萬松老人評唱天童覺和尚頌古從容庵錄 3.68

3.68

Chan Master Daoxian of Luoshan in Shenzhou first asked Shishuang, "What should be done when arising and ceasing do not stop?" Shishuang said, "You must simply become cold ashes and withered wood; make one thought last ten thousand years; make the box and lid fit together; become purely clear without a single speck." The Master was not in accord; he went to ask Yantou. Yantou shouted and said, "Who is arising and ceasing?" At this, Luoshan had an awakening. Yantou only valued clear understanding in view. Shishuang established the hall of withered wood because he needed him to arrive there in person once before it would do. Have you not seen: Ruiyan asked Yantou, "What is the fundamentally constant principle?" Yantou said, "It moves." Ruiyan said, "What about when it moves?" Yantou said, "You do not see the fundamentally constant principle." Ruiyan hesitated in thought. Yantou said, "If you agree, you have not yet escaped sense-roots and dusts; if you do not agree, you will sink forever into birth and death." Ruiyan was also enlightened. Yantou was heroically brilliant and untrammeled; when dispatching students, his sharpness and precision were no less than Deshan's. Later, Fabao of Luoshan emerged from him—colder than the ice from which water forms. It is as Guishan said: 'I only value your view; I do not ask about your conduct.' Luoshan's question was a standard for the whole world. Nowadays, beginners often make their livelihood right here, like pushing down a melon on the water to subdue and cut off afflictions. Zhijue said, 'Do not keep company with the mind; without mind, the mind is naturally at ease. If you take the mind as a companion, the moment it moves you are deceived by the mind.' 'Companion' means accompanying the deluded mind; 'without' also means being without the deluded mind. When the Patriarch came from the west, pointing directly to the human mind to see nature and achieve buddhahood, did he instruct you to be a man of Puzhou escorting thieves, mistaking a servant for the master? Where Luoshan asked, he was deluded about the real and grasped the false; where Yantou scolded, the false was the real. If it were Wansong, once the scolding was done, that would be all; beyond the real and the false, there is still business. In the Śūraṅgama-sūtra, Ānanda said, 'The Tathāgata now interrogates where the mind is located; and when I use my mind to search thoroughly and pursue it, then that which is able to search is what I take to be the mind.' The Buddha said, 'Tut! Ānanda, this is not your mind.' Ānanda was startled, left his seat, joined his palms, stood up, and addressed the Buddha: 'If this is not my mind, what should it be called?' The Buddha told Ānanda, 'This is the external dust, a false and illusory conceptualization that deludes your true nature. Because from beginningless time down to this life you have mistaken a thief for your son and lost your original constancy, you therefore undergo transmigration.' This shout was like the precious sword of the Vajra King. Yantou's single shout was like a crouching lion, with the power of complete awe and great functioning that does not deceive. Layman Pang said, 'A gang of six thieves deceive people to death life after life. Now I recognize you; I will no longer be neighbors with you. If you will not submit to me, I will go everywhere and preach so that all people recognize you, cutting off your paths of travel. If you are willing to submit to me, I will make no distinctions; I will dwell in one place with you, together realizing non-arising and non-ceasing.' Yantou said, 'Who is arising and ceasing?' Yunyan held up the broom—in what month were these fellow cultivators? Tiantong valued his ability to transform by a single touch; he restated the verse, saying: