景德傳燈錄 25.17

25.17

Chan Master Qingsong of Mount Lingyin in Hangzhou was a native of Fuqing County in Fuzhou. He first studied under Jinghui. One day, Jinghui pointed to the rain and said to the Master, "Drop by drop, it falls into the sthavira's eyes." The Master did not understand his purport at first. Later, while reading the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, he had an awakening and received Jinghui's seal of approval. He returned to Mount Siming in Mingzhou and built a hermitage there. The Military Commissioner Qian Yi served him with the etiquette due to a master. King Zhongyi ordered him to open the Dharma at two places in Lin'an. Later he resided at the upper monastery of Lingyin and was conferred the title Chan Master Liaowu ("Completely Awakened").

The Master ascended the hall and instructed the assembly, saying: "The Buddhas of the ten directions are always before you. Do you still see them? If you say you see them, do you see them with your mind or with your eyes? Therefore it is said: 'All dharmas are neither produced nor extinguished; if one can understand thus, the Buddhas will always appear before one.' It is also said: 'Seeing forms, one immediately sees mind.' But what do you call 'mind'? The mountains, rivers, the great earth, the myriad phenomena spread out, blue, yellow, red, white, the marks of male and female, and so on—is this mind, or is it not mind? If it is mind, why does it turn into material objects? If it is not mind, why is it also said, 'Seeing forms, one immediately sees mind'? Do you understand? It is only because you are deluded about this that you produce inversions and manifold differences, forcibly generating sameness and difference where there is neither sameness nor difference. If you would only undertake it directly right now and suddenly open up your fundamental mind, it would be radiantly clear, without a single thing that can be made an object of seeing or hearing. If one leaves the mind to seek liberation elsewhere, the ancients called this 'being deluded by waves and seeking the source'—in the end, it is difficult to awaken to."

A monk asked, "When sense faculties and dust are both eliminated, why are phenomena and principle not clear?"
The Master said, "Let phenomena and principle be for now. What do you call the faculties and dust that are 'both eliminated'?"
He asked, "What is Avalokiteśvara's supreme truth?"
The Master said, "Wrong!"
He asked, "'The real nature of ignorance is itself the Buddha-nature.' What is the Buddha-nature?"
The Master said, "What do you call ignorance?"
He asked, "What is the Upādhyāya's house style?"
The Master said, "Spanning antiquity, spanning the present."
He asked, "How is it when there is neither asking nor answering?"
The Master said, "Why talk in your sleep?"
He asked, "What is the Buddha Dharma within mountain peaks and cliff crags?"
The Master said, "What use are mountain peaks and cliff crags?"
He asked, "How was it before Niutou met the Fourth Patriarch?"
The Master said, "Green mountains, green waters."
He asked, "How was it after he met him?"
The Master said, "Green waters, green mountains."

The Master asked a monk, "Do you understand the Buddha Dharma?"
The monk said, "I do not understand."
The Master said, "Do you truly not understand?"
He said, "Yes."
The Master said, "Go away for now and wait for another time to come."
The monk said, "Take care!"
The Master said, "It is not that principle."

A monk asked, "What is mahāprajñā?"
The Master said, "Snow falls boundlessly."
The monk was silent.
The Master said, "Do you understand?"
He said, "I do not understand."
The Master then spoke a verse: