萬松老人評唱天童覺和尚頌古從容庵錄 2.45

2.45

The Master said: Formerly, Consort Tudan the Second was going to take up an office in Nanjing. Passing through Daming in Cizhou, he entered the hall to pay reverence. Seeing a monk sitting facing the wall, the Consort said, 'What a good, bland fellow!' Master Quan said, 'Within the bland there is flavor.' Water's nature is fundamentally bland; add tea or honey to it, and sweetness or bitterness arises. Nature is also tranquil; divide it into delusion and awakening, and ordinary and holy are established. Although it is said 'within the bland there is flavor', this is the flavor of flavorlessness; its flavor is constant, wondrously transcending sentiment and assertion. The character 'sentiment' (qing) derives from 'mind'; the character 'assertion' (wei) derives from 'word'. Arriving here, the path of words is cut off, and the place of mental activity is extinguished. Fayan said: 'When principle reaches the utmost, sentiment and assertion are forgotten; how could any analogy match it?' The chapter 'The Valley Spirit Does Not Die' in the Daodejing says: 'The gate of the mysterious female is called the root of Heaven and Earth. Continuous, as if remaining.' It also says: 'I do not know whose child it is; it precedes the celestial emperor.' When patch-robed monks speak of 'continuous, as if remaining', it must not be cut off altogether. 'Preceding the celestial emperor' means before the empty kalpa, when no Buddha had yet appeared in the world. 'As though foolish, the Way is noble' secretly employs Xuedou's 'The Way is noble as though foolish', whose verse says: 'The rain passes, clouds congeal, dawn half opens; / Several peaks, like a painting, green and towering. / Śūnyatā did not know how to sit inside the rock cave, / And provoked heavenly flowers to come shaking the earth.' This versifies Śūnyatā [Subhūti] sitting in quiet contemplation while Śakra rained flowers. Now, Luzu was unable to save trouble, provoking a gang of old fellows like Nanquan and Xuansha to check up on him. This is precisely 'jade carved with patterns loses its genuineness; it is not as good as the pearl in the abyss being naturally charming.' Lu Ji's Rhapsody on Cherishing Culture in the Book of Jin says: 'Stone holding jade makes the mountain shine; water harboring a pearl makes the stream charming.' The jade held in stone was carved open by Nanquan's kind; the pearl harbored in water was scooped out by Xuansha's kind. Fortunately, ample crisp coolness of itself freshly polishes summer into autumn, yet a single wisp of idle cloud has just parted sky and water far apart. Wansong has never faced the wall: what measure has this crowd of yours come looking for? Speaking on his own behalf, he says: Listen to Tiantong's verse on the old case.