景德傳燈錄 14.43

14.43

Upādhyāya Shandao of Shishi in Tanzhou succeeded Chan Master Kuang of Changzi in You County. When he was a novice, Changzi sent him to receive full ordination and told him: "On the day of your return, you must go to Shitou and pay homage." After receiving the precepts, the master returned and visited Shitou. One day, while following Shitou on an excursion in the mountains, Shitou said: "Chop down that tree in front for me; it blocks my way." The master said: "I didn't bring a knife." Shitou then drew his knife and handed it over backwards to the master. The master said: "Pass the other end over." Shitou said: "What would you do with that end?" The master thereupon had great awakening and returned immediately. Changzi asked: "Did you go to Shitou?" The master said: "I went indeed, but did not announce my name." Changzi asked: "From whom did you receive the precepts?" The master said: "I did not rely on another." Changzi said: "If it was like that there, what is it like coming here to me?" The master said: "No difference." Changzi said: "Much too talkative!" The master said: "My tongue has not yet even touched [anything]." Changzi scolded: "Novice, get out!" The master thereupon went out. Changzi said: "How could he fail to meet the right person?" Soon after, the master encountered the purge [of Buddhism]; he then lived as a lay practitioner in a stone cave (shishi). Whenever he saw a monk, he would hold up his staff and say: "All the Buddhas of the three periods come entirely from this!" Few among those who responded achieved a secret tally. When Changsha heard of this, he said: "If I saw him, I would make him put down the staff and communicate another message." Sansheng took these words and went to Shishi to confront him, but was seen through by the master as [repeating] Changsha's words. When Xingshan heard that Sansheng had missed the opportunity, he also went in person to Shishi. Seeing Xingshan accompanied by a assembly of monks, the master secretly went to pound rice. Xingshan said: "It is not easy for the practitioner; it is hard for a poor monk to digest." The master said: "Bring it served in a mindless bowl, cover it and take it away with a seamless tray. What talk is there of being hard to digest?" Xingshan then desisted. Yangshan asked: "How far apart are the Buddha and the Way?" The master said: "The Way is like opening the hand; the Buddha is like making a fist." [Yangshan] said: "In the end, what is definite, believable, and reliable?" The master brushed the empty air with his hand two or three times and said: "There is no such thing! There is no such thing!" [Yangshan] said: "Is there still a need to read the teachings?" The master said: "The three vehicles and the twelve divisions of teachings are matters outside one's share. If you stand in opposition to them, then mind and object are two phenomena, and subject and object operate together; then there will be all kinds of views and understandings, which are merely wild wisdom, insufficient to be the Way. If you do not stand in opposition to them, not a single thing exists. Therefore the ancestral master said: 'Originally there is not a single thing.' Do you not see that when an infant emerges from the womb, could it say, 'I understand reading the teachings' or 'I do not understand reading the teachings'? At such a time, it also does not know whether there is a meaning to Buddha-nature or no meaning to Buddha-nature. When it grows up, it then learns various intellectual understandings, and coming forth it says, 'I am capable, I understand,' not knowing that these are adventitious afflictions. Among the sixteen practices, the infant practice is the foremost. Babbling and cooing is a metaphor for a student of the Way being free from discriminatory minds of taking and abandoning; hence the infant is praised. How much more so when taking it as a metaphor! If you say that the infant is the Way, nowadays people misunderstand." One evening, the master was admiring the moon with Yangshan. Yangshan asked: "When this moon is pointed, where does its circular figure go? When it is round, where does its pointed shape go?" The master said: "When pointed, the circular figure is hidden; when round, the pointed shape remains." (Yunyan said: "When pointed, the circular figure remains; when round, there is no pointed shape." Daowu said: "When pointed, it is also not pointed; when round, it is also not round.") Yangshan took his leave, and the master saw him to the gate; then he called out: "Ācārya!" Yangshan responded. The master said: "Do not go off in one direction; come back to this side." A monk asked: "Has the master ever been to Mount Wutai?" The master said: "I have." The monk said: "Did you see Mañjuśrī?" The master said: "I saw him." The monk said: "What did Mañjuśrī say to you, practitioner?" The master said: "Mañjuśrī said: 'Ācārya, your parents were born among the village grass.'"