景德傳燈錄 5.85

5.85

Chan Master Benjing of Mount Sikong was a native of Jiangzhou surnamed Zhang. At an early age, he shaved his head and received the prediction [of enlightenment] in the room of Caoxi. He was registered at Wuxiang Monastery on Mount Sikong. In the third year of the Tianbao era of the Tang, Xuanzong dispatched the palace commissioner Yang Guangting into the mountains to gather evergreen ivy. On that occasion, he went to the abbot's quarters and bowed, asking: "Your disciple has long admired uprightness; may the upādhyāya be compassionate and briefly bestow instruction." The Master said: "The great scholars of the Chan school throughout the realm are all assembled in the capital. When the imperial commissioner returns to court, that will be fully sufficient to inquire and resolve matters. This poor monk lurks in the mountains by the waters, with no mental effort to apply." Guangting wept and bowed. The Master said: "Cease bowing to this poor monk. Does the imperial commissioner seek the Buddha or inquire about the Way?" Guangting said: "Your disciple's intellect is dim and murky; I do not yet understand how the Buddha and the Way are discussed." The Master said: "If you wish to seek the Buddha, the mind itself is the Buddha. If you wish to understand the Way, non-mind is the Way." Guangting asked: "Why is the mind itself the Buddha?" The Master said: "The Buddha is awakened through the mind; the mind is manifested through the Buddha. If one awakens to non-mind, the Buddha also does not exist." Guangting asked: "Why is non-mind the Way?" The Master said: "The Way is fundamentally without mind; 'non-mind' is called the Way. If you comprehend non-mind, non-mind is the Way." Guangting bowed, faithfully accepted it, and returned to the palace. Guangting reported everything he had encountered in the mountains to the throne. An imperial order was immediately issued to Guangting to summon the Master. On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, he arrived at the capital, and an imperial order instructed him to reside at the White Lotus Pavilion. In the following year, on the fifteenth day of the first month, famous monks and eminent scholars of the Two Streets were summoned to proceed to the inner chapel to expound the Buddhist principles together with the Master. At that time, there was a Chan Master Yuan, who raised his voice and said to the Master: "Now, before His Imperial Majesty, we are comparing and assessing the essentials of the doctrine. One must ask directly and answer directly, without using verbose expressions. Taking only what the Chan master perceives, what is the Way?" The Master answered, saying: "Non-mind is the Way." Yuan said: "The Way exists on account of the mind; how can you say that non-mind is the Way?" The Master said: "The Way is fundamentally without name; on account of the mind it is named 'the Way.' If the name 'mind' exists, the Way is not in vain. If, when the mind is thoroughly examined, it is already nonexistent, upon what does the Way rely to be established? Both are empty and false; they are entirely provisional names." Yuan said: "Does the Chan master see that having body and mind is the Way, or not?" The Master said: "This mountain monk's body and mind are originally the Way." Yuan said: "You just said that non-mind is the Way. Now you say again that body and mind are originally the Way. Are they not contradictory?" The Master said: "Non-mind is the Way: when the mind vanishes, the Way is nonexistent. Mind and the Way are suchlike; therefore it is said that non-mind is the Way. Body and mind are originally the Way; the Way is also originally body and mind. Since body and mind are fundamentally empty, when their source is probed to the utmost, the Way also does not exist." Yuan said: "Observing the Chan master's physical form, it is very small, yet you understand this principle." The Master said: "Venerable Sir, you see only this mountain monk's forms; you do not see this mountain monk's formlessness. Seeing forms is what the Venerable Sir sees. The sūtra says: 'Whatever has marks is entirely empty and false. If you see all marks as non-marks, you then awaken to that Way.' If one takes marks to be real, even through exhausting kalpas one cannot awaken to the Way." Yuan said: "Now I request the Chan master to speak of the formless upon forms." The Master said: "The Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa Sūtra says: 'The four great elements have no master; the body also has no self.' What is seen as without self accords with the Way. Venerable Sir, if you take the four great elements to have a master, that is a self. If you have the view of a self, even through exhausting kalpas you cannot understand the Way." When Master Yuan heard these words, his complexion changed; he hesitated and shrank back from his seat. The Master had a verse, which went: