佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 6.3

6.3

大凡扶竪宗教。須是辨箇當機。知進退是非。明殺活擒縱。若忽眼目迷黎麻羅。到處逢問便問。逢答便答。殊不知鼻孔在別人手裏。只如雪峯巖頭。同參德山。此僧參雪峯。見解只到恁麼處。及乎見巖頭。亦不曾成得一事。虛煩他二老宿。一問一答。一擒一縱。直至如今。天下人成節角誵訛。分疎不下。且道節角誵訛。在什麼處。雪峯雖遍歷諸方。末後於鰲山店。巖頭因而激之。方得勦絕大徹。巖頭後值沙汰。於湖邊作渡子。兩岸各懸一板。有人過敲板一下。頭云。爾過那邊。遂從蘆葦間。舞棹而出。雪峯歸嶺南住庵。這僧亦是久參底人。雪峯見來。以手托庵門。放身出云。是什麼。如今有底。恁麼問著。便去他語下咬嚼。這僧亦怪。也只向他道是什麼。峯低頭歸庵。往往喚作無語會去也。這僧便摸索不著。有底道。雪峯被這僧一問直得。無語歸庵。殊不知雪峯意有毒害處。雪峯雖得便宜。爭奈藏身露影。這僧後辭雪峯。持此公案。令巖頭判。既到彼。巖頭問。什麼處來。僧云。嶺南來。頭云。曾到雪峯麼。若要見雪峯。只此一問。也好急著眼看。僧云。曾到。頭云。有何言句。此語亦不空過。這僧不曉。只管逐他語脈轉。頭云。他道什麼。僧云。他低頭無語歸庵。這僧殊不知。巖頭著草鞋。在他肚皮裏行。幾回了也。巖頭云。噫我當初悔不向他道末後句。若向他道。天下人不奈雪老何。巖頭也是扶強不扶弱。這僧依舊黑漫漫地。不分緇素。懷一肚皮疑。真箇道。雪峯不會。至夏末。再舉前話。請益巖頭。頭云。何不早問。這老漢。計較生也。僧云。未敢容易。頭云。雪峯雖與我同條生。不與我同條死。要識末後句。只這是巖頭太殺不惜眉毛。諸人畢竟作麼生會。雪峯在德山會下作飯頭。一日齋晚。德山托鉢下至法堂。峯云。鐘未鳴鼓未響。這老漢。托鉢向什麼處去。山無語低頭歸方丈。雪峯舉似巖頭。頭云。大小德山。不會末後句。山聞令侍者喚至方丈問云。汝不肯老僧那頭密啟其語。山至來日上堂。與尋常不同。頭於僧堂前。撫掌大笑云。且喜老漢會末後句。他後天下人。不奈他何。雖然如是。只得三年。此公案中。如雪峯見德山無語。將謂得便宜。殊不知著賊了也。蓋為他曾著賊來。後來亦解做賊。所以古人道。末後一句。始到牢關。有者道。巖頭勝雪峯。則錯會了也。巖頭常用此機示眾云。明眼漢沒窠臼。却物為上。逐物為下。這末後句。設使親見祖師來。也理會不得。德山齋晚。老子自捧鉢下法堂去。巖頭道。大小德山。未會末後句在。雪竇拈云。曾聞說箇獨眼龍。元來只具一隻眼。殊不知。德山是箇無齒大蟲。若不是巖頭識破。爭知得昨日與今日不同。諸人要會末後句麼。只許老胡知。不許老胡會。自古及今。公案萬別千差。如荊棘林相似。爾若透得去。天下人不奈何。三世諸佛。立在下風。爾若透不得。巖頭道。雪峯雖與我同條生。不與我同條死。只這一句自然有出身處。雪竇頌云。

Generally speaking, to uphold and establish the ancestral school, one must distinguish the right moment, understand advancing and retreating, right and wrong, and be clear about killing and giving life, seizing and releasing. If one's eyes are dim and confused, asking whenever meeting someone who asks, answering whenever meeting someone who answers, one fails utterly to realize that one's nostrils are in the hands of others. Consider Xuefeng and Yantou: both studied under Deshan. When this monk went to Xuefeng, his understanding went only this far; when he met Yantou, he still accomplished nothing at all. He vainly troubled those two venerable elders in asking and answering, seizing and releasing, right down to the present day, causing people everywhere to fall into complications and confusion without being able to clarify them. Tell me, where does this complication lie? Although Xuefeng had traveled everywhere, only later at Mount Ao Inn, when Yantou provoked him, was he able to achieve complete, thorough enlightenment. Later, during the persecution of Buddhism, Yantou became a ferryman on a lake. On each bank he hung a wooden board; when someone wanted to cross, they struck the board once. Yantou would say, 'Do you want to cross to that side?' and come rowing out from the reeds, dancing his oar. Xuefeng returned south of the mountains to live in a hermitage. This monk was also a veteran practitioner. When Xuefeng saw him coming, he leaned on the hermitage door with his hands, pushed himself forward, and said, 'What is this?' Nowadays there are those who, when questioned like this, immediately go chew on his words. This monk too was peculiar: he merely said to him, 'What is this?' Xuefeng lowered his head and returned to his hermitage. People often understand this as his being speechless; thus this monk had nowhere to grasp him. Some say that Xuefeng, challenged by this monk's single question, was rendered speechless and went back to his hermitage. They utterly fail to realize that Xuefeng's intent held a lethal poison. Although Xuefeng gained the upper hand, what can be done about hiding the body while exposing the shadow? Later, taking leave of Xuefeng, this monk brought this gong'an to Yantou for judgment. Arriving there, Yantou asked, 'Where have you come from?' The monk said, 'From south of the mountains.' Yantou said, 'Have you been to Xuefeng?' If one wishes to see Xuefeng, one had better look closely at this single question. The monk said, 'I have.' Yantou said, 'What words were there?' These words were not spoken in vain either. The monk did not understand; he just followed the flow of his words and turned. Yantou said, 'What did he say?' The monk said, 'He lowered his head, said nothing, and returned to his hermitage.' This monk completely failed to realize that Yantou, wearing straw sandals, had already walked around inside his belly several times. Yantou said, 'Alas! I regret that in the beginning I did not tell him the last word. If I had told him, no one in the world could have done anything about old Xue.' Yantou also supported the strong and did not support the weak. The monk remained in pitch darkness as before, not distinguishing black from white, harboring a bellyful of doubt, truly thinking that Xuefeng did not understand. Toward the end of the summer, he brought up the former words again to ask Yantou for instruction. Yantou said, 'Why didn't you ask earlier?' This old fellow was hatching a scheme! The monk said, 'I did not dare take it lightly.' Yantou said, 'Although Xuefeng was born on the same branch as me, he will not die on the same branch as me. If you wish to know the last word, it is just this.' Yantou was extremely sparing of his eyebrows. In the end, how do all of you understand this? When Xuefeng was serving as the head cook under Deshan, one day the noon meal was late. Deshan, carrying his bowl, came down to the Dharma hall. Xuefeng said, 'The bell has not yet rung, the drum has not yet sounded; where is this old fellow going with his bowl?' Deshan lowered his head in silence and returned to the abbot's quarters. Xuefeng related this to Yantou. Yantou said, 'Great Master Deshan does not understand the last word.' When Deshan heard of this, he had an attendant summon Yantou to the abbot's quarters and asked, 'Do you not approve of this old monk?' Yantou secretly whispered his meaning. The next day, when Deshan took the high seat, it was unlike usual. In front of the Monks' Hall, Yantou clapped his hands and laughed loudly, saying, 'How wonderful that the old fellow understands the last word! From now on, no one in the world can do anything about him. Even so, it will last only three years.' In this gong'an, when Xuefeng saw Deshan speechless, he thought he had gained the upper hand, not knowing he had been robbed. Because Deshan had once been robbed, later he also knew how to be a robber. Therefore the ancients said, 'Only when you reach the last word do you arrive at the secure barrier.' Some say Yantou surpassed Xuefeng, but that is a mistaken understanding. Yantou often used this dynamic function to instruct the assembly, saying, 'A person with clear eyes has no fixed patterns; rejecting objects is superior, pursuing objects is inferior.' Even if one had personally seen the ancestral master, one still could not grasp this last word. The meal was late, and old Deshan carried his bowl down to the Dharma hall himself. Yantou said, 'Great Master Deshan does not yet understand the last word.' Xuedou brought this up and said, 'I once heard talk of a one-eyed dragon, but turns out he only possesses one eye.' He utterly failed to realize that Deshan was a toothless tiger; had Yantou not seen through him, how could one know that yesterday was different from today? Do all of you wish to understand the last word? It is permitted only for the old barbarian to know, not for the old barbarian to understand. From antiquity to the present, gong'ans have had thousands of distinctions and myriad differences, resembling a forest of brambles. If you can penetrate through them, no one in the world can do anything to you, and the Buddhas of the three periods of time will stand downwind. If you cannot penetrate through, Yantou said, 'Although Xuefeng was born on the same branch as me, he will not die on the same branch as me.' In this single phrase there is naturally a way of escape. Xuedou's verse eulogy says: