佛祖歷代通載 18.86

18.86

（三十六）　五年正月元日。達觀曇頴禪師遷化。生錢唐丘氏。年十三依龍興寺為大僧神情秀特。於書無所不觀。為詞章多出塵語。十八九遊京師。時歐陽文忠公在場屋。頴識之游相樂也。初謁大陽明安禪師。問洞上特設偏正君臣。意明何事。安曰。父母未生時事。又問。如何體會。安曰。夜半正明天曉不露。頴罔然棄去。至石門謁聰禪師。理明安之語曰。師意如何。聰曰。大陽不道不是。但口門窄。滿口說未盡。老僧則不與麼。頴曰。如何是父母未生事。聰曰。糞墼子。又問。如何是夜半正明天曉不露。聰曰。牡丹叢下睡猫兒。頴愈疑駭日扣之。竟無得益。自奮曰。吾要以死究之。不解終不出山。聰一日見普請。問曰。今日運薪乎。頴曰。然運薪。聰曰雲門甞問。人搬柴柴搬人。如何會。頴不能對。聰因植杖於座笑曰。此事如人學書。點畫可傚者工。不者拙。何故如此。未忘法耳。如有法執。故自為斷續。當筆忘手手忘心乃可也。頴於是默契其旨。良久曰。如石頭曰。執事元是迷契理亦非悟。既曰契理。何謂非悟。聰曰汝以此句為藥語為病語。頴曰。是藥語。聰呵曰。汝乃以病為藥。又可哉。頴曰。事如函得蓋理如箭直鋒。妙寧有加者。而猶以為病。茲實未諭。聰曰。借其妙至走。亦止明事理而已。祖師意旨知識所不能到。矧事理乎。故世尊曰。理障礙正知見。事障能續生死。頴恍如夢覺曰。如何受用。聰曰。語不離窠臼。安能出蓋纏。頴嘆曰。纔涉唇吻便落意思。皆是死門終非活路。辭去過京師。寓止駙馬都尉李端愿之園。日夕問道。一時公卿多就見聞其議論。隨機開悟李公問曰。地獄畢竟是有是無。答曰。諸佛向無中說有。眼見空花。太尉向有中覓無。手𭢈水月。堪笑眼前見牢獄不避。心外見天堂欲生。殊不知忻怖在心善惡成境太尉但了自心。自然無惑。曰心如何了。答曰。善惡都莫思量。又問。不思量後心歸何所。頴曰。且請太尉歸宅。頴東遊初住舒州香鑪峯。移住潤州因聖太平之隱靜明之雪竇。又遷金山龍游寺。嘉祐四年除夕。遣侍者持書別楊州刁景純學士曰。明旦當行。不暇相見。厚自愛。景純開書乃驚曰。當奈何。復書決別而已。中夜侯吏報。揚州馳書船將及岸。頴欣然遣撾鼓陞座。敘出世本末謝裨贊叢林者。勸修勿怠。曰吾化當以賢監寺次補下座讀景純書畢。大眾擁步上方文。頴跏趺揮令各遠立。良久乃化。閱世七十有二。夏五十有三。

(36) In the fifth year, on the first day of the first month, Chan Master Danguan Tanying passed away. He was born of the Qiu family in Qiantang. At the age of thirteen, he relied on Longxing Monastery to become a fully ordained monk. His spirit and demeanor were exceptionally refined. In reading books, there was nothing he did not peruse; his literary compositions mostly contained words that transcended the dust of the world. At eighteen or nineteen, he traveled to the capital. At that time, Lord Ouyang Wenzhong was in the examination halls; Ying came to know him, and they enjoyed each other's company. At first he visited Chan Master Dayang Ming'an and asked: "The Dongshan lineage specifically establishes the 'Partial and Upright' and the 'Ruler and Minister'—what matter does its intention clarify?" An said: "The matter before your father and mother gave birth to you." He asked again: "How does one realize it?" An said: "At midnight it is brightly illumined; at dawn it is not revealed." Ying was baffled and left. Arriving at Shimen, he visited Chan Master Cong and related Ming'an's words, asking: "What was the Master's intention?" Cong said: "Dayang did not say it wrongly; it is just that his mouth was narrow, so he could not express it fully with a whole mouth. This old monk would not say it like that." Ying said: "What is the matter before father and mother gave birth?" Cong said: "A dried lump of dung." He asked again: "What is 'at midnight it is brightly illumined; at dawn it is not revealed'?" Cong said: "A cat sleeping beneath a clump of peonies." Ying grew even more doubtful and startled; every day he questioned him, yet gained no benefit. He spurred himself on, saying: "I must investigate this to the death; if I do not understand, I will never leave this mountain." One day Cong saw him during the communal labor and asked: "Are you carrying firewood today?" Ying said: "Yes, I am carrying firewood." Cong said: "Yunmen once asked: 'Does the person carry the firewood, or does the firewood carry the person?' How do you understand this?" Ying could not reply. Cong then planted his staff beside his seat and said with a smile: "This matter is like someone learning calligraphy: one whose strokes can be copied is skilled; one whose cannot is clumsy. Why is it like this? It is simply that one has not forgotten the Dharma. If there is clinging to dharma, one naturally creates interruptions and continuities. It is only acceptable when the brush forgets the hand and the hand forgets the mind." Thereupon Ying silently tallied with the principle. After a long while, he said: "As Shitou said: 'Clinging to phenomena is fundamentally delusion; tallying with principle is also not awakening.' Since it says 'tallying with principle,' why is it said to be 'not awakening'?" Cong said: "Do you take this sentence as medicine-words or disease-words?" Ying said: "They are medicine-words." Cong rebuked him: "You take the disease to be medicine! How could that be right?" Ying said: "Phenomena are like a box fitting its lid; principle is like an arrow hitting the point straight on. Could there be anything more wondrous? Yet you still consider it a disease—this I truly do not understand." Cong said: "Even if its wonder reached the extreme, it would still only clarify phenomena and principle. What the Ancestral Master's intention points to cannot be reached by intellectual knowledge, much less by phenomena and principle! Therefore the World-Honoured One said: 'The obstacle of principle obstructs correct knowledge and vision; the obstacle of phenomena can perpetuate birth and death.'" Ying felt as if awakening from a dream and said: "How should one make use of it?" Cong said: "If your words do not leave the rut, how can you transcend the veils and bonds?" Ying sighed and said: "As soon as it touches the lips, it falls into concepts and thoughts; all of these are gates of death and ultimately not a path of life." Taking leave, he passed through the capital and stayed at the garden of the Imperial Son-in-law Commandant Li Duanyuan. Morning and evening [Li] asked about the Way. At that time, many high officials went to see him and hear his discussions; he awakened them according to their capacities. Lord Li asked: "Does hell ultimately exist or not?" [Ying] replied: "The Buddhas speak of existence from within non-existence—eyes seeing flowers in the sky; the Grand Commandant seeks non-existence from within existence—hands grasping the moon in the water. It is laughable that, seeing the prison right before your eyes, you do not avoid it, yet seeing the heavenly palaces outside your mind, you wish to be born there! Little do you know that joy and fear reside in the mind, and good and evil constitute the realm. If the Grand Commandant simply realizes his own mind, he will naturally have no confusion." [Li] asked: "How does one realize the mind?" He replied: "Do not think of good or evil at all." He asked again: "After not thinking, where does the mind return?" Ying said: "For now, please return to your residence, Grand Commandant." Ying traveled east and first resided at Xianglufeng in Shuzhou, then moved to Yinsheng in Runzhou, Taiping's Yinjing, and Xuedou in Mingzhou; he then moved to Longyou Monastery on Jinshan. On New Year's Eve in the fourth year of Jiayou, he sent an attendant carrying a letter to bid farewell to Academician Diao Jingchun of Yangzhou, saying: "Tomorrow morning I shall depart. I have no leisure to see you; take good care of yourself." Jingchun opened the letter and was shocked, saying: "What can be done?" and only wrote a reply of final farewell. In the middle of the night, a lookout officer reported that the courier boat bearing the letter from Yangzhou was about to reach the shore. Delighted, Ying ordered the drum beaten and ascended the hall; he recounted the beginning and end of his appearance in the world, thanked those who had aided and supported the monastery, and exhorted them to cultivate without negligence. He said: "When I transform, the worthy supervisor of affairs shall succeed to my seat." Having finished reading Jingchun's letter, the assembly escorted his steps to the abbot's quarters. Ying sat cross-legged and waved for them all to stand at a distance; after a long while, he transformed. He had lived seventy-two years and fifty-three monastic summers.