佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 3.18

3.18

劉鐵磨（尼也）如擊石火。似閃電光。擬議則喪身失命。禪道若到緊要處。那裏有許多事。他作家相見。如隔牆見角便知是牛。隔山見煙便知是火。拶著便動。捺著便轉。溈山道。老僧百年後。向山下檀越家。作一頭水牯牛。左脇下書五字云。溈山僧某甲。且正當恁麼時。喚作溈山僧。即是喚作水牯牛。即是。如今人問著。管取分疎不下。劉鐵磨久參機鋒峭峻。人號為劉鐵磨。去溈山十里卓庵。一日去訪溈山。山見來便云。老牸牛。汝來也。磨云。來日臺山大會齋。和尚還去麼。溈山放身便臥。磨便出去。爾看他一如說話相似。且不是禪又不是道。喚作無事會得麼。溈山去臺山。自隔數千里。劉鐵磨因什麼却令溈山去齋。旦道意旨如何。這老婆會他溈山說話。絲來線去。一放一收。互相酬唱。如兩鏡相照。無影像可觀。機機相副。句句相投。如今人三搭不迴頭。這老婆一點也瞞他不得。這箇却不是世諦情見。如明鏡當臺。明珠在掌。胡來胡現。漢來漢現。是他知有向上事。所以如此。如今只管做無事會。四祖演和尚道。莫將有事為無事。往往事從無事生。爾若參得透去。見他恁麼如尋常人說話一般。多被言語隔礙。所以不會。唯是知音方會他底只如乾峯示眾云。舉一不得舉二。放過一著落在第二。雲門出眾云。昨日有一僧。從天台來却往南岳去。乾峯云。典座今日不得普請。看他兩人。放則雙放。收則雙收。溈仰下謂之境致。風塵草動。悉究端倪。亦謂之隔身句。意通而語隔。到這裏。須是左撥右轉方是作家。

Liu Tiemo (a nun) was like sparks struck from flint, like a flash of lightning. If you deliberate, you lose body and life. When the Way of Chan reaches the crucial point, what place is there for so many things? When adept masters meet, it is like seeing horns over a wall and immediately knowing an ox is there, or seeing smoke across a mountain and immediately knowing fire is there. Push them and they move; press them and they turn. Guishan said: “A hundred years after my death, I will become a water buffalo at the foot of the mountain at the house of a donor. On my left flank will be written five characters: ‘Guishan monk so-and-so.’ At just such a time, if you call it a monk of Guishan, it is one; if you call it a water buffalo, it is one.” Nowadays, if people are asked about this, they will certainly be unable to explain it. Liu Tiemo had practiced for a long time, and her dynamic sharpness was steep and sheer; people called her “Liu the Iron Grinder.” Ten leagues from Guishan she had erected a hermitage. One day she went to visit Guishan. Seeing her coming, Shan immediately said: “Old cow, you have come!” The Grinder said: “Tomorrow there is a great feast at Taishan. Is the Venerable going?” Guishan let his body fall and lay down. The Grinder thereupon walked out. Look at them: it is just like ordinary conversation, yet it is neither Chan nor the Way. Could you understand it by calling it “nothing the matter”? From Guishan to Taishan is separated by several thousand leagues. Why did Liu Tiemo instead tell Guishan to go to the feast? Tell me, what was the intention? This old woman understood his, Guishan's, words: silk coming and thread going, one letting go and one reeling in, chanting back and forth to each other, like two mirrors reflecting one another without any image to be seen. Dynamic functions matched one another; phrases accorded with each other. Nowadays, people are tapped three times and still do not turn their heads, but not a bit could be concealed from this old woman. This is not worldly emotional views. It is like a clear mirror on its stand, a bright pearl in the palm: when a foreigner comes, a foreigner appears; when a Han comes, a Han appears. It was because she knew there is the transcendent matter that she was like this. Nowadays, people simply interpret it as “nothing the matter.” Master Sizuling Yan said: “Do not take having affairs as having no affairs; often affairs arise from having no affairs.” If you penetrate through, you see that their doing so is just like ordinary people talking; because most are obstructed and hindered by words, they do not understand. Only an intimate knower could understand them. Take Qianfeng addressing the assembly: “Lifting up one, you must not lift up two; letting go of the first move, you fall into the second.” Yunmen stepped out of the assembly and said: “Yesterday a monk came from Tiantai and went toward Nanyue.” Qianfeng said: “Today the head cook will not have communal work.” Look at the two of them: when letting go, both let go; when reeling in, both reel in. Under the Guiyang school this is called a “scenic atmosphere”: when the wind and dust stir the grass, every trace is thoroughly investigated. It is also called an “isolated-body phrase”: the meaning communicates, but the words are separated. When arriving here, you must turn left and pivot right before you are an adept master.