景德傳燈錄 14.8

14.8

鄧州丹霞天然禪師不知何許人也。初習儒學將入長安應舉。方宿於逆旅。忽夢白光滿室。占者曰。解空之祥也。偶一禪客問曰。仁者何往。曰選官去。禪客曰。選官何如選佛。曰選佛當往何所。禪客曰。今江西馬大師出世。是選佛之場。仁者可往。遂直造江西。才見馬大師以手托幞頭額。馬顧視良久曰。南嶽石頭是汝師也。遽抵南嶽還以前意投之。石頭曰。著槽厰去。師禮謝入行者房。隨次執爨役凡三年。忽一日石頭告眾曰。來日剗佛殿前草。至來日大眾諸童行各備鍬钁剗草。獨師以盆盛水淨頭。於和尚前胡跪。石頭見而笑之便與剃髮。又為說戒法。師乃掩耳而出。便往江西再謁馬師。未參禮便入僧堂內。騎聖僧頸而坐。時大眾驚愕遽報馬師。馬躬入堂視之曰。我子天然師即下地禮拜曰。謝師賜法號。因名天然。馬師問。從什麼處來。師云。石頭。馬云。石頭路滑還躂倒汝麼。師曰。若躂倒即不來。乃杖錫觀方。居天台華頂峯三年。往餘杭徑山禮國一禪師。唐元和中至洛京龍門香山。與伏牛和尚為莫逆之友。後於慧林寺遇天大寒。師取木佛焚之。人或譏之。師曰。吾燒取舍利。人曰。木頭何有。師曰。若爾者何責我乎。師一日謁忠國師。先問侍者。國師在否。曰在即在不見客。師曰。太深遠生。曰佛眼亦覷不見。師曰。龍生龍子鳳生鳳兒。國師睡起侍者以告。國師乃鞭侍者二十棒遣出。後丹霞聞之乃云。不謬為南陽國師。至明日却往禮拜。見國師便展坐具。國師云。不用不用。師退步。國師云。如是如是。師却進前。國師云。不是不是。師繞國師一匝便出。國師云。去聖時遙人多懈怠。三十年後覓此漢也還難得。師訪龐居士。見女子取菜次。師云。居士在否。女子放下籃子斂手而立。師又云。居士在否。女子便提籃子去。元和三年師於天津橋橫臥。會留守鄭公出呵之不起。吏問其故。師徐曰。無事僧。留守異之。奉束素及衣兩襲日給米麫。洛下翕然歸信。至十五年春告門人言。吾思林泉終老之所。時門人令齊靜方卜南陽丹霞山。結庵以奉事。三年間玄學者至盈三百。眾構成大院。師上堂曰。阿爾渾家切須保護一靈之物。不是爾造作名貌得。更說什麼薦與不薦。吾往日見石頭和尚。亦只教切須自保護。此事不是爾譚話得。阿爾渾家各有一坐具地。更疑什麼。禪可是爾解底物。豈有佛可成。佛之一字永不喜聞。阿爾自看。善巧方便慈悲喜捨。不從外得。不著方寸。善巧是文殊方便是普賢。爾更擬趁逐什麼物。不用經不落空去。今時學者紛紛擾擾。皆是參禪問道。吾此間無道可修。無法可證。一飲一啄各自有分不用疑慮。在在處處有恁麼底。若識得釋迦即者凡夫是。阿爾須自看取。莫一盲引眾盲相將入火坑。夜裏暗雙陸賽彩。若為生無事珍重。有僧到參。於山下見師乃問。丹霞山向什麼處去。師指山曰。青黯黯地。僧曰。莫只遮箇便是麼。師曰。真師子兒一撥便轉。師問僧。什麼處宿。云山下宿。師曰。什麼處喫飯。曰山下喫飯。師曰。將飯與闍梨喫底人。還具眼也無。僧無對（長慶舉問保福。將飯與人喫。感恩有分。為什麼不具眼。保福云。施者受者二俱瞎漢。長慶云。盡其機來又作麼生。保福云。道某甲瞎得麼。玄覺徵云。且道。長慶明丹霞意。為復自用家財）師以長慶四年六月二十三日。告門人曰。備湯沐吾欲行矣。乃戴笠策杖受履。垂一足未及地而化。壽八十六。門人斲石為塔。勅諡智通禪師。塔號妙覺。

Chan Master Danxia Tianran of Dengzhou was a man of unknown origin. At first he studied Confucian learning, and was about to enter Chang'an to sit for the civil examinations. While lodging at an inn, he suddenly dreamed that white light filled his room. A diviner said, "This is an auspicious sign of comprehending emptiness." By chance, a Chan traveler asked him, "Where is the benevolent one going?" He said, "I am going to be selected as an official." The Chan traveler said, "How can being selected as an official compare to being selected as a Buddha?" He said, "Where should one go to be selected as a Buddha?" The Chan traveler said, "Presently, Great Master Ma has appeared in the world in Jiangxi. That is the arena for selecting Buddhas; the benevolent one may go there." He then went straight to Jiangxi. As soon as he saw Great Master Ma, he supported his turban headband with his hand. Master Ma gazed at him for a long time and said, "Shitou of Nanyue is your teacher." He immediately went to Nanyue and presented his previous aspiration to him. Shitou said, "Go to the stables and sheds." The Master bowed in thanks and entered the postulants' quarters, where he took his turn tending the kitchen fires for three years altogether. One day, Shitou suddenly announced to the assembly, "Tomorrow we will cut down the grass in front of the Buddha shrine." When the next day came, the monks and postulants all prepared hoes and mattocks to cut down the grass. Only the Master filled a basin with water, washed his head, and knelt on his knees before the upādhyāya. Shitou saw this, smiled, and shaved his head for him. He also explained the precepts to him, but the Master covered his ears and walked out. He then went to Jiangxi to call on Master Ma again. Before making his bow, he entered the monks' hall, mounted the neck of the sacred monk [statue], and sat there. At that time, the assembly was startled and alarmed, and hastily reported it to Master Ma. Master Ma personally entered the hall, looked at him, and said, "My child, [you are] so natural (tianran)." The Master immediately got down to the ground, bowed, and said, "I thank the Master for bestowing my Dharma name." He was therefore named Tianran. Master Ma asked, "Where do you come from?" The Master said, "From Shitou." Master Ma said, "The road on the stone (shitou) is slippery; did you slip and fall?" The Master said, "If I had slipped and fallen, I would not have come." Thereupon, he took his staff to observe the different regions. He stayed at Huading Peak on Mount Tiantai for three years, and then went to Mount Jingshan in Yuhang to pay homage to Chan Master Guoyi. During the Yuanhe era of the Tang, he arrived at Xiangshan in Longmen, Luoyang, and became an intimate friend of the Upādhyāya of Mount Funiu. Later, at Huilin Temple, encountering bitterly cold weather, the Master took a wooden Buddha and burned it. Someone criticized him. The Master said, "I am burning it to obtain relics (śarīra)." The person said, "How could there be any in a piece of wood?" The Master said, "If so, why do you reproach me?" One day, the Master called on National Teacher Zhong. First he asked the attendant, "Is the National Teacher in?" He replied, "He is in, but he is not seeing guests." The Master said, "How excessively deep and remote!" The attendant said, "Even the Buddha eye cannot see him." The Master said, "A dragon gives birth to a dragon's child; a phoenix gives birth to a phoenix's chick." When the National Teacher woke up from his sleep, the attendant reported this to him. The National Teacher then gave the attendant twenty blows with his staff and dismissed him. When Danxia later heard of this, he said, "Truly, he is not mistakenly called the National Teacher of Nanyang." The next day, he went back to pay homage. Seeing the National Teacher, he immediately spread his sitting cloth. The National Teacher said, "No need, no need." The Master stepped back. The National Teacher said, "Just so, just so." The Master stepped forward again. The National Teacher said, "Not so, not so." The Master circled the National Teacher once and walked out. The National Teacher said, "The time of the sages is far off, and people are largely indolent. Thirty years from now, it will be hard to find another fellow like this." The Master visited Layman Pang and saw his daughter picking vegetables. The Master said, "Is the layman in?" The girl put down her basket, folded her hands, and stood still. The Master said again, "Is the layman in?" The girl simply picked up her basket and walked away. In the third year of the Yuanhe era, the Master lay stretched across Tianjin Bridge. It happened that Administrator Zheng came out and reprimanded him, but he did not get up. An official asked him the reason, and the Master said slowly, "A monk of no affairs." The administrator marvelled at him and offered bundles of plain silk and two sets of robes, and supplied rice and flour daily. The people of Luoyang turned to him in faith as one. In the spring of the fifteenth year, he said to his disciples, "I am thinking of a place among the forests and springs to end my days." At that time, his disciple Lingqi was just divining a site at Mount Danxia in Nanyang, building a hermitage to attend to him. Within three years, students of the profound arrived to the number of over three hundred, and the assembly constructed a great monastery. The Master went up to the hall and said: "All of you people must definitely protect this single luminous thing. It is not something you can fabricate or name and depict. What more is there to say about grasping or not grasping it? When I met Upādhyāya Shitou in former days, he also only taught that one must definitely protect it oneself. This matter is not something you can talk about. Every single one of you has the ground of your own sitting cloth—what more do you doubt? Could Chan be something you can understand? How could there be a Buddha to become? The single word 'Buddha' I never like to hear. Look for yourselves: skillful means, compassion, joy, and equanimity are not obtained from outside, nor do they adhere to your mind. Skillful means is Mañjuśrī; expedient practice is Samantabhadra. What more do you intend to chase after? Without using scriptures, do not fall into emptiness. Modern students bustle about in confusion, all practicing Chan and inquiring about the Way. Here with me, there is no Way to cultivate, and no Dharma to realize. A single drink and a single peck each have their own share; there is no need for doubt and hesitation. Everywhere, in every place, there is this sort of thing. If you recognize Śākyamuni, he is just this ordinary person. You must look for yourselves! Do not let one blind person lead a crowd of blind people into a pit of fire together. Playing double-sixes in the dark of night, competing for the prize—how could that ever come to anything? Take care of yourselves, with nothing to do." A monk came to study. Seeing the Master at the foot of the mountain, he asked, "Which way does Mount Danxia go?" The Master pointed to the mountain and said, "The deep, dark green place." The monk said, "Could it be just this?" The Master said, "A true lion's cub turns around with just a nudge." The Master asked a monk, "Where did you stay overnight?" He said, "I stayed at the foot of the mountain." The Master said, "Where did you eat?" He said, "I ate at the foot of the mountain." The Master said, "Does the person who gave the food to the ācārya to eat possess eyes or not?" The monk had no reply. (Changqing cited this and asked Baofu, "Giving food to someone to eat entails a share of gratitude. Why would he not possess eyes?" Baofu said, "Both the giver and the receiver are blind fellows." Changqing said, "Exerting the function to the utmost, how is it then?" Baofu said, "Could one say that I am blind?" Xuanjue questioned this, saying, "Tell me, did Changqing understand Danxia's meaning, or was he using his own family possessions?") On the twenty-third day of the sixth month in the fourth year of Changqing, the Master said to his disciples, "Prepare hot water for bathing; I wish to go." He then put on his bamboo hat, took up his staff, put on his sandals, and let down one foot, which had not yet touched the ground when he transformed. His age was eighty-six. His disciples carved stone to make a stupa. By imperial decree, he was posthumously titled Chan Master Zhitong, and the stupa was named Miaojue.