大明高僧傳 6.31

6.31

釋道謙本郡人。未詳氏族。初依佛果無所入。妙喜奉旨住徑山。謙亦在侍。令往長沙通書于張紫巖。乃自謂。參禪二十年尚無個入處。又有此行。豈不荒廢了矣。將辭友人宗元。叱曰不可。豈以在路參禪不得耶。汝去吾與俱往。一日在途泣曰。一生參禪無得力處。今奔波若此何得相應。元曰。爾但將諸方參得悟得并圓悟妙喜與爾說得底。都不要理會。途中我可替者盡替。汝只有五事替不得。須自承當。曰何為五事。元曰。著衣喫飯屙屎放尿馱箇死屍路上行。謙於言下大徹。不覺手舞足蹈。元曰。汝此回方可通書。吾先歸矣。後半載返雙徑。妙喜于山門外亭一見便曰。建州子這回自別也。

Śramaṇa Dàoqiān was a native of his prefecture; his clan is unknown. At first he relied on Fóguǒ without finding entry. When Miàoxǐ resided at Jìngshān by imperial order, Dàoqiān also attended him. He was ordered to go to Chángshā to deliver a letter to Zhāng Zǐyán. Dàoqiān thought to himself: ‘I have investigated Chan for twenty years and still have no place of entry; now having this journey, will it not be wasted?’ He was about to decline, when his companion Zōngyuán rebuked him, saying, ‘You must not! Can one not investigate Chan on the road? If you go, I will go with you.’ One day on the road, Dàoqiān wept and said, ‘All my life I have investigated Chan with no place of strength; now rushing about like this, how can I attain accord?’ Yuán said, ‘You just take all that you have investigated and awakened to in various quarters, together with what Yuánwù and Miàoxǐ told you, and pay no heed to any of it. On the road, whatever I can do for you, I will do entirely for you. There are only five things I cannot do for you; you must take them upon yourself.’ Dàoqiān asked, ‘What are the five things?’ Yuán said, ‘Wearing clothes, eating meals, defecating, urinating, and carrying this corpse walking on the road.’ Dàoqiān attained great breakthrough under these words, unconsciously dancing with hands and feet. Yuán said, ‘This time you can go deliver the letter; I will return first.’ Half a year later he returned to Shuāngjìng. As soon as Miàoxǐ saw him in the pavilion outside the mountain gate, he said, ‘This fellow of Jiànzhōu is completely different this time!’