佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 10.20

10.20

全象全牛瞖不殊。眾盲摸象。各說異端。出涅槃經。僧問仰山。和尚見人問禪問道。便作一圓相。於中書牛字。意在於何。仰山云。這箇也是閑事。忽若會得。不從外來。忽若不會。決定不識。我且問爾。諸方老宿。於爾身上。指出那箇是爾佛性。為復語底是。默底是。莫是不語不默底是。為復總是。為復總不是。爾若認語底是。如盲人摸著象尾。若認默底是。如盲人摸著象耳。若認不語不默底是。如盲人摸著象鼻。若道物物都是。如盲人摸著象四足。若道總不是。拋本象落在空見。如是眾盲所見。只於象上名邈差別。爾要好。切莫摸象。莫道見覺是。亦莫道不是。祖師云。菩提本無樹。明鏡亦無臺。本來無一物。爭得染塵埃。又云。道本無形相。智慧即是道。作此見解者。是名真般若。明眼人見象得其全體。如佛見性亦然。全牛者出莊子。庖丁解牛。未甞見其全牛。順理而解。游刃自在。更不須下手。纔舉目時。頭角蹄肉。一時自解了。如是十九年。其刀利如新發於硎。謂之全牛。雖然如此奇特。雪竇道。縱使得如此。全象全牛與眼中瞖更不殊。從來作者共名摸。直是作家。也去裏頭摸索不著。自從迦葉。乃至西天此土祖師。天下老和尚。皆只是名摸。雪竇直截道。如今要見黃頭老。所以道。要見即便見。更要尋覓方見。則千里萬里也。黃頭老。乃黃面老子也。爾如今要見。剎剎塵塵在半途。尋常道。一塵一塵剎。一葉一釋迦。盡三千大千世界。所有微塵。只向一塵中見。當恁麼時。猶在半途。那邊更有半途在。且道在什麼處。釋迦老子。尚自不知。教山僧作麼生說得　瞖（壹計切目疾）。

"The whole elephant and the whole ox do not differ from a cataract in the eye." The blind men groping the elephant, each stating a different theory, comes from the Nirvāṇa Sūtra. A monk asked Yangshan, "When the Venerable sees someone asking about Chan or the Way, you immediately draw a circle and write the character 'ox' inside it; what is the meaning?" Yangshan said, "This too is an idle matter. If you suddenly understand, it does not come from outside; if you suddenly do not understand, you definitely do not recognise it. Let me ask you: among the old seniors of all directions, what on your body do they point out as your Buddha-nature? Is it that which speaks, or is it that which is silent? Or is it that which neither speaks nor is silent? Or is it all of these, or none of them? If you take that which speaks to be it, it is like a blind man touching the elephant's tail. If you take that which is silent to be it, it is like a blind man touching the elephant's ear. If you take that which neither speaks nor is silent to be it, it is like a blind man touching the elephant's trunk. If you say every single thing is it, it is like a blind man touching the elephant's four legs. If you say none of them is it, you abandon the original elephant and fall into the view of emptiness. What such blind men see is merely discriminating names and forms on the elephant. If you want to be well off, under no circumstances grope the elephant! Do not say seeing and awareness are it, nor say they are not." The ancestral master said: "Bodhi originally has no tree; / the bright mirror also has no stand. / Originally there is not a single thing; / how could it be soiled by dust?" He also said: "The Way originally has no shape or form; / wisdom is the Way itself. / One who forms this understanding / is called one of true prajñā." A clear-eyed person seeing an elephant grasps its whole body; so it is when a Buddha sees the nature. As for "the whole ox," this comes from Zhuangzi: Cook Ding butchering the ox never saw the whole ox; following the natural grain to dismantle it, his blade moved freely without him even needing to force a stroke. The moment he raised his eyes, the horns, hooves, and flesh fell apart on their own all at once. For nineteen years, his knife was as sharp as if freshly whetted on a grindstone; this was called "the whole ox." Although it is extraordinary like this, Xuedou said that even if one attained this, the whole elephant and the whole ox do not differ from a cataract in the eye. "Masters from of old have collectively delineated them": even real masters could not grope it out in there. From Kāśyapa down to the ancestral masters of the Western Heaven and this land, the old venerable masters under heaven have merely delineated its names. Xuedou directly cut through: "If you want to see the yellow-headed old man now"—therefore it is said: if you want to see, see immediately; if you need to search to see, you are a thousand or ten thousand miles away. The "yellow-headed old man" is the yellow-faced old man. If you want to see him now, "through every world and every particle of dust, you are halfway on the journey." It is commonly said: "In each dust particle is a world of dust; on each leaf is a Śākya." All the dust particles in the entire great trichiliocosm are seen within a single dust particle. When it is like this, you are still halfway on the journey; over there, another half of the journey remains. Tell me, where is it? Old Śākya himself does not know; how could you have this mountain monk explain it? (瞖: pronounced *yi*, an eye disease.)