佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 1.29

1.29

Changqing asked Yunmen, "Xuefeng spoke like this; is there still anywhere he cannot emerge?" Yunmen said, "There is." Changqing said, "How is it?" Yunmen said, "One must not entirely make the understanding of a wild fox spirit." Xuefeng said, "Inferior when compared with what is above, but more than enough when compared with what is below. I shall make further entangling vines for you." Holding up his staff, he said, "Do you still see Xuefeng? Bah! The king's decree is somewhat strict; encroaching upon the marketplace is forbidden." Daguai Zhe said, "I shall add mud over earth for everyone." Holding up his staff, he said, "Look, look! Xuefeng has relieved himself in front of everyone! Bah! Why do you not even know the stench of shit?" Xuefeng addressed the assembly, saying: "The entire great earth, gathered up, is as large as a grain of millet." The ancients received people and benefited living beings with extraordinary means, but this came only from unsparing diligence. Three times he went up to Touzi, nine times he visited Dongshan; carrying his lacquer tub and wooden ladle, serving as rice cook everywhere he went, only to penetrate and cast off this matter. When he was serving as rice cook at Dongshan, one day Dongshan asked Xuefeng, "What are you doing?" Xuefeng said, "Washing rice." Dongshan said, "Do you wash the sand away and keep the rice, or do you wash the rice away and keep the sand?" Xuefeng said, "Sand and rice are cast away all at once." Dongshan said, "What will the great assembly eat?" Xuefeng thereupon overturned the basin. Dongshan said, "Your karmic affinity lies with Deshan; I direct you to go see him." As soon as he arrived, he asked, "In the matter of the ancestral vehicle from above, does this student still have a share or not?" Deshan struck him with his staff, saying, "What are you saying?" Due to this he had an awakening. Later, snowbound on Mount Ao, he said to Yantou, "When I was under Deshan's staff back then, it was just like the bottom falling out of a tub." Yantou shouted and said, "Have you not heard it said: What enters through the gate is not the family treasure. It must flow out from your own chest, covering heaven and covering earth, before you have a minor share of accord!" Xuefeng suddenly attained great enlightenment. He bowed and said, "Senior brother, only today have I accomplished the Way on Mount Ao." People nowadays keep saying that the ancients deliberately made contrivances to teach later people to abide by rules. If so, they are truly slandering those ancients—it is called shedding the Buddha's blood. The ancients were not sloppy like people nowadays; how could they take a single word or half a phrase to stand for their whole life? In upholding the ancestral teaching and continuing the Buddha's lifespan, the single word or half a phrase they utter naturally cuts off the tongues of everyone under heaven. There is no path for your intentional thinking to form emotional interpretations or meddle with principles. Look at this instruction he gave to the assembly: it was precisely because he had once seen an adept that he possessed the tongs and hammer of an adept. Whenever he brought forth a single word or half a phrase, it was not making a living inside the ghost cave of mental scheming, consciousness, and deliberation; it was completely surpassing the crowd and standing out, sitting and cutting off past and present, not brooking any speculation. The functionings of his lineage were all like this. One day he addressed the assembly, saying, "On South Mountain there is a turtle-nosed snake; all of you must look closely at it!" At that time Daozhe Leng stepped forward from the assembly and said, "If so, in the hall today there are many people losing body and life." Again he said, "The entire great earth is a single eye of a śramaṇa; where will all of you relieve yourselves?" Again he said, "At Wangzhou Pavilion I have already met with you; at Wushi Ridge I have already met with you; in front of the monks' hall I have already met with you." At that time Baofu asked Ehu, "Setting aside in front of the monks' hall for a moment, how is the meeting place at Wangzhou Pavilion and Wushi Ridge?" Ehu strode quickly back to the Abbot's quarters. He often brought up words like these to instruct the assembly. Just take his saying, "The entire great earth, gathered up, is as large as a grain of millet"—at such a moment, tell me, can it be reckoned through emotional consciousness? You must smash the cage and trap, let go of gain and loss, right and wrong, all at once, completely unburdened and free, and then you will naturally penetrate his snare and only then see his functioning. And tell me, where was Xuefeng's intention? Most people make emotional interpretations, saying, "Mind is the master of all dharmas; the entire great earth is in my hands at once." Fortunately, it has no connection! Arriving here, one must be a genuine person; upon barely hearing it brought up, see through it to bone and marrow, without falling into emotional thoughts and conceptual notions. If one is an authentic itinerant patch-robed monk, seeing him like this, he has already sloppily acted on people's behalf. Look at Xuedou's verse eulogy: