萬松老人評唱天童覺和尚頌古從容庵錄 1.85

1.85

The Master said: 'Vast and void, with nothing holy'—'The responsive dynamic was far apart.' These words originally come from Zhuangzi: 'greatly far apart, contrary to human feeling.' The First Patriarch at that time was also somewhat lacking in expedients. Little did he know: 'If the medicine does not induce dizziness, the disease will not be cured.' At the outset he wielded a thunderous hand, yet now it has already become private favoritism and indulgence. Therefore, 'How is hitting the mark not brandishing the ax without touching the nose?' Zhuangzi, attending a funeral, passed by the tomb of Huizi. Turning to his followers, he said, 'A man of Ying had white plaster smeared on the tip of his nose like a fly's wing. He had Artisan Shi chop it off. Artisan Shi swung his ax, creating a wind; listening, he chopped it off. With eyes closed and hand unrestrained, he removed all the plaster without injuring the nose. The man of Ying stood without losing his composure. Since the Master died, I have had no one to take as my match.' 'Failing, not looking back at the dropped pot.' In the Later Han, Meng Min was lodging in Taiyuan; once carrying a cooking pot, it fell to the ground, and he walked on without looking back. Guo Linzong saw this and asked him the reason. He replied, 'The pot is already broken; what benefit is there in looking at it?' Linzong regarded him as extraordinary for this, and accordingly encouraged him to travel and study. The meaning is: had Emperor Wu acknowledged it himself, Bodhidharma would never have bent himself to follow others. If the King of Liang did not accord, [Bodhidharma] shook his sleeves and walked away without regret. On the golden palace, exposing the lack of face and eyes was only saying half; sitting nine years at Shaolin with his mouth hung on the wall was finally eighty percent. Like 'Autumn is clear, the moon turns its frosty wheel'—secretly using Fayan's 'At the end, the frosty night's moon / falls freely into the front stream' to illuminate the principle reaching the ultimate, the Way beyond metaphor. 'The River is faint, the Dipper hangs its night handle.' Tiantong went up to the hall and said, 'A single point within the ring illuminates the infinitesimal; / where wisdom has no function, knowledge yet remains. / When conditions and thoughts are utterly purified, there is no further affair: / at midnight, across the starry River, the Dipper's handle hangs down.' These two lines are like a mute acting as an interpreter: pointing it out to others, yet unable to spit it out. How much less can master and disciple pass it on and receive it, or medicine and illness treat each other—it would become even more irrelevant! How can one fully wield the correct command? 'How many threads of tortoise hair are wasted on sky-flowers? / In vain the barren woman picks up the needle with closed eye.' (Bah!)