人天眼目 5.21

5.21

Jiyin said: 'I once examined this work thoroughly. It has just over forty lines, and half of them speak in terms of light and darkness. Right at the beginning it says: "The spiritual source is clear and pure; its branching streams secretly flow on." From this one knows that the meaning of light and darkness takes root here. It also says: "Darkly matching words of high and middle, clearly distinguishing pure and turbid expressions." This tunes and opens them up. Reaching where it points out its source and shows its direction, it says: "Root and branch must return to the source; high and low make use of their speech." Therefore, below it broadly narrates lines of light and darkness, endlessly stringing them together in sequence. This is not to determine that material phenomena are false and deceptive, but to clarify their speech. Because Wuben of Dongshan grasped this purport, he had the exposition of the Five Ranks of partial and upright. As for Linji's "mystery within the phrase" and Yunmen's "going along with the waves and pursuing the ripples," they have no different flavour. Yet latter-day juniors accept his words and immediately imagine that within light and darkness there is a place where they conceal or reveal each other. Is this not an error?'