萬松老人評唱天童覺和尚頌古從容庵錄 2.37

2.37

The Master said: Deshan usually struck like wind and rain. One day Yantou spread his sitting mat; Deshan flicked it down the steps with his staff. Yantou went down the steps, picked up the mat, and left. The next day he went up to attend on Deshan. Deshan said, 'Where did you learn this fakery?' Yantou said, 'I would never dare deceive myself.' Deshan said, 'Hereafter you will go defecate on this old monk's head!' When a father hears his son is capable, he regrets not laying down his life; only when one's insight surpasses the teacher's is one worthy of transmission. This question is called by all quarters 'the dynamic of straddling the threshold.' It might not have been that he actually straddled the threshold to ask at that time. Anciently, an outsider hid a live sparrow in his hand and asked the Bhagavān, 'Is the sparrow in my hand alive or dead?' The Bhagavān straddled the doorway with his foot and said, 'You tell me: do I wish to go out, or do I wish to enter?' Asking 'Ordinary or sage?' truly has this principle. Formerly, Puhua once pointed to the holy monk [image] and asked Linji, 'Tell me, is this ordinary or sage?' Linji immediately shouted. Puhua said, 'The bride of Heyang, the old woman's Chan of the wooden pagoda—Linji's little boy yet possesses a single eye!' Linji said, 'This old thief!' Puhua went out of the saṅgha hall, saying, 'Thief! Thief!' Shoushan said, 'Of these two thieves, there is one true thief. But tell me, which is the true thief?' On their behalf he said, 'Liu Penzi.' When Yantou asked, 'Ordinary or sage?' and Deshan immediately shouted, it was just like having conferred with Linji to verify each other. Yantou's bow was also the same as Linji's little boy possessing a single eye. Xuedou said: 'At that moment, just as he bowed, a blow split down his spine would not only have cut off Dongshan, but would also have held fast old Huo.' This again is of the same insight as Linji saying, 'This old thief.' When Dongshan heard it related, he said, 'Had it not been Master Huo, it would have been hard to take on.' Foguo added the comment: 'A bystander possesses eyes.' He also said, 'Knowing only the first, not knowing the second.' Wansong's view is not so. Foguo said that Dongshan, as a bystander, although possessing eyes, only saw the sharpness of the awl's point. Wansong says: Although Venerable Foguo had eyes, he did not see the squareness of the chisel head! Dongshan deliberately used 'taking on' to incriminate Yantou, wanting to bring to light that the original bow had both provisional and real. Sure enough, the fire reached Yantou's head, and in a flurry he brushed it off, saying: 'Old fellow Dongshan does not know good from bad! At that time, with one hand I raised up, and with one hand I pressed down.' Only then could they light the lamp and eat their meal; both houses are clearly distinct. Have you not seen that Venerable Yong of Baoning said in a verse: 'A hare runs across the level plain, unleash the gray falcon'—this verses the question straddling the doorway; 'With one pounce it pecks out both eyes'—this verses Deshan's shout and Yantou's bow; 'Stolen away by a poisonous hand, others buy it off'—this verses Dongshan fixing a sharp price; 'Yet the weight in pounds is not yet clear'—this is precisely what Wansong says. Do you wish to get the weight clear? In truth, Foguo and Wansong do not dispute who is higher or lower. Look further onto Tiantong's scale-pan. The verse says: