景德傳燈錄 27.16

27.16

Chan Master Fenggan of Tiantai: it is not known what place he was from. He resided at Guoqing Temple on Mount Tiantai. His hair was cut level with his eyebrows, and he wore a cloth robe. If anyone asked him about the Buddhist teachings, he answered only with two words: "As time serves." He would often chant Way-songs while riding a tiger into the pine gate; the assembly of monks was terrified. In the kitchen of that temple were two ascetic laborers named Hanshanzi and Shide. The two of them tended the fires and conversed all day; anyone listening secretly could not comprehend them at all. People at the time called them madmen, yet they were intimate only with the master. One day, Hanshan asked, "When an ancient mirror is not polished, how does it illuminate?" The master said, "An ice vase has no reflected image; monkeys fish for the moon in the water." [Hanshan] said, "This is not illuminating. Please speak further, Master." The master said, "If ten thousand virtues are not brought along, what would you have me say?" Hanshan and Shide both bowed. Soon afterward, the master went alone on pilgrimage to Mount Wutai. He met an old man and asked, "Could it be that you are Mañjuśrī?" [The old man] replied, "How could there be two Mañjuśrīs?" Before the master had risen from his bow, [the old man] suddenly vanished. (A novice under Zhaozhou brought this up to the Master. Zhaozhou spoke in Fenggan's place: "Mañjuśrī, Mañjuśrī!") Later he returned to Mount Tiantai and manifested cessation. Earlier, when Lord Lüqiu Yin was going out to govern Danqiu, just as his carriage was being readied, he suddenly suffered a headache that no physician could cure. The master went to him and said, "This poor monk has come from Tiantai to call upon you, Governor." Lüqiu told him of his ailment. The master then asked for a clean vessel, chanted spells over water, and sprayed it upon him; in a moment, he was cured on the spot. Marvelling at this, Lüqiu begged for a single word to portend the safety or danger of his journey. The master said, "When you arrive at your post, remember to pay homage to Mañjuśrī and Samantabhadra." [Lüqiu] asked, "Where are these two bodhisattvas?" The master said, "Hanshan and Shide, who tend the fires and wash the dishes at Guoqing Temple, are they." Lüqiu bowed and took his leave. Upon setting out, he soon reached the mountain temple. He asked, "Does this temple have a Chan Master Fenggan? And who are Hanshan and Shide?" At that time a monk named Daoqiao replied, "Fenggan's former compound is behind the sutra repository; it is now deserted and empty. The two men, Hanshan and Shide, are currently performing labor in the monastic kitchen." Lüqiu entered the master's room and saw only tiger tracks. He asked Daoqiao again, "What was Fenggan's practice while here?" Qiao said, "He engaged only in pounding grain to offer to the monks, and in his leisure chanted poems." Thereupon [Lüqiu] entered the kitchen to seek out Hanshan and Shide, as narrated in the following chapter.