萬松老人評唱天童覺和尚頌古從容庵錄 6.31

6.31

The Master said: Non-Buddhists establish 'a' and 'you' as auspicious. At the head of a sūtra, the character 'a' means sorrowless ('without'), and the character 'you' means 'having'. Therefore, the non-Buddhist questioned the Buddha: 'I do not ask about words of existence, nor do I ask about words of nonexistence.' This is like a whale swallowing all the ocean water. The Bhagavān remained silent for a good while; this is like revealing the coral branches. The non-Buddhist bowed in reverence and praised the Bhagavān: 'With great compassion you have cleared away my deluded clouds and enabled me to enter.' Xiangyan Rui said, 'Speech is slander; silence is deceit. Beyond speech and silence, there is a path.' Da'an of Guishan borrowed this to instruct the assembly. When Shushan saw him add 'like wisteria leaning on a tree,' he immediately said, 'When the tree falls and the wisteria withers, where do the phrases return?' How could this not make Guishan laugh heartily? In Guishan's words there was no development of the affair; his speech did not match the dynamic. For Shushan, 'Those who accept words are lost; those who stagnate on phrases are deluded.' If someone had asked Wansong at that time, I would only say: 'Blue heaven! Blue heaven!' Have you not heard it said: 'Enacting winter regulations in the spring'?