萬松老人評唱天童覺和尚頌古從容庵錄 3.52

3.52

The Master said: When an arrow is on the bowstring, it must be shot. This versifies the unassailable dynamic of Yunmen's questioning. 'Pearls on the net reflect one another'—this versifies Qianfeng's reply, where guest and host intermingle: the question is in the reply, and the reply is in the question. 'Shooting a hundred times and hitting a hundred times' versifies Yunmen's 'I am late.' Zhijue said: 'Like a person shooting at the ground, there is no principle by which it would not hit.' Mutual interweaving of light, non-obstruction between phenomenon and phenomenon, versifies Qianfeng's 'Is it so?' The Avataṃsaka Commentary states: 'In the hall of Śakra, pearls are strung into a net, reflections appearing mutually, layer upon layer without end.' This versifies the general purport of the gong'an; one need not match it phrase by phrase, gluing the bridges to tune the zither. Yunmen said, 'I had thought of Hou Bai, but there is still Hou Hei.' In the Sui dynasty, there was Hou Bai, courtesy name Junsu, a man of wit and eloquence. General Yang Su recognized him. He composed the Jingyi ji, which details the retributions of humans and spirits, and is also commendable. In the Tang dynasty, there was Li Bai, who was skilled at poetry; later, Li Chi imitated him, but was far from equal, and people made a laughingstock of him. Now saying 'Hou Hei' is also of this type. One edition has: 'I was already Hou Bai; he is even more Hou Hei,' meaning even more extreme. Dhāraṇī has three kinds: many syllables, one syllable, and no syllables, holding together all Dharma gates. Samādhi is right concentration. Tiantong's 'partial and complete' is like phenomenon and principle. National Preceptor Qingliang said: 'Principle is complete, words are partial; when words arise, principle is lost.' Tiantai's Mohe Zhiguan states: 'The three dots of the perfect letter [i] are neither vertical like dots of water nor horizontal like aligned sparks.' Furthermore, extending vertically through the three periods is called high; pervading horizontally across the ten directions is called wide. Therefore the Lotus Sūtra says, 'Its carriage is high and wide.' Tiantong broadly comprehends the ocean of teachings and thoroughly penetrates the heaven of meaning. Yunmen and Qianfeng erected a wordless monument; Tiantong chanted poems entering into wordlessness. It can be said: 'Yang Xiu seeing the young woman—in one glance, he knew its wonder.'