景德傳燈錄 29
English (machine translation) 29
- Language
- English
29.1
Eulogies, Gāthās, and Verses
Ten Eulogies on the Great Vehicle by Upādhyāya Zhigong
Twelve Odes on the Twelve Hours by Upādhyāya Zhigong
Fourteen Odes on the Fourteen Topics by Upādhyāya Zhigong
One Ode by Chan Master Guizong Zhizhen
Nineteen Odes by Great Master Xiangyan Xideng
One Ode by Upādhyāya Dongshan of Junzhou
Eighteen Odes by Upādhyāya Longya of Tanzhou
Three Odes by Great Master Xuansha Zongyi
Two Odes by Great Master Zhaoging Zhenjue
One Ode on Clarifying the Way by Upādhyāya Luohan of Zhangzhou
One Ode on the Ground of Awakening by Upādhyāya Jin of the Pratyutpanna Bodhimaṇḍa on Mount Nanyue
Five Odes on the Depths of Entering the Way by Upādhyāya Linxi of Yingzhou
Fourteen Odes by Chan Master Great Fayan
Eight Gradual Gāthās by Bai Juyi of the Tang
Ten Verses on Profound Discourses by Chan Master Tong'an Cha
Ten Poems by the Monk Defu of Mount Yunding
Three Poems by the Monk Run
29.2
Ten Eulogies on the Great Vehicle by Upādhyāya Baozhi of the Liang
29.3
The Great Way is constantly before your eyes, / although before your eyes, it is hard to see. / If you wish to awaken to the true body of the Way, / do not cast aside sound, form, words, and speech. / Words and speech are themselves the Great Way; / there is no need to sever defilements. / Defilements are originally empty and tranquil; / deluded sentiments entangle one another. / All things are like shadows and echoes; / who knows what is bad and what is good? / Having a mind that grasps characteristics as real, / one surely knows that seeing the nature is not realized. / If you wish to create karma seeking Buddhahood, / karma is the great omen of birth and death. / Karma of birth and death always follows the body, / without dawning inside the dark prison. / Awakening to the principle is originally without difference; / after awakening, who is late and who is early? / The measure of the Dharma realm is equal to empty space; / the wise minds of sentient beings make themselves petty. / If only you can refrain from giving rise to 'I' and 'mine', / you will always be sated with the Dharma food of nirvāṇa.
29.4
The deluded body approaches the mirror and reflects an image; / the image is no different from the deluded body. / Merely wanting to discard the image and keep the body, / one does not realize the body itself is inherently void. / The body's origin is not different from the image; / one cannot have one exist and the other not. / If you wish to preserve one and abandon the other, / you will be forever estranged from the true principle. / Moreover, if you love the holy and despise the ordinary, / you will sink and float in the ocean of birth and death. / Because defilements exist on account of the mind, / when there is no-mind, where can defilements reside? / Without toiling to distinguish and grasp characteristics, / naturally the Way is attained in an instant. / While dreaming, one acts within the dream; / upon waking, the dream realm is completely absent. / Reflecting back upon the waking state and the dream, / the two inverted views are no different. / To exchange delusion for awakening and seek profit— / how does that differ from a peddling merchant? / When both movement and stillness are forgotten, there is constant tranquility; / naturally one accords with suchness. / If one says that sentient beings are different from the Buddha, / afar and distant, one is forever estranged from the Buddha. / Buddha and sentient beings are non-dual; / naturally it is ultimate without remainder.
29.5
The Dharma-nature is originally constantly tranquil, / vast and without boundaries. / Pacifying the mind between grasping and discarding, / one is turned around by those two realms. / Composing the countenance, entering absorption, and sitting in meditation, / gathering in objects, pacifying the mind, with coarse and subtle thought— / this is a wooden automaton practicing the Way; / when can it ever reach the other shore? / All phenomena are fundamentally empty without attachment; / realms are like floating clouds that must disperse. / Suddenly awakening to the original emptiness of one's fundamental nature / is just like breaking into a sweat from a burning fever. / Do not speak of this before the unwise, / lest it shatter your physical body into scattering stars.
29.6
I tell you sentient beings the direct Way: / neither existing nor not existing. / Neither existing nor not existing are non-dual; / why must you discuss voidness in opposition to existence? / Existence and non-existence are designations set up by the deluded mind; / once one is shattered, neither remains. / Both names are produced by your sentiments; / when sentiments are absent, that is the original suchness. / If you wish to retain sentiments and seek the Buddha, / it is like taking a net up a mountain to catch fish. / Laboring in vain without benefit, / how much effort is uselessly spent! / Not understanding that mind itself is Buddha / is truly like riding a donkey looking for a donkey. / When you neither hate nor love anything, / this defilement must be removed. / If it is removed, then the body must be removed; / when the body is removed, there is neither Buddha nor cause. / When neither Buddha nor cause can be found, / naturally there are no phenomena and no person.
29.7
The Great Way is not attained through practice; / speaking of practice is a provisional device for ordinary fools. / Attaining the principle and looking back upon practice, / only then does one know that effort was spent in vain. / Before awakening to the great principle of perfect penetration, / words and actions must support each other. / You must not cling to others' intellectual understanding; / turning the light back to the source, there is none at all. / Who understands this explanation? / I tell you to examine yourself: / see for yourself your past transgressions, / and remove the sores and warts of the five desires. / Liberated, easy, and free, / sell your elegant style cheaply wherever you go. / Who is there who resolves to buy it? / They too may become free from worry like me.
29.8
Inner views and outer views are entirely bad; / the Buddha's way and the demon's way are both wrong. / Beset by these two great Pāpīyāns, / one immediately loathes suffering and seeks pleasure. / In birth and death, awaken to the fundamental emptiness of the substance; / where then can Buddha and demon find a resting place? / Merely through the discrimination of deluded sentiments, / former lives and future lives are forlorn and meager. / Transmigrating through the six paths without stopping, / binding karma cannot be eliminated. / The reason one drifts in birth and death / is entirely because of recklessly concocting schemes. / The body is fundamentally void and unreal; / returning to the root, who is there to ponder it? / Existence and non-existence I can manage on my own; / there is no need for the deluded mind to calculate. / Sentient beings' bodies are identical with empty space; / where can defilements find a place to settle? / If only there is no seeking whatsoever, / defilements will naturally melt away.
29.9
Laughed at, sentient beings are stupid and muddled, / Each clinging to their own differing views. / They only want to beg for cakes beside the stove, / Not understanding to return to the source and see the flour. / Flour is the root of both orthodox and heterodox; / Formed by human hands, it undergoes a hundred transformations. / Let what is needed be used freely in all directions, / With no need for partial indulgence or clinging love. / Non-attachment is itself liberation; / Having desires, one is again caught in nets and snares. / With a compassionate mind all is equal; / Truth is directly Bodhi appearing of itself. / If one harbors dualistic thoughts of self and other, / Face to face, one does not see the Buddha's face.
29.10
How many foolish people in the world, / Taking the Way, again seek the Way! / Widely searching for various meanings in great confusion, / They cannot even save their own bodies. / Exclusively seeking others' writings and speaking wildly, / They proclaim themselves to possess the supreme, wondrous principle. / In vain they pass their whole lives in emptiness, / Through eternal kalpas sinking into birth and old age. / Tainted love entangles their minds without release, / The pure mind of wisdom torments itself. / In the jungle of the Dharmadhātu of True Suchness, / Thorns and wild weeds grow instead. / They merely cling to yellow leaves as gold, / Not realising they discard gold to seek treasure. / Therefore, losing mindfulness, they run wildly about, / By forceful effort adorning themselves with the major marks. / Their mouths recite sūtras and śāstras, / While their hearts are ever withered and dry. / Once they awaken to the original mind being empty, / Complete with True Suchness, nothing is lacking.
29.11
Śrāvakas sever delusion thought after thought, / But the mind that can sever is a thief. / Thieves sequentially expelling thieves— / When will they understand the fundamental speech and silence? / Their mouths recite a thousand fascicles of sūtras, / Yet when questioned on their own substance, they do not recognize the sūtras. / Not understanding the complete penetration of the Buddha-Dharma, / In vain they trace the lines and count the ink. / The dhūtas and araṇya ascetics / Hope for merit in future lives. / Hope is itself separation from the holy; / How can the Great Way ever be attained? / Like crossing a river in a dream, / The ferryman carries one across to the north bank; / Suddenly awakening, one lies peacefully in bed, / Having lost the methods of the ferry boat. / The ferryman and that person being ferried / Fundamentally did not know each other. / Sentient beings are deluded, overturned, and fettered, / Fatigued to the utmost going and coming through the three realms. / Awakening to birth and death as like a dream, / All seeking minds naturally cease.
29.12
Awakened understanding is itself Bodhi; / Comprehending the fundamental, there are no steps or stages. / Lamentable are the stooped ordinary people; / At eighty they cannot run on their feet. / In vain they pass an entire life in emptiness, / Unaware of the passing of sun and moon. / Looking upward at their teacher's mouth, / They are just like infants who have lost their milk. / Monks and layfolk gather in grand crowds, / All day long listening to his dead words. / Not contemplating the impermanence of their own bodies, / Their mental conduct is as greedy as wolves and tigers. / Pitiful is the narrow inferiority of the two vehicles, / Insisting on subduing the six viscera, / Not consuming alcohol, meat, or the five pungent roots, / Looking with deviant eyes at others eating and chewing. / There are further those of wild, heterodox practices, / Cultivating qi and abstaining from salt and vinegar. / If one awakens to the ultimate truth of the Supreme Vehicle, / There is no need to discriminate male and female.
29.13
Upādhyāya Baozhi's Praise of the Twelve Hours
29.14
At early dawn, the hour of yin: / Within the mad faculty is the body of a person of the Way. / Impoverished and suffering through measureless kalpas, / They do not believe they constantly hold the wish-fulfilling jewel. / If you grasp at things, you enter the delusive ford; / Just the slightest hair is already dust. / Not abiding in the formless appearance of former times, / Seeking kalyāṇamitras outside is also not true.
29.15
At sunrise, the hour of mao: / In the place of functioning, there is no need to generate skillful contrivances. / Even if divine radiance shines upon being and non-being, / Stirring an intention, one is troubled by māra's affairs. / If you apply effort, you will never finish; / Day and night you are twisted by others and self. / No need for contrivance, just accord with it as it is; / How has the mind-ground ever produced afflictions?
29.16
At breakfast, the hour of chen: / Fundamental ignorance is Śākyamuni's body. / Sitting and lying, unaware that it was originally the Way, / Just so in haste one undergoes bitter hardship. / Recognizing sounds and forms to seek the distant and near, / One is merely a defiled person of their house. / If you intend to use the mind to seek the Buddha-Way, / Inquire of empty space before you leave the dust.
29.17
At mid-morning, the hour of si: / For those who have not understood, teachings do not reach. / Even if you thoroughly comprehend the words of the Patriarchs, / Do not set up definitive meaning within the mind. / Merely guarding the mystery without letters, / If you recognize it, as before it is still not it. / If for a moment you yourself approve and do not pursue, / Throughout vast kalpas you will not be driven by māra's realms.
29.18
At noon, the hour of wu: / In the four-element body is the priceless jewel. / Unwilling to cast aside the shimmering mirage and flowers in the sky, / Deliberately cultivating, hardship turns ever more bitter. / Never having been deluded, do not seek awakening; / Let the morning sun turn to dusk however many times. / Within the physical body is the formless body; / On the path of ignorance is the path of non-arising.
29.19
At afternoon, the hour of wei: / How has the mind-ground ever set up definitive meaning? / In the words of that house, there is no close or distant; / Do not generate effort to seek the precise meaning. / Letting it roam freely, cut off all taboos; / Ever in the human world, do not dwell in the world. / Functioning is never separated from sound and form; / Throughout kalpas, when was it ever cast aside for a moment?
29.20
At late afternoon, the hour of shen: / To study the Way, one must first not detest poverty. / Physical form is originally a provisional accumulation; / What need is there to install truth upon the formless? / Contriving purity exhausts the spirit; / Do not recognize ignorance as a close neighbor. / Under the words not seeking and without location, / Temporarily one is called a renunciant.
29.21
At sunset, the hour of you: / Empty, illusory sounds do not last long. / Even the rare delicacies of dhyāna-joy are not devoured; / Who could drink the wine of ignorance again? / Nothing to abandon, no object to hold, / Vast, rambling, and free, it never existed. / Even if you are broadly learned and versed in past and present, / You are also a mad fool running outside.
29.22
At twilight, the hour of xu: / The mad child initiates effort and enters a dark room. / Even if the mind penetrates measureless time, / Through kalpas past, when was it ever different from today? / Intending to deliberate, one is instead troubled and chirping, / Causing the mind to turn as black as lacquer. / Day and night, shedding radiance, it shines on being and non-being; / Foolish people call it pāramitā.
29.23
At night rest, the hour of hai: / Vigorous exertion becomes indolence. / Not generating the slightest mind of practice and study, / Within the formless radiance one is constantly at ease. / Transcending Śākyamuni, surpassing the ancestral generations, / If the mind has a tiny dust-mote, it is still obstructed. / Vast and without concern, suddenly pure and relaxed, / That house naturally has the love of the thoroughgoing man.
29.24
At midnight, the hour of zi: / The mind abiding in non-arising is itself birth and death. / When have birth and death ever belonged to being or non-being? / When using it, just use it without letters. / The Patriarchs' words are outside matters; / Recognize it when it arises, yet it is still not it. / Deliberately searching, there are truly no traces; / Let the māras of birth and death come to test as they will.
29.25
At cockcrow, the hour of chou: / A single round pearl has long been bright. / Searching inside and outside, it cannot be found at all, / Yet acting upon sensory realms, it is fully and abundantly present. / No head is seen, nor are there hands; / When the world is destroyed, it does not decay. / Those who have not understood, listen to one word: / Just who is moving their mouth right now?
29.26
Praise of the Fourteen Subjects by Master Zhi
29.27
Non-duality of Bodhi and Affliction
29.28
Sentient beings do not understand how to cultivate the Way, / And so they wish to sever afflictions. / Afflictions are fundamentally empty and tranquil; / Taking the Way, they further wish to seek the Way. / The mind of a single thought is itself it; / Why search and investigate elsewhere? / The Great Way is clearly right before your eyes, / Yet deluded, foolish people do not understand. / Buddha-nature is naturally spontaneous, / Neither cultivated nor constructed through causes and conditions. / Not recognizing that the three poisons are unreal, / They falsely grasp at floating, sinking, birth, and old age. / In the past, taking the days of delusion as late, / Today, first awakening, it is still not early.
29.29
Non-duality of Upholding and Violating
29.30
The great man functions without hindrance, / Unconstrained by the monastic precepts. / Upholding and violating are fundamentally unarisen; / Foolish people are bound and tied by them. / The actions of the wise are all empty; / For the śrāvaka, encountering anything becomes an obstruction. / The Mahāsattva's fleshy eye is completely penetrating; / The two vehicles' divine eye has a film. / In emptiness they falsely cling to being and non-being, / Not comprehending the non-obstruction of form and mind. / Bodhisattvas dwell together with the worldly, / Pure, they are never defiled by the world. / Foolish people are greedily attached to nirvāṇa; / The wise see birth and death as the true reality. / The Dharma-nature is empty, without speech; / In dependent origination there is not a single person. / A hundred-year-old without wisdom is a small child; / A small child with wisdom is a hundred years old.
29.31
Non-duality of Buddha and Sentient Beings
29.32
Sentient beings and Buddhas are not different; / Great wisdom is no different from folly. / Why need one seek treasure outside? / In the field of the body there is naturally the bright pearl. / The correct path and the deviant path are non-dual; / Understand that ordinary and holy share the same route. / Delusion and awakening fundamentally have no distinction; / Nirvāṇa and birth and death are as one. / Ultimately, conditioning is empty and tranquil; / Only seek mental thought to be pure and vacuous. / There is not a single dharma to be obtained; / Carefree, one naturally enters the remainderless.
29.33
Non-duality of Phenomenon and Principle
29.34
The mind-king is at ease and carefree; / The Dharma-nature fundamentally lacks the ten fetters. / All things are nothing other than Buddha-affairs; / Why is there need to restrain thought and sit in dhyāna? / Delusive thoughts are fundamentally empty and tranquil; / No need to sever conditioning. / The wise have no mind that can be attained, / Naturally without contention and without clamor. / Not recognizing the unconditioned Great Way, / When can one realize the profound and subtle? / Buddhas and sentient beings are of one kind; / Sentient beings are themselves the World-Honoured One. / Ordinary people falsely produce discriminations; / Clinging to being where there is nothing, they run in delusion. / Thoroughly comprehending that greed and anger are empty and tranquil, / Where is not the true gate?
29.35
Non-duality of Quietude and Disturbance
29.36
Śrāvakas detest clamor and seek quietude, / Just like casting aside flour to seek cakes. / Cakes have always been flour; / Fashioned by people, they undergo a hundred transformations. / Affliction is itself Bodhi; / No-mind is itself no-realm. / Birth and death are no different from nirvāṇa; / Greed and anger are like flames, like shadows. / The wise have no mind to seek Buddhahood; / The foolish cling to the deviant, cling to the correct. / In vain they spend an entire life in emptiness, / Never seeing the wondrous crown of the Tathāgata. / Thoroughly comprehending that the nature of lust is empty, / The cauldron of boiling water and burning coals naturally cool.
29.37
Non-duality of Good and Evil
29.38
My own body and mind are blissful, / Carefree, without good and without evil. / The Dharmakāya is at ease without fixed direction; / Whatever meets the eye is nothing other than correct awakening. / The six dusts are fundamentally empty and tranquil; / Ordinary people falsely produce attachment. / Nirvāṇa and birth and death are equal; / In the four seas, who is favored or slighted? / The unconditioned Great Way is natural; / There is no need to use the mind to calculate and scheme. / The bodhisattva is relaxed, wondrous, and penetrating; / What they do always contains wondrous awakening. / Śrāvakas cling to dharmas and sit in dhyāna, / Like silkworms spitting silk to bind themselves. / The Dharma-nature is fundamentally completely bright; / When the illness is cured, why cling to medicine? / Thoroughly knowing that all dharmas are equal, / Carefree, pure, and vacuous, there is bliss.
29.39
Non-duality of Form and Emptiness
29.40
The Dharma-nature fundamentally has no blue or yellow; / Sentient beings vainly compose literary writings. / With 'I' and 'mine' they speak to others of śamatha and vipaśyanā, / Their own intentions agitated and wildly insane. / Not recognizing the wondrous principle of complete penetration, / When can they understand the true and constant? / Unable to treat their own illness, / They instead teach others medicinal formulas. / Outwardly they look as though they are good, / But within their minds they are like jackals and wolves. / Foolish people fear hell; / To the wise it is no different from heaven. / Facing sense-objects, the mind constantly does not arise; / Lifting a foot, everywhere is a bodhimaṇḍa. / Buddhas and sentient beings are non-dual; / Sentient beings themselves create division. / If one wishes to eliminate the three poisons, / They will be far from parting with calamity. / The wise know the mind is Buddha; / The foolish delight in going to the West.
29.41
Non-duality of Birth-and-Death and Nirvāṇa
29.42
All worldly dharmas are like illusions; / Birth and death are just like thunder and lightning. / The Dharmakāya is at ease and completely penetrating, / Entering and exiting mountains and rivers without obstruction. / Inverted delusive thoughts are fundamentally empty; / Prajñā is without delusion and without confusion. / The three poisons are fundamentally liberated; / Why is there need to restrain thought in dhyāna contemplation? / Merely because foolish people do not understand, / They submit to precepts and regulations for decisions. / Not recognizing the True Suchness of quiescence, / When can they ascend to the other shore? / The wise have no evil to sever; / Their functioning gathers and disperses according to the mind. / The Dharma-nature is fundamentally empty and tranquil, / Not bound by birth and death. / If one wishes to sever afflictions, / This is an ignorant fool. / Affliction is itself Bodhi; / What need is there to seek separate dhyāna contemplation? / In the true reality there is no Buddha and no māra; / The substance of mind has no form and no parts.
29.43
Non-duality of Severance and Non-severance
29.44
The great man functions magnificently, / Rambling at ease without impediment. / Nothing can harm him; / He is firm, just like adamantine. / Not abiding in the two extremes or the Middle Way, / Carefree, neither severed nor eternal. / The five desires, greed, and anger are Buddha; / Hell is no different from heaven. / Foolish people falsely generate discriminations, / Wandering wild in birth and death. / The wise penetrate form without obstruction; / The śrāvakas are all frightened and flurried. / The Dharma-nature fundamentally lacks flaw or film; / Sentient beings falsely cling to blue and yellow. / The Tathāgata guides the deluded and foolish, / Sometimes speaking of hell, sometimes of heaven. / Maitreya is naturally within the body; / Why need one deliberate elsewhere? / Casting aside the Buddha image of True Suchness, / Such a person is simply insane. / The minds of śrāvakas do not understand; / They only pursue words and chapters. / Words and chapters are fundamentally not the true Way; / They merely increase contention and obstinacy. / In their minds are vipers, snakes, adders, and scorpions; / Stung by them, one is immediately wounded. / Not understanding how to extract meaning from the texts, / When can they comprehend the true and constant? / At death they enter Avīci Hell, / Their consciousness suffering calamity in vain.
29.45
Non-duality of the True and the Conventional
29.46
The Dharma master expounds the Dharma exceedingly well, / yet within his mind he is not apart from defilements. / With his mouth he discusses written words to transform others, / but that only increases their birth and old age. / The true and the delusive are originally non-dual; / ordinary people abandon the delusive to seek the Way. / The fourfold assembly gathers like clouds to listen to the lecture; / from the high seat his debate on principles surges like a flood. / The southern seat and northern seat contend with one another, / while the fourfold assembly takes their words to be wonderful. / Although from their mouths they speak of sweet dew (amṛta), / inside their minds are constantly withered and dry. / Themselves having not a single penny from the start, / day and night they count others' treasures. / They are just like foolish people without wisdom, / who discard true gold to carry straw. / Not relinquishing the three poisons within their minds, / I know not when they will attain the Way.
29.47
The Non-duality of Liberation and Bondage
29.48
The Vinaya master upholding the vinaya binds himself; / binding himself, he can also bind others. / Outwardly he displays a demeanor tranquil and quiet, / but within his mind it is like a surging billow. / Without boarding the boat and raft of birth and death, / how can he cross the river of desire? / Not understanding the true school and the correct principle, / his words of wrong views are exceedingly numerous. / Two bhikṣus having broken the vinaya / went to inquire of Upāli. / Upāli explained their transgression according to the vinaya, / only increasing the net entangling the bhikṣus. / The upāsaka in the abbot's room, / Vimalakīrti, came at once to reprove him. / Upāli remained silent without reply; / Pure Name's exposition of Dharma was faultless. / For the nature of the precepts is like space, / neither within nor without this sahā world. / Urged to eliminate arising and ceasing, they refused; / suddenly awakening, they were identical to Śākya.
29.49
The Non-duality of Object and Illumination
29.50
The Chan master in essence is apart from ignorance; / from whence could defilements arise? / Hell and heaven share a single mark; / nirvāṇa and birth-and-death are empty names. / Nor is there greed and anger to be severed; / nor is there the Buddha Way to be accomplished. / Sentient beings and Buddhas are equal; / naturally, sacred wisdom is wide awake. / Undefiled by the six dusts, / line after line uniquely tallies with the unborn. / In a single thought of correct enlightenment, profound understanding arises; / the three times are vast, flat, and all equal. / Neither Dharma nor vinaya can constrain him; / carefree, he truly enters perfect accomplishment. / Severing these four propositions and hundred negations, / he is like empty space, without fabrication, without reliance.
29.51
Unobstructed Functioning
29.52
Now I am flowing freely at ease, / not envying dukes, kings, ministers, or premiers. / Throughout the four seasons I am like vajra; / amid pain and pleasure, my mind never changes. / The Dharma-jewel is compared to Sumeru; / wisdom is broader than rivers and oceans. / Not pulled by the eight winds, / neither is there energetic progress nor laxity. / Following my nature, floating or sinking as if mad, / carefree and unrestrained, completely at ease. / Even if swords and blades are held to my head, / I remain tranquil, paying them no heed.
29.53
The Non-duality of Delusion and Awakening
29.54
In delusion, one takes emptiness to be form; / upon awakening, form is emptiness. / Delusion and awakening are originally without distinction; / form and emptiness in the end are still the same. / A foolish man calls south north; / a wise man understands there is neither west nor east. / If you wish to seek the wondrous principle of the Tathāgata, / it is ever within a single thought. / A mirage is originally not water; / a thirsty deer wildly chases it in frantic haste. / One's own body is illusory and untrue; / yet using emptiness, one wishes to seek emptiness further. / Worldly people are deluded in the extreme, / like dogs barking at thunder with a clamorous roar.
29.55
One Verse by Chan Master Zhichang, 'Most True', of Guizong
29.56
At Guizong, phenomenon and principle are cut off; / the solar disc is right at high noon. / Sovereign at ease like a lion, / relying on no thing whatsoever. / Solitary, walking the peaks of the four mountains; / roaming freely along the three great roads. / Yawning, flying birds tumble down; / stretching, hosts of evil are terrified. / When the trigger is set up, the arrow easily strikes; / when the shadow vanishes, it is hard for the hand to cover. / Setting out and displaying like a craftsman's skill, / cutting and tailoring like a measuring rule. / Skillfully carving ten thousand kinds of names, / Guizong still resembles the earth. / Speech and silence, sounds and voices are cut off; / the principle is subtle, feelings cannot touch it. / Discarding an eye, one turns deaf; / grasping an ear, one turns blind. / A single arrow-point pierces the three barriers; / clearly seen is the road behind the arrow. / How admirable is the great man, / who prior to Heaven is the mind-ancestor. / (Case ti [of the canon], Nirvāṇa Sūtra, fascicle 27: "A true lion king, leaving his den at dawn, stretches and yawns.")
29.57
Nineteen Verses by Great Master Zhixian, 'Inheritor of the Lamp', of Xiangyan
29.58
Conferring the Pointer
29.59
The ancients' bones possessed much numinous wonder; / worthy descendants secretly set them to rest. / This one gate constitutes filial duty; / if people have not reached it, let them make no blunder. / One must resolve firmly to dispel fox-like doubts; / attaining peaceful stillness, one will not fall into peril. / Facing it is distant, seeking it is separation; / taking it is hurried, losing it is sluggish. / Without calculation, forget awareness and knowing; / the muddy stream discerns falsehoods present and ancient. / In a single kṣaṇa, reaching through changes and variations: / from craggy mountains, the stone-fire vapor / bursts from within, burning the mountain peaks; / unhindered, it scorches the bottom of the ocean. / The Dharma net is loose, the numinous flame minute. / Lying down in the sixth month, take off clothing and quilt; / it cannot be covered over, without falsehood. / One who has reached the Way chants the ancestor's intent; / the lineage of my master from ancient times was concealed. / Only such a person skillfully sets it to rest, / abundant in Dharma wealth, fully endowed with shame and conscience. / Not dispensing it in vain, the place of application is accurate. / If someone asks, exhale gently; / if they inquire further, say that rice is expensive.
29.60
Final Words
29.61
There is a word that fulfills all rules: / stop thinking and do not approve yourself. / When meeting on the road a person who has reached the Way, / raise your eyebrows to recognize where they come from. / If you cannot step upon it, you will have many doubts; / then looking back, you must bring along companions. / A lifetime of practicing and learning with nothing accomplished, / diligently hugging a sandalwood tree.
29.62
Expressing the Profound: For Grand Master Cui
29.63
A person who has reached [the Way] mostly conceals and reveals; / their physical bearing is not fixedly displayed. / Beneath their words they leave no trace; / subtly and secretly, they privately uphold it. / Moving their bearing, they raise up the ancient path; / only when clear and wondrous is it known. / Responding to things, they merely make provisions; / do not call it inconceivable.
29.64
Reaching the Bodhimaṇḍa: For the Practitioner Chengyin
29.65
The principle is profound, cutting off thinking; / tracing the root, the path is long. / Because of this, know the separation and distance; / helpless, one is bound by borders. / In human life, one must stand out exceptionally; / rising and sitting, perceive the fragrance. / Pure disciple of the Tathāgata, / sit peacefully in the bodhimaṇḍa.
29.66
For Administrative Assistant Xue
29.67
Drop by drop of water, flame by flame of fire. / The person drinking water gets drunk; the person facing fire grows old. / Neither drinking nor facing, they no longer lie down peacefully. / Breaking bows and arrows, trampling down archery targets. / If someone wants to know, first remove the hooks and awls. / People must ask me: who am I? / Speak quickly! Speak quickly!
29.68
For the Practitioner of Linru County
29.69
Alas, great man, buried so long in dust! / Because of today, I have entered into the mountains. / You raised your eyebrows to show me, and thereby my eyes opened. / This old monk has wind in his hands, writing with trembling infirmity; / beneath the words is an intention to step out of the cage.
29.70
Revealing the Purport
29.71
Contemplation is far-reaching, the spirit's bearing profound; / refined and empty, practice penetrates through. / Seeing and hearing are apart from shadows and images; / at the secret juncture, traces precede words. / Grasping the meaning, wondrous amid dust; / encountering the mechanism, revealing the face of the Way. / Hiding clarity, illumination alerts and awakens; / only when affirmed can one reach the true school.
29.72
The Meaning After Three Phrases
29.73
Writing out words, most are empty; / within emptiness, there is being and nonbeing. / Turn back toward what precedes the writing to understand, / and let go of the jewel within the mind.
29.74
Answering Director Zheng's Question: Two Verses
29.75
Within words, traces are buried; before sound, the countenance is revealed. / Instantly, wondrously tallying, of the same style as the ancients. / Responding like an echo to what fits the moment, without schools of self and other; / rebuking the sluggish python, it vigorously leaps up and becomes a dragon.
29.76
Within words are buried sinews and bones; / sounds dye the countenance of the Way. / The moment there is subtle understanding, / clap your hands and chase away the perverse dragon.
29.77
Speaking of the Way
29.78
Distinctly clear, without accompanying additions; / operating alone, what does it rely on? / Meeting on the road a person who has reached the Way, / do not respond with speech or silence.
29.79
The Profound Mechanism for Students
29.80
The wondrous purport is swift, speech comes late; / the moment you understand following words, you lose the spirit's mechanism. / Raising eyebrows upon being questioned, smiling happily face to face: / what kind of realm is this? Only those on the same path will know.
29.81
Clarifying the Way
29.82
Thinking and pondering, there seems to be a trace; / bright and clear, its place is not known. / Inquiring, I show it to the guest of the lineage: / slowly, quietly looking back.
29.83
Profound Purport
29.84
Going, going, without a target; / coming, coming, just coming like this. / If someone inquires of me, / saying nothing, I laugh heartily.
29.85
For the Practitioner of Dengzhou
29.86
Beneath the trees, I feel my body is foolish; / conditions do not carry the mind-jewel. / Opening the mouth, there is no speech; / at the brush-tip, there is nothing to write. / If someone asks the purport of Xiangyan, / do not say it is residing in the mountains.
29.87
After Three Leaps
29.88
Before the triple gate, join palms. / Beneath the two corridors, practice the Way. / In the central courtyard, dance. / Outside the rear gate, shake your head.
29.89
Superior Capacity
29.90
Tut! Make no mistake: suddenly there is no awareness. / Speaking into empty space, a single move startles the dragon. / Summoning with quiet words, wondrously surpassing names and appearances; / lofty followers of the Way, there is nothing to strip away.
29.91
Breaking the View of the Dharmakāya
29.92
Looking above, there are no parents; / looking below, there are no sons and daughters. / Just this single body alone— / you must definitely resolve it! / Hearing that I speak these words, / everyone competes to grasp them. / Facing them with a single phrase: / no speaking, no words.
29.93
Single Foot
29.94
The chick pecks from within, the mother pecks from without; the chick perceives no shell. / Mother and chick are both forgotten; responding to conditions, there is no error. / Comrades on the Way sing in harmony, wonderfully calling it 'single foot'.
29.95
One Verse by Upādhyāya Liangjie of Dongshan
29.96
No-Mind Tallies with the Way
29.97
The Way has no mind to tally with man; / man has no mind to tally with the Way. / If you wish to understand the meaning in this: / one is old, and one is not old.
29.98
Eighteen Verses by Upādhyāya Judun of Longya
29.99
The dragon in Mount Longya: / its form is not of worldly color. / The painters of dragons in the world, / with all their skill, cannot draw it. / Only the one who recognizes the dragon, / seeing it once, has their mind set to rest.
29.100
I only reflect upon the tree before the gate, / which can accommodate birds perching and flying. / When they come, it has no mind to call them; / when they take flight, it longs not for their return. / If a person's mind is like the tree, / they will not be contrary to the Way.
29.101
Once having attained no-mind, that is the sentiment of the Way; / the six gates rest, not fatiguing the physical form. / Those with affinities are not my friends; / these useless eyebrows are instead my brothers.
29.102
Awakened, one is still the same as an unawakened person; / with no mind for victory or defeat, one naturally calms the spirit. / From ancient times the virtuous of old called themselves 'the impoverished monk'; / toward this gate, how many people are there?
29.103
Learning the Way first requires having the cause of awakening; / it is just like having competed in a swift dragon boat. / Although in the past it was hauled up on empty ground, / only after winning once did one finally cease.
29.104
Emptiness of mind does not match the ease of the emptiness of the Way; / the Way and emptiness of mind have a similar appearance. / Unless one investigating the profound is an adept of the emptiness of the Way, / upon meeting at first glance, it is not easy to see.
29.105
From youth I followed a master to study the ancestral lineage; / idle flowers were like bees entangling people. / A monk's true nature needs no reliance, dwelling beyond the clouds; / after attaining it, one knows non-form is naturally empty.
29.106
Studying the Way, one groundlessly studies drawing dragons; / Originally one never mastered the brush's traces. / One morning, after embodying the real dragon, / Only then does one realize past efforts were wasted in vain.
29.107
Those who become Buddhas are few; those who recite the Buddha's name are many. / Reciting for long years, they turn instead into māras. / If you now wish to become a Buddha yourself, / Are not people of no-thought far more numerous?
29.108
While in a dream, how could one know the dream is illusory? / Upon awakening, one only then perceives there is nothing in the dream. / The time of delusion is just like the events in a dream; / After awakening, one is simply like a person risen from sleep.
29.109
Studying the Way, through the master's instruction one reaches leisure; / In the midst of nothingness there is a path concealed in the human realm. / Though you might expound a thousand sūtras and treatises, / Facing the crucial moment, a single phrase is hard to utter.
29.110
Bodhisattvas and śrāvakas have not exhausted emptiness; / Humans and devas come and go, seeking the true tradition. / How can that compare to the Buddha, a person free of doubt, / Sitting upright in no-mind, effortlessly penetrating all?
29.111
If you do not rest in this life, when will you rest? / Resting in this present life is what all must know. / The mind rests simply because there is no delusive thought; / When delusions are eliminated and the mind rests, that is the time of cessation.
29.112
A deluded person not having realized admonishes the blind and deaf, / Adding yet another layer of mud atop the soil. / An awakened person has intention identical with deluded intention, / Yet right within delusion, delusion is never encountered.
29.113
In studying the Way, do not greedily seek; / With no-mind regarding the ten thousand things, the Way accords. / Only with no-mind does one embody the Way of no-mind; / Having embodied no-mind, the Way also ceases.
29.114
The body of blazing radiance with the curl of white hair between the eyebrows— / How can seeing through phenomena compare to the intimacy of seeing through principle? / Phenomena exist solely because of principle; / The provisional skillful means of principle transform devas and humans. / One morning, in great awakening, both vanish completely; / Only then does one earn the name of a person of nothing-to-do.
29.115
Human sentiment is thick, while sentiment for the Way is faint; / How could the world know the Way's function within human sentiment? / Empty of the Way's function, having only human sentiment— / How long can human sentiment last?
29.116
To seek the ox, one must follow the tracks; / To study the Way, seek no-mind. / Where tracks remain, the ox is present; / With no-mind, the Way is easily sought.
29.117
Three Eulogies by Great Master Zongyi, Shibei of Xuansha
29.118
Xuansha's roaming path is distinct; / People of the time must urgently know it: / In the depth of the three winter months, the yang force flourishes; / In the sixth month, the time when frost descends. / There are words that have nothing to do with the tongue; / Wordlessness is the truly essential speech. / If you understand my final phrase, / Few in this world will know it.
29.119
Wondrous indeed is the single spiritual elder! / Why indulge in so much chatter? / When the wind rises, it plays the konghou harp; / Deluded children vie to gather round. / Even if it were entirely amiss, / The toad opens its mouth wide. / Opening the mouth or not opening the mouth, / In the end both offend the spiritual elder. / If you wish to know the meaning within this: / The Southern Star is truly the Northern Dipper.
29.120
The spiritual light of ten thousand miles is the mark behind the crown; / When it is submerged beneath the crown, where can one gaze? / The matter is already accomplished, the intention also at rest; / This one has always been complete in every touch. / The wise person, hearing it just once, fiercely seizes it; / Do not wait until in an instant you lose your head.
29.121
Two Eulogies by Great Master Zhenjue, Shengdeng of Zhaoqing
29.122
Instructing Those Clinging to Sitting Meditation
29.123
The Great Way is completely clear, utterly devoid of a speck of dust; / Why must you sit for long periods before becoming intimate with it? / If encountering conditions you understand that nothing is not it, / Abiding in confusion, how could there be old and new? / Untrammeled, who would consent to match Zhi Dun's companions? / Carefree, how could one be neighbor to Hui Xiu? / Now wandering amid springs and rocks, now in the marketplace, / One may well be called a person beyond things of mist and clouds.
29.124
Instructing on Skillful Means for Sitting Meditation
29.125
Among the four postures, sitting comes first; / Clarifying and purifying body and mind, gradually all becomes tranquil. / If in a flash conditions arise following the defiled realm, / You must surely not continue them—this is the natural lifespan. / Cultivation and upholding only speak of the path from exertion; / How could the ultimate principle be discussed as being over there? / Always maintain mindful attention at all times; / When causes and conditions come together, one broadly penetrates the profound.
