景德傳燈錄 14.13

14.13

Shitou once offered this saying: “Speaking and moving have no concern [with it].”
The Master said, “Not speaking and not moving also have no concern [with it].”
Shitou said, “Here, not even a needle can insert.”
The Master said, “Here, it is like planting flowers on top of a rock.”
Shitou approved of him.

Later, the Master resided at Yaoshan in Lizhou, where followers gathered like clouds from the oceans. (For his extensive sayings, see another fascicle.)

One day while the Master was reading a sūtra, Boyan said, “The Upādhyāya can give up deceiving people!”
The Master rolled up the sūtra and said, “What time of day is it?”
[Boyan] said, “Right at noon.”
The Master said, “There are still these literary patterns here.”
[Boyan] said, “This one possesses neither, and has nothing.”
The Master said, “You are exceedingly clever.”
[Boyan] said, “This one is just like this. What is the Upādhyāya’s venerable mind?”
The Master said, “I am lame and hobbled, with a hundred uglinesses and a thousand clumsinesses, just passing the time like this.”

The Master was talking with Daowu, saying, “Mingxi was a regional inspector in a previous lifetime.”
Wu said, “What was the Upādhyāya in a previous lifetime?”
The Master said, “Paralysed and emaciated, I just pass the time like this.”
Wu said, “Relying on what are you like this?”
The Master said, “I have never unrolled other people’s scrolls.” (Shishuang gave an alternate phrase: “The scrolls have never been unrolled.”)

The director of affairs announced, “The bell has been struck; we invite the Upādhyāya to ascend the hall.”
The Master said, “Go carry my almsbowl for me.”
[The director] said, “How long has the Upādhyāya been without hands?”
The Master said, “You merely wear the kāṣāya in vain.”
[The director] said, “This one is just like this. What about the Upādhyāya?”
The Master said, “I have no such family dependents.”

The Master saw the head gardener planting vegetables. The Master said, “As for planting, I do not hinder your planting, but do not let roots grow.”
[The gardener] said, “If no roots are allowed to grow, what will the great assembly eat?”
The Master said, “Do you still have a mouth?”
There was no reply.

A monk asked, “How can one avoid being deluded by the various sense-objects?”
The Master said, “Let them be—how do they hinder you?”
[The monk] said, “I do not understand.”
The Master said, “What sense-object deludes you?”

A monk asked, “What is the supreme jewel within the Way?”
The Master said, “Do not be flattering or devious.”
[The monk] said, “What about when one is not flattering or devious?”
The Master said, “It would not be exchanged for an entire state.”

A monk came back to rely [on the Master]. The Master asked, “Who are you?”
[The monk] said, “Changtan.”
The Master scolded him, saying, “Before it was also Changtan, and afterwards it is also Changtan!”

One day the director of affairs invited the Master to ascend the hall. Just as the great assembly gathered, the Master remained silent for a long time, then straightaway returned to the abbot's quarters and shut the door.
The director of affairs followed behind and said, “The Upādhyāya promised this one to ascend the hall. Why did you instead return to the abbot's quarters?”
The Master said, “Director of affairs, for sūtras there are sūtra masters; for treatises there are treatise masters; for vinaya there are vinaya masters. How could you blame this old monk?”

The Master asked Yunyan, “What are you doing?”
Yan said, “Carrying nightsoil.”
The Master said, “Where is that one?”
Yan said, “Present.”
The Master said, “For whose sake do you go back and forth?”
[Yan] said, “Doing it in place of that other one, east and west.”
The Master said, “Why not make them walk side by side?”
Yan said, “Upādhyāya, do not slander that one.”
The Master said, “It was not fitting to say so.”
[Yan] said, “How should it be said?”
The Master said, “Did you ever carry [it]?”

While the Master was sitting, a monk asked, “Immovably still, what are you thinking of?”
The Master said, “Thinking of that which does not think.”
[The monk] said, “How can one think of that which does not think?”
The Master said, “Non-thinking.”

A monk asked, “What about when a student intends to return to his home village?”
The Master said, “Your father and mother are covered with red rot, lying within a thicket of brambles and thorns—to what place would you return?”
The monk said, “If so, then I shall not return.”
The Master said, “You, however, must return. If you return to your home village, I will show you a prescription for abstaining from grain.”
The monk said, “Please provide it.”
The Master said, “During the two times when ascending the hall, you must not bite through a single grain of rice.”

A monk asked, “What is nirvāṇa?”
The Master said, “Before you opened your mouth, what was it called?”

The Master saw Zun of the cloth robe washing a Buddha statue, and asked, “This one is washed by you, but can you wash that one?”
Zun said, “Bring that one here.”
The Master then left it at that. (Changqing said, “Deviant dharma is difficult to support.” Xuanjue said, “Tell me, does Changqing’s saying this stand with the guest or with the host? In the assembly, it is called the ‘Buddha-washing phrase’, and also called the ‘phrase of accompaniment’. Tell me, is it completely good or not completely good?”)

A monk asked, saying, “The student has a doubt; please, Master, resolve it.”
The Master said, “Wait until ascending the hall, and come; I will resolve the doubt for the ācārya.”
When evening came and he ascended the hall, the great assembly had settled in. The Master said, “Today the sthavira who requested to have a doubt resolved—in what place is he?”
The monk stepped out from the assembly and stood. The Master stepped down from the meditation seat, seized him, and said, “Great assembly, this monk has a doubt!”
He then pushed him aside and returned to the abbot's quarters. (Xuanjue said, “Tell me, did he resolve the doubt for him or not? If he resolved the doubt, what place was the resolution of the doubt? If he did not resolve the doubt for him, why did he say, ‘Wait until ascending the hall, and I will resolve the doubt for you’?”)

The Master asked the rice-cook, “How long have you been here?”
[The cook] said, “Three years.”
The Master said, “I do not know you at all.”
The rice-cook could not fathom it; he departed in anger.

A monk asked, “What about the urgent point of life and limb?”
The Master said, “Do not plant varied seeds.”
[The monk] said, “With what should offerings be made?”
The Master said, “One who has nothing.”

The Master instructed the master of offerings to collect donations. Practitioner Gan asked, “From what place have you come?”
The monk said, “I have come from Yaoshan.”
Gan said, “Why have you come?”
The monk said, “To convert and solicit.”
Gan said, “Did you bring medicine along?”
[The monk] said, “What illness does the practitioner have?”
Gan thereupon gave two ingots of silver, saying, “If there is a person, then deliver it; if there is no person, then drop it.”
The Master wondered at the monk's too-hasty return.
The monk said, “Questions on the Buddha-Dharma were matched, and I obtained two ingots of silver.”
The Master had him relate his words. When he had related them, the Master ordered the monk to return it quickly to Practitioner Gan’s house.
When the practitioner saw the monk return, he said, “The monk has arrived,” and added more silver to bestow upon him. (Tong’an said in his place, “Had I known earlier that the practitioner would ask like that, I would never have said I came from Yaoshan.”)

The Master asked a monk, “I hear it said that you understand how to calculate true and false fortunes.”
[The monk] said, “I would not presume.”
The Master said, “You try calculating for this old monk and see.”
The monk had no reply. (Yunyan later brought this up and asked Dongshan, “What would you say?” Dongshan said, “Please [tell me] the Upādhyāya’s date of birth.”)

The Master wrote the character ‘Buddha’ and asked Daowu, “What character is this?”
Wu said, “The character ‘Buddha’.”
The Master said, “Chatterbox ācārya!”

A monk asked, “One's own matter is not yet clear; I beg the Upādhyāya's instruction.”
The Master remained silent for a long while and said, “For me to speak a sentence for you now is also not difficult; it is only proper that you perceive it right under the words, which would still be somewhat better. If you further enter into thinking, it will instead become my transgression. It is better that each of us close our mouths for now, to avoid burdening one another.”

When the great assembly gathered for evening instruction, no lamps were lit. The Master offered this saying: “I have a single sentence; I will wait until a bull gives birth to a calf, and then speak it to you.”
At that time, a monk said, “The bull has already given birth to a calf; why not speak it?”
The Master said, “Bring a lamp!”
The monk drew back and entered the assembly. (Yunyan later brought this up to Dongshan. Dongshan said, “This monk did understand, but was merely unwilling to make prostrations.”)

A monk asked, “Before the Ancestral Master came to this land, was there still the Ancestral Master's intention in this land or not?”
The Master said, “There was.”
The monk said, “Since there was the Ancestral Master's intention, why did he come again?”
The Master said, “Precisely because it was there, that is why he came.”

The Master was reading a sūtra. A monk asked, “The Upādhyāya usually does not permit people to read sūtras; why do you read them yourself?”
The Master said, “I merely aim to cover my eyes.”
[The monk] said, “May this one learn from the Upādhyāya or not?”
The Master said, “If it were you, even an ox hide would have to be seen through!” (Changqing said, “What fault do eyes have?” Xuanjue said, “Tell me, did Changqing understand Yaoshan's intention or not?”)

Li Ao, the governor of Liangzhou, was drawn to the Master’s mystical teaching, but despite repeated invitations [the Master] did not rise. [Li Ao] therefore personally entered the mountain to visit him. The Master held the scroll of a sūtra and did not look back. The attendant reported, “The prefect is here.”
Ao, by nature narrow-minded and impatient, thereupon said, “Seeing your face is not as good as hearing your name!”
The Master called out, “Prefect!”
Ao responded, “Yes!”
The Master said, “Why do you value ears and despise eyes?”
Ao clasped his hands and thanked him, asking, “What is the Way?”
The Master pointed up and down with his finger, saying, “Do you understand?”
Ao said, “I do not understand.”
The Master said, “Clouds in the sky, water in the pitcher.”
Ao was thoroughly pleased, bowed in reverence, and composed a verse: