景德傳燈錄 25.20

25.20

Guiding Master Xuanjue, [whose dharma name was] Xingyan, of Baoci Bodhimanda in Jinling was a native of Jinjiang in Quanzhou. He attained the Dharma under Chan Master Jinghui. He ascended the hall and instructed the assembly, saying: "Whenever a pilgrim traveling on foot visits a kalyāṇamitra, upon arriving at a monastery and putting down water bottle and begging bowl, one may say that the practice of the bodhisattva path and the necessary tasks are finished! What need is there to come here further to bring up and discuss true thusness and nirvāṇa? This is preaching out of season. Yet the ancients had a saying: 'It is like sifting sand to recognize treasure; if the sand and gravel are removed, the true gold naturally appears.' This is then called the Sangha-jewel that permanently abides in the world and is fully endowed. It is also like rain of a single flavor: the same ground gives birth to and nourishes the myriad things, but large and small are not the same, and sweet and pungent differ. One cannot say that the earth and the rain have designations of large and small. Therefore it is said: 'According as it is square, it manifests square; according as it is round, it manifests round.' Why? It is because the Dharma has neither bias nor uprightness; it manifests in response according to marks. This is called manifesting the physical body in response. Do you still see it? If you do not see it, do not sit idly either."

A monk asked, "What is the meaning of the Patriarch's coming from the West?"
The Master said, "This question is inappropriate."
He asked, "Putting an end to right and wrong, how does one accord with the original person?"
The Master said, "How do you sit [putting it to an end]?"

The Ruler of Jiangnan newly built the great Baoci Bodhimanda and commanded the Master to widely propagate the principles of the school. The ocean-like assembly numbered more than two thousand. He was specially conferred the title of Guiding Master. The Master said to the assembly: "Today, outstanding and worthy people assemble together, and the ocean-like assembly arrives in unison. I presume that the imports of the Buddha Dharma are all fully present. If one possesses outstanding discernment, there is no need to wait for words. Yet words are originally non-existent—why maintain silence? Therefore, the myriad spread-out phenomena are the vast source of all Buddhas. When manifest and clear, the ocean-seal samādhi is serene and luminous; when dim and obscure, passions are deluded and one confuses oneself. If one is not a superior gentleman of penetrating mind or a person of transcendent caliber, how could one, amid the dusts, illuminate the marvelous limit, roll up and unroll material phenomena, freely manipulate the myriad phenomena, show arising that is non-arising, and respond with extinguishing that is non-extinguishing? Arising and extinguishing completely exhausted—only then is it called the truly permanent. If one speaks of the provisional, shadows scatter in a thousand paths; if one discusses the true, a single emptiness cuts off all traces. How could one calculate it in terms of existence and non-existence, arising and extinguishing?"

A monk asked, "The King's repeated invitation is specifically to dedicate merits to the Upādhyāya of the previous reign. How do you expound and chant today?"
The Master said, "You are not the person who asks about the repeated chanting."
He said, "Then in the heavens and among humans there is nothing surpassing this."
The Master said, "No connection."
He asked, "Coming from afar to turn to the Master, please grant a reception."
The Master said, "Go back according to your former place."