景德傳燈錄 15.4

15.4

Chan Master Xuanjian of Deshan in Langzhou was a native of Jiannan, surnamed Zhou. He went forth from the household life in his youth, received the full precepts according to the prescribed age, and investigated the Vinaya Piṭaka with precision. He thoroughly penetrated the essential import of the various sūtras of nature and characteristics. Frequently lecturing on the Diamond Prajñā, he was known at the time as "Zhou Diamond." Later, he sought out the Chan lineage, and accordingly said to his fellow students, "A single hair swallows the ocean, yet the nature of the ocean is not diminished; a minute mustard seed is cast upon the tip of an awl, yet the awl's sharp point does not budge. The states of learning and non-learning are known only to me." Thereupon he visited Chan Master Longtan Chongxin. Their questions and answers consisted of only a single phrase (this has appeared in the preceding chapter). The Master immediately took his leave, but Longtan detained him. One evening he was sitting silently outside the room. Longtan asked, "Why do you not return?" The Master replied, "It is dark." Longtan then lit a candle and handed it to the Master. Just as the Master was about to take it, Longtan blew it out. The Master then bowed. Longtan said, "What have you seen?" He said, "From now on, I will not doubt the tongues of the venerable old upādhyāyas under heaven." The next day he set out. Longtan said to the assembly of disciples, "Among them is a fellow whose fangs are like a forest of swords, whose mouth is like a basin of blood; though struck with a staff, he does not turn his head. In the future, he will establish my Way atop an isolated peak." The Master arrived at Guishan. Crossing from the west of the Dharma hall to the east, he looked back at the abbot's quarters. Guishan remained silent. The Master said, "Nothing, nothing!" He then walked out. Arriving in front of the monks' hall, he said, "Although it is like this, I must not be negligent." He thereupon donned his full deportment and went up to pay his respects again. As soon as he crossed the threshold, he lifted his sitting mat and called out, "Upādhyāya!" Guishan was about to take up his whisk when the Master shouted, shook his sleeves, and walked out. In the evening, Guishan asked the community, "Where is the newly arrived monk from today?" They replied, "Having seen the upādhyāya, that monk did not look back at the monks' hall and left." Guishan asked the community, "Do you know that master?" The community said, "We do not know him." Guishan said, "In the future, that fellow will have a bundle of thatch over his head, reviling the Buddhas and reviling the patriarchs." The Master lived in Liyang for thirty years. During the persecution of the teachings by Emperor Wuzong of the Tang, he took refuge in a stone grotto on Mount Dufoushan. In the early years of the Dazhong era, Xue Tingwang, the Prefect of Wuling, rebuilt the Deshan monastery, naming it the Gude Chan Monastery (the plaque inscribed by Prime Minister Pei Xiu still exists). Seeking an eminent master to serve as abbot, he heard of the Master's practice of the Way and repeatedly invited him, but he would not descend the mountain. Tingwang then devised a ruse, dispatching officials to fabricate a charge of tea and salt smuggling, alleging that he had violated the prohibitions of the law. They brought the Master into the prefecture to pay respects, and firmly implored him to reside there. He greatly propagated the tradition of the school. (Chan Master Zongyin opened the mountain and founded the monastery; Xuanjian was the second generation to reside there.) The Master ascended the hall and addressed the assembly, saying, "If you have nothing to do with yourself, do not seek falsely. Even if obtained through false seeking, it is not true attainment. Just have nothing to do in your mind, and no mind toward things; then you will be open and luminous, empty and wondrous. If you speak of beginning and end by even a hair's breadth, it is all self-deception. A thread-like thought bound in mind is the karmic cause for the three destinies; a transient stirring of passion is the fetter of ten thousand kalpas. Sacred titles and mundane names are all empty sounds; exquisite forms and inferior shapes are all illusory colors. If you wish to seek them, how can you be free of burden? When you come to abhor them, that again turns into a great affliction. In the end, there is no benefit." The Master ascended the hall and said, "Tonight there must be no asking of questions. Whoever asks a question will receive thirty blows of the staff." At that time, a monk came forward and had just bowed when the Master struck him. The monk said, "I have not yet asked a question. Why does the upādhyāya strike me?" The Master said, "Where are you from?" He said, "A man of Silla." The Master said, "Before you even stepped across the ship's gunwale, you deserved thirty blows of the staff!" (Fayan said, "Great and small Deshan's words are cut into two pieces." Xuanjue said, "In the monasteries this is called 'words below the screen,' which may be granted; but what was Deshan's intention in saying that whoever asks a question gets thirty blows of the staff?") A monk came to pay respects. The Master asked the karmadāna, "How many new arrivals today?" He replied, "Eight." The Master said, "Bring them forth and bury them alive at once!" Longya asked, "When a student brandishes the Moyu sword and intends to take the Master's head, what then?" The Master stretched out his neck. (Fayan said separately, "Where would you strike?") Longya said, "The head has fallen!" The Master smiled faintly. Later, Longya went to Dongshan and recounted these words. Dongshan said, "What did Deshan say?" Longya said, "Deshan had no words." Dongshan said, "Do not say he had no words. Just bring Deshan's fallen head and present it to this old monk." Longya realized his error and repented. Someone recounted this to the Master. The Master said, "Old man Dongshan does not know good from bad. That fellow has been dead for how long? What is the use of trying to save him?" A monk asked, "What is a bodhisattva?" The Master struck him and said, "Get out! Do not defecate here!" A monk asked, "What is the Buddha?" The Master said, "The Buddha is an old bhikṣu of the Western Heavens." Xuefeng asked, "With what Dharma have those from antiquity downward in our ancestral tradition instructed people?" The Master said, "Our school has no words and phrases; in truth there is not a single Dharma to give to people." Yantou heard of this and said, "Old man Deshan has a backbone as hard as iron, which cannot be bent and broken. Even so, regarding the gate of preaching the teachings, he still falls short a little bit." (Baofu brought this up and asked Zhaoqing, "Regarding Yantou's coming into the world, what verbal teaching did he have that surpassed Deshan's, that he spoke thus?" Zhaoqing said, "Have you not seen Yantou say: 'It is like a man learning archery; only after a long time does he hit the mark'?" Baofu said, "When he hits the mark, what then?" Zhaoqing said, "Acārya Zhan, are you insensible to pain and itch?" Baofu said, "Today the upādhyāya is not merely bringing up a topic." Zhaoqing said, "Acārya Zhan, what kind of mental activity is this?" Mingzhao said, "Great and small Zhaoqing wrongly applied names and words.") Whenever monks came to pay respects, the Master would mostly strike them with his staff. Linji heard of this and sent an attendant to pay respects, instructing him, "If Deshan strikes you, just seize his staff and poke him right in the chest with it." When the attendant arrived, just as he was bowing, the Master struck him. The attendant seized the staff and gave him a poke with it. The Master returned to the abbot's quarters. The attendant returned and recounted this to Linji. Linji said, "I have always suspected this fellow." (Yantou said, "Old man Deshan usually relies only on the single staff before his eyes; if a Buddha comes, he strikes, and if a patriarch comes, he strikes. Yet what can be done about his falling short a little bit?" Dongchan Qi said, "As for Linji saying 'I have always suspected this fellow,' are these words of approval or words of disapproval? Or is there another principle altogether? Try to determine it!") The Master ascended the hall and said, "To ask is an error; not to ask is also contrary." A monk came out and bowed. The Master struck him immediately. The monk said, "I had only just bowed. Why strike me at once?" The Master said, "If I wait for you to open your mouth, what will you be fit for?" The Master ordered an attendant to summon Yicun (who was Xuefeng). Yicun came up. The Master said, "I called Yicun myself. What have you come for?" Yicun had no reply. The Master saw a monk coming and closed the door. The monk knocked on the door. The Master said, "Who is it?" He said, "A lion cub." The Master opened the door. The monk bowed. The Master sat astride his neck and said, "Where has this beast been?" Xuefeng asked, "What was the meaning of the ancient one cutting the cat in two?" The Master struck and drove him away. Then he called him back, "Do you understand?" Xuefeng said, "I do not understand." The Master said, "Even with my kind grandmotherly [heart], you still do not understand." A monk asked, "How far apart are the mundane and the sacred?" The Master gave a shout. Once, when the Master was ill, a monk asked, "Is there one who is not ill?" The Master said, "There is." He asked, "What is the one who is not ill?" The Master said, "Ouch, ouch!" The Master again addressed his disciples, saying, "Groping at emptiness and chasing echoes only wearies your mind and spirit. Awakening from a dream, one realizes the unreality—in the end, what matter is there?" Having spoken these words, he sat peacefully and passed away. It was the third day of the twelfth month in the second year of the Xiantong era of the Tang (yiyou). He was eighty-six years old, with sixty-five summer retreats. By imperial decree, he was posthumously granted the title Great Master Jianxing (Seeing Nature).