大明高僧傳 6.12

6.12

釋曇華字應庵。蘄州汪氏子也。生而奇傑不類凡兒。年十七依於東禪薙髮。首謁遂和尚略得染指法味。於是遍參知識。靡所契證。聞圓悟住雲居煅煉學者。華往禮依侍。悟乃痛與錐剳。值悟返蜀指見虎丘隆禪師。侍一載頓明大事。已而訪此菴元命分座。於是開堂妙嚴。遷歸宗。時大慧在梅陽。有僧傳華示眾語。大慧見之極口稱歎。復寄偈曰。坐斷金輪第一峯。千妖百怪盡潛踪。年來又得真消息。報道楊岐正脈通。虎丘忌日拈香曰。生平沒興撞著這無意智老漢。做盡伎倆湊泊不得。從此卸却干戈。隨分著衣喫飲。二十年來坐曲彔床。懸羊頭賣狗肉。知他有甚憑據。雖然一年一度燒香日。千古令人恨轉深。世稱華與杲二甘露門。甞戒徒眾曰。衲僧著草鞋。住院何事口如黿蛇惡窟乎。宋隆興元年六月十三日奄然而化塔全身於東山。

Śramaṇa Shi Tanhua, styled Ying'an, was a son of the Wang family of Qizhou. Born extraordinary and heroic, he was unlike ordinary children. At the age of seventeen, he shaved his hair under Dongchan. First he visited Master Sui and slightly tasted the flavor of the Dharma. Thereupon he traveled widely visiting spiritual friends, but found no point of accord or realization. Hearing that Yuanwu was residing at Yunju training students, Tanhua went to pay homage and rely upon him as an attendant. Yuanwu gave him severe pricks with awl and needle. When Yuanwu was returning to Shu, he directed him to see Chan Master Huqiu Long. Attending him for a year, he suddenly became clear about the great matter. Soon after, he visited Ci'an Yuan, who ordered him to share the seat. Thereupon he opened the hall at Miaoyan, and later moved to Guizong. At that time, Dahui was in Meiyang. A monk transmitted Tanhua's instructions to the assembly to him; when Dahui saw them, he praised them to the utmost and sent a gāthā in reply, saying:
'Sitting across the foremost peak of the golden wheel,
A thousand monsters and a hundred freaks all hide their traces.
These years true tidings have been obtained again,
Reporting that the orthodox vein of Yangqi is unobstructed.'
On the anniversary of Huqiu's passing, he offered incense and said: 'In all my life I was unlucky to bump into this old fellow devoid of conceptual thought. Having exhausted every trick without being able to fit in, from then on I laid down shield and spear, wearing robes and eating food as my lot allowed. For twenty years I have sat on the curved-wood chair, hanging up a sheep's head and selling dog meat. Who knows what proof he had? Even so, though the day for burning incense comes once a year, through a thousand ages it makes one's resentment turn even deeper.' The world called Tanhua and [Dahui Zong]gao the two gates of sweet dew. He once admonished the assembly, saying: 'Patch-robed monks wear straw sandals. What business do they have when residing in a monastery, whose mouths are like the foul dens of giant turtles and serpents?' On the thirteenth day of the sixth month of the first year of the Longxing era of the Song, he quietly transformed. His whole body was stupaed on Dongshan.