just such as this.
9.96
Sitting in stillness on the corded chair, / the longer he sits, the more fragrant. / Silence obliterates the traces of black and white; / impoverished, he feels no panic. / Abiding without characteristics, like a turtle hiding; / moving without patterns, like a bird soaring. / The moon shines brightly and fish swallow the light; / flowers bloom profusely and bees gather the sound. / Coming along in succession, everywhere magnificent.
9.97
Eyes deep beneath the brows; / bones prominent upon the forehead. / A mouth narrow for speaking of Chan; / a mind empty for receiving the Way. / Leisurely, without contrivances; / silent, possessing the family style. / A slice of the moon washed and polished, autumn is even whiter; / a hundred flowers dotted and dyed, spring is skillful indeed.
9.98
Dark yet bright, empty yet full. / Water and sky share the autumn colors; / by day and night the moon calms the tide. / Nowhere not present; / nothing not born. / All dusts rise and fall in its train; / ten thousand transformations have free rein. / Silently the great whole: the wall hangs a mouth at leisure; / magnificent, true reception: who would be stained with a bad name?
9.99
This sort of monk, / with a face repulsive to see! / Describe him, yet he does not resemble it; / conceal him, yet when was he ever hidden? / Empty space is broad, with no time to hang a sword; / the vast ocean is deep, yet with skill to trim a lamp. / Fully equipped as an ascetic dhūta; / sharp and distinct as a person of the Way. / Entering Min, ask: what sort of capability is this?
9.100
The mind at leisure is not obstructed by the body; / with a belly full, he still dislikes having too much mouth. / Wondrously responding to the myriad faculties, vividly alive; / silently transmitting a single phrase, round and smooth. / It has been presented to you— / do you recognize it yet?
9.101
Nose straight, eye sockets deep. / In silence, he naturally feels he has lost his mouth; / at the wondrous point, who understands the transmitted mind? / Just like this, only as it is right now. / Discern it in the shadows: the door hangs upon the withered forest.
9.102
This bodily form: / a rice-bag in the monastic grove. / On the spring mountains there is snow, his hair thinning and white; / on autumn waters there is no wind, his eyes cold and blue. / The field of wondrous clarity; / the portal clean and turbid. / Unrelying on myriad conditions, vividly alive; / untouched by a single affair, empty and spiritual. / Joining hands to give medicine—who looks through the pharmacopoeia? / Asking the ford and pointing to the source—one naturally attains the charted guide.
9.103
Appearance plain and simple; / chest and belly hollow and empty. / Too lazy to study the Buddha; / too dull to understand books. / In stillness responding to all conditions without any exterior; / in silence accommodating myriad forms with ample room. / Equalizing things, dreaming of a butterfly; / delighting in nature, watching the fish. / It is precisely me, yet I am not it.
9.104
A single spiritual thing / cannot be named or depicted. / The great whale resides in the depths of the vast sea; / the old hare lies in the cavern of the bright moon. / Once extended, not retracted; / bending the straight to make it crooked. / Do you understand when winning just like this? / There is no need to cheer over double sixes on the board.
9.105
Resembling, yet it is not; / being it, yet it does not resemble it. / Moving, it is passing clouds; / still, it is resting water. / Able to follow conditions without falling into categories. / An old monk atop the hundred grasses; / oneself before the two polarities. / Do not take this bodily form / and hang it in vain upon other people's lips and teeth.
9.106
Quietly shutting both lids; / gladly raising both brows. / Autumn appearance, clear water color; / spring tidings, bustling flowering branches. / Limping and tottering, / foolish and simple. / Touching the family style: / the nostrils hang down.
9.107
Hearing the name is not as good as seeing the face; / all together, it is just this one piece. / Always at leisure where wind and dust are bustling; / yet cheap when market prices are dear. / The round pearl rolls without being nudged; / refined gold has long been tempered. / Striking against his sharp dynamic: / lightning flashing in a blue sky.
9.108
Beard and hair aged; / brows and eyes clear and bright. / Autumn arises in the midst of wild waters; / snow shines atop cold mountains. / The mind of the deep sea; / the capacity to swallow rivers. / In each and every instance not missing the right juncture; / everywhere fitting in securely.
9.109
Drawing a gourd according to the model: / meeting him, do you recognize him or not? / Missing the buried sword of Fengcheng; / seeing through the pearls returning to Hepu.
9.110
Hair white, the cold mountain has snow; / eyes deep, the autumn well holds clear ripples. / How could the chiseling of Primordial Chaos destroy the Great Way? / The source at Kunlun naturally issues the long river. / A single smile at the affairs of the ten directions and three times: / there is no harm in svāhā wherever you go.
9.111
High mountains catch the early snow; deep waters see autumn first. / Where merit reaches its peak, take a step back; / before black and white, win a tally. / Coming along in succession, do you know it yet? / North, south, east, and west, attaining freedom.
9.112
Body like a plantain tree; / mouth like tangled vines. / In snow, begging for food from humans and devas; / light transmitting the lamp of buddhas and ancestors. / The dynamic alive, making a spring scene; / thoughts cold, polishing the ridges of wind. / Golden needle and jade thread: / who continues in my unbroken line?
9.113
Hair the white of lingering snow; / eyes carrying the chill of deep autumn. / The spring mountains are not yet warm; / wild waters have no ripples. / The family style rubs against the nostrils; / good things rise to the brow. / Causes and conditions of the three times—responded to with half a body; / the ocean of lands in the ten directions—drunk dry in a single breath.
9.114
Cold-sitting without words, / a solitary staff in the fist. / A single speck of mind outside the multitude of phenomena; / a single phrase prior to the ten thousand workings. / The body is at ease, the eyes are lively; / like a pearl whirling smoothly in a tray. / Space inherently lacks the obstruction of walls; / fully understanding the conditions of the ten directions and three periods of time.
9.115
The Way accords with conditions yet does not change; / the source meets drawing yet does not dry up. / Food of the joy of dhyāna fills the belly; / on the seat of the emptiness of dharmas one sits cross-legged. / Qingyuan rejoices in having a unicorn's horn; / Huangbo—who disdains stroking the tiger's whiskers?
9.116
Wild waters are autumn-clear; / the cold toad [moon] shines brightly at night. / The demeanor can be empty and white; / the family custom is naturally mixed and complete. / The nose is swift and tube-straight; / the eyes glare and horns sprout. / Great space shares the same substance, open and vast; / the ten thousand phenomena share the same function, lofty and towering. / In the human realm there is food to fill the skin bag; / in silent serenity and utter simplicity, thanking the grand peace.
9.117
Old age droops heavily; / months and years gradually cheat. / Half the head grows white hair; / skinny bones wrapped in yellow skin. / Feelings are at ease in functioning, thus vivid; / the phrase is subtle, known through silence. / The river is vast, the Dipper cold, clouds quiet at night; / Heaven has no four walls, wind blowing freely.
9.118
Brows drooping and raised; / mouth silent and square. / Thoroughly seeing to the bottom of the source; / purity reaching the extreme emits radiance. / The soul of the moon dispels the night's hue; / the breath of the Dipper bathes in autumn frost. / Who scorns horns growing in anger upon the eyes? / I say that prior to the dynamic mechanism, no shadow is manifest.
9.119
What does the face resemble? / Snow-white hair and frost-white beard. / Autumn shines in the lunar cave; / spring opens from the ice vase. / The marvelous exhausted, one again shifts one's steps; / merit forgotten, one casually sets down the hoe. / Taken up, it becomes the lineage essential everywhere; / in speaking of the Way, this person's virtue is never solitary.
9.120
White hair atop the skull; / green pupils beneath the eyebrows. / Snow dots the sparse woods; / autumn illuminates the wild waters. / The myriad phenomena naturally converge; / a single spirit still relies on nothing. / Silently, a single speck of dust enters proper reception; / clearly, among all specks of dust, samādhi arises.
9.121
Pure and unadulterated, wherein there is not a single speck of dust; / unadulterated and pure, wherein there are ten thousand responses. / Eyes bright, nostrils straight. / Furthermore, taking broken chopsticks to stir the dark ocean, / causing those dragons and fish to know that water is their life.
9.122
The ocean contains, Mount Song stabilizes— / how deep! How high! / Attainment in silence; / categories do not match. / One nose straight, two eyebrows low. / Shadows and images you can half-reveal, / but speech—who can fully set it forth? / At Shaolin for nine years, foolishly sitting in bleak desolation.
9.123
White hair sparse and gray; / bones lean, energy clear. / Snow soaks the craggy mountains; / autumn dwells in the deep pool of water. / Flowing amber, the ravine pines are old; / darting through coral, the moon on the waves is bright. / The shadow falls upon the great chiliocosm and departs; / what hindrance is there to towering aloft at every touch?
9.124
The moon rhinoceros receives its halo; / the mist leopard nourishes its markings. / There is penetration and there is transformation; / sometimes uniting, sometimes dividing. / The night is cold, the river bathes the Dipper; / the mountain is moist, the stones produce clouds. / Before the marvelously clear substance, it is vividly bright; / letting all under Heaven rejoice and be glad.
9.125
Neither cold nor withered, yet autumn falls; / neither pure nor defiled, yet spring arrives. / Spirit empty, thus it responds; / the mechanism activates, thus it turns back. / Dividing the body, Maitreya; / joining palms, Sudhana. / Snapping the fingers makes a sound, and the tower gates open.
9.126
Body and mind are clear and calm; / face and eyes are cold and austere. / In misty nests of cold emerald, roosting birds dream; / amidst wind-ripples of green purity, swimming fish submerge. / Vast and boundless, looking and listening are naturally subtle; / leisurely and free, sound and form do not cling.
9.127
Look, look! The flavor undergoes hardship. / Heart and guts have grown old in a hundred cities; / belly is wide with three bamboo-strip hoops. / Late autumn: the long river is pale; / frost clear: the Northern Dipper is cold. / Babbling and muttering, do not dislike cold words; / flickering and gleaming, you are sure to suffer hot deceit.
First 127 of 525 passages. Read on
Linked texts (1)
- 宏智禪師廣錄 — Classical Chinese