佛祖歷代通載 19.60

19.60

政和五年。黃龍死心禪師卒。諱悟新。生王氏。韶州曲江人。魁岸黑面如梵僧狀。依佛陀院落髮。以氣節蓋眾好面折人。初謁棲賢秀鐵面。秀問。上座其處人。曰廣南韶州。又問。曾到雲門否。新曰。曾到。又問。曾到靈樹否。曰曾到。秀曰。如何是靈樹枝條。新曰。長底自長。短底自短。秀曰。廣南蠻莫亂說。新曰。向北驢只恁麼。拂袖而出。秀器之。而新無留意。乃之黃龍謁寶覺禪師。談辨無所抵捂。覺曰。若之技止此耶。是固說食耳。渠能飽人耶。新窘無以進。從容白曰。悟新到此弓折箭盡。願和上慈悲指箇安樂處。寶覺曰。一塵飛而翳天。一芥墮而覆地。安樂處正忌上座許多骨董。直須死却無量劫來偷心乃可耳。新趨出。一日點坐下板。會知事捶行者。新聞杖聲忽大悟。奮起忘納其履趨方丈。見寶覺自譽曰。天下人總是學得底。某甲是悟得底。覺笑曰。選佛得甲科。何可當也。新自是號為死心叟。榜其居曰死心室。蓋識悟也。久之去游湘西。是時哲禪師領嶽麓。往造焉。哲問。是凡是聖。對曰。非凡非聖。哲曰。是什麼。新曰。高著眼。哲曰。恁麼則南山起雲北山下雨。曰是凡是聖。哲曰。爭奈頭上漫漫脚下漫漫。新仰屋作噓聲。哲曰。氣急殺人。曰恰是拂袖便出。新初住雲岩。已而遷翠岩。翠岩舊有淫祠。鄉人禳禬。酒胾汪穢無虛日。新誡知事毀之辭以不敢掇禍。新怒曰。使能作禍。吾自當之。乃躬自毀折。俄有巨蟒盤臥內。引首作吞噬之狀。新叱之而遁。新安寢無他。未幾再領雲岩建經藏。太史黃庭堅為作記。有以其親墓誌鑱於碑陰者。親恚罵曰。陵侮不避禍。若是語未卒。電光翻屋雷擊自戶。入折其碑陰中分之。視之已成灰燼。而藏記安然無損。晚遷黃龍。學者雲委。屬疾退居晦堂。夜參堅起拂子云。看看拂子病死心病。拂子安死心安。拂子穿却死心。死心穿却拂子。正當恁麼時。喚作拂子又是死心。喚作死心又是拂子。畢竟喚作什麼。良久云。莫把是非來辨我。浮生穿鑿不相干。有乞末後句者。新與偈曰。末後一句子。直須心路絕。六根門既空。萬法無生滅。於此徹其源。不須求解脫。生平愛罵人。只為長快活。十二月十三日晚參說偈。十五日泊然坐逝。荼毘得舍利五色。閱世七十二。坐四十五夏。

In the fifth year of Zhenghe, Chan Master Sixin of Huanglong passed away. His taboo name was Wuxin, born to the Wang family, a native of Qujiang in Shaozhou. He was stalwart in stature with a dark complexion, looking like an Indian monk. He shaved his head at Fotuo Monastery. Surpassing the crowd in integrity, he was fond of confronting people directly to their faces. He first visited Xiuxian Xiu of the 'Iron Face'. Xiu asked, 'Where is the Venerable Elder from?' He replied, 'Shaozhou in Guangnan.' Xiu asked again, 'Have you ever been to Yunmen?' Xin said, 'I have.' Xiu asked again, 'Have you ever been to Lingshu?' He replied, 'I have.' Xiu said, 'What are the branches and twigs of Lingshu like?' Xin said, 'The long ones are naturally long; the short ones are naturally short.' Xiu said, 'Barbarian from Guangnan, speak no nonsense!' Xin said, 'The donkey facing north is just like that!' and flapped his sleeves and left. Xiu valued his capacity, but Xin had no intention of staying. Thereupon he went to Huanglong to visit Chan Master Baojue. His debate and eloquence met no resistance. Baojue said, 'Is this where your skill ends? This is merely speaking of food; can it fill a person?' Xin was at a loss and had no way forward. Calmly he said, 'Wuxin has reached the point where the bow is broken and the arrows are exhausted. May the Upādhyāya compassionately point out a place of peace and joy.' Baojue said, 'A single speck of dust flies up and obscures the sky; a single mustard seed falls and blankets the earth. The place of peace and joy particularly abhors the Venerable Elder's heap of knick-knacks. You must directly put to death your thieving mind that has lasted for immeasurable kalpas, and only then will it do.' Xin hastened out. One day, during meditation, he sat on the lower board. It happened that the director of affairs was beating a postulant. Hearing the sound of the staff, Xin suddenly attained great enlightenment. Rising up vigorously, he forgot to put on his shoes and rushed to the Abbot's quarters. Seeing Baojue, he praised himself, saying, 'People throughout the realm have only learned it; I have awakened to it.' Baojue laughed and said, 'Passing the first rank in the selection of Buddhas—how can anyone match you?' From then on, Xin styled himself the Old Man Sixin ('Dead Mind') and inscribed his dwelling as the 'Sixin Chamber', marking his awakening. After a long while, he traveled to western Xiang. At that time, Chan Master Zhe was presiding over Yuelu, and Xin went to visit him. Zhe asked, 'Is it ordinary or is it sage?' He replied, 'Neither ordinary nor sage.' Zhe said, 'What is it?' Xin said, 'Raise your eyes high.' Zhe said, 'If so, then clouds rise on the southern mountain and rain falls on the northern mountain.' Xin said, 'Is it ordinary or is it sage?' Zhe said, 'What can be done about the vast expanse above the head and the vast expanse beneath the feet?' Xin looked up at the roof and sighed. Zhe said, 'Such panting kills a person!' Xin said, 'Just so!' and flapped his sleeves and left. Xin initially resided at Yunyan, and subsequently moved to Cuiyan. At Cuiyan there was formerly a licentious shrine where the local villagers made exorcisms and sacrifices, with abundant offerings of wine and meat defiling the place without a single day's break. Xin admonished the director of affairs to destroy it, but the director declined, fearing to invite misfortune. Xin said angrily, 'If it can cause misfortune, I will bear it myself.' He then personally destroyed it. Soon after, a giant python coiled within his bedchamber, lifting its head as if to swallow him. Xin shouted at it, and it fled. Xin slept peacefully without further trouble. Not long after, he presided over Yunyan again and built a scripture depository. The Grand Historian Huang Tingjian composed an inscription for it. Someone engraved his own parent's epitaph on the back of the stele. His relative angrily cursed, 'Insulting and defying misfortune like this!' Before the words were finished, lightning flipped over the roof, and thunder struck in from the door, splitting the back of the stele right down the middle. When they examined it, it had already turned to ashes, yet the inscription for the depository remained completely undamaged. Later he moved to Huanglong, where students gathered like clouds. Falling ill, he retired to Huitang. At the evening instruction, he held up his whisk and said: 'Look! When the whisk is ill, Sixin is ill; when the whisk is well, Sixin is well. The whisk pierces through Sixin, and Sixin pierces through the whisk. Right at such a time, if you call it a whisk, it is also Sixin; if you call it Sixin, it is also a whisk. Ultimately, what do you call it?' After a long pause, he said: 'Do not bring right and wrong to discriminate me; / The forced interpretations of this fleeting life have nothing to do with it.' When someone begged for a final word, Xin gave him a verse: 'The final phrase: / Directly, the mental path must be severed. / Once the gates of the six sense faculties are empty, / The ten thousand dharmas are without birth or cessation. / Thoroughly penetrating its source right here, / One needs no seeking for liberation. / Throughout my life I loved rebuking people, / Only for the sake of lasting joy.' On the evening of the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, he expounded the verse. On the fifteenth day, he peacefully passed away in a sitting posture. His cremation yielded five-colored relics. He lived for seventy-two years and had passed forty-five summer retreats.