佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 6.22

6.22

Daowu and Jianyuan arrived at a family's home to offer condolences. Yuan patted the coffin and said, "Is it alive or dead?" Wu said, "I won't say alive, and I won't say dead." If one can enter right beneath the phrase and know where to return upon the words, this very thing is the crucial pivot for breaking through and escaping birth and death. If not, one frequently blunders right past it on the spot. Look at how the ancients, walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, constantly kept this matter in mind. As soon as they reached the house to offer condolences, Jianyuan patted the coffin and asked Daowu, "Is it alive or dead?" Daowu did not shift a single hair's breadth; he replied to him, "I won't say alive, and I won't say dead." Jianyuan blundered past it face-to-face; chasing after his words, he went further and said, "Why won't you say?" Wu said, "I won't say! I won't say!" Daowu could be called utterly sincere, going along with the error to rectify the error. Yuan was still not awake. On the way back, he said again, "Preceptor, tell me quickly! If you don't tell me, I will strike you, Preceptor!" Does this fellow know what is good or bad? As it is said, good intentions meet with no good reward. Daowu, still with a grandmotherly heart, said to him further, "Strike me if you will, but as for telling, I won't say!" Yuan then struck him. Although it was like this, Yuan nevertheless won a point. Daowu was dripping blood for him like this; how could Jianyuan be so uncomprehending? After Daowu was struck by him, he said to Jianyuan, "You must leave for now. I fear that if the temple administrators find out, they will bring trouble upon you." He secretly sent Jianyuan away. Daowu was excessively compassionate! Later, Yuan went to a small cloister and heard a postulant reciting the Avalokiteśvara Sūtra: "To those who should be liberated by the body of a monk, he immediately manifests the body of a monk to preach the Dharma for them." He suddenly had a great awakening and said, "At that time I blamed the late master wrongly; how was I to know that this matter does not lie in words and phrases?" An ancient said, "Great people of immeasurable capacity are spun around inside the veins of speech." There are those whose emotional understanding says: "Daowu's saying 'I won't say, I won't say' was precisely telling him." This is called turning a back-flip, making people unable to get a handle on it. If you understand it like this, how can you attain peace and stability? If one's feet tread on solid ground, there is not a hair's breadth of separation. Have you not seen the seven virtuous women visiting the Śītavana charnel ground? One pointed to a corpse and asked, "The corpse is here; where is the person?" The eldest sister said, "What? What?" The entire assembly together realized the acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas. And tell me, how many were there? A thousand, ten thousand—they are just one. Later, Jianyuan went to Shishuang and recounted the previous dialogue. Shishuang, just as before, said, "I won't say alive, and I won't say dead." Yuan said, "Why won't you say?" Shuang said, "I won't say! I won't say!" Yuan was awakened then and there. One day, carrying a spade, he walked from east to west and from west to east in the Dharma Hall, intending to present his understanding. As expected, Shuang asked, "What are you doing?" Yuan said, "I am looking for the late master's holy relics." Shuang immediately cut off his heels, saying, "Here, vast billows billow, white waves surge to the heavens—what holy relics of the late master are you looking for?" Since he was looking for the late master's holy relics, why did Shishuang speak like this? At this point, if you can grasp it upon the words "I won't say alive, and I won't say dead," only then will you know that from beginning to end it is the dynamic function in its entirety that one employs. If you construct logical principles, speculating and deliberating, it is truly difficult to see. Jianyuan said, "Just the right time to apply effort!" See how naturally extraordinary his words are after awakening! A piece of Daowu's parietal bone was golden in color, and when struck it made a metallic sound like copper. Xuedou's added remark says, "Blue heavens! Blue heavens!" Its meaning falls into both extremes. Taiyuan Fu said, "The late master's holy relics are still present!" Naturally, he spoke steadily and securely. Setting this entanglement aside for a moment, tell me: what is the crucial point? Where is effort to be applied? Have you not heard it said: "Penetrating one place, a thousand places, ten thousand places are penetrated all at once." If you can penetrate at the place of "I won't say, I won't say," you will then sit upon and cut off the tongues of everyone under heaven. If you cannot penetrate, you must personally investigate and personally awaken; you must not let the days pass easily, wasting such precious time. Xuedou's verse says: