景德傳燈錄 17.30

17.30

Chan Master Shiyan of Ruiyan in Taizhou was a man of Minyue. His surname was Xu. From his youth he wore monastic robes and observed the precepts without blemish. When he first paid respects to Yantou, he posed a question, saying, "What is the fundamentally constant principle?" Yantou said, "Movement." Shiyan said, "What is it like when moving?" Yantou said, "It is not the fundamentally constant principle." The Master pondered deeply for a long time. Yantou said, "Agreeing, you have not yet escaped sense faculties and sense objects; not agreeing, you sink eternally in birth and death." The Master thereupon attained awakening, his body and mind clear and bright. Yantou frequently summoned him to converse, testing and responding without the slightest discrepancy. The Master again visited Upādhyāya Hui of Jiashan. Hui asked, "Where do you come from?" The Master said, "I come from Wolong." Hui said, "When you came, had the dragon arisen yet?" The Master looked back at him. Hui said, "Adding moxibustion scorch upon a cauterized sore!" The Master said, "Why does the Upādhyāya torment himself so bitterly like this?" Hui then ceased. Soon the Master arrived at Danqiu, behaving all day like a fool. The four assemblies admired him and invited him to dwell at Ruiyan. He governed the assembly strictly, and people in the region south of the Yangtze praised him. A monk asked, "What is it like when a jeweled canopy appears above the head and clouds arise under the feet?" The Master said, "A fellow wearing a cangue and carrying shackles." The monk asked, "What is it like when there is no jeweled canopy above the head and no clouds arise under the feet?" The Master said, "The manacles are still there." The monk asked, "What is it ultimately?" The Master said, "Tired after the noon meal." Jingqing asked, "Heaven cannot cover it, earth cannot support it—is this not it?" The Master said, "If it were it, it would be covered and supported." Qing said, "If it were not it, Ruiyan would have failed several times." The Master called himself by name, saying, "Shiyan." A monk asked, "What is the Buddha?" The Master said, "A stone ox." The monk asked, "What is the Dharma?" The Master said, "A stone calf." The monk said, "If so, then they are not the same." The Master said, "They cannot be joined." The monk asked, "Why can they not be joined?" The Master said, "There is no sameness that can be identical; what is there to join?" A monk asked, "What kind of discussion avoids falling into stages?" The Master said, "It cannot be arranged." The monk asked, "Why can it not be arranged?" The Master said, "From the beginning, it has no stages." The monk asked, "I wonder what position it occupies?" The Master said, "It does not sit in the Hall of Universal Radiance." The monk asked, "Does it still govern and transform?" The Master said, "Its fame weighs heavily upon the three realms; where does not pay homage at court?" One day an old village woman came to pay respects. The Master said, "Go home quickly and save several thousand living beings!" The woman hurried home and saw her daughter-in-law returning with a bamboo basket filled with gathered river snails. The woman took them and released them by the water's edge. The Master's wondrous signs were quite numerous and are preserved in a separate record.