萬松老人評唱天童覺和尚頌古從容庵錄 2.75

2.75

The Master said: The Third Patriarch said, 'The Great Way is vast in essence; it is neither easy nor difficult. Narrow views harbor doubt and hesitation; the more hurried, the more delayed.' Formerly two monks were traveling together. The impatient one was ahead, calling out to the one behind: 'Time flies quickly, hurry up and run!' The monk behind said, 'The Great Way is vast and wide, why are you in such a rush?' Wansong once saw two verses handwritten by National Teacher Yuantong Shan: 'Time flies quickly, hurry up and run; / Stepping upon the road, the udumbara blossom blooms. / The Great Way is vast and wide, why are you in such a rush? / Open up your belly, and wrap everything in it at once.' These two verses by National Teacher Yuantong Shan are like this monk asking thus and Huguo answering thus: each possessed an eye. In Tiantong's verse, the first two lines are like sharp ambition craving glory; the latter two lines are like retiring from office. Ban Chao of the Later Han was poor and often hired himself out to copy books. He threw down his writing brush and said, 'A great man should follow the examples of Zhang Qian and Fu Jiezi, achieving merit in foreign lands to receive a marquisate ten thousand leagues away; how can he long occupy himself with brush and inkstone?' Later he campaigned in the Western regions and was enfeoffed as the Marquis of Dingyuan. This exemplifies this monk overstepping himself in his three inquiries. Yang Zhen of the Later Han served as Governor of Jingzhou. He was by nature just and incorruptible, refusing private audiences. His sons and grandsons ate vegetables and traveled on foot. Old friends and elders wished for him to establish an estate, but Zhen refused, saying, 'To let later generations call them the descendants of a pure and honest official—leaving this to them, is it not generous?' The Records of the Grand Historian states: 'Xu You lived in reclusion on Mount Ji, gathering food according to the mountain and drinking from the river. Yao offered to abdicate the imperial throne to him. Hearing this, You went to the river to wash his ears. Chaofu, watering his ox, asked, "Ordinary people wash their faces; why alone do you wash your ears?" You said, "I heard that Yao invited me to be the lord of the Nine Provinces; therefore I am washing away the right and wrong." Chaofu said, "The camphor trees grow on high mountains; craftsmen cannot reach them. If you wished to flee the world, why did you not hide deeply? Now you wander among men, merely seeking fame. I was about to let my ox drink downstream, but I fear it would soil its mouth." Thereupon he led his ox upstream to drink.' Tiantong used the three men—Yang Zhen, Xu You, and Chaofu—to versify the three embarrassments. Yet he was countered by Tong'an's remark: 'The turbid is naturally turbid, the pure naturally pure; / Bodhi and afflictions are equal as empty space.' This monk and Huguo have laid it down; it does not concern the rest of you. Please, all of you, go about your business.