景德傳燈錄 28.8

28.8

Master Nanquan Puyan of Chizhou ascended the hall and said: "Sons, this old monk has understood how to earn a living since the age of eighteen. If anyone understands how to earn a living, let him step forward. Only when I discuss it with you can one be a resident of the mountain." After a long pause, he looked around at the assembly, joined his palms, and said: "Take care; nothing is the matter. Each of you practice on your own." The assembly did not leave. The Master said: "Such a noble fruit is greatly to be dreaded; even an immeasurable great person can do nothing about it. I am not him, and he is not me; what can he do to me? Those masters of sūtras and treatises speak of the Dharma-body as the ultimate, calling it the samādhi of exhausted principle or the samādhi of exhausted meaning. Formerly, someone told this old monk to 'return to the root and go back to the source.' If I had understood it that way, what a disaster! Brothers, these days there are too many Chan masters; you cannot find a single dull-witted person. I do not say there are none at all, but among them they are still few. If there is one, let him step forward and discuss it with you. In the era of the empty kalpa, was there any practitioner or not? Is there, or is there not—why do you not speak? You are usually clever with your lips and sharp with your tongues, yet when asked, none of you speaks. Why do you not step forward? Do not speak of matters from the time the Buddha appeared in the world. Brothers, people nowadays carry the Buddha on their shoulders as they walk. Hearing this old monk say, 'Mind is not the Buddha, wisdom is not the Path,' they put their heads together intending to push this old monk down—yet there is nowhere for you to push. If you could bind up empty space into a staff and strike this old monk, you might push as you like." At that time, a monk asked: "From the ancestral masters down to the Great Master of Jiangxi, all have said: 'This very mind is the Buddha,' and 'The ordinary mind is the Path.' Now the Upādhyāya says, 'Mind is not the Buddha, wisdom is not the Path.' The student has conceived doubt. Please, Upādhyāya, out of compassion, instruct me." The Master raised his voice and replied: "If you are a Buddha, stop getting entangled in doubts and asking. Where does this old monk have such neighboring doubts about the Buddha? This old monk is not a Buddha, nor have I ever seen an ancestral master. If you speak like that, go look for an ancestral master yourself." The monk said: "If the Upādhyāya speaks like this, how can the student maintain it?" The Master said: "Quickly support empty space with your hands." The monk said: "Empty space has no characteristics of movement. How can it be supported?" The Master said: "When you say it has no characteristics of movement, that is already movement. How can empty space say, 'I have no characteristics of movement'? These are all your emotional views." The monk said: "If empty space having no characteristics of movement is still an emotional view, what was it that you earlier sent me to support?" The Master said: "Since you know one should not speak of supporting, where do you intend to maintain it?" The monk said: "Since 'this very mind is the Buddha' is inadmissible, is it that 'this mind becomes Buddha'?" The Master said: "'This mind is the Buddha,' 'this mind becomes Buddha'—these are all notions of emotional calculation, created by conceptual thought. The Buddha is an intelligent person; the mind is the master of collecting. When facing objects, they simply function marvelously. Worthy One, do not recognize mind, do not recognize the Buddha. If you recognize them, they are objects, and you will be called one of foolish cognitive obscuration. Therefore, the Great Master of Jiangxi said: 'It is not mind, it is not Buddha, it is not a thing.' He just taught you later people to walk like this. Nowadays, students put on robes and go around doubting such idle matters—can that be allowed?" The monk said: "Since it is not mind, not Buddha, and not a thing, why does the Upādhyāya now say, 'Mind is not the Buddha, wisdom is not the Path'? I do not understand how this is." The Master said: "If you do not recognize that mind is the Buddha and wisdom is the Path, where would this old monk suddenly get a mind and put it?" The monk said: "Since none of it is admissible, how is it different from the great void?" The Master said: "Since it is not a thing, to what great void do you compare it? And whom do you tell to be different or not different?" The monk said: "One cannot be without that 'not mind, not Buddha, not a thing.'" The Master said: "If you recognize this one, it turns into mind and Buddha again." The monk said: "Please, Upādhyāya, speak." The Master