萬松老人評唱天童覺和尚頌古從容庵錄 6.53

6.53

The Master said: Lu Gen of the Tang dynasty, courtesy name Jingshan, was a native of Wu commandery. He rose in office to Surveillance Commissioner of Xuan and She, with the title of Grand Councilor of the Censorate. At first he asked Nanquan, “A disciple raised a goose in a bottle; as it gradually grew, it could not get out of the bottle. Now, one must not break the bottle, nor harm the goose: Venerable Sir, how can it be gotten out?” Nanquan called out, “Grand Councilor!” Gen answered, “Yes!” Nanquan said, “It is out!” From this Gen gained an awakening. He applied his mind to the fundamental nature and immersed himself in the treatises of Sengzhao. Coming to Chapter 7 of the Treatise on the Namelessness of Nirvāṇa, “The Marvel Remains”: “The mysterious Way lies in wondrous awakening; wondrous awakening lies in encountering the real. Encountering the real, existence and non-existence are viewed equally; viewing them equally, other and self are not two. Therefore, heaven and earth share the same root with me, and the myriad things are of one body with me. What is identical with me is no longer existence or non-existence; what is different from me violates comprehensive penetration. Therefore it is neither out nor in, yet the Way exists therein.” Gen brought up these two lines, taking them to be extraordinary, utterly unaware that this was precisely talking about a dream. Nevertheless, the great and small Venerables of Shitou, because of reading Sengzhao's treatises—reaching Chapter 17, “Penetrating Antiquity”: “The ultimate person is empty and boundless, without form, yet the myriad things are all my creation. The one who integrates the myriad things into himself—is it not only the sage?”—were suddenly enlightened, and Shitou said: “The sage has no self, yet there is nothing that is not his self,” whereupon he composed the Cantongqi. Foguo said: “When Lu Gen questioned in this manner, it was indeed extraordinary, but it did not go beyond the doctrinal intent. If you say the doctrinal intent is the ultimate principle, why then did the World-Honoured One still hold up a flower? Why did the Patriarch still come from the West?” In the place where Nanquan answered, he made use of a patched-robed monk's handle to pick out his ailment and smash his nest; he then pointed to the flower in the courtyard, called to the Grand Councilor, and said: “People of today seeing this one stalk of flower are just like being in a dream.” It was like leading him to a ten-thousand-fathom cliff and giving him a shove to cut off his life-root. If one were merely shoved over on level ground, even when Maitreya Buddha descends to be born, one would still not understand. National Preceptor Yuantong Shan held up his whisk and said: “All conditioned dharmas are like dreams, phantoms, bubbles, and shadows.” Tiantong, right within the dream, transforms and raises up the land of Huaxu. The verse says: