大明高僧傳 5.20

5.20

釋慧遠眉山彭氏子。年十三從藥師院宗辯和尚薙染。首詣大慈講肆。次參靈巖徽禪師。微有所入。會圓悟復領旨住昭覺遠投之。值悟普說舉龐居士問馬祖不與萬法為侶因緣。遠忽頓悟仆於眾。眾掖之。起遠乃曰。吾夢覺矣。至夜小參遠出問曰。淨躶躶空無一物。赤骨力貧無一錢。戶破家亡。乞師賑濟。悟曰。七珍八寶一時拏。遠曰。禍不入謹家之門。悟曰。機不離位墮在毒海。遠便喝。悟以拄杖擊禪床云。喫得捧也未。遠又喝。悟連喝兩喝。遠便禮拜。自此機鋒峻發無所抵捂。出世初住皐亭山顯孝。宋乾道六年十月十五日詔遷靈隱。上堂僧問。即心即佛時如何。曰頂分了角。僧曰。非心非佛時如何。曰耳墜金環。僧曰不是心不是佛不是物又作麼生。曰頹頂脩羅舞柘枝七年二月十五日召入選德殿賜坐。孝宗問。如何免得生死遠對曰。不悟大道終不能免。帝曰。如何得悟。遠曰。本有之性究之無不悟者。帝曰。悟後如何。遠曰。悟後始知脫體現前了無毫髮可見之相。帝首肯之。帝又曰。即心即佛如何。遠曰。目前無法。陛下喚甚麼作心。帝曰。如何是心。遠正身叉手立曰。只這是。帝大悅。八年秋八月七日召遠入東閣賜坐。帝曰。前日夢中忽聞鐘聲。遂覺不知夢與覺。是如何。遠曰。陛下問夢耶問覺耶。若問覺而今正是寐語。若問夢而夢覺無殊。教誰分別。夢即是幻。知幻即離。覺心不動。故曰若能轉物即同如來。帝曰。夢幻既非。鐘聲從甚處起。遠曰。從問處起。帝又問曰。前日在此閣坐。忽思得不與萬法為侶有個見處。遠曰。願聞。帝曰。四海不為多。遠曰。一口吸盡。西江水又如何。帝曰。亦未曾欠闕。遠曰。纔涉思惟便成剩法。正使如斷輪如閃電了無干涉。何以故。法無二故。見無二見。心無別心。如天無二日。帝悅賜佛海大師之號。淳熙二年乙未秋示眾說偈曰。淳熙二年閏季秋九月旦。閙處莫出頭。冷地著眼看。明暗不相干。彼此分一半。一種作貴人。教誰賣柴炭。向爾道不可毀不可讚。體若虛空。沒涯岸相喚。相呼歸去來。上元定是正月半。明年正月忽感微疾。果於上元說偈曰。拗折秤鎚。掀翻露布。突出機先。鴉飛不度。安坐而逝。留七日顏色不異。全身塔焉。

Shi Huiyuan was a son of the Peng family of Meishan. At the age of thirteen, he underwent tonsure and dyeing of robes under the Venerable Zongbian of Yaoshi Cloister. First he went to the lecture hall of Daci; next he studied under Chan Master Hui of Lingyan, where he had a slight entry. It happened that Yuanwu again received an imperial order to reside at Zhaojue, so Yuan went to him. When Yuanwu gave a general sermon citing the case of Layman Pang asking Mazu about not having the myriad dharmas as companions, Yuan suddenly had a sudden awakening and fell down amidst the assembly. The assembly supported him up, and Yuan then said: "I have awakened from a dream!" When it came to the evening informal gathering, Yuan stepped forward and asked: "Clean and naked, without a single thing; starkly poor, without a single coin; the door is broken and the house destroyed. I beg the Master to give relief." Yuanwu said: "Seven treasures and eight gems—take them all at once!" Yuan said: "Disaster does not enter the door of a cautious household." Yuanwu said: "When your dynamic edge does not leave its position, you fall into a sea of poison." Yuan then gave a shout. Yuanwu struck the Chan bench with his staff and said: "Have you had a taste of the stick yet?" Yuan shouted again. Yuanwu gave two shouts in succession. Yuan then bowed. From this time on, his dynamic edge burst forth steeply, with nothing that could withstand it. Emerging into the world, he first resided at Xianxiao on Mount Gaoting. On the fifteenth day of the tenth month in the sixth year of the Qiandao era of the Song, he was decreed to transfer to Lingyin. Ascending the hall, a monk asked: "What is it like when 'this very mind is Buddha'?" He said: "Horn-buns parted on the crown of the head." The monk asked: "What is it like when 'neither mind nor Buddha'?" He said: "Gold rings dangling from the ears." The monk asked: "When it is not mind, not Buddha, and not a thing, how is it then?" He said: "A balding Asura dancing the Zhezhi dance." On the fifteenth day of the second month in the seventh year, he was summoned into the Xuande Hall and granted a seat. Emperor Xiaozong asked: "How can one escape birth and death?" Yuan replied: "If one does not awaken to the Great Way, in the end one can never escape." The Emperor asked: "How does one attain awakening?" Yuan said: "If one investigates the inherent nature, there is no one who does not awaken." The Emperor asked: "What about after awakening?" Yuan said: "Only after awakening does one know that the whole body is manifest before us, completely devoid of the slightest visible mark." The Emperor nodded in agreement. The Emperor also asked: "How about 'this very mind is Buddha'?" Yuan said: "There are no dharmas before our eyes; what does Your Majesty call 'mind'?" The Emperor asked: "What is mind?" Yuan straightened his body, stood with folded hands, and said: "Just this." The Emperor was greatly pleased. On the seventh day of the eighth month in the autumn of the eighth year, he summoned Yuan into the Eastern Pavilion and granted him a seat. The Emperor said: "The other day in a dream I suddenly heard the sound of a bell, and thereupon woke up. I do not know how it is with dream and waking." Yuan said: "Does Your Majesty ask about the dream or ask about waking? If you ask about waking, right now this is precisely sleep-talk. If you ask about the dream, dream and waking are not different—who can be told to distinguish them? A dream is an illusion; knowing illusion, one immediately departs from it. The awakened mind is unmoving; therefore it is said: 'If one can transform things, one is identical to the Tathāgata.'" The Emperor said: "Since dream and illusion are both negated, from what place did the bell sound arise?" Yuan said: "It arose from the place of questioning." The Emperor asked again: "The other day when sitting in this pavilion, I suddenly thought of not having the myriad dharmas as companions and had a certain view." Yuan said: "I would like to hear it." The Emperor said: "The four seas are not too much." Yuan said: "What about 'swallowing all the water of the West River in a single gulp'?" The Emperor said: "It also has never been lacking." Yuan said: "The moment one enters into deliberation, it becomes a superfluous dharma. Even if it were like a severed wheel or a flash of lightning, it would have no bearing whatsoever. Why is that? Because the Dharma is not two; views have no dual views; the mind has no separate mind—just as the sky has no two suns." The Emperor was pleased and bestowed upon him the title Great Master Fohai. In the autumn of the second year, yimei, of the Chunxi era, he instructed the assembly and recited a verse: / "Chunxi, the second year, the leap late autumn, the first day of the ninth month; / Do not stick your head out into noisy places; observe from a cool, detached ground. / Light and darkness do not interfere with each other; both divide the half. / Being of one kind as noble people, who would be told to sell firewood and charcoal? / I say to you: it cannot be disparaged, it cannot be praised; / Its substance is like empty space, without shore or boundary. / Calling to one another, 'Come back, let us return!' / The Shangyuan Festival is definitely the middle of the first month." / In the first month of the following year, he suddenly took slightly ill. As predicted, on the Shangyuan Festival he recited a verse: / "Snapping the steelyard weight, / Turning over the tangled vines. / Standing out ahead of the dynamic function, / Even a crow cannot fly across." / He sat peacefully and passed away. His body was kept for seven days with its color unchanged, and was entombed whole in a stupa.