佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 2.3

2.3

Huangbo stood seven feet tall, with a round pearl-like bump on his forehead. By nature he understood Chan. Formerly, when the master was traveling in Tiantai, he met a monk along the road and chatted and laughed with him like an old acquaintance. Looking at him closely, his gaze pierced people, and he possessed exceptional features. They traveled together. It happened that the mountain stream swelled suddenly, so Huangbo planted his staff, took off his conical hat, and stopped. The monk urged the master to cross together with him. The master said, "Please cross first." The monk immediately hitched up his robes and stepped across the waves as if walking on level ground. Looking back, he called out, "Come across, come across!" The master scolded him, "You self-liberated fellow! Had I known earlier you worked such wizardry, I would have cut off your shins!" The monk sighed and said, "A true vessel of the Great Vehicle!" As soon as he finished speaking, he disappeared.

When he first arrived at Baizhang, Baizhang asked, "Towering and imposing, where have you come from?"
Huangbo said, "Towering and imposing, I have come from within the mountains."
Baizhang asked, "What have you come for?"
Huangbo said, "Not for any other business."
Baizhang valued him deeply as an exceptional vessel.

The next day he took his leave of Baizhang. Baizhang asked, "Where are you going?"
Huangbo said, "I am going to Jiangxi to pay homage to Master Ma."
Baizhang said, "Master Ma has already passed away."
Do you say that when Huangbo asked like this, did he ask knowing, or did he ask not knowing? Yet he said, "I had set out especially to pay homage, but my blessings and conditions are shallow and thin; I missed seeing him. I wonder, what sayings did he usually have? I wish to hear them cited."

Baizhang then cited the circumstances of his own second visit to Mazu: "When the Patriarch saw me coming, he held up his whisk. I asked, 'Is this in accordance with this function, or detached from this function?' The Patriarch then hung the whisk on the corner of the meditation couch. After a long silence, the Patriarch asked me back, 'Later on, when you flap your two lips, how will you act for people?' I took the whisk and held it up. The Patriarch said, 'Is this in accordance with this function, or detached from this function?' I hung the whisk back on the corner of the meditation couch. The Patriarch gave a shout with stirring majesty. At that moment, I was deafened for three straight days." Huangbo involuntarily shuddered and stuck out his tongue. Baizhang said, "Will you not succeed Master Ma in the future?"
Huangbo said, "Not so. Today, because of the master's citation, I have been able to see Master Ma's great dynamic function. If I were to succeed Master Ma, in the days ahead I would ruin my descendants."
Baizhang said, "Just so, just so! 'One whose view equals his master diminishes his master's virtue by half; only one whose wisdom exceeds his master is qualified to transmit the teaching.' Today, your insight truly possesses the capacity to surpass the master."

Tell me, everyone, when Huangbo asked like that, did he ask intentionally while already knowing, or did he ask without knowing? You must personally witness where this father and son walked before you can understand.

Another day, Huangbo asked Baizhang, "How does one indicate the ancestral lineage's vehicle from above?" Baizhang remained silent for a long time. Huangbo said, "You must not cause later people to cut it off completely." Baizhang said, "I had thought you were a real person." Thereupon he got up and entered his abbot's quarters.

Huangbo and Prime Minister Pei were friends beyond the mundane world. When Pei governed Wanling, he invited the master to the commandery and presented him with a treatise he had written. The master took it and placed it on his seat without browsing through it in the least. After a long silence he said, "Do you understand?"
Pei said, "I do not understand."
Huangbo said, "If you could understand directly like this, it would still amount to something. But if it is expressed in paper and ink, where would our lineage be?"
Pei then praised him with a verse:
"Ever since the Great Being transmitted the mind-seal, / A forehead with a round pearl and a seven-foot body. / Hanging up his staff for ten years, he roosted beside the Shu waters; / Today, floating his bowl, he crosses the banks of the Zhang. / Eight thousand dragons and elephants follow his lofty strides; / Ten thousand miles of fragrant flowers forge sublime causes. / I intend to serve the master as a disciple, / But do not know to whom he will entrust the Dharma."
The master showed no sign of pleasure and said:
"The mind is like a boundless ocean; / The mouth spouts red lotuses to nourish this sickly body. / Having naturally a pair of hands free of affairs, / I have never bowed in greeting to an ordinary man."

After Huangbo took up residence [as abbot], his dynamic sharpness was steep and sheer. Linji was in his assembly, and Muzhou was the head monk. Muzhou asked him, "Senior monk, you have been here a long time; why do you not go ask a question?"
Linji said, "What question would you have me ask?"
The head monk said, "Why do you not go ask, 'What is the clear and authentic meaning of the Buddha Dharma?'"
Linji went to ask, and three times he was beaten and driven out. Linji took leave of the head monk, saying, "Thanks to the head monk directing me three times to ask, I was beaten and driven out. I fear my conditions do not lie here, so I will temporarily leave the mountain."
The head monk said, "If you leave, you must bid farewell to the Venerable before you can go."
The head monk went ahead of time and told Huangbo, "The senior monk who asked the questions is very rare and hard to come by. Why does the Venerable not carve and polish him into a tree that can provide shade for later people?"
Huangbo said, "I already know."
When Linji came to take his leave, Huangbo said, "You must not go elsewhere; go straight to the riverbank at Gao'an and see Dayu."
Linji reached Dayu and cited the preceding events, saying, "I do not know where my fault was."
Dayu said, "Huangbo had such a grandmotherly heart, exhausting himself for you, yet you still speak of having a fault or having no fault!"
Linji was suddenly greatly enlightened and said, "Huangbo's Buddha Dharma is not much after all!"
Dayu grabbed him and said, "Just now you said you had a fault, and now you say the Buddha Dharma is not much after all!"
Linji gave Dayu three punches under the ribs. Dayu pushed him away and said, "Your teacher is Huangbo; it has nothing to do with me."

One day Huangbo addressed the assembly, saying, "Master Niutou Rong spoke horizontally and spoke vertically, yet he still did not know the pivotal mechanism of the transcendent." At that time, under Shitou and Mazu, Chan practitioners were bustling about everywhere, speaking of Chan and speaking of the Dao. Why did he nevertheless speak like this? Therefore he addressed the assembly, saying, "All of you people are swillers of dregs! Making an itinerant pilgrimage like this will only bring ridicule from others. Wherever you see eight hundred or a thousand people, you just go there; you must not merely pursue the lively crowd. If it were altogether as easy as you take it to be, where would there still be today's matter?" In Tang times people liked to scold others by calling them "swillers of dregs." Most people call this Huangbo scolding people, but those with the eye naturally see where he lands. His general intent was to cast a hook to fish for someone to ask. Among the assembly there was a Chan practitioner who did not begrudge his body or life, who knew how to step forward from the assembly and ask him, "What about those in various quarters who direct followers and lead assemblies?" This was indeed a pressing challenge! This old fellow was truly unable to explain it away, so he let out a leak, saying, "I do not say there is no Chan, only that there are no masters."

Tell me, what was the meaning in this? His lineage's ancestral principle from above at times seizes, at times releases, at times kills, at times gives life, at times lets go, and at times pulls back. I venture to ask everyone: what is a master in Chan? For this mountain monk to speak like this has already buried my head and all! Where are everyone's nostrils? [After a long silence, he said:] Pierced through!