佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 1.35

1.35

雪竇頌古。偏能如此。當頭以金剛王寶劍。揮一下了。然後略露些風規。雖然如此。畢竟無有二解。去却一拈得七。人多作算數會道。去却一是十五日已前事。雪竇驀頭下兩句言語印破了。却露出教人見。去却一拈得七。切忌向言句中作活計。何故胡餅有什麼汁。人多落在意識中。須是向語句未生已前。會取始得。大用現前。自然見得也。所以釋迦老子成道後。於摩竭提國。三七日中。思惟如是事。諸法寂滅相。不可以言宣。我寧不說法。疾入於涅槃。到這裏覓箇開口處不得。以方便力故。為五比丘說已。至三百六十會。說一代時教。只是方便。所以脫珍御服。著獘垢衣。不得已。而向第二義門中淺近之處。誘引諸子。若教他向上全提。盡大地無一箇半箇。且道。作麼生是第一句。到這裏。雪竇露些意教人見。爾但上不見有諸佛。下不見有眾生。外不見有山河大地。內不見有見聞覺知。如大死底人却活相似。長短好惡。打成一片。一一拈來更無異見。然後應用不失其宜。方見他道去却一拈得七。上下四維無等匹。若於此句透得。直得上下四維無有等匹。森羅萬象。草芥人畜。著著全彰自己家風。所以道。萬象之中獨露身。惟人自肯乃方親。昔年謬向途中覓。今日看來火裏氷。天上天下惟我獨尊。人多逐末不求其本。先得本正。自然風行草偃。水到渠成。徐行踏斷流水聲。徐徐行動時。浩浩流水聲。也應踏斷。縱觀寫出飛禽跡。縱目一觀。直饒是飛禽跡亦如寫出相似。到這裏。鑊湯爐炭吹教滅。劍樹刀山喝便摧。不為難事。雪竇到此。慈悲之故。恐人坐在無事界中。復道。草茸茸煙羃羃。所以蓋覆却直得草茸茸。煙羃羃。且道是什麼人境界。喚作日日是好日得麼。且喜沒交涉。直得徐行踏斷流水聲也不是。縱觀寫出飛禽跡也不是。草茸茸也不是。煙羃羃也不是。直饒總不恁麼。正是空生巖畔花狼籍。也須是轉過那邊始得。豈不見。須菩提巖中宴坐。諸天雨花讚嘆。尊者曰。空中雨花讚嘆。復是何人天曰。我是天帝釋。尊者曰。汝何讚嘆。天曰。我重尊者善說般若波羅蜜多。尊者曰。我於般若。未嘗說一字。汝云何讚歎。天曰。尊者無說。我乃無聞。無說無聞。是真般若。又復動地雨花。雪竇亦曾有頌云。雨過雲凝曉半開。數峯如畫碧崔嵬。空生不解巖中坐。惹得天花動地來。天帝既動地雨花。到這裏。更藏去那裏。雪竇又道我恐逃之逃不得。大方之外皆充塞。忙忙擾擾知何窮。八面清風惹衣裓。直得淨裸裸赤洒洒。都無纖毫過患。也未為極則。且畢竟如何即是。看取下文云。彈指堪悲舜若多。梵語舜若多。此云虛空神。以虛空為體。無身覺觸。得佛光照方現得身。爾若得似舜若多神時。雪竇正好彈指悲歎。又云。莫動著。動著時如何。白日青天。開眼瞌睡。

Xuedou, in his verse eulogies on antiquity, is exceptionally capable in this way: directly bringing down the vajra king’s jeweled sword, slashing once, and only then slightly revealing some style. Even though it is like this, in the end there are no two interpretations. “Cast away one, pick up seven”—many people understand this as counting, saying: “Casting away one is the matter before the fifteenth day.” Xuedou directly brought down two phrases to seal and break it, and yet revealed it to let people see: “Cast away one, pick up seven.” You must strictly avoid making a living within words and phrases. Why? What juice does a sesame cake have? Many people fall into conceptual consciousness. You must understand before words and phrases arise; only then will you get it. When the great function appears before you, you will naturally see it.

Therefore, after Old Man Śākya attained enlightenment, in the country of Magadha, for three times seven days he contemplated this matter: “All phenomena have the mark of quiescence and cessation, which cannot be expressed in words. Rather than expounding the Dharma, I would sooner quickly enter nirvāṇa.” Reaching this point, he could find no place to open his mouth. Through the power of skillful means, after he spoke for the five bhikṣus, up to the three hundred and sixty assemblies, expounding the teachings of his lifetime, it was merely skillful means. Therefore, taking off the precious royal robe and putting on worn, soiled clothes, having no alternative, he went to the shallow and nearby places within the gate of secondary truth to entice the children. If you had him bring forth the transcendent entirely, in the entire earth there would not be a single person or half a person. Now tell me, what is the first phrase? Reaching this point, Xuedou revealed some intent to let people see: you must simply see no Buddhas above, no sentient beings below, no mountains, rivers, or great earth outside, and no seeing, hearing, awareness, or knowing inside—just like a person who has died the great death coming back to life. Long and short, good and bad, beaten into one piece; picking up each and every one, there is no different view anymore. Only then, in practical application without losing appropriateness, will you see what he means by “Cast away one, pick up seven; above, below, and in the four cardinal and four intermediate directions, nothing is its equal.”

If you penetrate this phrase, directly above, below, and in the four cardinal and four intermediate directions, there is nothing equal. The myriad phenomena, grass and chaff, humans and animals, step by step entirely manifest your own family style. Therefore it is said: “In the midst of myriad phenomena, the body is alone revealed; / Only when one assents to it oneself is it intimate. / In former years I mistakenly sought it on the road; / Today, seeing it, it is ice within the fire.” “Above heaven and below heaven, only I am supremely revered.” Many people pursue the branches and do not seek the root. If you first get the root upright, naturally when the wind blows the grass bends, and when water comes the ditch is formed.

“Walking slowly, one steps and cuts off the sound of flowing water.” When walking slowly, even the sound of surging flowing water should be stepped on and cut off. “Looking freely, one traces out the tracks of flying birds.” Casting one's gaze freely, even the tracks of flying birds are just as if traced out. Arriving here, blowing on boiling caldrons and burning charcoal makes them extinguish; shouting at trees of swords and mountains of knives directly topples them. This is not a difficult matter. Xuedou, arriving here, out of compassion and fearing that people would sit in the realm of nothing-to-do, again said: “Grasses lush, fog dense.” Thus covering it over, directly making the grasses lush and the fog dense. Now tell me, whose realm is this? Can you call it “Every day is a good day”? Fortunately, there is no connection. Even walking slowly and cutting off the sound of flowing water is not it; looking freely and tracing out the tracks of flying birds is not it; the grasses being lush is not it; the fog being dense is not it. Even if none of this is so at all, it is precisely “Beside the cliff of Śūnyatā, flowers fall in profusion.” You must still turn over to that other side before you can get it.

Do you not see: Subhūti was sitting peacefully in the cliff cavern, and the devas rained flowers in praise. The Venerable One said, “Who is raining flowers from the sky in praise?” A deva said, “I am Śakra, king of the devas.” The Venerable One said, “Why do you praise?” The deva said, “I revere the Venerable One's skillful exposition of the perfection of wisdom (prajñāpāramitā).” The Venerable One said, “Regarding prajñā, I have never spoken a single word; why do you praise?” The deva said, “The Venerable One has no exposition, and I have no hearing; no exposition and no hearing—this is true prajñā.” And again he shook the earth and rained flowers. Xuedou also once had a verse saying:

The rain passed, clouds congealed, dawn half opened;
Several peaks like a painting, blue and precipitous.
Śūnyatā did not understand how to sit in the cliff,
Provoking the heavenly flowers to shake the earth and come.

Since the King of Devas shook the earth and rained flowers, reaching here, where else can you hide? Xuedou also said, “I fear that fleeing it, you cannot escape; outside the great square, it is completely filled. Busy and clamorous, how can it ever end? The clear breeze from the eight directions catches the hem of one's robe.” Even if one is clean and naked, bare and clear, without the slightest fault, it is still not the ultimate standard. And in the end, what is right? Look at the subsequent text: “Snapping the fingers, how lamentable is Śūnyatā!” In Sanskrit, “Śūnyatā”; here translated as the god of empty space, having empty space as its body, with no body, sensation, or touch; only when illuminated by the Buddha’s light can it manifest a body. If you can become like the god Śūnyatā, it is just the right time for Xuedou to snap his fingers and lament. Again he says, “Do not stir! If you stir, thirty blows of the staff!” When stirred, what then? In bright day and blue sky, opening your eyes and dozing off.