佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄 9.27

9.27

Yunmen addressed the assembly in his room to receive people: Under the heels of every one of you, each possesses a radiance that blazes through past and present, far transcending views and knowledge. Although there is radiance, as soon as you are questioned, you do not understand; is this not being pitch dark? For twenty years he gave this pointer, and no one understood his meaning. Later, Xianglin requested an alternative answer; Yunmen said: 'The storeroom, the triple gate.' He also said: 'A good thing is not as good as nothing.' Usually an alternative answer is just one phrase; why are there two phrases here? The former phrase opens a crack of a path for you to see. If you are a true fellow, upon hearing it brought forward, you immediately prick up your ears and walk. Fearing that people might linger here, he also said: 'A good thing is not as good as nothing'—once again sweeping it away for you. Nowadays, as soon as people hear radiance mentioned, they stare wide-eyed and say: 'Where is the storeroom? Where is the triple gate?' This has no connection at all! Therefore it is said: 'Recognize the intention at the hook's tip; do not settle upon the marks of the steelyard.' This matter does not lie in the eyes, nor does it lie in the realm of objects. You must cut off knowledge and views, forget gain and loss, be bare and stark, naked and clean, and investigate it for yourselves individually before you will attain it. Yunmen said: 'Coming and going in daylight, you discern people in daylight. If suddenly at midnight there is no light of sun, moon, or lamp, in places you have been you may still manage, but in places you have never been, can you pick up an object?' The Sandokai says: 'Right within light there is darkness, do not view it as darkness; right within darkness there is light, do not meet it as light.' If you sit through and cut off both light and darkness, tell me, what is it? Therefore it is said: 'The mind-flower unfolds in radiance, illuminating the lands of the ten directions.' Panshan said: 'Radiance does not illuminate objects, nor do objects exist; when both radiance and objects are forgotten, what is it again?' He also said: 'This very hearing and seeing is not hearing and seeing; there is no remaining sound or form to present to you. If you thoroughly understand within this, there is nothing at all to do; what harm is there whether essence and function are divided or not?' Just understand the final phrase, and then go and play in what went before; ultimately, do not make your living within it. The ancients said: 'Based on non-abiding, establish all phenomena.' You must not play with shadows and play with spirits here, nor should you understand it as having nothing to do. The ancients said: 'Better to give rise to a view of existence as vast as Mount Meru than to give rise to a view of non-existence as tiny as a mustard seed.' People of the Two Vehicles mostly fall into this one-sided view. Xuedou's verse says: