佛祖歷代通載 18.57

18.57

（二十三　丁卯）　大陽禪師。名警玄。祥符中。避國諱易稱警延。江夏張氏子。其先蓋金陵人。仲父為沙門。號智通。住持崇孝。延往依以為師。十九為大僧。聽圓覺了義經。問講者。何名圓覺。曰圓以圓融有漏為義。覺以覺盡無餘為義也。延曰。空諸有無何名圓覺。講者嘆曰。是兒齒少而識卓如此。我所有何足以益之。政如以穢食置寶器。其可哉。通知之使令遊方。初謁鼎州梁山觀公。問如何是無相道場。觀指壁間觀音像曰。此是吳處士畫。延擬進語。觀急索曰。這箇是有相。如何是無相底。於是悟旨於言下。拜起而侍。觀曰。何不道取一句子延曰。道即不辭。恐上紙墨。觀笑曰他日此語上碑去在。延獻偈曰。我昔初機學道迷。萬水千山覓見知。明今辯古終難會直說無心轉更疑。蒙師指出秦時鏡。照見父母未生時。如今覺了何所得。夜放烏雞帶雪飛。觀稱洞上之宗可倚矣。延亦自負。儕輩莫敢攀奉。一時聲價籍甚。觀歿。辭塔出山。至大陽謁堅禪師。堅欣然讓法席使主之。延受之。咸平庚子歲也。示眾曰。廓然去。肯重去。無所得心去。平常心去離彼我心去。然後方可。所以古德道。牽牛向溪東。放不免納官家徭稅。牽牛向溪西。放不免納官家徭稅。不如隨分納些些。渠總不妨。免致勞擾。作麼生是隨分納些些底道理。但截斷兩頭有無諸法。凡聖情盡體露真常。事理不二即如如佛。若能如此者。法法無依平等大道萬有不繫。隨處轉轆轆地更有何事。延神觀奇偉有威重。日常一食。自以付受之重。足不越限。脇不至席。五十年。年八十。坐六十一夏。嘆無可以繼其法者。以洞上旨訣。寄葉縣省公之子法遠。使為求法器傳續之。天聖五年七月十六日陞座辭眾又三日以偈寄侍郎王曙曰。吾年八十五。修因至於此。問我歸何處。頂相終難覩。停筆而化。

(23. Dingmao) Chan Master Dayang, named Jingxuan. During the Xiangfu era, to avoid the imperial taboo name, he changed his name to Jingyan. He was a son of the Zhang family of Jiangxia; his ancestors were originally people of Jinling. His paternal second uncle was a śramaṇa named Zhitong, who served as abbot of Chongxiao. Yan went to rely on him as his teacher. At nineteen, he became a fully ordained monk. While listening to the Scripture of Complete Enlightenment on the Definitive Meaning, he asked the lecturer, "What is meant by 'complete enlightenment'?" [The lecturer] replied, "'Complete' means completely integrating the defiled; 'enlightenment' means thoroughly awakening without remainder." Yan said, "When both existence and non-existence are completely emptied, what can be named 'complete enlightenment'?" The lecturer sighed and said, "This youth is so tender in years, yet his understanding is so outstanding! How could what I possess suffice to benefit him? It is truly like putting foul food into a precious vessel; how could that be proper?" Tong knew of this and had him go on pilgrimage. At first, he called upon Master Guan of Liangshan in Dingzhou and asked, "What is the bodhimaṇḍa of formlessness?" Guan pointed to an image of Avalokiteśvara on the wall and said, "This was painted by the retired scholar Wu." Yan was about to speak further, but Guan pressed him urgently, "This is one with form; what is that which is formless?" Thereupon he awakened to the principle upon these words, bowed, stood up, and attended him. Guan said, "Why do you not utter a phrase?" Yan said, "To speak would not be refused; I only fear it would be committed to paper and ink." Guan smiled and said, "In days to come, this phrase will be placed on a stele." Yan offered a verse, saying:
"In the past, as a novice studying the Way, I was confused,
Searching for understanding across myriad waters and a thousand mountains.
Clarifying the present and debating antiquity, in the end it was difficult to meet;
Speaking directly of no-mind brought even more doubts.
Favoured by the master pointing out the mirror of Qin,
It illuminated before my parents gave birth to me.
Now, having awakened, what is attained?
At night releasing the black chicken to fly bearing snow."
Guan praised him, saying that the Dongshan lineage could now be relied upon. Yan was also confident in himself, so that his peers dared not presume upon him, and his reputation flourished greatly for a time. After Guan passed away, he took leave of the pagoda and left the mountain. Arriving at Dayang, he called upon Chan Master Jian. Jian gladly yielded the Dharma seat for him to take charge of. Yan accepted it; this was the gengzi year of Xianping. He instructed the assembly, saying: "Go openly, go with genuine affirmation, go with a mind of no attainment, go with the ordinary mind, go leaving behind the mind of self and other—only then will it do. Therefore the ancient worthies said: 'If you lead the ox toward the east of the stream and release it, you cannot avoid paying the government's corvée tax. If you lead the ox toward the west of the stream and release it, you cannot avoid paying the government's corvée tax. It is better to pay a little according to your share; that will not hinder it at all, and avoids causing trouble.' What is the principle of paying a little according to your share? Simply sever both ends of existence and non-existence among all phenomena; when ordinary and holy sentiments are exhausted, the true and eternal body is revealed. The non-duality of phenomena and principle is the Tathatā Buddha. If you can be like this, each and every phenomenon is without reliance, the great path of equality is untied by the myriad existences, turning smoothly wherever you are—what further matter could there be?" Yan's spiritual appearance was extraordinary, dignified, and solemn. He took one meal a day. Because of the gravity of what had been transmitted to him, his feet did not cross the threshold, and his ribs did not touch the mat for fifty years. At the age of eighty, having sat through sixty-one summer retreats, he lamented that there was no one who could succeed his Dharma. Taking the essential instructions of the Dongshan lineage, he entrusted them to Faxian, the disciple of Master Sheng of Yexian, bidding him seek out a vessel of the Dharma to transmit and continue it. On the sixteenth day of the seventh month in the fifth year of Tiansheng, he ascended the hall to take leave of the assembly. Three days later, he sent a verse to Vice Minister Wang Shu, which said:
"My age is eighty-five;
Cultivating the cause has reached this point.
If you ask where I am returning:
The crown mark, in the end, is difficult to behold."
Putting down his brush, he passed away.