萬松老人評唱天童覺和尚頌古從容庵錄 6.37

6.37

The Master said: Xuedou said, "Though the kalpa-stone is firm, it still can be destroyed; the deep depths of the vast sea must dry up at once." Then, great space is filled to the brim. The heir of Foyan, Venerable Gui of Zhu'an, along with his uncle, Layman Chiyi, both loved the Śūraṅgama-sūtra. Zhu'an said, "If, apart from external dust, there is a discriminative nature, that is precisely the root of birth and death." The layman said in alarm, "Did the Buddha speak falsely?" Zhu'an said, "The Buddha certainly did not speak falsely; but just considering the layman's mind of confronting and interrogating right now—where is it, really?" The layman sighed and said, "The Buddha said that explaining the foremost emptiness is called the lion's roar. You should proceed; do not get stuck here." Later, Zhu'an ascended the hall and said, "At the time of seeing seeing, seeing is not seeing. Seeing is still apart from seeing; seeing cannot reach it. 'Fallen flowers have the intention to follow the flowing water; flowing water has no feelings as it carries off fallen flowers.' All that can be returned is naturally not you; what cannot be returned to you—who is it if not you? 'I always regret having nowhere to seek the return of spring, not knowing it has turned and entered here.'" He gave a shout and said, "Thirty years from now, do not say Śākyamuni led other people's sons and daughters astray." Wansong uses only the first three lines to crack open the gong'an. Regarding Xuedou directly versifying seeing the Buddha, Foguo solely brought up that the Buddha's place of not-seeing can only be known for oneself. Tiantong versified draining dry the vast ocean and cramming great space. Zhu'an directly clarified that the seeing which is not an object is also the root of birth and death. In these, the monk's nostrils are long; they all go beyond the intent of the teaching and bring out another eye. The ancient Buddha's tongue is short: Wansong says, the ancient Buddha accorded with capacities and followed others' intentions; his words accommodated inferior capacities, so he spoke only half a word. Monks have always fully raised the proper command, so there is the Way of special transmission. At Ruilu Temple in Wenzhou, Chan Master Shangfang Yu'an read the Śūraṅgama-sūtra by breaking the syntax: "Consciousness of seeing established—knowledge is the root of ignorance. Consciousness of seeing absent—seeing this is nirvāṇa." Suddenly he had an awakening. People said, "The Venerable has spoken with broken syntax!" Yu'an said, "This is where my awakening lies," and never corrected it. At that time he was called "Śūraṅgama An." Wansong says, this too was using the wrong to strike the right. "A thread through the nine-curved pearl": It is traditionally told that Confucius was stranded in Chen and had to thread a nine-curved pearl. He met a woman among the mulberries, who gave him an instruction: "Think on it closely; closely think on it." Confucius then understood: he tied the thread to an ant and enticed it with honey to thread it through. Venerable Zong of Puzhao in Sizhou, writing the preface to Tiantong's Verses on Old Cases and Raising the Old, said, "Winding and mutually connecting, like the thread and ant through the pearl; hovering and mutually attached, like clouds and dragons releasing rain." Fushan's Nine Belts Collection has "Winding and Hanging the Belt," whose general meaning clarifies accommodating the affairs of the present moment. "The jade loom just turns once": Like a single shuttle on a jade loom before the patterned brocade is formed. When Tiantong cited Dongshan's talk on the beginning of autumn and the end of summer, he then said, "'Stepping out the door, it is all grass'—treading through wild and overgrown places; 'a falling leaf tells of autumn'—dropping into dark and green places. Reaching here, you must intimately grasp the place where the mechanism, though turning on its pivot, has not yet sealed into a pattern, only then will you attain it." After a pause, he said, "'When the water clears, after the old clam conceives a pearl; when the clouds grow heavy, at the time the blue dragon sheds its bones.' Meeting straight on, who recognizes him? One first believes this person does not join company." Jiashan said, "Cut off the host, and do not fall into second-order seeing; you must know there is one person who does not join company." Wansong says, "Coming alone, I thought there were no acquaintances; in the midst of clamor, I suddenly met an old friend."