佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 8.33

8.33

"Questions about transcendent talk are especially numerous among Chan guests." Chan fellows are especially fond of asking this. Have you not seen Yunmen say: "All of you shoulder your staff horizontally, saying, 'I investigate Chan and study the Way,' and immediately look for the principle of transcending the Buddhas and going beyond the patriarchs. Let me ask you: in the twelve periods of the day, walking, standing, sitting, lying down, defecating, urinating, down to the maggots in the privy and the mutton stall in the market—is there still the principle of transcending the Buddhas and going beyond the patriarchs? Anyone who can speak, come forth! If not, do not hinder me from walking east and west." Then he stepped down from the seat. There are those who do not recognize good or bad, drawing a circle—adding mud to earth, adding cangues and locks. "Can you see the cracks and seams splitting apart?" Where he posed his question, how immensely great were the cracks and seams! Seeing where his question split apart, Yunmen therefore blocked and plugged it with "sesame cake." This monk was still unwilling to stop, and asked again. Therefore Xuedou says, "The sesame cake crammed in, he still does not stop; to this day there is confusion throughout the world." Nowadays Chan fellows merely try to understand it on the sesame cake, or else they concoct doctrines on transcending the Buddhas and going beyond the patriarchs. Since it is not in these two extremes, where ultimately is it? Thirty years from now, wait until this mountain monk changes his bones and comes forth, and then I will tell you.