佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 9.8

9.8

此事若向言語上覓。一如掉棒打月。且得沒交涉。古人分明道。欲得親切。莫將問來問。何故問在答處。答在問處。這僧擔一檐莽鹵。換一檐鶻突。致箇問端。敗缺不少。若不是大龍。爭得蓋天蓋地。他恁麼問。大龍恁麼答。一合相。更不移易一絲毫頭。一似見兔放鷹。看孔著楔。三乘十二分教。還有這箇時節麼。也不妨奇特。只是言語無味。杜塞人口。是故道。一片白雲橫谷口。幾多歸鳥夜迷巢。有者道。只是信口答將去。若恁麼會。盡是滅胡種族漢。殊不知。古人一機一境。敲枷打鎖。一句一言。渾金璞玉。若是衲僧眼腦。有時把住。有時放行。照用同時。人境俱奪。雙放雙收。臨時通變。若無大用大機。爭解恁麼籠天罩地。大似明鏡當臺。胡來胡現漢來漢現。此公案與花藥欄話一般。然意却不同。這僧問處不明。大龍答處恰好。不見僧問雲門。樹凋葉落時如何。門云。體露金風。此謂之箭鋒相拄。這僧問大龍。色身敗壞。如何是堅固法身。大龍云。山花開似錦。㵎水湛如藍。一如君向西秦我之東魯。他既恁麼行。我却不恁麼行。與他雲門一倍相返。那箇恁麼行却易見。這箇却不恁麼行却難見。大龍不妨三寸甚密。雪竇頌云。

If you seek this matter within words and speech, it is like waving a staff to strike the moon—it has no connection whatsoever. An ancient said clearly: 'If you wish for intimate nearness, do not bring questions to question.' Why? The question is at the place of the answer; the answer is at the place of the question. This monk carried a load of crudeness and exchanged it for a load of muddleheadedness; raising such a line of questioning, he was riddled with defects. If it had not been Dalong, how could [the response] have covered heaven and earthed the earth? He asked thus, and Dalong answered thus: they formed a single complete whole, without deviating by a single hair's breadth. It was just like releasing a hawk upon spotting a hare, or fitting a peg upon seeing a mortise. Within the three vehicles and twelve divisions of the teachings, is there still such a time? It is certainly extraordinary, yet words are flavorless and block people's mouths. Therefore it is said: 'A patch of white cloud lies across the valley mouth; / How many returning birds at night lose their way to the nest?' Some say [Dalong] was just answering off the cuff. If you understand it that way, you are all people who extinguish the barbarian race. Little do they know that in every dynamic function and every state of the ancients, they smash the cangues and break the locks; in every phrase and every word, there is unrefined gold and uncut jade. If one has the eyes and brains of a patch-robed monk, at times holding fast and at times letting go, illumination and application are simultaneous, both person and environment are taken away, both released and both gathered, adapting to circumstances as they arise. Without great application and great dynamic function, how could one cover heaven and earth like this? It is very much like a bright mirror set upon its stand: when a barbarian comes, a barbarian appears; when a Han Chinese comes, a Han Chinese appears. This gong'an is identical to the dialogue on the herbal railing, yet the intention is different. Where this monk asked was unclear; where Dalong answered hit the mark exactly. Have you not seen a monk ask Yunmen, 'How is it when the trees wither and the leaves fall?' Yunmen said, 'The body is exposed in the autumn wind.' This is called arrowheads meeting point to point. This monk asked Dalong, 'When the physical body perishes, what is the indestructible Dharmakāya?' Dalong said, 'The mountain flowers bloom like brocade; / The ravine waters run clear as indigo.' This is just like 'you head to western Qin while I go to eastern Lu.' Since he went like that, I did not go like that—it is completely opposite to Yunmen. That way of going like that is easy to see; this way of not going like that is hard to see. Dalong certainly kept his three inches very tight. Xuedou's eulogy says: