佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 3.10

3.10

"At Elephant Bone Cliff, the high place people do not reach; / Those who do reach it must be hands at handling snakes." Below Mount Xuefeng is Elephant Bone Cliff. Xuefeng's dynamic sharpness was lofty and precipitous, and rarely did anyone reach his place. Xuedou was a person from inside his house: their feathers and plumage resembled each other, "like sounds responding to each other, like vital energies seeking each other." It still takes an adept who has penetrated all directions to bear witness together. But this turtle-nosed snake is indeed not easy to handle; one must understand how to handle it to succeed. If one does not understand how to handle it, one is instead bitten by the snake. My late teacher Wuzu said: "This turtle-nosed snake requires dynamic function that does not injure one's hands and feet: seizing it with one squeeze on its seven inches, one then walks hand in hand with this old monk." Changqing and Xuansha possessed this kind of hands and feet. Xuedou says, "Master Leng and Master Bei could do nothing about it." Most people say Changqing and Xuansha could do nothing about it, and therefore Xuedou solely praised Yunmen, which has no connection whatsoever! Little do they know that among the three, their dynamic functions had no gain or loss, but only intimacy and distance. Now I ask you all: where was the place Master Leng and Master Bei could do nothing about it? "How many have lost their bodies and lives?" This eulogizes Changqing's saying, "In the hall today, many people have lost their bodies and lives." Reaching here, one must be a hand at handling snakes and be meticulous to succeed. Xuedou brought out Yunmen, and therefore brushed them all aside at once, leaving only Yunmen alone, saying, "Shaoyang knew, / And parted the grass again." Because Yunmen knew the landing place of Xuefeng's saying that "On South Mountain there is a turtle-nosed snake," he therefore parted the grass again. When Xuedou's verse reaches here, there is an even more wondrous place: "North, south, east, and west, nowhere to search for it." Tell me, where is it? "Suddenly it thrusts out from the staff head." Originally it was right here! You must not make a living upon the staff head. Yunmen hurled the staff before Xuefeng and made a posture of fear; Yunmen then used the staff as the turtle-nosed snake. Sometimes it is said, "The staff turns into a dragon and swallows up heaven and earth; where do the mountains, rivers, and the great earth come from?" It is just a single staff: sometimes it acts as a dragon, sometimes as a snake. Why is it like this? Reaching here, one finally knows that an ancient said, "Mind turns along with the ten thousand realms; where it turns is truly abstruse." The verse says: "Tossed before Xuefeng, opening wide its mouth: / Opening wide its mouth, it is like lightning." Xuedou had surplus talent: picking out Yunmen's poisonous snake, he said that this opening wide of its mouth is just like lightning. If you deliberate, you lose your body and forfeit your life. "Twitching up one's eyebrows, one still does not see it." Where has it gone? Having eulogized this, Xuedou must go to a living place to act for people; taking Xuefeng's snake, he picked it up and handled it himself, not shrinking from killing and giving life on the spot. Do you want to see? It says: "Now it is hidden in front of Milk Peak." Milk Peak is the name of Mount Xuedou. Xuedou has a verse: "All around, the stones survey the dark ocean as narrow; / So vast and desolate, not permitting the white clouds to be white." Though Changqing, Xuansha, and Yunmen handled it till it disappeared, he nevertheless says: "Now it is hidden in front of Milk Peak; / Let all who come examine the expedient means." Xuedou still gets entangled in fine nuances: instead of speaking and immediately using it, he shouts in a loud voice, "Watch beneath your feet!" From of old, how many people have picked it up and handled it? Tell me: has it ever bitten anyone, or not bitten anyone? The master then struck.