佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 10.23

10.23

When Changqing and Baofu were in Xuefeng's assembly, they often brought up cases together and discussed them. One day in an ordinary conversation they spoke like this: "Better to say that an arhat has the three poisons than to say that the Tathāgata has two kinds of words." In Sanskrit, 'arhat'; here translated as 'slayer of thieves'. It is named after its function: able to sever the eighty-one grades of afflictions (nine times nine); all outflows are already exhausted, and the pure conduct has already been established—this is the stage of the arhat beyond learning. The three poisons are greed, hatred, and delusion. If even the eighty-one grades of fundamental afflictions are severed, how much more so the three poisons? Changqing said: "Better to say that an arhat has the three poisons than to say that the Tathāgata has two kinds of words." The general idea was to reveal that the Tathāgata speaks no untrue words. The Lotus Sūtra says: "Only this one matter is real; the other two are not true." It also says: "There is only the Dharma of the One Vehicle; there are neither two nor three." In more than three hundred assemblies, the Bhagavat observed the faculties to dispense teachings, gave medicine according to the illness, and expounded the Dharma in thousands of ways; yet in the end he had no two kinds of words. His intention reached this point. How do all of you understand this? When the Buddha expounded the Dharma with a single voice, it was indeed so; but Changqing had not yet even dreamed of the Tathāgata's words. Why? It is very much like someone speaking of food never being able to become full. Baofu saw him expounding doctrine on level ground and thereupon asked, "What are the Tathāgata's words?" Changqing said, "How could a deaf person hear?" Who knows how long this fellow had been making a living inside a demon's cave! Baofu said, "I knew very well that you were speaking toward the secondary!" In the end his words proved true. Changqing then asked his elder brother, "What are the Tathāgata's words?" Baofu said, "Go drink tea." The spearhead was instead snatched away by someone else! Both great and small Changqing lost their money and suffered punishment. Let me ask all of you: how many Tathāgata's words are there really? You must understand in this way before you can see where these two fellows failed. If we scrutinize it closely, both deserved a beating with the staff. Leaving a single path open for them to understand: some say that what Baofu said was right and what Changqing said was wrong, merely giving rise to understanding by following words, and immediately say that there is gain and loss. Little do they know that the ancients were like sparks struck from stone, like a flash of lightning. People nowadays do not look at where the ancients turned; they merely run after the words and say that Changqing did not function instantly at that time, and therefore fell into the secondary; while Baofu's saying "Go drink tea" is precisely the primary. If you only look at it like this, even when Maitreya descends to be born, you will still not see the intention of the ancients. If you are an adept, you will never make such a view. Leaping out of this nest, there is naturally a transcendent path. If you say, "'How could a deaf person hear?'—what is wrong with it? 'Go drink tea'—what is right with it?", you will be all the more irrelevant. Therefore it is said: "They study living phrases; they do not study dead phrases." This story is just like the story of "throughout the body" and "the whole body"; there is no place for you to calculate right and wrong. Only when you are completely naked and clear right beneath your heels will you see the place where the ancients met one another. Our old teacher Wuzu said: "It is just like wrestling in front of a horse; your eyes must be sharp and your hands must be nimble." If this gong'an is viewed with the true eye, in neither is there gain or loss. If you distinguish gain and loss, where there is no intimacy or estrangement you make a division of intimate and estranged. Changqing too must bow to Baofu before he can succeed. Why? This little bit was used well at the clever spot, just like lightning turning and a meteor flying. Baofu may well be said to have grown teeth upon teeth and claws upon claws. The verse says: