萬松老人評唱天童覺和尚頌古從容庵錄 3.122

3.122

師云。撫州宜黃曹山本寂禪師。或名耽章。必是賜名諡號。初離洞山。入曹溪。禮祖塔。迴吉州之吉水。眾嚮山名。遂請開法。師擬曹溪。凡隨所居立曹為號。洞山之宗至師最隆。故有曹洞之稱焉。山問德上座。佛真法身猶若虛空。應物現形如水中月。作麼生說箇應底道理。此四句讚佛。本出古本金光明經。既如虛空。如何應物。覺範贊提婆尊者道。應緣而現。不落思惟。是故鉢水以針投之。德云。如驢覻井。此豈情識計校可及。非久經淘鍊具衲僧巴鼻。不許到這田地。若是小作無向上關棙子。滿口許他也。山云。道即大曬道。只道得八成。如秤稱斗量來相似。德云。和尚又如何。這一拶詞窮理盡。敢道出他驢覻井一句不得。是他款款地。只與倒過。可謂觸類而長之。此所以稱曹洞宗派之源也。天童愛此兩轉語。翻覆一時頌出。頌云。

The Master said: Chan Master Benji of Caoshan in Yihuang, Fuzhou, was also named Danzhang, which must have been a bestowed name or posthumous title. When he first left Dongshan, he went to Caoxi to pay homage to the Patriarch's stupa. Returning to Jishui in Jizhou, the assembly admired his renown and invited him to open a teaching hall. Emulating Caoxi, wherever the Master resided he took "Cao" as his designation. The lineage of Dongshan was most flourishing under this Master, hence it came to be called Caodong. Shan asked Elder De, "The Buddha's true dharmakāya is like empty space; it manifests forms in response to things like the moon in the water. How do you explain the principle of responding?" These four lines in praise of the Buddha originally come from an old edition of the *Golden Light Sūtra*. Since it is like empty space, how does it respond to things? Juefan, in praising Venerable Deva, said, "It manifests in response to conditions without falling into conceptual thought; therefore, drop a needle into a bowl of water." De said, "Like a donkey peering into a well." How could this be reached by conscious thought and reckoning? Unless one has undergone long smelting and possesses the monk's nostrils, one is not permitted to reach this domain. If he were a petty fellow without the upward mechanism, he would have fully endorsed him. Shan said, "You have indeed said a great deal, but you have only said eighty percent"—just as if measured by scales and bushels. De said, "What about the Venerable?" With this single press, words were exhausted and principles finished; who would dare utter another phrase beyond his "donkey peering into a well"? Yet he leisurely simply reversed it; this may be called extending it by touch of kind. This is why it is praised as the source of the Caodong lineage. Tiantong loved these two turning words and, turning them over and back, versified them at once. The verse says: