佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 3.3

3.3

If Zhiman were responding to dynamic conditions to engage with beings, that would be somewhat close. But if it is cutting off the myriad streams, it is thousands and tens of thousands of miles away. Tell me, as for this lotus flower, are its emerging from the water and its not yet emerging from the water one or two? If you can see it like this, I grant that you have an entry. Even so, if you say they are one, you blur the Buddha-nature and homogenise suchness. If you say they are two, mind and object are not yet forgotten, and falling along the path of conceptual understanding, what rest could you ever have? Tell me, what was the ancient's intention? In reality there is no such clutter of matters. Therefore Touzi said: You need only avoid attaching to names and phrases. If you comprehend all things, naturally there is no attachment and no manifold different ranks. You encompass all dharmas; all dharmas cannot encompass you. Originally there is no gain or loss; names like dreams and illusions are so numerous that one cannot forcibly assign names to them. Could they deceive you people? Because you people ask, therefore there are words. If you did not ask, what would I have to say to you? All matters are brought along by you; none of it concerns me. An ancient said: If you wish to know the meaning of Buddha-nature, you should observe the causes and conditions of the time. Have you not seen: Yunmen cited a monk asking Lingyun, "What about before the Buddha appeared in the world?" Lingyun held up his whisk. The monk said, "What about after he appeared in the world?" Lingyun also held up his whisk. Yunmen said: "The former hit the mark; the latter did not hit the mark." He also said: "Without speaking of appearing or not appearing, where would there be a time for his asking?" When the ancients asked and answered, they responded to the time and season without such clutter of matters. If you trace words and pursue phrases, there is no connection at all. If in words you can penetrate beyond words, in meaning penetrate beyond meaning, and in dynamic action penetrate beyond dynamic action, letting yourself rest in leisure, only then will you see the place of Zhiman's answer. When asked, "What about before the Buddha appeared in the world?" "What about before Niutou met the Fourth Ancestor?" "What about inside the mottled stone before chaos was divided?" "What about before father and mother gave birth?" Yunmen said: "From antiquity to the present, it is just a single matter—no right and no wrong, no gain and no loss, no being born and not being born." When the ancients reached here, they opened a pathway of emerging and entering. If one is an unenlightened person, one leans against fences and grasps walls, relies on grasses and attaches to trees; or if told to let go, one falls again into a vast, desolate place. If one is an enlightened person, through the twelve periods of the day, one does not rely upon a single thing. Although not relying upon a single thing, if he reveals a dynamic action or a realm, how could one grope after him? This monk asked, "What about when the lotus flower has not yet emerged from the water?" Zhiman said, "A lotus flower." Cutting off the question with a single answer, it is certainly extraordinary. All quarters call it reversed speech—how could it be like that? Have you not seen Yantou say: "Always valuing what is prior to opening the mouth is somewhat close." Where the ancients revealed dynamic function was already a leak. Scholars nowadays do not understand the ancient's meaning; they merely go on discussing emerging from the water and not yet emerging from the water—what connection is there? Have you not seen: A monk asked Zhiman, "What is the substance of prajñā?" Man said, "A clam holding the bright moon." The monk said, "What is the function of prajñā?" Man said, "A hare conceiving a fetus." Look at him answering like this: people across the world cannot trace his line of words. Someone asked Jiashan, "What about when the lotus flower has not yet emerged from the water?" He merely answered him, "The bare pillar and the lantern." Tell me, is this the same as or different from the lotus flower? "What about after emerging from the water?" He answered him, "The tip of the staff carries the sun and the moon; underfoot the mud is extremely deep." Tell me, is it or is it not? Do not mistakenly recognize the zero mark on the steelyard. Xuedou was excessively compassionate and broke through people's emotional understanding; therefore he brought out his verse: