萬松老人評唱天童覺和尚頌古從容庵錄 1.163

1.163

師云。此頌如韓文毛頴傳。理事雙彰。真俗並舉。一往觀來。溈山為老覺。仰山以下為子孫。就裏即不然。僧問長沙岑大蟲。本來人還成佛否。山云。爾道。大唐天子還割茅刈草否。是知。刈茆乃臣子邊事。而今慚愧起家門。千年無影樹。今時沒底靴。住持千嶂月。衣鉢一溪雲。皆是得力兒孫紹承家業。是知。君臣父子。非特曹洞創立。溈仰父子已行此令。若不是溈山點破。一向光影門頭。弄粥飯氣。驢前馬後。以當平生。甚為可惜。所以天童教。記取南山刈茆一轉語。鏤骨銘肌報恩不盡。法燈云。野老負薪歸。催婦連宵織。看他家事忙。且道承誰力。問渠渠不知。特地生疑惑。傷嗟今古人。幾箇知恩德。知有後如何。斷臂不覺痛。立雪不敢倦。所以萬松老來住報恩院。

The Master said: This verse is like Han Yu's 'Biography of Mao Ying'; principle and phenomena are both manifest, the real and the conventional are raised together. Looking at it straight through, Guishan is Old Jue, and Yangshan and those below are descendants. Looking inside, it is not so. A monk asked Changsha Cen the Tiger, "Does the original person still become a buddha or not?" Guishan said, "Tell me, does the Son of Heaven of the Great Tang still reap thatch and cut grass?" From this one knows that cutting thatch is a matter on the side of ministers and sons. 'Now, with shame, he raises up the house and lineage': 'The thousand-year shadowless tree; / Today's bottomless boot. / Abiding in the thousand-peak moon; / The robe and bowl in the single stream's clouds'—these are all capable descendants inheriting the family heritage. Thus one knows: ruler and minister, father and son, were not newly established only by Caodong; the father and son of Gui and Yang had already enacted this mandate. Were it not for Guishan pointing it out, they would have remained entirely at the gate of shadows, playing with the air of gruel and rice, running before donkeys and behind horses, letting that suffice for an entire life—what a pity that would have been! Therefore Tiantong instructs us to remember that turning phrase of cutting thatch on South Mountain, carving it on bone and inscribing it on flesh, never exhausting the repayment of gratitude. Fadeng said: 'An old peasant returns carrying firewood, / Urging his wife to weave through the night. / Seeing that their family affairs are so busy, / Tell me: whose power do they rely upon? / If you ask them, they do not know, / And groundlessly give rise to doubt. / How lamentable that among people past and present, / How few recognize kindness and virtue!' After knowing it exists, what then? Severing an arm without feeling pain; standing in snow without daring to tire. This is why Wansong, in his old age, resides in the Hermitage of Repaying Gratitude (Bao'en Yuan).