景德傳燈錄 5.48

5.48

Chan Master Huairang of Nanyue was surnamed Du and was a native of Jinzhou. At the age of fifteen, he went to Yuquan Monastery in Jingzhou to leave home under Vinaya Master Hongjing. After receiving full ordination, he studied the Vinaya Piṭaka. One day he sighed to himself, 'Leaving home is for the unconditioned Dharma!' At that time, his fellow student Tanran, knowing that the master's aspirations were lofty and extraordinary, advised him to visit Upādhyāya An of Mount Song. An inspired him, and so he went straight to Caoxi to consult the Sixth Patriarch. The Patriarch asked, 'Where do you come from?' He said, 'I come from Mount Song.' The Patriarch said, 'What thing comes thus?' He said, 'To say it is like a thing would not hit the mark.' The Patriarch said, 'Can it still be cultivated and verified?' He said, 'It is not that cultivation and verification are absent, but it cannot be defiled.' The Patriarch said, 'Just this non-defilement is what all Buddhas protect and remember. You are like this, and I am also like this. Prajñātāra of the Western Heavens predicted: "Under your feet will come forth a young colt that will trample to death everyone in the world." Keep this in your mind; there is no need to speak of it hastily.' The master suddenly had an accordant awakening and attended upon him for fifteen years. In the second year of Xiantian of the Tang, he first went to Mount Heng to reside at Bore (Prajñā) Monastery. During the Kaiyuan era, the śramaṇa Daoyi (the Great Master Mazu) resided at Chuanfa Cloister and sat constantly in meditation every day. The master, knowing he was a vessel of Dharma, went and asked, 'Venerable, what do you aim for in sitting in meditation?' [Dao]yi said, 'I aim to become a Buddha.' The master then took a tile and ground it on a rock in front of his hermitage. Daoyi said, 'What are you doing, Master?' The master said, 'Grinding it to make a mirror.' Daoyi said, 'How can grinding a tile make a mirror?' [The master said,] 'How can sitting in meditation make a Buddha?' Daoyi said, 'How then is it right?' The master said, 'If a man driving a cart finds it does not move, is it right to whip the cart, or is it right to whip the ox?' Daoyi had no reply. The master also said, 'Do you study sitting meditation, or do you study sitting Buddha? If you study sitting meditation, meditation is neither sitting nor lying down. If you study sitting Buddha, Buddha is not a fixed form. Regarding the Dharma of non-abiding, you should not grasp or reject. If you sit Buddha, you kill the Buddha; if you cling to the sitting form, you do not penetrate its principle.' Hearing this instruction was like drinking ghee. Daoyi bowed and asked, 'How should one apply the mind so as to accord with the formless samādhi?' The master said, 'Your studying the mind-ground Dharma-gate is like planting seeds; my expounding the essentials of the Dharma is like rain from heaven. Because your conditions harmonize, you will perceive the Way.' He asked further, 'The Way is without physical form; how can it be seen?' The master said, 'The Dharma eye of the mind-ground can see the Way; the formless samādhi is also like this.' Daoyi said, 'Is there creation and destruction?' The master said, 'If one sees the Way through creation and destruction, aggregation and dispersion, one does not see the Way. Listen to my verse:'