萬松老人評唱天童覺和尚頌古從容庵錄 4.37

4.37

Chan Master Shiqian was the third generation of Dongshan in Junzhou. At first, he came from Jiashan to call upon Wuben. Wuben asked: 'Where have you recently left?' Lin said: 'Wuling.' Wuben said: 'How is the Dharma Way in Wuling compared to here?' Lin said: 'In barbarian lands, bamboo shoots sprout in winter.' Wuben said: 'Cook fragrant rice in a separate cauldron to make offerings to this man.' The Master then went out. Wuben said: 'In the future, this fellow will run the people of the world to death.' When Lin was planting pines at Dongshan, there was an Old Man Liu who requested a verse from the Master. The Master showed him: 'Pointed, more than three feet tall, / Verdantly blanketing the desolate grass. / I wonder in what generation people / Will see this old pine tree.' The old man presented it to Wuben. Wuben said: 'I congratulate you on your joy; this man is the third generation of Dongshan.' Lin took leave of Wuben and went to Mount Qingcuo in Shannan Prefecture, dwelling in a hermitage for ten years. Suddenly recalling Wuben's parting words, he said: 'I ought to benefit the multitudes; how could I be bound by minor constraints?' He then went to Suizhou, where circumstances coalesced and the assembly invited him to reside at the Little Qinglin Hermitage at Tumen; hence he was called Qinglin. He once said: 'You people must directly investigate apart from mind, intellect, and consciousness, and study outside the paths of ordinary beings and sages; only then can you maintain it. If not like this, you are not my offspring.' A monk asked: 'What is it like when a student goes straight forward?' This monk wanted to go to the Central Capital from under the Great Compassion Pavilion, and even boasted of knowing the direct and shortcut road. Little did he know that directly beneath his feet he was already far too circuitous. Lin rebuffed him with 'a dead snake blocks the main road.' This monk, heedless of peril and death, said: 'What happens when one confronts it head-on?' He had already caught the poison. There are those who say: 'Why didn't he apply the staff and shout to carry out the mandate?' When did Lin ever let him off? He said: 'You lose your life-root.' This monk felt a slight itch of pain and, trying to find a way out, said: 'What about when one does not confront it head-on?' Lin said: 'There is also nowhere to avoid it.' Even Qinglin could not avoid it. This monk, with sinews exhausted and strength spent, said: 'Right at such a time, when there is nothing to be done left or right, what is correct?' Lin said: 'It has been lost!' The methods of bringing people to life are seen here: able to dismiss and summon, possessing capture and release. Handed over to your body, it cannot be plucked off; taken away from you, it has a whereabouts. The monk said: 'I do not know where it has gone.' Lin said: 'The grass is deep; there is nowhere to look for it.' He did not say it does not exist, only that it cannot be seen. This monk was also strange, saying: 'The Venerable must also take precautions!' Qinglin took a dead snake to stir up this monk, but in the end it coiled around his waist and legs. He then clapped his hands once and said: 'Equally, it is a single poisonous vapor.' Wansong says: Smoking the heavens and scorching the earth! The Lamp of the Endless says: 'Qinglin's dynamic workings were sharp and steep; not only a brilliance of his own time, but a model for vast ages.' Wansong says: Distrubing the spring breeze, it has never ceased. Look further as Tiantong blows the flowers and sways the willows. The verse says: