景德傳燈錄 21.4

21.4

Chan Master Guichen of Luohan Monastery in Zhangzhou was a native of Changshan. His family name was Li. As a young boy, he ate only one vegetarian meal a day, and his speech was extraordinary. Having come of age, he took leave of his parents to serve Great Master Wuxiang at Wansui Monastery in his home prefecture. He shaved his head, received the precepts, and studied the Vinaya. One day, after ascending the platform to recite the Prātimokṣa at the poṣadha for the assembly, he said, "Observing or breaking [precepts] merely regulates the body; it is not true liberation. How can making interpretations based on the written letter give rise to holiness?" Thereupon he visited the Southern School. At first he called upon Yunju and Xuefeng, inquiring and paying respects with diligence and devotion, yet he still had no insight. Later he went to Great Master Zongyi of Xuansha. With a single word, he was awakened, vast and free of doubts. Xuansha once asked, "The three realms are mind-only—how do you understand this?" The Master pointed to a chair and said, "What does the Upādhyāya call this?" Xuansha said, "A chair." The Master said, "The Upādhyāya does not understand that the three realms are mind-only." Xuansha said, "I call this bamboo and wood; what do you call it?" The Master said, "Guichen also calls it bamboo and wood." Xuansha said, "Searching the entire great earth, one cannot find a single person who understands the Buddha Dharma." From then on, the Master spurred himself on even more. Whenever Xuansha guided and instructed the stream of students, manifesting various samādhis, he always commanded the Master to assist in inspiring them. Although the Master concealed his brilliance while dwelling among the community, his reputation spread far and wide. At that time, Duke Wang, the Governor of Zhangzhou, requested the construction of a hermitage called Dizang on Shishan to the west of the Min city, and invited the Master to take up residence there. Barely more than twelve years later, he moved to Luohan Monastery in Zhangzhou. He broadly expounded the mysterious essentials, and students gathered like clouds. The Master ascended the hall and said: "Is the profound marvel of our ancestral school simply like this, or is there something extraordinary besides? If there is something extraordinary, try to bring something forward! If there is nothing, you must not use three words to serve as the ancestral vehicle. What are the three words? They are 'ancestral' (zong), 'teaching' (jiao), and 'vehicle' (cheng). As soon as you speak of the ancestral vehicle, it is the ancestral vehicle; speak of the teaching vehicle, and it is the teaching vehicle. Virtuous Chan monks! The Buddha Dharma and the ancestral vehicle originally had names established by your own mouths; taking them as such and speaking of them as such, that is what they are. In an instant, you speak here of the level, the real, the complete, and the eternal. Virtuous Chan monks! What do you call level and real? What do you take to be complete and eternal? Travelling about as itinerant monks, you must by rights distinguish clearly; do not bury each other. Having gained some sounds, forms, and names, you store them in your minds, saying, 'I understand and interpret; I am skillful at discriminating.' Just what do you understand? What do you discriminate? What you memorize is names; what you discriminate is sound and form. If not for sound, form, and names, how would you memorize and discriminate? The wind blowing through pine trees is also sound; toads and old crows are also sounds. Why do you not go there to listen and make choices? If there is any conception or pattern there, just as in the old teacher's mouth, how much conception is there to give you, sthaviras? Make no mistake! Right now, sounds and forms are clamoring—do they reach each other or not? If they reach each other, then your spiritual nature, the adamantine secret, would have to be destroyed. Why so? Because sound pierces your ears, and form pierces your eyes. Conditions would obstruct your illusory delusions, running your sounds and forms to death—the essence would not tolerate it. If they do not reach each other, from where then do sound and form come? Do you understand? Whether they reach each other or not, try to judge and discern! In a moment you will say again, 'This is complete and eternal, level and real'—who said it that way? It is not that a fellow from a rustic Huangyi village knows how to speak like that; it is that the ancient sages bestowed a little something to assist in revealing it. People nowadays do not know good from bad, and immediately set up 'complete and real,' saying, 'I have an extraordinary house style of the school, mysterious and marvelous.' Śākyamuni Buddha had no tongue; he was not as good as you, who lightly thump your chests like that. If we speak of the sins of killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct, though heavy, they are still light and have a time of cessation. But this slandering of prajñā blinds the eyes of sentient beings; one enters Avīci Hell and swallows iron balls. Do not take it lightly! Therefore the ancients said, 'The fault lies with the teacher; it has nothing to do with you.' Take care." A monk asked, "What is the single phrase of Luohan?" The Master said, "If I speak to you, it becomes two phrases." He asked, "If someone who does not understand comes, does the Master still receive him?" The Master said, "Who is the one who does not understand?" He said, "I just said it." The Master said, "Do not wrong yourself." He asked, "When the character ba (八) is not formed and the character yi (以) is not right, how is it?" The Master said, "You truly do not understand." He said, "This student truly does not understand." The Master said, "Look at the footnote below." He asked, "What is a śramaṇa's food of right livelihood?" The Master said, "Can you eat it?" He said, "If one wishes to eat this food, what skillful means should one use?" The Master said, "Block your mouth." He asked, "What is the house style of Luohan?" The Master said, "I will not tell you." He said, "Why not tell me?" The Master said, "It is my house style." He asked, "What is the body of the Dharma King?" The Master said, "What body do you have now?" He said, "Then there is no body." The Master said, "The suffering and pain are deep." The Master ascended the hall and had just sat down when two monks bowed at the same time. The Master said, "Both are mistaken." A monk asked, "What is an unbreakable phrase?" The Master said, "Break!" He asked, "When a single Buddha appears in the world, it is universally for all sentient beings. Why is the Upādhyāya here today?" The Master said, "Where did you encounter a single Buddha?" He said, "Then it is this student's fault." The Master said, "Step back with care." He asked, "What is the house style of Luohan?" The Master said, "Look at both the inside and the outside." He asked, "What is the profound purport of all the sages?" The Master said, "The four edges collapse to the ground." He asked, "When the great matter is not yet resolved, how is it?" The Master said, "It depends on you." He asked, "What are the eyes of the ten directions?" The Master said, "Blink your eyebrows over them." A monk asked, "On account of inviting Baofu to a vegetarian feast, someone was sent to deliver a message: 'We invite the Upādhyāya out of compassion to condescend to attend.' Baofu said, 'For whom is compassion?'" The Master said, "For the Upādhyāya to speak like that is entirely uncompassionate." The Master was enjoying the moon, and said, "The clouds are moving; there will be rain." A monk said, "It is not the clouds moving; it is the wind moving." The Master said, "I say the clouds are not moving, nor is the wind moving." The monk said, "The Upādhyāya just said the clouds were moving." The Master said, "Whose fault is it?" The Master saw a monk coming, raised his whisk, and said, "Do you understand?" The monk said, "I thank the Upādhyāya for his compassion in instructing this student." The Master said, "Seeing me raise the whisk, you immediately say I am instructing the student. Every day you see mountains and waters—could they not be instructing you?" The Master saw another monk coming and raised his whisk. That monk praised him and bowed. The Master said, "Seeing me raise the whisk, you immediately bow and praise. Over there, someone sweeping the ground raises a broom—why do you not praise him?" (Xuanjue said: "Raising the whisk or picking up an object is the same, yet there is a principle of approving and disapproving. Tell me, where does the advantage or harm lie?") A monk asked, "According to the teaching, it is said: 'If one sees all marks as non-marks, one sees the Tathāgata.' What are non-marks?" The Master said, "A lantern." He asked, "What is leaving home?" The Master said, "What do you call home?" The Master asked a monk, "Where do you come from?" He said, "I come from Qinzhou." The Master said, "What thing did you bring?" He said, "I brought no thing." The Master said, "Why do you deceive the assembly?" The monk was speechless. The Master then asked, "Does not Qinzhou produce parrots?" The monk said, "Parrots are produced in Longzhou." The Master said, "That's not much different." The Master asked a monk, "Where do you come from?" He said, "I come from Bao'en." The Master said, "Why did you not stay there for a while?" The monk said, "A monk's home is not fixed." The Master said, "Since it is a monk's home, why is it not fixed?" The monk had no answer. (Xuanjue said in his place: "I thank the Upādhyāya for inquiring.") When the Master was dwelling at Dizang, a monk reported, "Upādhyāya Baofu has passed away." The Master said, "Baofu has passed away; Dizang enters the stupa." (A monk asked Fayan, "What was the ancient's intention?" Fayan said, "Blue sky! Blue sky!") Later, when Duke Wang went up to Xuefeng to distribute robes to the monks, Sthavira Congyan was absent. A junior fellow monk put his name down and received the robe on his behalf. Yan returned, and the junior monk said, "I entered your name, senior brother." Yan said, "What do you say my name is?" The junior monk had no answer. The Master said in his place, "How can you be so greedy, senior brother?" He also said, "Where is the greed?" The Master again said in his place, "Entering the name twice." (Yunju Xi said, "Where is the place where Sthavira Yan entered his name twice?") The Master, together with Changqing and Baofu, entered the city and saw a peony screen. Baofu said, "What a beautiful peony flower!" Changqing said, "Do not let your eyes become blurred." The Master said, "What a pity for such a flower!" (Xuanjue said: "Did the words of these three venerable elders have intimacy or estrangement? Just as Luohan spoke thus, where did it fall?") The Master asked a monk, "What unusual thing did you hear at Zhaoqing? Try to bring it up." The monk said, "I dare not bring it up mistakenly." The Master said, "How do you bring up the real thing?" The monk said, "Why is the Upādhyāya like this?" The Master said, "Your words have fallen into error." When the monks heard the horn during evening instruction, the Master said, "Luohan ascends the hall once every three days; the Grand Tutor Wang assists twice a day." A monk asked, "What is the student's original master?" The Master said, "Mind is your original mind." A monk asked, "The Master sits on the precious seat, expounding the Dharma and liberating people; I wonder, what kind of people do you liberate?" The Master said, "You also sit on the precious seat; what kind of people do you liberate?" A monk asked, "Looking at a form in a mirror, it is not difficult to see; what is the mirror?" The Master said, "Do you still see the form?" A monk asked, "'Only attain the root, do not worry about the branches'—what are the branches?" The Master said, "Everything exists." When the Master was ill, a monk asked, "Is the Upādhyāya's health any better?" The Master leaned his staff on the ground and said, "Do you say this still hurts or not?" The monk said, "Whom is the Upādhyāya asking?" The Master said, "I am asking you." The monk said, "Does it still hurt?" The Master said, "It turns out you are making intellectual arguments with me." In the autumn of the wuzi year, the third year of the Tiancheng era of the Later Tang, the Master returned to his old dwelling in the city of Min. After visiting the Buddhist monasteries near the city, he suddenly manifested illness for a few days, sat peacefully, and passed away. His age was sixty-two; his monastic age was forty. He was cremated, his relics were collected, and a stupa was erected in the western corner of the monastery in accordance with his bequeathed teachings. On the fifteenth day of the twelfth month of the yihai year, the second year of Qingtai, he was enshrined in the stupa. He was posthumously granted the title Chan Master Zhenying.