佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 10.53

10.53

巴陵不動干戈。四海五湖多少人舌頭落地。雲門接人正如此。他是雲門的子。亦各具箇作略。是故道。我愛韶陽新定機。一生與人抽釘拔楔。這箇話正恁麼地也。於一句中。自然具三句。函蓋乾坤句。截斷眾流句。隨波逐浪句。答得也不妨奇特。浮山遠錄公云。未透底人參句不如參意。透得底人。參意不如參句。雲門下有三尊宿。答吹毛劍俱云了。唯是巴陵答得過於了字。此乃得句也。且道。了字與珊瑚枝枝撐著月。是同是別。前來道。三句可辨。一鏃遼空。要會這話。須是絕情塵意想。淨盡方見他道珊瑚枝枝撐著有。若更作道理。轉見摸索不著。此語是禪月懷友人詩曰。厚似鐵圍山上鐵。薄似雙成仙體纈。蜀機鳳雛動蹶蹩。珊瑚枝枝撐著月。王凱家中藏難掘。顏回飢漢愁天雪。古檜筆直雷不折。雪衣石女蟠桃缺。佩入龍宮步遲遲。繡簾銀簟何參差。即不知驪龍失珠。知不知。巴陵於句中。取一句答吹毛劍。則是快。劍刃上吹毛試之。其毛自斷。乃利劍謂之吹毛也。巴陵只就他問處。便答這僧話。頭落也不知。頌云。

Without moving shields and spears, Baling caused the tongues of how many people across the four seas and five lakes to fall to the ground! Yunmen's guiding of people was just like this. He was a true son of Yunmen, and each possessed his own strategy. Therefore it is said: "I love Shaoyang's newly settled dynamic; all his life he pulled out nails and drew out pegs for people." These words are precisely like this. Within a single phrase, the three phrases are naturally contained: the phrase that covers heaven and earth, the phrase that cuts off the myriad streams, and the phrase that follows the waves and pursues the billows. This answer is indeed extraordinary. Fushan Yuan, Recorder [of the Dharma], said: "For those who have not penetrated, investigating the phrase is not as good as investigating the meaning. For those who have penetrated, investigating the meaning is not as good as investigating the phrase." Under Yunmen there were three venerable elders who all answered "It is finished" when asked about the hair-blowing sword. Only Baling's answer surpassed the word "finished." This is attaining the phrase. Tell me, is the word "finished" the same as or different from "Branch after branch of coral props up the moon"? Earlier it was said: "Three phrases can be discerned, an arrow flies across the sky." If you want to understand these words, you must cut off emotional dust and conceptual thought, clearing them completely away; only then will you see what he meant by "Branch after branch of coral props up the moon." If you go on making rationalizations, all the more will you find nothing to grasp. These words come from Chanyue's poem remembering a friend, which says: "Thicker than the iron on Mount Cakravāḍa, thinner than the woven silk on Shuangcheng's celestial form. On the Shu loom, the phoenix chick moves and falters; branch after branch of coral props up the moon. In Wang Kai's household it is hidden and hard to dig out; the starving fellow Yan Hui grieves over the sky's snow. The ancient cypress stands brush-straight, unbroken by thunder; the snow-clad stone woman is missing the coiled peach. Wearing pendants, entering the Dragon Palace, footsteps are slow; how uneven the embroidered curtains and silver mats! Yet who knows if the black dragon lost its pearl, or knows it not?" Baling took a line from this poem to answer the hair-blowing sword—how swift! When a hair is blown onto the sword's blade to test it, the hair cuts itself in two; an exceedingly sharp sword is called "hair-blowing." Baling simply responded to where the monk asked and answered this monk's words, yet the monk did not even realize his head had fallen. The verse says: