景德傳燈錄 11.10

11.10

The master entered the hall and said, "The Way comes from awakening and realization; it does not reside in words. Moreover, seeing it dense and grand, without any interval, it requires no mental effort. Temporarily borrowing the turning of light, daily functioning is fully accomplished. Those who are deluded turn their backs on it." A monk asked, "What is the realm of Xiangyan?" The master said, "Flowers and trees do not flourish." A monk asked, "What is saindhava?" The master struck the meditation bench and said, "Come over here." A monk asked, "What is present study?" The master twirled his fan, showed it, and said, "Do you see?" The monk was silent. A monk asked, "What is food of right livelihood?" The master scooped with his hand and showed him. A monk asked, "What is the non-manifest precept?" The master said, "Wait until the ācārya returns to lay life, then I will explain." A monk asked, "What is the phrase where we meet beyond sound and form?" The master said, "Say, where was it before I dwelt at Xiangyan?" The monk said, "At such a time, I also dare not say there is a place." The master said, "Like an illusory person's mind and mental factors." A monk asked, "How is it when one neither yearns for all the sages nor values one's own spirit?" The master said, "The myriad activities cease; the thousand sages do not carry [it]." At that time, Shushan, who was in the assembly, made a retching sound and said, "What kind of talk is that!" The master asked, "Who is it?" The assembly said, "It is Junior Uncle." The master said, "Do you not approve of this old monk?" Shushan stepped forward and said, "That is so." The master said, "Can you say something?" He replied, "I can." The master said, "Try saying it so I can see." He said, "If you want me to speak, you must first render the rites of student to teacher." The master then stepped down from his seat, bowed, and repeated the previous words to question him. Shushan said, "Why didn't you say: 'Affirming and valuing cannot be complete'?" The master said, "Even if it is so with you, you will still suffer thirty years of inverted diarrhea. If you dwell in the mountains, there will be no firewood to burn; if you are near water, there will be no water to drink. Remember this clearly!" Later, when he dwelt at Mount Shu, it indeed turned out as the master predicted. When twenty-seven years had passed and his illness was cured, he said to himself, "Senior Brother Xiangyan predicted thirty years of inverted diarrhea for me; now there are three years left." Whenever he finished eating, he would gouge his throat with his fingers and vomit to correspond to the previous prediction. (Later, Shushan asked Elder Daofu, "'Affirming and valuing cannot be complete'—how do you understand this?" Fu said, "Complete return to affirming and valuing." Shushan said, "How about 'cannot be complete'?" Fu said, "Within this there is no path of affirmation." Shushan said, "Only now does it satisfy this sick monk's wish.") A monk asked, "What is the phrase before sound?" The master said, "It was answered before the venerable one asked." The monk said, "What about right now?" The master said, "Right now is the question." A monk asked, "What is directly cutting through to the root source, sealed by the Buddhas?" The master threw down his staff and walked away with open hands. A monk asked, "What is the great meaning of your teaching?" The master said, "This year the frost fell early, and none of the buckwheat was harvested." A monk asked, "What is the meaning of the Patriarch coming from the West?" The master put his hand into his robe, brought out a fist, opened it, and offered it to him. The monk then knelt down and made a gesture of receiving with both hands. The master said, "What is it?" The monk had no answer. A monk asked, "What is the Way?" The master said, "A dragon humming in a withered tree." The monk said, "I do not understand." The master said, "An eyeball in a skull." (Xuansha said instead, "A dragon hidden in a withered tree.") A monk asked, "Leaving behind the four propositions and cutting off the hundred negations, please, upādhyāya, say something." The master said, "Before a hunter, one must not speak of the fundamental teacher's precepts." One day he addressed the assembly, saying, "It is like a person atop a thousand-foot cliff, holding onto a tree branch with his mouth, his feet having nothing to step on, his hands having nothing to cling to. Suddenly someone asks, 'What is the meaning of the Patriarch coming from the West?' If he opens his mouth to answer, he loses his body and life; if he does not answer, he fails the questioner. At such a time, what should be done?" At that time, Senior Sthavira Zhao came forward and said, "I do not ask about the time on the tree; how about before climbing the tree?" The master only laughed. The master asked a monk, "Where have you come from?" The monk said, "I come from Mount Gui." The master said, "What words and phrases has the upādhyāya had recently?" The monk said, "Someone asked, 'What is the meaning of the Patriarch coming from the West?' and the upādhyāya held up his fly-whisk." Hearing this recounted, the master asked, "How do the brothers there understand the upādhyāya's meaning?" The monk said, "They discuss it over there, saying: 'Illuminating the mind through forms, revealing the principle by attaching to things.'" The master said, "If you understand, then you understand; if you do not understand, what is the deadly hurry?" The monk in turn asked, "What is your meaning?" The master again held up the fly-whisk. (Xuansha said, "Just this Xiangyan's heels have not yet touched the ground." Yunju Xi said, "Where is it that Xiangyan's heels have not touched the ground?") Whenever the master instructed students, his words were mostly simple and direct. He had more than two hundred verses and eulogies; responding to conditions and according with faculties, they were unconstrained by tonal meter and circulated widely across all quarters. Later he was posthumously granted the title Great Master Xideng.