萬松老人評唱天童覺和尚頌古從容庵錄 2.9

2.9

The Master said: Tiantong's opening line immediately versifies 'An error of a hair's breadth, and heaven and earth are far apart.' Master Yuan of Mount Lu said, 'From where, after all, do the fundamentals arise? Arising and ceasing, being and non-being, are boundless. The slightest movement involving the realm of motion resembles the momentum of a tumbling mountain.' When the Third Patriarch uttered the word 'dislike,' he had already made love and hate in advance. Yet he says, 'Simply do not hate or love, and it is thoroughly clear and evident.' You all, step back and examine yourselves in minute detail! The Sanskrit term 'samādhi' is translated here as 'equal maintenance'—neither sinking nor restless, maintaining equally and naturally. This may serve as the balance of ten thousand generations that reflects imbalance. In the Diagrammatic Exposition of the Essentials of Governance from the Book of Documents, it says that a scale has three aspects: the standard (the cord), the balance (the beam), and the weight (the poise). The Śūraṅgama-sūtra says, 'Within one's own abiding samādhi, seeing and the conditions for seeing, along with the characteristics conceived of, are fundamentally non-existent, like sky-flowers. This seeing and its conditions are originally the wondrous, pure, bright substance of bodhi. How could there be within it what is right and what is not right?' When one arrives precisely at such a moment, there is no need to dislike choosing, or to leave behind love and hate. If there is not even an error of a hair's breadth, how could there be a separation like clouds and mud? As for 'catties, ounces, drachms, and grains': eight grains make a drachm, three drachms make an ounce, and sixteen ounces make a catty. For a person who holds the balance in hand: if you bring a catty, I also move [the poise] once to make it level; if you bring an ounce, I also move [the poise] once to make it level. If there seems to be even the slightest increase or decrease of a drachm or grain, it tips over. Everywhere they say, 'Grasp the intention at the hook's end; do not fix upon the mark on the beam.' For on the beam's zero-mark, there are originally no catties or ounces. It is also like the North Star abiding fixed in its place; adding and subtracting at the hook's end is calculated on the spot. Wansong says: Being level with intention is not as good as being unlevel without intention. Therefore, on a scale without marks, one sells generously to others; in the double-six game, one wins by relying on whatever roll turns up. Do you still understand Fayen's saying, 'The mountain master has penetrated'? When the scale-weight is moved all the way to the tip, suddenly it is pushed off and turns a somersault.