佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 4.32

4.32

To the north, Venerable Baoji of Panshan in Youzhou was an elder under Mazu; later he produced the single individual Puhua. When the Master was about to pass away, he said to the assembly, "Is there anyone who can paint a likeness of my true portrait?" The assembly all drew likenesses and presented them to the Master, and the Master scolded all of them. Puhua came forward and said, "I can paint it." The Master said, "Why do you not present it to this old monk?" Puhua immediately did a somersault and went out. The Master said, "In the future, this fellow will receive people like a lunatic!" One day he instructed the assembly, saying: "In the triple world there is no Dharma; where can the mind be sought? The four great elements are fundamentally empty; on what does the Buddha dwell? The armillary sphere does not move; tranquil and still, without a trace. Presented face to face, there is nothing else." Xuedou took these two lines to eulogize; it is truly unrefined gold and uncut jade. Do you not see it said: "Curing an illness does not require donkey-and-camel medicine"? Why did this mountain monk say, "Strike simultaneously with his voice"? Merely because he was carrying a cangue and presenting a confession. The ancients said: "Hearing the phrase outside of sound, do not seek it within the intellect." Tell me: what was his intention? It truly causes rushing torrents to cross a blade, lightning to revolve, and stars to fly. If you deliberate and ponder, even if a thousand Buddhas appear in the world, they could not lay a hand on him. If you penetrate deep into the inner sanctum, thoroughly to the bone and to the marrow, and see through completely, Panshan is a total defeat. If you conform to his words and understand his lineage, turning left and right, you get only a single peg of Panshan. If you drag through mud and water, turning within sound and form, you have not even dreamed of Panshan yet. My late teacher Wuzu said, "Only by penetrating through to the other side will you have a share of freedom." Do you not see the Third Ancestor saying: "Clinging to it loses the measure and is sure to enter wrong paths; letting it go naturally, the essence has neither going nor staying"? If you say here that there is no Buddha and no Dharma, you have been beaten into the demon's cave again; the ancients called this the deep pit of liberation. Originally a good cause, yet it invites an evil result. Therefore it is said: "A person of non-action and no-affairs is still troubled by the fetters of gold." One must also reach the very bottom before it works. If you can speak where there are no words, and can walk where there is no walking, this is called the turning point. "In the triple world there is no Dharma; where can the mind be sought?" If you form an emotional interpretation, you will simply die beneath his words. Xuedou's insight penetrates through and through; therefore he brought it out in a verse.