29.126
One Eulogy on Illuminating the Way by Upādhyāya Guichen of Luohan in Zhangzhou
29.127
The ultimate Way is deep and vast; do not express it in words. / Verbal expression is not the pointer; who can say this is it? / Everywhere is That; how can it be illustrated by real or empty? / If one were to discern real and empty, it would be like reflections in a mirror. / Though existence and non-existence are manifest, in all places there is no harm. / Free of harm and free of location, what restriction or obstruction could there be? / Without relying on accomplished effort, by what could it be naturally so? / Being naturally so or not naturally so are both mutually dependent like lips and teeth. / If presented in this manner, the fundamental lineage is buried and lost. / The lineage is not stated in concepts; it cannot be grasped by seeing and hearing. / If seeing and hearing are not shed, it is like the moon in the water. / If not clear about this, it turns into redundant dharmas. / If a single dharma has form, it obscures your eyes. / When the eyes are not clear, the world is rugged and chaotic. / Our tradition is extraordinary, directly manifest and illustrious. / The Buddhas and sentient beings all receive its gracious power. / It does not lie in bowing the head and deliberating, which is hard to attain. / Pierce through the face, covering heaven and earth! / Quickly recognize and grasp it, casting off sense faculties and dust! / If you do not understand, it is in vain to speak of the present.
29.128
One Eulogy on the Ground of Awakening by Chan Master Weijin of Nanyue (Seven-character verse)
29.129
Briefly clarifying the identical and differing names of the ground of awakening: / Arising and returning, beginning and end, mutually generate each other. / First established in the ocean of nature, appellations are augmented; / Wondrous awakening relies in turn on natural awakening's brightness. / Substance-awakening fully encompasses both the bright and the wondrous; / Bright awakening and wondrous awakening advance side by side. / Wondrous awakening awakens to the wondrous, the original bright substance, / Entirely becoming the single true essence free of outflows. / Bright awakening awakens to brightness, that which is discerned by brightness; / Or perhaps due to discerned marks one loses the original brightness. / Bright and wondrous, the two awakenings, take substance-awakening as their source; / Substance-awakening and nature-awakening are both equally bright. / Serene awakening is perfectly round, without increase or decrease; / Herein there is neither Buddha nor sentient being. / Without awakening, beginning and end are not distinct; / Without hearing, how could delusion and awakening be alert? / This is called the mind-ground, the tathāgatagarbha; / There is also no awakening illumination, nor non-arising. / The ocean of true suchness neither arises nor ceases; / Calmly and permanently abiding, named the nameless. / Before the great void awakens, spots of haze arise; / How could one hear the sound of defilement in subtle dust? / The bubble in the void is not separate from the ocean of awakening; / Movement and stillness are originally the single true brightness. / The substance of bright awakening naturally contains the spiritual flame; / Bright awakening pursues the flame, causing waxing and waning. / Erring from it without returning is called non-awakening; / Realizing it and returning to the source, initial awakening arises. / Fundamental awakening arises on account of initial awakening; / Correct awakening relies in turn on united awakening's brightness. / Because these two kinds produce disparity, / It leads to the collective designation of the ālaya. / Fully containing the twin branching roads of defilement and purity, / Where bright awakening is contained, divergent paths sprout. / Nature-arising is non-arising, unshakeable wisdom; / Not separate from the awakening substance, it is originally accomplished. / Nature-arising turns awakening back into an object, / Thus causing the contaminated to fall into delusion and blindness. / Ignorance, nourished by craving, / Progressively engenders the root of name-and-form. / Where the seventh consciousness turns, the round mirror is veiled; / When the fifth and sixth arise, bright awakening is obscured. / Contact, feeling, and grasping arise in mutual dependence; / Birth, old age, sickness, and death proceed in succession. / The karmic consciousness is vast and boundless, submerged in the sea of suffering; / Following the torrential stream, it drifts and scatters. / The Great Sage in compassion gives rise to deliverance: / Where a single sound functions, three sounds emerge. / The wisdom body arises from the Dharma body; / The practice body is generated in relation to the wisdom body. / The wisdom and practice bodies merge without duality, / Returning to the single substance, fundamentally equal. / The ten thousand existences together contain the true ocean seal; / The one mind universally manifests, entirely round and bright. / The serene light blazes—upon what does it rely? / The nature of emptiness is vast and boundless, halting nowhere. / Everywhere it displays birth, yet without marks of birth; / Everywhere it displays cessation, yet without forms of cessation. / The jewel mirror instantly imprints, without coming or going; / Drifting clouds gather and disperse, having no fixed routine. / Appearing and disappearing, letting truth be like the water-moon; / Responding to conditions like an echo, it transforms the multitude of beings. / Sentient beings' nature-ground is originally without defilement; / It is only because floating delusions obscure the true essence. / Not understanding the five aggregates to be like an empty village, / How could they know the four elements are like a gandharva city? / The mountain of conceit and folly stands towering and high; / The ocean of ignorance and desire is dark and fathomless. / Always pursuing canḍālas, proud and deceitful companions, / Constantly following wild beasts, uttering mournful cries. / The self-nature transforms consciousness, turning into illusion; / The illusory realm of one's own mind alarms one's own mind. / Understand that this illusory nature is like a mirage: / The consciousness-waves of space-flowers return to perfect accomplishment. / In the great void, when one suddenly perceives floating clouds disperse, / One only then awakens to the void being originally pure of itself. / Past and present serenely and constantly brilliant, / It attains no names of past or present, ordinary or sage.
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- 景德傳燈錄 — Classical Chinese