萬松老人評唱天童覺和尚頌古從容庵錄 6.53

6.53

師云。唐陸亘。字景山。吳郡人。官至宣歙觀察使。加御史大夫。初問南泉。弟子瓶中養鵞。漸大出瓶不得。如今不得損瓶。不得毀鵞。和尚如何出得。南泉召曰。大夫。亘應諾。泉云。出也。亘從此解悟。留心理性。游泳肇論。至涅槃無名論第七妙存篇。玄道在于妙悟。妙悟在于即真。即真則有無齊觀。齊觀則彼己莫二。所以天地與我同根。萬物與我一體。同我則非復有無。異我則乖于會通。所以不出不在。而道存乎其間矣。亘舉此兩句以為奇特。殊不知。正是說夢。雖然大小石頭和尚因。看肇論。至通古第十七篇。夫至人空洞。無象而萬物無非我造。會萬物為己者。其唯聖人乎。豁然悟道。乃云。聖人無己。靡所不己。便作參同契。佛果道。陸亘恁麼問。奇則甚奇。只是不出教意。若道教意是極則。世尊何故更拈花。祖師何故更西來。南泉答處。用衲僧巴鼻。與他拈病。破他窠窟。遂指庭前花。召大夫云。時人見此一株花。如夢相似。如引向萬丈懸崖上。打一推令他命根斷。若只在平地上推到。彌勒佛下生。也未會。在圓通善國師。竪起拂子云。一切有為法如夢幻泡影。天童只就夢中。變起華胥國土。頌云。

The Master said: Lu Gen of the Tang dynasty, courtesy name Jingshan, was a native of Wu commandery. He rose in office to Surveillance Commissioner of Xuan and She, with the title of Grand Councilor of the Censorate. At first he asked Nanquan, “A disciple raised a goose in a bottle; as it gradually grew, it could not get out of the bottle. Now, one must not break the bottle, nor harm the goose: Venerable Sir, how can it be gotten out?” Nanquan called out, “Grand Councilor!” Gen answered, “Yes!” Nanquan said, “It is out!” From this Gen gained an awakening. He applied his mind to the fundamental nature and immersed himself in the treatises of Sengzhao. Coming to Chapter 7 of the Treatise on the Namelessness of Nirvāṇa, “The Marvel Remains”: “The mysterious Way lies in wondrous awakening; wondrous awakening lies in encountering the real. Encountering the real, existence and non-existence are viewed equally; viewing them equally, other and self are not two. Therefore, heaven and earth share the same root with me, and the myriad things are of one body with me. What is identical with me is no longer existence or non-existence; what is different from me violates comprehensive penetration. Therefore it is neither out nor in, yet the Way exists therein.” Gen brought up these two lines, taking them to be extraordinary, utterly unaware that this was precisely talking about a dream. Nevertheless, the great and small Venerables of Shitou, because of reading Sengzhao's treatises—reaching Chapter 17, “Penetrating Antiquity”: “The ultimate person is empty and boundless, without form, yet the myriad things are all my creation. The one who integrates the myriad things into himself—is it not only the sage?”—were suddenly enlightened, and Shitou said: “The sage has no self, yet there is nothing that is not his self,” whereupon he composed the Cantongqi. Foguo said: “When Lu Gen questioned in this manner, it was indeed extraordinary, but it did not go beyond the doctrinal intent. If you say the doctrinal intent is the ultimate principle, why then did the World-Honoured One still hold up a flower? Why did the Patriarch still come from the West?” In the place where Nanquan answered, he made use of a patched-robed monk's handle to pick out his ailment and smash his nest; he then pointed to the flower in the courtyard, called to the Grand Councilor, and said: “People of today seeing this one stalk of flower are just like being in a dream.” It was like leading him to a ten-thousand-fathom cliff and giving him a shove to cut off his life-root. If one were merely shoved over on level ground, even when Maitreya Buddha descends to be born, one would still not understand. National Preceptor Yuantong Shan held up his whisk and said: “All conditioned dharmas are like dreams, phantoms, bubbles, and shadows.” Tiantong, right within the dream, transforms and raises up the land of Huaxu. The verse says: