佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 3.41

3.41

Ven. Dasui Zhenru, who was a dharma successor of Chan Master Da'an, was a man from Yanting County in Eastern Chuan. He visited more than sixty kalyāṇamitras. In the past, in Guishan's community, he served as the fire-tender. One day Guishan asked: "You have been here for several years, yet you do not know how to bring forward a question to see what it is like?" Sui said: "What would you have me ask that would be right?" Guishan said: "You could simply ask: What is the Buddha?" Sui covered Guishan's mouth with his hand. Guishan said: "Hereafter, you will not even find a person to sweep the floor." Later he returned to Chuan. First, along the mountain road at Bengkou, he brewed tea and hosted passers-by for three years in total; only afterward did he appear in the world, open the mountain, and reside at Dasui. A monk asked: "When the kalpa-fire blazes through and the great trichiliocosm is entirely destroyed, I wonder, is this one destroyed or not?" This monk was merely inquiring on the basis of the doctrinal meaning. In the teachings it says: formation, abiding, destruction, and voidness; when the three disaster-kalpas arise, destruction reaches up to the Third Dhyāna Heaven. This monk originally did not know where the topic of words fell. Tell me, what is this one? Most people make an emotional interpretation, saying: "This one is the original nature of sentient beings." Sui said: "Destroyed." The monk said: "If so, then it goes along with it?" Sui said: "It goes along with it." Just this one—how many people make emotional interpretations and cannot grope it out! If you say it goes along with it, where is it? If you say it does not go along with it, what then? Have you not seen it said: "If you wish to obtain intimacy, do not bring questions to ask questions"? Later a monk asked Master Xiu of the Mountain: "When the kalpa-fire blazes through and the great trichiliocosm is entirely destroyed, I wonder, is this one destroyed or not?" The Mountain Master said: "Not destroyed." The monk said: "Why is it not destroyed?" The Master said: "Because it is identical with the great trichiliocosm." Destruction also chokes one to death; non-destruction also chokes one to death. Since that monk did not understand Dasui's words, he nevertheless kept this matter in mind, and carrying this question, went straight to Mount Touzi in Shuzhou. Touzi asked: "Where have you come from recently?" The monk said: "Dasui in Western Shu." Touzi said: "What words did Dasui have?" The monk then cited the previous words. Touzi burned incense, made prostrations, and said: "An ancient Buddha has appeared in the world in Western Shu; you should quickly return!" When the monk returned to Dasui, Sui had already passed away. This monk suffered a great embarrassment. Later the Tang monk Jingzun wrote a poem on Dasui: "Clearly there is no other dharma; / Who says he was sealed by Southern Neng? / A single phrase, 'goes along with it,' / Sends patch-robed monks running across a thousand mountains. / Chilled crickets chirp on stone steps of leaves; / Ghosts at night make prostrations before the shrine's lamp. / Chanting finished, outside the solitary window, / Lingering, his regret is boundless." Therefore Xuedou later cited these two lines to eulogise it. Nowadays, you must not understand it as destroyed, nor must you understand it as not destroyed. Ultimately, how will you understand it? Quickly fix your eyes and see!