景德傳燈錄 15.32

15.32

A monk asked, "What is the Way?" The Master said, "The sun fills the eyes; across ten thousand miles not a wisp of cloud hangs." The monk said, "How can one understand it?" The Master said, "In clear and pure water, the swimming fish is deluded by itself." A monk asked, "What is the source?" The Master said, "Drinking water without being deluded about its spring." A monk asked, "When the ancient spread his hair over the mud, what was that about?" The Master said, "Though nine suns were shot down, one film over the eye still remains; though one arrow falls to the ground, the whole world is not dark." A monk asked, "Are the intention of the patriarchs and the intention of the teachings the same or different?" The Master said, "The wind blows the lotus leaves, filling the pond with green; a traveler goes ten miles, comparing it to one stage." The Master had a novice disciple who had attended upon him for a long time. After the Master settled as abbot, he sent him to travel on foot. The novice wandered through the Chan quarters without engaging his mind. Hearing that the Master had gathered a great assembly and his reputation was spreading everywhere, he returned to pay his respects and asked, "The Upādhyāya has such an extraordinary matter—why did you not speak of it to me earlier?" The Master said, "When you steamed rice, I made the fire; when you served food, I opened my bowl. Where did I ever let you down?" The novice was enlightened from this. One day, after drinking tea, the Master personally brewed a bowl and handed it to his attendant. The attendant intended to receive it, but the Master pulled back his hand and said, "What is it?" The attendant had no reply. A venerable master came and asked the Master, "If it is the intention of the teachings, I have no doubt. What about the matters in the Chan gate?" The Master said, "This old monk only knows how to turn the raw into the cooked." A monk asked, "What is the principle of the limit of reality?" The Master said, "A rootless tree on the rock; the mountain harbors motionless clouds." A monk asked, "What is a lion coming out of its cave?" The Master said, "Empty space has no reflection; beneath the feet wild clouds arise." The head monk of Xichuan went traveling and arrived at Baima. Citing the words of the Avataṃsaka teachings, he asked, "What is it like when a single speck of dust contains the boundless Dharma realm?" Baima said, "Like two wings on a bird, like two wheels on a cart." The head monk said, "I had thought there was some other extraordinary matter in the Chan gate, but it turns out not to surpass the scriptural vehicle." He then returned to his home region. Later, hearing of Jiashan's flourishing teaching, he sent a novice carrying the previous question to ask the Master. The Master said, "Carving sand holds no discourse of carving jade; knotting grass is contrary to the thoughts of a person of the Way." The novice returned and related this to the head monk. The head monk praised it, saying, "I had thought the Chan gate was not different from the intention of the teachings, but it turns out there is an extraordinary matter!" A monk asked, "What is the realm of Jiashan?" The Master said, "An ape holds its young, returning into the green peaks; a bird carries a flower, dropping it before the emerald cliff." The Master reopened the profound pivot for twelve years. On the seventh day of the eleventh month in the first year of the Zhonghe era of the Tang (881 CE, xinhai), he summoned the administrative director and said, "I have talked of the Way with the assembly for many years; the deep meaning of the Buddha Dharma each of you should know for yourselves. Now that the time of my illusory body is exhausted, I shall depart. Protect it well, as when I was here; do not imitate worldly people in rashly giving rise to grief." Having spoken, when night fell, he passed away peacefully. On the twenty-ninth day of that month, a stūpa was built for him on his home mountain. He lived seventy-seven years and was ordained for fifty-seven. By imperial decree, he was posthumously titled Great Master Chuanming, and his stūpa was named Yongji.