佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 10.45

10.45

禪家流愛輕薄。滿肚參來用不著。這漢會則會。只是用不得。尋常目視雲霄道。他會得多少禪。及至向烘罏裏纔烹。元來一點使不著。五祖先師道。有一般人參禪。如琉璃瓶裏搗糍糕相似更動轉不得。抖擻不出。觸著便破。若要活潑潑地。但參皮殼漏子禪。直向高山上。撲將下來。亦不破亦不壞。古人道。設使言前薦得。猶是滯殼迷封。直饒句下精通。未免觸途狂見。堪悲堪笑天平老。却謂當初悔行脚。雪竇道。堪悲他對人說不出。堪笑他會一肚皮禪。更使些子不著。錯錯這兩錯。有者道。天平不會是錯。又有底道。無語底是錯。有什麼交涉。殊不知這兩錯。如擊石火。似閃電光。是他向上人行履處。如仗劍斬人直取人咽喉命根方斷。若向此劍刃上行得。便七縱八橫。若會得兩錯。便可以見西院清風頓銷鑠。雪竇上堂。舉此話了。意道錯。我且問爾。雪竇這。兩錯。何似天平錯。且參三十年。

"The followers of Chan love superficial cleverness; / though their bellies are stuffed from study, they cannot put it to use." This fellow could understand, but he simply could not apply it. Usually, gazing up into the clouds, they say: "How much Chan has he mastered?" But as soon as they are smelted in the fiery furnace, none of it can be put to work at all. My late teacher Wuzu said: "There is a sort of person studying Chan who is just like glutinous rice cake pounded inside a lapis lazuli bottle—it cannot turn or stir, nor can it be shaken out, and if you touch it, it breaks. If you want to be alive and brisk, just study 'leather skin bellows Chan': cast straight down from a high mountain peak, it neither shatters nor breaks." The ancients said: "Even if you grasp it before words, you are still mired in the shell and blind within boundaries; even if you achieve mastery under the spoken phrase, you will not avoid wild views whenever you encounter things." / "Pitiable and laughable is old Tianping: / yet he said he regretted his itinerant pilgrimage from the start." Xuedou says: pitiable that he could not speak it out before others; laughable that he had a bellyful of Chan yet could not apply the slightest bit. "Mistake, mistake!" As for these two "mistakes," some say: Tianping's lack of understanding was the mistake. Others say: his remaining speechless was the mistake. What connection is there? Little do they realize that these two "mistakes" are like sparks struck from flint, like a flash of lightning; they are the footsteps of a person of the transcendent. It is like taking a sword to slay a person, striking straight for the throat so their life-root is severed. If you can walk on this sword's edge, then you will have free rein in all directions. If you understand these two "mistakes," then you can see that "the clear breeze of Xiyuan was instantly eclipsed." When Xuedou entered the hall and cited this case, he intended to say "mistake." Let me ask you: how do Xuedou's two "mistakes" compare to Tianping's mistake? Go investigate it for thirty years!