萬松老人評唱天童覺和尚頌古從容庵錄 2.45

2.45

師云。昔徒單二駙馬赴南京任。道過磁州大明。入堂隨喜。見僧面壁而坐。駙馬曰。一箇好淡漢。詮大師曰。淡中有味。水性本淡。加之以茶蜜。甘苦生焉。性亦恬憺。派之以迷悟。則凡聖立焉。雖曰淡中有味。斯乃無味之味。其味恒然妙超情謂。情字從心。謂字從言。到此言語道斷。心行處滅。法眼道。理極忘情謂。如何有喻齊。道德經。谷神不死章云。玄牝之門。是為天地根。綿綿若存。又曰。吾不知誰子。象帝之先。衲僧為言。綿綿若存。不可一向斷絕去也。象帝之先者。空劫以前佛未出世時也。如愚道貴。暗用雪竇道貴如愚。頌云雨過雲凝曉半開。數峯如畫碧崔嵬。空生不解巖中坐。惹得天花動地來。此頌空生宴坐天帝雨花。今魯祖不能省事。惹得南泉玄沙一隊老漢點檢。此正是玉雕文以喪淳。不若他珠在淵而自媚。晉書陸機崇文賦曰。石蘊玉以山輝。水懷珠而川媚。石中蘊玉而為南泉輩琢開。水中懷珠而為玄沙輩漉出。幸自十分爽氣清磨暑秋。剛為一片閑雲遠分天水。萬松不曾面壁。爾這一隊來覓什麼節文。自代云。聽說天童頌古。

The Master said: Formerly, Consort Tudan the Second was going to take up an office in Nanjing. Passing through Daming in Cizhou, he entered the hall to pay reverence. Seeing a monk sitting facing the wall, the Consort said, 'What a good, bland fellow!' Master Quan said, 'Within the bland there is flavor.' Water's nature is fundamentally bland; add tea or honey to it, and sweetness or bitterness arises. Nature is also tranquil; divide it into delusion and awakening, and ordinary and holy are established. Although it is said 'within the bland there is flavor', this is the flavor of flavorlessness; its flavor is constant, wondrously transcending sentiment and assertion. The character 'sentiment' (qing) derives from 'mind'; the character 'assertion' (wei) derives from 'word'. Arriving here, the path of words is cut off, and the place of mental activity is extinguished. Fayan said: 'When principle reaches the utmost, sentiment and assertion are forgotten; how could any analogy match it?' The chapter 'The Valley Spirit Does Not Die' in the Daodejing says: 'The gate of the mysterious female is called the root of Heaven and Earth. Continuous, as if remaining.' It also says: 'I do not know whose child it is; it precedes the celestial emperor.' When patch-robed monks speak of 'continuous, as if remaining', it must not be cut off altogether. 'Preceding the celestial emperor' means before the empty kalpa, when no Buddha had yet appeared in the world. 'As though foolish, the Way is noble' secretly employs Xuedou's 'The Way is noble as though foolish', whose verse says: 'The rain passes, clouds congeal, dawn half opens; / Several peaks, like a painting, green and towering. / Śūnyatā did not know how to sit inside the rock cave, / And provoked heavenly flowers to come shaking the earth.' This versifies Śūnyatā [Subhūti] sitting in quiet contemplation while Śakra rained flowers. Now, Luzu was unable to save trouble, provoking a gang of old fellows like Nanquan and Xuansha to check up on him. This is precisely 'jade carved with patterns loses its genuineness; it is not as good as the pearl in the abyss being naturally charming.' Lu Ji's Rhapsody on Cherishing Culture in the Book of Jin says: 'Stone holding jade makes the mountain shine; water harboring a pearl makes the stream charming.' The jade held in stone was carved open by Nanquan's kind; the pearl harbored in water was scooped out by Xuansha's kind. Fortunately, ample crisp coolness of itself freshly polishes summer into autumn, yet a single wisp of idle cloud has just parted sky and water far apart. Wansong has never faced the wall: what measure has this crowd of yours come looking for? Speaking on his own behalf, he says: Listen to Tiantong's verse on the old case.