萬松老人評唱天童覺和尚頌古從容庵錄 1.6

1.6

Ever since the Buddha-Patriarch held up the flower and Kāśyapa smiled subtly, sharp dynamics have changed like clouds and the ancestral source has remained deep. For it is a special transmission outside the teachings, the truth within it, which mundane human language can hardly describe by one part in ten thousand. Yet in opening up later students, preaching the Dharma, and benefiting sentient beings, this is especially suited to meeting the dynamic and entering awakening. In the former printing of the four masters' recorded sayings, the carvers were not very skilled; the format was cramped and crude, and the appraisals and notes were cramped and constrained, so that readers suffered over them. Yet it was already like climbing the Great Treasure Mountain or entering the Ocean of the Flower-Treasury: they groped with all their might without regretting their toil. Zen elders in the imperial capital waving fly-whisks to discuss the ancestral teaching were frequently found; recently, however, things had become blurred and indistinguishable. The Lecturer Juexu gave rise to great, vast compassion and wished to recommission block-carvers, but his strength did not suffice, so he consulted me. I indeed had a past vow; how could I dare not exhaust my strength? Thereupon, I gathered artisans and carved three of them, while comrades among monks and laymen carved one. Thus the former dynamic of matching needle to thread, blows and shouts, raising eyebrows, and holding up fingers became even more transparent and brightly clear. In this way Master Jue's wish was fulfilled, and the merit is likewise boundless. I only fear my inability to serve; what need is there for further thought?