佛祖歷代通載 17.6

17.6

（乙酉）　朗州德山宣鑑禪師。劍南人。姓周氏。博貫三藏。嘗講金剛經。時以周金剛名之。俄慨然曰。窮諸玄辯。若一毫置於太虛。竭世樞機。似一滴投於巨浸。學與無學吾知之矣。乃盡棄其習謁龍潭信禪師。問久嚮龍潭。及到來潭又不見龍亦不現。信曰。子親到龍潭。是夕師立侍更深。信曰。何不下去。師曰。暗。信點紙燭與師。師接得信即吹滅。師豁然大悟曰。今後更不疑天下老和尚舌頭也。即日便辭。信語其徒曰。可中有箇漢。牙如劍樹口似血盆。一棒打不回頭。他時向孤峰上立吾道去在。師居澧陽。垂三十年。大中初武陵太守薛延望剏德山精舍。延請居之。大闡宗風。上堂示眾云。於已無事則勿妄求。妄求而得。亦非得也。汝但無心於事。無事於心。則虛而靈寂而妙。若毛端許言之本末者。皆為自欺。毫釐繫念三塗業因。瞥爾情生萬劫羈鎖。聖名凡號盡是虛聲。殊相劣形皆為幻色。汝欲求之得無累乎。及其厭之又成大患。終而無益。僧問。如何是菩提。師打云。出去。莫向這裏屙。如何是佛。師云。佛是西天老比丘。雪峯問。從上宗乘以何法示人。師云。我宗無語句。亦無一法與人。至是將終。謂眾曰。捫空追響勞汝心神。夢覺覺非竟有何事。言訖端坐而逝。閱世八十有六。臘六十有五。時咸通六年十二月三日也。勅諡見性大師（具傳燈）。

(Yiyou) Chan Master Xuanjian of Deshan in Langzhou was a native of Jiannan, surnamed Zhou. He was thoroughly versed in the Tripiṭaka and frequently lectured on the Diamond Sūtra; people at that time called him 'Diamond Zhou'. Suddenly he sighed with feeling, saying, 'Exhausting all profound dialectics is like placing a single hair in the great void; exhausting the pivotal mechanisms of the world is like dropping a single droplet into the vast ocean. Learning and beyond learning—now I know them!' Thereupon he cast aside all his previous studies and went to call on Chan Master Xin of Longtan. He asked, 'I have long looked forward to the Dragon Pool (Longtan), yet having arrived here, I see neither pool nor dragon.' Xin said, 'You have arrived in person at Longtan.' That evening, the master stood in attendance until late in the night. Xin said, 'Why not go down?' The master said, 'It is dark.' Xin lit a paper candle and handed it to the master; as the master took it, Xin blew it out. The master had a sudden great enlightenment and said, 'From now on, I will never again doubt the words of the old reverends throughout the realm!' He took his leave that very day. Xin told his disciples, 'Among you there is a fellow whose teeth are like a forest of swords, whose mouth is like a basin of blood; struck with a single blow of the staff, he will not turn his head. Someday he will establish our way on an isolated peak!' The master resided in Liyang for nearly thirty years. At the beginning of the Dazhong era, Xue Yanwang, Governor of Wuling, founded the Deshan Vihāra and invited him to dwell there, where he vastly promulgated the tradition of the school. Entering the hall, he instructed the assembly, saying: 'If within oneself there is no concern, do not falsely seek. What is attained through false seeking is not true attainment. If you only keep the mind free of concerns, and keep concerns free of the mind, then you are void yet spiritual, tranquil yet wondrous. If by as much as a hair's tip you speak of root and branch, it is all self-deception. A thread of attached thought becomes the karmic cause for the three wretched destinies; the momentary arousal of emotion becomes the fetter of myriad kalpas. Holy titles and mundane names are all empty sounds; distinct appearances and inferior shapes are all illusory colors. If you wish to seek them, how can you be free of burden? When it comes to loathing them, that again turns into a great calamity. In the end, there is no benefit.' A monk asked, 'What is bodhi?' The master struck him and said, 'Get out! Do not defecate here!' [A monk asked,] 'What is the Buddha?' The master said, 'The Buddha is an old bhikṣu from the Western Heaven.' Xuefeng asked, 'With what dharma have the masters from the past shown people the supreme vehicle of the school?' The master said, 'Our school has no words or phrases, nor does it have a single dharma to give to people.' When he was about to pass away, he said to the assembly: 'Groping in the empty void and chasing echoes wearies your mind and spirit. When awakening from a dream, one realizes it was false; ultimately, what affair is there?' Having spoken, he sat upright and passed away. He had lived eighty-six years, with sixty-five monastic years. It was the third day of the twelfth month of the sixth year of the Xiantong era. By imperial edict he was granted the posthumous title Great Master Jianxing ('Seeing the Nature') (details are in the Transmission of the Lamp).