景德傳燈錄 18.10

18.10

While at Xiyuan, the Master asked Sthavira Shen, 'There is Elephant Bone Mountain here; have you ever been there?' Shen said, 'I have not been there.' The Master said, 'Why have you not been there?' Shen said, 'I naturally have my own fundamental matter.' The Master said, 'What is the sthavira's fundamental matter?' Shen then lifted up the corner of his patched robe. The Master said, 'Is it just this, or is there something else?' Shen said, 'What does the sthavira see?' The Master said, 'Why have a dragon's head and a snake's tail?'
While the Master was at Baofu in Xuanzhou, he later took his leave to return to Xuefeng. Baofu asked the Master, 'If the upādhyāya at the mountain top asks, how will the sthavira reply with news?' The Master said, 'Without avoiding the taint of meat and fish, there is also a little.' Baofu said, 'What does the news say?' The Master said, 'Whom do you tell me to entrust it to?' Baofu said, 'Although Congzhan has spoken these words, there may not necessarily be such a matter.' The Master said, 'If so, what lies ahead is entirely up to the ācārya.'
The Master went rambling on the mountain with Baofu. Baofu asked, 'The ancients said "the summit of Mount Wonderful Peak"—could it be just this one?' The Master said, 'It is indeed, but what a pity!' (A monk asked Gushan, 'What did Master Leng mean by speaking like that?' Gushan said, 'If Master Sun had not spoken these words, one could say skulls would cover the wilderness and white bones would stretch across the mountains.')
The Master traveled back and forth to Xuefeng for twenty-nine years. In the third year of Tianyou, he accepted the invitation of Wang Yanbin, Prefect of Quanzhou, to reside at Zhaoqing, opening the hall for the first time. On that day, Lord Wang, in his court robes, approached the corner and said, 'Please, Master, preach the Dharma.' The Master said, 'Do you still hear it?' The lord bowed. The Master said, 'Although it is like this, I fear someone will not approve.' Thereupon he expounded the ancestral meaning, taking and giving according to the capacity [of the listener]. Thus those in patched robes bustled to and fro, daily supported by his conversion through the Way.
Later, the Military Commissioner of Min invited him to go to Xiyuan in Changle Prefecture, memorializing the throne for the temple plaque named 'Changqing', and he was granted the title of Great Master Chaojue.
Taking the high seat, after a long silence he said to the assembly, 'Is there still anyone who understands? If you do not understand, you are deceiving your brothers. Right now, what is the matter? Is there any obstruction? Whose household matter is it again? If you do not accept and bear it, what time are you waiting for? If one has sharp faculties, in studying and practicing one does not come here. Do you understand yet? Nowadays there is a sort of wandering traveler whose ears are entirely stuffed full. Even if they could gather it all up, would that serve the matter of everyone's wandering travels?'
Then a monk asked, 'How should one study the matter of wandering travels?' The Master said, 'Only knowing to go to others and make demands.'
He also asked, 'What is the single road of solitary emancipation?' The Master said, 'Why bother to ask again?'
He also asked, 'Nominal words and wondrous meanings are what the teachings explain; without involving the three categories, please speak directly, Master.' The Master said, 'Take care.'
The Master then said to the assembly, 'Though clearly sung and chanted, you still do not understand; if suddenly an obscure matter arrives, what will you do?'
Another monk asked, 'What is an obscure matter?' The Master said, 'Go have some tea.' (Zhongta said, 'Then please accompany me, upādhyāya.')
A monk asked, 'What is the matter that is not separated by the tip of a hair?' The Master said, 'Is it fitting or not?'
He asked, 'How can one become free of doubt and delusion?' The Master then stretched out both hands. The monk made no further remark. The Master said, 'Ask again and I will tell you.' When the monk asked a second time, the Master sat with his shoulder bared. The monk bowed. The Master said, 'How do you understand?' The monk said, 'Today the wind is rising.' The Master said, 'Speaking like that does not determine a person's view. What crucial point do you have from antiquity to the present to match Changqing? If you can bring one up, I will allow you to be the host of the talk.' The monk just stood there. The Master then asked, 'Where are you from?' He said, 'A man from the north.' The Master said, 'Three thousand li from north to south—why study telling lies?' The monk had no reply.
The Master took the high seat, and after a long silence said, 'Do not say that tonight is a little better,' and then descended from the seat.
A monk asked, 'What is a word that accords with the sage?' The Master said, 'Great and small Changqing, questioned by you once, has a mouth like a carrying pole.' The monk said, 'Why is it like this?' The Master said, 'What did you ask just now?'
The Master said to the assembly, 'If I were purely to raise and proclaim the tradition of the school, I would have to close the Dharma hall doors. Therefore, if the law is exhausted, there are no people.' At that time a monk said, 'Not fearing that there are no people, please exhaust the law, Master.' The Master said, 'Do you understand where it falls?'
A monk asked, 'What is the meaning of the Western Come?' The Master said, 'What Xiangyan said is all sat upon at once.'
The Master sometimes instructed the assembly, saying, 'If all were like tonight, the Old Barbarian would have hope.' Baofu heard this and said, 'If all were like tonight, the Old Barbarian would despair.' (Xuanjue said, 'Speaking like this—are these words of meeting or not words of meeting?' Dongshan Qi said, 'The words of these two venerable elders are uniform, yet each has its reason. In the assembly it is said: If all were like this, what is to be disliked? It is also said: If all were like tonight, what could it be used for? If understood like this, awakening is still lacking.')
Upādhyāya Tao of Anguo had newly received a master title. The Master went to congratulate him. Tao came out to receive him. The Master asked, 'Has the master title arrived?' Tao said, 'It has arrived.' The Master said, 'What is the title?' Tao said, 'Mingzhen.' The Master then stretched out his hand. Tao said, 'Where have you been?' The Master said, 'I almost did not question you thoroughly.'
The Master asked a monk, 'Where have you come from?' He said, 'From Gushan.' The Master said, 'Gushan has a phrase about not striding over the stone gate. If someone were to ask you, what would you say?' He said, 'Last night I lodged at Baoci.' The Master said, 'How about a blow of the stick on your back?' He said, 'If the upādhyāya applies this stick, he does not accept the offerings of humans and devas in vain.' The Master said, 'I almost let you off.'
A monk asked, 'The ancients had a saying: "Meeting without revealing, as soon as an intention is raised one knows it is there." How is it at such a time?' The Master said, 'Do you know it is there or not?' (A monk took this remark and asked Baofu. Baofu said, 'Whose words are these?' The monk said, 'The words of Danxia.' Baofu said, 'Go, do not prevent me from sleeping!')
The Master entered the monks' hall, held up the heading of a donation register, and said, 'Seeing is not seeing; do you still see?' The assembly had no reply. (Fayan said in their place, 'Even if I received it and reached another place, I would not dare present it to anyone.')
The Master arrived at Luoshan and saw a newly made niche. The Master tapped it with his staff and said, 'Quite a lot of preparation!' Luoshan said, 'Clumsy arrangement.' The Master said, 'Are you willing to enter or not?' Luoshan said, 'Hūṃ!'
The Master took the high seat, and once the great assembly had gathered, he pulled out a monk and said, 'Assembly, bow to this monk!' He also said, 'What strong point does this monk have that I should make the assembly bow?' The assembly had no reply.
A monk asked, 'How was the matter before literary pattern arose?' The Master said, 'You bring it up first, and I will bring it up later.' The monk just stood there. (Fayan gave an alternative: 'Please bring it up, upādhyāya.') The Master said, 'How do you bring it up?' The monk said, 'I deserve to have my tongue cut out.'
Baofu passed away. Someone asked the Master, 'Baofu has cast off his skin-bag; where has he gone?' The Master said, 'Tell me, in which skin-bag is Baofu?' (Fayan gave an alternative: 'Which one is Baofu's skin-bag?')
Lady Cui, the wife of the Military Commissioner of Min (who practiced Daoism and styled herself 'Refined Master'), sent an envoy delivering clothing and items, saying, 'The Refined Master requests that I ask the Great Master for a reply.' The Master said, 'Pass word to the Refined Master to receive the reply.' Soon the envoy came before the Master, cried 'yes', and returned. The next day, the Master entered the prefectural office. The Refined Master said, 'Yesterday I thanked you, Great Master, for the reply.' The Master said, 'Please show me yesterday's reply.' The Refined Master stretched out both hands. The Military Commissioner of Min asked the Master, 'Did the Refined Master's presentation of the letter just now satisfy the Great Master's mind?' The Master said, 'It is still a little better.' (Fayan gave an alternative: 'This single turning word—let the Great King speak it himself.') The commissioner said, 'I do not know what the Great Master's intention is.' The Master remained silent for a long time. The commissioner said, 'Inconceivable! The Great Master's Buddha-Dharma is profound and far-reaching.'
A monk related: In Goryeo a monk made an Avalokiteśvara statue. When loading it onto a boat in Mingzhou, the strength of the crowd could not lift it. Consequently they invited it to be placed in Kaiyuan Monastery for offerings. He asked the Master, 'Not a land where the body is not manifested—why was it unwilling to go to Goryeo?' The Master said, 'Although the manifestation of the body is universal, looking at the marks produces bias.' (Fayan gave an alternative: 'Do you recognise Avalokiteśvara yet?')
Someone asked a monk, 'What lamp are you lighting?' He said, 'The everlasting lamp.' He asked, 'When was it lit?' He said, 'It was lit last year.' He asked, 'Where is the everlasting?' The monk was speechless. The Master said in his place, 'Were it not so, how would one know you are not deceived by others?' (Fayan gave an alternative: 'Profit moves the gentleman.')
The Master opened the Dharma at two places, his disciples numbering one thousand five hundred. His teaching was practiced throughout Minyue for twenty-seven years. On the seventeenth day of the fifth month in the renchen year, the third year of Changxing of the Later Tang, he returned to stillness at the age of seventy-nine, with sixty years as a monk. The Wang clan erected a stūpa for him.