景德傳燈錄 7.10

7.10

Chan Master Zizai of Mount Funiu in Yique was a native of Wuxing. His family name was Li. At first, he took full ordination under Chan Master Guoyi of Jingshan. Later, at Nankang, he met Daji and illuminated the mind-ground. He subsequently delivered a letter for Daji to National Teacher Zhong. The National Teacher asked, “What does Great Master Ma use to instruct his assembly?” He replied, “This mind itself is Buddha.” The National Teacher said, “What kind of talk is that?” After a good while, he asked again, “Besides this, what other teachings does he have?” The master said, “Neither mind nor Buddha; or he says, ‘It is not mind, it is not Buddha, it is not a thing.’” The National Teacher said, “That is slightly better.” The master said, “Great Master Ma is just like this; I wonder what it is like here with the Upādhyāya?” The National Teacher said, “Three dots like flowing water; curved like a sickle for reaping grain.” Later, the master lived in seclusion on Mount Funiu. One day he said to the assembly: “‘This mind itself is Buddha’ is a phrase seeking illness when there is no illness. ‘Neither mind nor Buddha’ is a phrase applying medicine to treat illness.” A monk asked, “What is a phrase of being completely free and unconstrained?” The master said, “At the foot of Mount Funiu, it has been passed down from ancient times to the present.” Later, the master showed extinction at Kaiyuan Temple in Suizhou, at the age of eighty-one.