said: "This old monk himself does not know." The monk said: "Why do you not know?" The Master said: "How do you want me to speak?" The monk said: "May the student not be permitted to understand the Path?" The Master said: "What Path would you understand, and how would you understand it?" The monk said: "I do not know." The Master said: "Not knowing is rather good. If you take this old monk's words, you are called a person of reliant understanding. Even if you saw Maitreya appear in the world, your head and tail would still be plucked by him." The monk said: "What should later people do?" The Master said: "Just look to yourself for now; do not worry about later people." The monk said: "Earlier you did not permit me to understand the Path, and now you tell me to look to myself. I do not understand what this means." The Master said: "Dark communion, wondrous communion—I allow you that. How do you understand?" The monk said: "What is wondrous communion?" The Master said: "Do you still wish to learn this old monk's words? Even if I speak, it is this old monk speaking. What about you, Worthy One?" The monk said: "If I understood on my own, I would not need to beg the Upādhyāya for compassionate instruction." The Master said: "One must not point east and point west to deceive people. When you were babbling and stammering [as an infant], why did you not come and ask this old monk? Now that you are clever and shrewd, you start saying, 'I do not understand'—what are you after? If you came forward in this life and said, 'I left home to become a Chan master,' what did you do before leaving home? Speak and let us see; I will discuss it with you." The monk said: "At that time, I did not know." The Master said: "Since you did not know, is recognizing it just as it is right now correct?" The monk said: "Since recognizing is not right, is not recognizing right?" The Master said: "Recognizing or not recognizing—what kind of talk is that?" The monk said: "Reaching here, I understand even less." The Master said: "If you do not understand, I understand even less." The monk said: "I am a student, so I do not understand; the Upādhyāya is a kalyāṇamitra and ought to understand." The Master said: "This fellow—I tell you I do not understand; who is talking about a kalyāṇamitra? Do not be clever and shrewd. Look at when that senior elder of Jiangxi was alive: a scholar asked, 'Water has no sinews or bones, yet it can carry a boat of ten thousand bushels; what is the principle of this?' The elder said, 'Here there is neither water nor boat; what sinews and bones are you talking about?' Brothers, that scholar just stopped; was that not effortless? Therefore I repeatedly tell you that the Buddha does not understand the Path. I practice on my own; what use is knowing?" The monk said: "How does one practice?" The Master said: "It cannot be deliberated upon to speak of to others. Practicing like this and walking like this is very difficult." The monk said: "Do you still permit the student to practice?" The Master said: "This old monk cannot hinder you." The monk said: "How should I practice?" The Master said: "If you want to walk, just walk; you must not exclusively follow behind others." The monk said: "If not for a kalyāṇamitra's instruction, there is no way to understand. As the Upādhyāya often says: 'In practice, one must understand before one can succeed; if one does not understand, one falls into causality with no share of freedom.' I do not understand how to practice so as to avoid falling into causality." The Master said: "There is no need to deliberate further. In speaking of practice, where can one not go?" The monk said: "How does one go?" The Master said: "You must not search by following behind." The monk said: "Before the Upādhyāya speaks, how do you instruct me to search?" The Master said: "Even if spoken, where would you go to look for it? Consider how from morning to night, you suddenly walk east or walk west; you do not even deliberate to say whether you can go or cannot go, and other people cannot know you." The monk said: "When walking east and walking west, not deliberating at all—is that it?" The Master said: "At such a time, who says it is or is not?" The monk said: "The Upādhyāya often says: 'I walk nowhere throughout all places, and nothing can constrain me; this is called the samādhi of universal walking, universally manifesting physical forms.' Is it perhaps this principle?" The Master said: "In speaking of practice, where does one not go? I do not speak of constrained or unconstrained, nor do I speak of samādhi." The monk said: "How is this different from there being a dharma to attain the path of bodhi?" The Master said: "I do not discuss difference or non-difference." The monk said: "The practice spoken of by the Upādhyāya is distinct and different from the Mahāyāna. I do not understand how this is." The Master said: "I do not care whether it is different or not, nor have I ever studied it. If it comes to examining the teachings, there are lecture masters of the sūtras and treatises; those of the doctrinal schools are indeed greatly to be dreaded. You had better just go listen to them." The monk said: "Ultimately, how do you instruct the student to understand?" The Master said: "As for what you ask, it is originally only on the side of causes and conditions. Look, you cannot deal with conditions; it is because you recognize the matters at the six sense-gates. You just understand that side beyond the Buddha, then come back, and I will discuss it with you. Brothers, do not endlessly chase like this! If you do not adopt the ancient's words, practicing the bodhisattva practice is undertaken by only one person. The heavenly demon Pāpīyas, leading his retinue, constantly followed behind the bodhisattva, looking for where the movements of his mind arose, intending to throw him down. Passing through measureless kalpas like this, he could not find a single different thought, and only then did he and his retinue take leave with bows, praise him, and make offerings. This was still within the stage of advancing in practice; those beneath could do nothing to him. How much more so at the place where effort is ended! Like Mañjuśrī and Samantabhadra, one no longer speaks of them. Brothers, how can you say practice is non-existent? You cannot find a person who practices for a single day. Nowadays, people go around from year's beginning to year's end, merely searching for what it is ultimately, vainly playing with their lips and tongues to produce intellectual understanding." The monk said: "At such a time, there is neither the name of Buddha nor the name of sentient beings. How would you have me figure it out?" The Master said: "When you say there is neither the name of Buddha nor the name of sentient beings, you have already figured it out. This is also remembering other people's words." The monk said: "If so, all belongs to matters from the time the Buddha appeared in the world. It cannot completely be left unsaid." The Master said: "How do you say it?" The monk said: "Even if spoken, words cannot reach it." The Master said: "If you say words cannot reach it, that is a reached phrase. You vainly chase like this; who acts as an object for you?" The monk said: "Since there is no one acting as an object, who is the person on that side?" The Master said: "If you do not cite the teachings, where would you discuss the Buddha? Since the Buddha is not discussed, with whom would this old monk discuss this side and that side?" The monk said: "Although the fruit does not abide in the Path, yet the Path can serve as the cause—how is this?" The Master said: "That was an ancient person; nowadays, one cannot fail to uphold the precepts. I am not him, and he is not me. If you can become like a wildcat or a white ox, your conduct will be delightful. If you have a single differing thought, it will be hard to practice." The monk said: "Why does a single differing thought make it hard to practice?" The Master said: "As soon as there is a single differing thought, there are superior and inferior faculties; if it is not emotional views, you follow along with causality. What share of freedom is there left?" The monk said: "I have often heard the Upādhyāya say that the reward and transformation bodies are not the true Buddha, nor are they the ones who preach the Dharma. I do not understand how this is." The Master said: "Because they are conditionally arisen, they are not." The monk said: "Since the reward and transformation bodies are not the true Buddha, is the Dharma-body the true Buddha?" The Master said: "That is already the response body." The monk said: "If so, then the Dharma-body is also not the true Buddha." The Master said: "Whether the Dharma-body is true or not true, this old monk has no tongue and does not know how to say. If you teach me to say it, that will do." The monk said: "Apart from the three bodies, what dharma is the true Buddha?" The Master said: "This fellow quarrels with an old man of eighty or ninety! I have already told you. What more do you ask about apart or not apart? You intend to drive a wedge into empty space!" The monk said: "I have respectfully received that the Avataṃsaka-sūtra was spoken by the Dharma-body Buddha; how is this?" The Master said: "What words did you just say?" The monk asked again. The Master looked around, sighed, and said: "If it was spoken by the Dharma-body, where would you go to listen?" The monk said: "I do not understand." The Master said: "Very difficult, very difficult! Go well; take care."