景德傳燈錄 14.8

14.8

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.