佛祖歷代通載 14.32

14.32

南嶽明瓚禪師者。不知何許人也。初宰相李泌。乾元中辭入衡嶽。瓚隱居上封。泌往謁之。瓚誦經其聲先悲悽而後悅豫。泌隱知音。因謂曰。將非避隱者有雲霄意乎。瓚唾之曰。莫相賊莫相賊。泌色不為動。瓚久之。見泌立候不懈。乃曰。飯未。泌曰。未也。瓚撥火出芋食與語。久之辭去。瓚撫其背曰。好做十年宰相。至是泌感事為帝言其高行。有詔徵之。使者至石窟宣麻命曰。尊者起謝恩。瓚寒涕垂頤凝坐略不以介意。使者歎其淳正不之迫。回奏其事。帝咨美之數四不已。瓚著歌一篇。其辭曰。兀然無事無改換。無事何須論一段。直心無散亂。他事不須斷。過去已過去。未來猶莫算兀然無事坐。何曾有人喚。內外覓功夫。總是癡頑漢。糧不蓄一粒。逢飯但知𡁉。世間多事人。相趁渾不及。我不樂生天。亦不愛福田。饑來喫飯。困來即眠。愚人笑我。智乃知焉。不是癡鈍本體如然。要去即去要住即住。身披一破衲。脚著娘生袴。多言復多語。由來轉相誤。若欲度眾生。無過且自度。莫謗天真佛。真佛不可見。妙性及靈臺。何曾受熏鍊。心是無事心。面是娘生面。劫石可移動。箇中無改變。無事本無事。何須讀文字。削除人我本。冥合箇中意。種種勞筋骨。不如林下睡兀兀。舉頭見日高。乞飯從頭𢫫。將功用功展轉昏蒙。取即不得不取自通。吾有一言絕慮忘緣。巧說不得只用心傳。更有一語無過真與。細如毫末大無方所。本自圓成不勞機杼。世事悠悠不如山丘。青松蔽日碧㵎長流。山雲當幙夜月為鉤。臥藤蘿下塊石枕頭。不奉天子豈羨王侯。生死無慮更復何憂。水月無形我常只寧。萬法皆爾本自無生。兀然無事坐。春來草自青。

Chan Master Mingzan of Nanyue was a person of unknown origins. Earlier, during the Qianyuan era, Chief Minister Li Mi resigned and went to Mount Heng. Zan lived in seclusion at Shangfeng. Mi went to visit him. Zan was reciting a sūtra, his voice first sorrowful and mournful, then joyful and elated. Mi secretly recognized his mind and thereupon said to him, "Is it not that one living in reclusion has ambitions for the high clouds?" Zan spat at him and said, "Do not play the thief with me! Do not play the thief with me!" Mi's expression was unmoved. After a long while, seeing Mi standing and waiting tirelessly, Zan said, "Have you eaten?" Mi said, "Not yet." Zan stirred the fire, pulled out a taro, ate it, and spoke with him. After a long while, when Mi took his leave, Zan patted him on the back and said, "Be a good Chief Minister for ten years." When it came to this time, Mi was moved by circumstances and spoke of his lofty conduct to the Emperor. There was an imperial edict summoning him. The imperial envoy arrived at the stone grotto and read the imperial mandate, saying, "Venerable one, arise and give thanks for the imperial favour." With cold mucus hanging down his chin, Zan sat motionless and paid no heed at all. The envoy sighed at his genuine rectitude, did not press him, and returned to report the matter. The Emperor praised him repeatedly without end. Zan composed a song, whose text says: / Vacant and free of affairs, without change; / When free of affairs, why need one discuss a single topic? / With a direct mind there is no distraction; / There is no need to sever other matters. / The past has already passed; / The future is not yet to be reckoned. / Sitting vacantly free of affairs, / When has anyone ever called upon me? / Seeking effort within and without, / One is merely a foolish, stubborn fellow. / Not storing up a single grain of provision, / When encountering food, I only know to gobble it up. / Worldly people with many affairs / Chase after each other and completely fail to catch up. / I do not delight in being born in heaven, / Nor do I care for fields of merit. / When hungry, I eat food; / When tired, I sleep. / Fools laugh at me, / But the wise understand. / It is not foolishness or dullness; / The fundamental reality is just so. / If I wish to go, I go; if I wish to stay, I stay. / Wearing a tattered patch-robe on my body, / Feet clad in mother-born trousers. / Many words and much talk / Have always led to mutual error. / If you wish to deliver sentient beings, / Nothing surpasses first delivering yourself. / Do not slander the innately genuine Buddha; / The genuine Buddha cannot be seen. / The wondrous nature and the spiritual terrace— / When have they ever undergone smouldering and smelting? / The mind is a mind free of affairs; / The face is the mother-born face. / The kalpa-rock may be moved, / But in this matter there is no change. / Free of affairs, originally free of affairs, / Why need one read written words? / Eradicate the root of self and other, / Secretly according with the meaning within. / Toil of sinew and bone in various ways / Is not as good as sleeping vacantly under the trees. / Raising my head, I see the sun is high; / Begging for food, I swallow it down from the top. / Applying effort with effort, one turns ever more into darkness; / When grasping, you do not attain; without grasping, it naturally penetrates. / I have a single word that cuts off thought and forgets conditions; / It cannot be cleverly spoken, but is only transmitted with the mind. / I have yet another word, nothing surpasses its true impartation; / As fine as the tip of a hair, as vast as having no location. / It is fundamentally complete of itself, not needing the labour of the loom. / Worldly affairs drift on and on; they are not like the mountain hills. / Green pines block the sun; blue mountain-streams flow long. / Mountain clouds serve as curtains, the night moon as a hook. / Lying down under creeping vines, with a chunk of stone for a pillow. / Not serving the Son of Heaven, how could I envy princes and nobles? / With no worry over life and death, what further sorrow is there? / The moon in the water has no form; I am ever tranquil. / All phenomena are like this, fundamentally unborn. / Sitting vacantly free of affairs, / When spring arrives, the grass turns green on its own.