佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 5.24

5.24

Among the eighteen kinds of questions, this is called an arranging-and-organizing question. Xuedou says: “Arranging and organizing, he pressed the old awl.” He arranged and organized the myriad phenomena to make them return to unity. This monk wanted to press Zhaozhou, but Zhaozhou was indeed an adept: where there is no turning, he had a way out. Daring to open his big mouth, he immediately said: “When I was in Qingzhou, I made a cloth robe weighing seven pounds.” Xuedou says: “How many know this seven-pound cloth robe? / Now tossed into the West Lake.” The myriad phenomena return to one; one is not needed, and the seven-pound cloth robe is not needed either—both tossed into the West Lake at once. Xuedou lived at Dongting's Cuifeng, where there was a West Lake. “Unloading the clear breeze, to whom is it imparted?” This was Zhaozhou's address to the assembly: “If you come from the north, I load you up. If you come from the south, I unload you. If you come from Xuefeng or Yunju, you are also a board-carrying fellow.” Xuedou says: to whom can such a clear breeze be imparted? Loading up means explaining mind and nature to you, explaining the mysterious and marvelous, all sorts of expedient means. If it is unloading, there are no longer so many doctrinal principles and mysterious marvels. There are those who carry a load of Chan to Zhaozhou's place, where not a bit of it can be used; all at once he cleans it up for them, making them free and unencumbered without a single speck of matter, called “after awakening, still just like before awakening.” Nowadays people all interpret it as “nothing to do.” Some say: “There is neither delusion nor awakening; do not seek any further.” But consider: before the Buddha appeared in the world, before Bodhidharma came to this land, could it have been otherwise? What was the use of the Buddha appearing in the world? What was the use of the ancestral master coming from the west? If it were entirely like this, what relevance would it have? One must undergo a great thorough awakening; then as before mountains are mountains and waters are waters, and all the myriad phenomena are fully manifest—only then can one be a person of “nothing to do.” Do you not see what Longya said: “In studying the Way, one must first have a cause for awakening, / just like having once contested in a swift dragon boat. / Although it was the old pavilion and idle land, / only after winning once did one finally cease.” Just consider Zhaozhou's story of the seven-pound cloth robe: see how the ancients spoke in this way, like gold and jade. The mountain monk speaks like this, and you all listen like this—this is all loading up. Tell me, what is unloading? Look under your three rafters.