佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 3.13

3.13

Baofu, Changqing, and Jingqing all inherited Xuefeng. The three of them attained together and verified together, saw together and heard together, picked up together and applied together, exiting and entering, mutually pushing and pressing one another. Because they were born from the same branch, whenever something was brought up, they immediately knew its landing place. In Xuefeng's assembly, the everyday questions and answers were just between the three of them. The ancients walked, stood, sat, and lay down keeping this Path in mind, so as soon as something was brought up, they knew its landing place. One day, while touring the mountains, Baofu pointed with his finger and said, "Right here is the peak of the Wondrous Summit." Nowadays Chan practitioners, when asked like this, have mouths like flat carrying poles. Fortunately, it was asked of Changqing. Tell me, when Baofu spoke like this, what did he expect to achieve? The ancients did this to test whether someone had eyes or lacked eyes. Being a person of his house, he naturally knew his landing place, and immediately said to him, "So it is, yet what a pity!" Tell me: when Changqing spoke like this, what was the intended meaning? One cannot keep going like this all the time. Similar as it is, rarely is there an idle moment without the slightest trace. Fortunately, Changqing saw through him. Xuedou gave an interlinear remark, saying, "Touring the mountains with this fellow today, what did he expect to achieve?" Tell me: where did it land? He also said, "A hundred or a thousand years later, I do not say there will be none, only that they will be few." Xuedou understood how to point to his own chest, just like Huangbo saying, "I do not say there is no Chan, only that there are no teachers." Xuedou speaking like this was indeed steep and dangerous. Were it not for "like sounds responding to each other," how could he achieve such solitary, precipitous wonder? These are called interlinear remarks, which fall into the two sides; though falling into the two sides, they do not abide in the two sides. Later it was related to Jingqing. Qing said, "Were it not for Elder Sun, skulls would cover the wilderness." Elder Sun was Changqing's secular surname. Have you not seen: a monk asked Zhaozhou, "What is the solitary peak of the Wondrous Summit?" Zhou said, "This old monk does not answer you this question." The monk said, "Why do you not answer this question?" Zhou said, "If I were to answer you, I fear it would fall onto level ground." In the teachings it is said of the solitary peak of the Wondrous Summit that Bhikṣu Deyun never came down the mountain. Sudhana went to call on him, but after seven days did not meet him; one day, he met him instead on another peak. When he finally met him, [Deyun] spoke to him of the Dharma door of the wisdom-radiance of all Buddhas of the three periods of time in a single thought, seeing all universally. Since Deyun did not come down the mountain, why did they meet on another peak? If you say he came down the mountain, the teachings say: "Bhikṣu Deyun has never come down the mountain, and is always on the solitary peak of the Wondrous Summit." Reaching here, where exactly are Deyun and Sudhana? Later, Elder Li spun entangling vines very well, saying: "The solitary peak of the Wondrous Summit is the Dharma door of one-flavor equality: every single thing is real, every single thing is complete, uniquely revealed where there is no gain and no loss, no right and no wrong. Therefore Sudhana could not see him." Reaching the place that matches the nature, it is like the eye not seeing itself, the ear not hearing itself, the finger not touching itself; like a sword not cutting itself, fire not burning itself, water not washing itself. Reaching here, in the teachings there is much grandmotherly helping of others; therefore a crack of an opening is let go, establishing guest and host in the gate of secondary truth, establishing dynamic function and objective sphere, establishing question and answer. Thus it is said, "The Buddhas do not appear in the world, / Nor do they enter nirvāṇa; / By expedient means to liberate sentient beings, / They therefore manifest such affairs." Tell me, ultimately how does one avoid Jingqing and Xuedou speaking like this? At that time, they were not able to clap together in accord, and therefore, people throughout the entire earth had skulls covering the wilderness. Jingqing verified it like this, and those two used it like this. Later, Xuedou's eulogizing verse makes it even more radiant. The verse says: