佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 5.36

5.36

If you wish to know the meaning of Buddha-nature, you should observe the causes and conditions of the time and season. Grand Tutor Wang was the prefect of Quanzhou, and had long associated with Zhaoqing. One day he entered the monastery. At that time Senior Monk Lang was brewing tea, and overturned the teapot. The Grand Tutor was also a master; as soon as he saw him overturn the teapot, he immediately asked the senior monk, "What is underneath the tea brazier?" Lang said, "The spirit that supports the brazier." There was indeed an echo in his words, yet the beginning and the end contradicted each other, losing the core lineage purpose and injuring his own blade while hurting his hand. Not only did he fail himself, but he also gave offense to another. Although this is a matter without gain or loss, if it is brought up, there are still closeness and distance, black and white. If discussing this matter, it does not reside in words and phrases, yet one must distinguish a living place in words and phrases. Therefore it is said: "They study living phrases; they do not study dead phrases." In Senior Monk Lang speaking like this, he was like a mad dog chasing a clod of earth. The Grand Tutor flicked his sleeves and left, seeming not to approve of him. Mingzhao said, "Senior Monk Lang, you eat the rice of Zhaoqing, but then go beyond the river to chop down wild stumps." A "wild stump" is a charred wooden stake in a deserted wilderness; it is called a wild stump. This illuminates that Senior Monk Lang did not walk the correct path, but instead went wandering outside. Lang pressed him, saying, "And what do you say, Venerable Sir?" Zhao said, "A non-human spirit seized the advantage." Mingzhao naturally had a way out, nor did he fail what was asked of him. Therefore it is said: "A swift dog bites a person without baring its teeth." Venerable Master Guishan Zhe said: "Grand Tutor Wang was very much like Lin Xiangru seizing the jade disc, raising his whiskers and hair against his cap; for Mingzhao could not restrain himself, finding it hard to meet such an opportunity. If Dagui were Senior Monk Lang, seeing the Grand Tutor flick his sleeves and go, he would have put down the teapot and laughed heartily, 'Ha, ha!' Why? If you see it and do not take it, it is hard to encounter in a thousand years." Do you not see: Baoshou asked Hu the Tinker, "I have long heard of Hu the Tinker; could it be you?" Hu said, "Yes." Shou said, "Can you still mend empty space?" Hu said, "Please break it open and bring it, Master." Shou then struck him. Hu did not agree. Shou said, "In the future there will naturally be a talkative teacher who will point it out for you." Later Hu met Zhaozhou and related the previous story. Zhou said, "Why were you struck by him?" Hu said, "I do not know where the fault was." Zhou said, "You cannot even manage this single seam, yet you tell him to break empty space and bring it to you!" Hu then ceased. Zhou said in his place: "Just mend this seam." Thereupon Hu had an awakening. Teacher Mi the Seventh of Jingzhao returned from itinerant pilgrimage. An elder monk asked, "On a moonlit night, a broken well-rope is called a snake by all people. I wonder, when Teacher Seven sees the Buddha, what do you call him?" Teacher Seven said, "If there is anything seen, then it is identical to sentient beings." The elder monk said, "This too is a thousand-year-old peach stone." National Teacher Huizhong asked Imperial Attendant Zilin, "I hear that the Attendant can annotate the Sūtra of Viśeṣacintābrahma-paripṛcchā; is it so?" The Attendant said, "It is." The Master said, "Whenever one annotates a sūtra, one must understand the Buddha's intent before it will do." The Attendant said, "If I did not understand the intent, how could I dare speak of annotating the sūtra?" The Master then ordered an attendant to bring a bowl of water, seven grains of rice, and a chopstick placed across the bowl, and presented it to the Attendant, asking, "What does this mean?" The Attendant said, "I do not understand." The Master said, "You do not even understand this old teacher's intent; what Buddha's intent are you talking about?" Grand Tutor Wang and Senior Monk Lang conversed in this way with various matters. In the end, Xuedou said, "At that time, he should have just kicked over the tea brazier!" Although Mingzhao was like that, in the end he was not as good as Xuedou. When Xuefeng was serving as the rice cook in Dongshan's assembly, one day while washing rice, Shan asked, "What are you doing?" Feng said, "Washing rice." Shan said, "Do you wash the rice to remove the sand, or wash the sand to remove the rice?" Feng said, "Sand and rice are removed at once." Shan said, "What will the great assembly eat?" Feng then overturned the basin. Shan said, "Your conditions are not here." Although it was like this, how could it match Xuedou saying: at that time, he should have just kicked over the tea brazier! Alike in what season it is, when one comes to his dynamic function, naturally it surpasses the present and illumines the past, possessing a living place of liberation. The verse says: