人天眼目 6.125

6.125

Chan Master Pan'an Cheng of Jingyin, together with Fazhen, Yuanwu, Cishou, and ten great Dharma masters, attended a vegetarian banquet at the residence of Grand Defender Chen Liangbi. At that time, Emperor Huizong made an informal visit to observe their Dharma assembly. A master skilled in the Huayan [teachings] questioned the Chan masters before the assembly, saying: "Our Buddha established the teachings, from the Hīnayāna up to the Perfect and Sudden, sweeping away emptiness and existence, uniquely realizing true permanence; only thereafter, adorned with myriad virtues, is one called a Buddha. The Chan lineage's single shout transforms the ordinary into the sacred, which seems contrary to the scriptures and treatises. Now, if this single shout can enter the Five Teachings, it is correct doctrine; if it cannot enter, it is heterodox doctrine." The Chan masters looked at Cheng. Cheng said: "What the Dharma master asks is not worth being answered by these great Chan masters. A minor elder of Jingyin will suffice to dispel the Dharma master's doubts." Cheng called Shan. Shan answered. Cheng said: "What the Dharma master calls the Buddha's Hīnayāna teaching is the principle of existence. The Mahāyāna initial teaching is the principle of emptiness. The Mahāyāna final teaching is the principle of neither existence nor emptiness. The Mahāyāna sudden teaching is the principle of existence being identical to emptiness. The One Vehicle perfect teaching is the principle of non-emptiness yet non-existence, non-existence yet non-emptiness. As for my single shout, not only can it enter the Five Teachings, but it can even enter the hundred crafts and skills and all the various philosophers. All can enter." Cheng then gave a shout. After the single shout, he asked Shan, "Do you still hear it?" Shan said, "I hear it." Cheng said: "Since you hear it, this single shout is existence, and can enter the Hīnayāna teaching." Moments later Cheng again called Shan, saying: "Do you still hear it?" [Shan] said, "I do not hear it." Cheng said: "Since you do not hear it, the shout just now is non-existence, and can enter the initial teaching." Cheng again looked at Shan and said: "When I first shouted, you said there was something. Long after the shout, the sound vanished, and you then said there was nothing. If one speaks of non-existence, originally it truly existed; if one speaks of existence, at present it is truly non-existent. Neither existing nor non-existing can enter the final teaching." Cheng further said: "When I have a single shout, existence is not existence—it exists because of non-existence. When there is no shout, non-existence is not non-existence—it is non-existent because of existence. Existence being identical to non-existence can enter the sudden teaching." Cheng further said: "This single shout of mine is not used as a single shout. Existence and non-existence do not reach it; emotional understanding is entirely forgotten. When one speaks of existence, not a speck of dust is established; when one speaks of non-existence, it horizontally pervades empty space. This very single shout enters hundreds of thousands of myriads of kotis of shouts; hundreds of thousands of myriads of kotis of shouts enter this single shout. This is capable of entering the perfect teaching." Shan, without realizing it, stood up from his seat and bowed twice before Cheng. Cheng spoke to Shan once more, saying: "Not only is this true of a single shout, but also speech, silence, movement, and stillness—at all times, in all places, in all things, and in all matters, it tallies with principle and tallies with capacity, completely without remainder." Thereupon the fourfold assembly rejoiced, having heard what they had never heard before. The imperial countenance showed great delight, and [the Emperor] said to the attendants and ministers to his left and right: "Chan masters possess such profound conversations and wonderful discourses!" The Grand Defender addressed [the Emperor], saying: "These are merely surplus remarks of the Chan master."