佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 3.23

3.23

Can you all evaluate and discern the Hermit of Lotus Flower Peak? The soles of your feet have not yet touched the ground. In the early years of this dynasty, he had erected a hermitage on Lotus Flower Peak at Tiantai. After ancient people had attained the Way, in thatched huts or stone chambers, inside broken-legged pots, they boiled wild vegetable roots to eat and passed the days, neither seeking fame nor profit, being carefree and following conditions. Setting forth a turning word was merely to repay the kindness of the buddhas and ancestral masters, and to transmit the Buddha mind-seal. As soon as he saw a monk come, he would hold up his staff and say: “When ancient people reached here, why were they unwilling to stay?” For more than twenty years, in the end not a single person could answer. In this single question alone, there is the provisional and the real, illumination and function. If you know his ring and snare, it does not require a single pinch. And tell me, why did he ask like this for twenty years? Since this was the doing of a lineage master, why did he keep to only one peg? If you see into this, naturally you will not run toward emotional defilements. Throughout twenty years, how many people leveled their statements, submitted phrases, presented their understandings, and exhausted all their tricks with him! Even if there was one who could speak, they still did not reach his ultimate standard. What is more, although this matter is not within words and phrases, without words and phrases it cannot be discerned. Do you not see it is said: “The Way is originally without words; because of words the Way is made manifest.” Therefore, to test someone's true ground, the moment they open their mouths you know their sound. When ancient people set forth a single word or half a phrase, it was for nothing else; they only wanted to see whether you knew there is [the transcendent matter] or did not know there is. Seeing that people did not understand, he spoke in their place, saying: “Because on the road they had no purchase.” Look at how he spoke it: naturally according with principle and according with dynamic function, when had he ever lost the ancestral tenet? An ancient said: “Inheriting the words, one must understand the tenet; do not establish your own rules.” Nowadays people just blindly charge forward and consider it done; if they get it, they get it, but how can they help being muddled and indistinct? If they come before an adept master who tests them with the three essential words—imprinting space, imprinting mud, imprinting water—it will immediately be seen that a square peg is meeting a round hole, with no place to settle. When arriving here and searching for one of identical attainment and identical realization, where at the moment can one be sought? If it is someone who knows there is [the transcendent matter], opening one's bosom and sharing the news, what objection could there be? If you do not encounter the right person, for now roll it up and hold it in your bosom. And let me ask you all: the staff is what patch-robed monks use routinely, so why did he say that on the road they had no purchase? When ancient people reached here, they were unwilling to stay; in reality, although gold dust is precious, falling into the eye it causes a cataract. Master Shandao of Shishi, who had met with the laicization at that time, often held up his staff and showed it to the assembly, saying: “Past buddhas were also like this, future buddhas will also like this, and present buddhas are also like this.” One day, in front of the monks’ hall, Xuefeng held up his staff and showed it to the assembly, saying: “This is only for people of middling and lower faculties.” At that time a monk came forward and asked: “If one suddenly encounters someone of the supreme faculties coming, what then?” Xuefeng held up his staff and walked away. Yunmen said: “I would not be like Xuefeng, smashing things into an utter mess.” A monk asked: “I do not know what the Venerable would do.” Yunmen struck him immediately. In general, visiting and asking has no such myriad matters; it is because externally you see mountains, rivers, and the great earth, internally you see seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing, above you see buddhas to be sought, and below you see sentient beings to be saved. You must directly spit it all out at once, and then, throughout the twelve periods of the day, whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, weld it into a single piece. Though situated on a single hair-tip, it is as vast as the great thousand worlds; though dwelling amid boiling cauldrons and burning coals, it is as if in a land of peace and bliss; though dwelling amid the seven treasures and eight jewels, it is as if under a thatched roof among weeds. In this sort of matter, if one is a completely open adept who reaches the ancient's real ground, naturally one expends no effort. Seeing that no one grasped his meaning, he again questioned himself: “Ultimately, what about it?” And being unable to do anything, he said himself: “Carrying his staff horizontally across his shoulders, paying no regard to anyone, he goes straight into the thousands and myriads of peaks!” What was this intention again? Tell me, what place was pointed to as the destination? There is no harm that within the phrase there is an eye, and beyond the words there is an intention: rising on his own and falling on his own, letting go on his own and reeling in on his own. Do you not see: Venerable Yanyang met a monk on the road, held up his staff, and said: “What is it?” The monk said: “I do not know.” Yanyang said: “You don't even know a staff!” Yanyang again planted the staff on the ground and said: “Do you know it yet?” The monk said: “I do not know.” Yanyang said: “You don't even know an earthen hole!” Yanyang again carried the staff on his shoulder and said: “Do you understand?” The monk said: “I do not understand.” Yanyang said: “Carrying his staff horizontally across his shoulders, paying no regard to anyone, he goes straight into the thousands and myriads of peaks!” When ancient people reached here, why were they unwilling to stay? Xuedou has a eulogy: “Who can bring it up according to the dynamic function without deception? That too is rare! / Crushing the steep and sheer, melting down the mysterious and subtle. / The heavy barrier was once opened wide, / But the adepts did not return together. / The jade rabbit is briefly full and briefly wanes; / The golden crow seems to fly yet does not fly. / Old Lu—one knows not where he has gone: / White clouds and flowing water stay together lingering.” Why did this mountain monk say: “Cheeks visible from behind the head, do not associate with him”? As soon as you make calculations, that is making a livelihood inside a black mountain demon cave. If you see through thoroughly and believe completely, then thousands and myriads of people naturally cannot ensnare or constrain you, nor can they do anything to you. Touched or pressed, naturally there is killing and there is giving life. Xuedou understood his meaning of “he goes straight into the thousands and myriads of peaks,” and only then formed his eulogy. If you want to know where it lands, look at Xuedou’s eulogy which says: