大明高僧傳 7.4

7.4

釋諱才號佛心。福州姚氏子也。幼為驅烏弱冠得度。精求律部持犯霜威。慕最上乘不憚遐扣。勞逸弗介一念力參。首謁海印隆公於大中。偶見老宿達道看經。至一毛頭師子百億毛頭一時現處。才問曰。一毛頭師子作麼生。得百億毛頭一時現。達曰。汝乍入叢林未可理會許事。才疑之。適海印夜參。至結座擲拄杖曰。了即毛端吞巨海。始知大地一微塵。才豁然有省。次謁黃龍死心不契乃參靈源。凡入室出必揮淚曰。此事我見甚是分明。秖臨機吐之不出奈何。源曰。須是大徹方得自在。一日竊觀隣僧讀曹洞廣錄。至藥山採薪歸。有僧問甚處來。山曰計柴來。僧指腰下刀曰。鳴剝剝是甚麼。山拔刀作斫勢。才忽大悟。摑隣僧即揭簾趨出說偈曰。徹徹大海乾枯。虛空迸裂。四方八面絕遮欄。萬象森羅齊漏泄。初住上封屢遷名剎。詞河辯海潮涌波騰。學者無能湊泊其涯涘也。

Śramaṇa Huicai, styled Foxin, was a son of the Yao family of Fuzhou. In his youth he served as a novice who drives away crows, and at the age of twenty he received ordination. He thoroughly sought the Vinaya collection, his adherence and violation like the majesty of frost. Aspiring to the Supreme Vehicle, he did not shrink from inquiring far and wide. Without concern for toil or ease, he investigated with utmost effort in single-minded concentration. He first visited Master Haiyin Long at Dazhong. He happened to see an elder adept, Dadao, reading a sūtra; coming to the point where “the lion on the tip of a single hair, one hundred billion hair-tips manifest simultaneously,” Cai asked: “How can the lion on the tip of a single hair make one hundred billion hair-tips manifest simultaneously?” Dao said: “You have just entered the monastery; you must not yet attend to such matters.” Cai doubted it. It coincided that Haiyin held an evening gathering; arriving at the conclusion of his seat, he threw down his staff and said: “When realized, the tip of a hair swallows the vast ocean; / Only then does one know that the great earth is a single speck of dust.” Cai had a sudden awakening. Next, he visited Sixin of Huanglong, but there was no accord; thereupon he called on Lingyuan. Whenever he emerged from entering the room, he would weep and say: “I see this matter very clearly; only when facing the circumstance, I cannot spit it out—what can be done?” Yuan said: “You must have a great breakthrough before you can attain ease.” One day, he secretly watched a neighboring monk reading the Extended Record of Caodong. Coming to Yaoshan returning from gathering firewood, where a monk asked, “Where have you come from?” and Yaoshan said, “I come carrying firewood,” the monk pointed to the knife at his waist and said, “What is this rattling sound?” and Yaoshan drew the knife making a chopping motion, Cai suddenly had a great awakening. He slapped the neighboring monk, raised the screen, dashed out, and recited a verse: “Thorough, thorough! The vast ocean is dried up, / Empty space bursts open. / The four directions and eight dimensions are utterly without barrier; / The myriad forms and dense array are completely laid bare!” First dwelling at Shangfeng, he was repeatedly transferred to famous monasteries. The river of his words and the ocean of his eloquence surged like tides and billowed like waves; students could find no way to anchor at its shores.