佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 1.55

1.55

Xuedou certainly has a way of helping people. If one is not an adept, it is merely shouting recklessly and confusedly. Therefore the ancients said: 'Sometimes a shout is not used as a shout; sometimes a shout is indeed used as a shout; sometimes a shout is like a crouching lion; sometimes a shout is like the precious sword of the Vajra King.' Xinghua said: 'I see you people shouting under the east corridor and shouting under the west corridor. Do not shout recklessly and confusedly! Even if your shouts could knock Xinghua up to the Thirty-Three Heavens and send him crashing back down without a breath of air left in him, wait until I revive and I will still say to you: "Not yet!" Why? Xinghua has never yet scattered genuine pearls for you inside the purple silk curtain! Why do you just keep shouting recklessly and confusedly?' Linji said: 'I hear that you all imitate my shouts. Let me ask you: if a monk comes out from the Eastern Hall and a monk comes out from the Western Hall, and both shout at once, which is the guest and which is the host? If you cannot distinguish guest from host, hereafter you must not imitate this old monk.' Therefore Xuedou's verse says: 'An adept knows dynamic change.' Although this monk was captured by Muzhou, he nonetheless had a point of knowing dynamic change. Tell me, where was this monk's point of knowing dynamic change? Chan Master Lumen Zhi remarked on this monk: 'One who knows the Dharma fears it.' Yantou said: 'If we speak of battle, each stands at the pivotal turning point.' Reverend Huanglong Xin said: 'When exhausted, change; change, and there is passage through.' This bit is where the ancestral masters sit and cut off the tongues of everyone under heaven. If you know dynamic change, as soon as it is raised you will know where it lands. A certain sort says: 'Why care what he says about three shouts or four shouts? Just keep shouting on! What is this talk of thirty or twenty shouts? Shout until Maitreya Buddha's descent into the world—this is called "riding the tiger's head."' If one holds such a view, not knowing Muzhou is granted, but one is far indeed from seeing this monk. To be like someone riding a tiger's head, one must have a blade in hand and possess the ability to turn and transform. Xuedou says: 'If so, both become blind men.' Xuedou is like a long sword leaning against the sky, awe-inspiring in full majesty. If you understand Xuedou's meaning, naturally you will understand a thousand, ten thousand places all at once. Then you will see that what follows in Xuedou's verse merely adds footnotes. He also says: 'Who is the blind man?' Tell me, is the guest blind, or is the host blind? Could it be that guest and host are blind at the same time? 'Brought forth to show the people under heaven.' This is the living point. Xuedou has eulogised it all at once; why then does he say, 'Brought forth to show the people under heaven'? Tell me, how should one look? Opening the eyes hits it; closing the eyes hits it. Can anyone avoid it?