景德傳燈錄 7.18

7.18

When Daji heard that the Master was dwelling in the mountains, he sent a monk to go and ask him: "What did the Venerable obtain upon seeing Master Ma that made you take up residence in this mountain?"
The Master said: "Master Ma told me: 'Mind itself is Buddha.' So I came here to dwell."
The monk said: "Master Ma's Buddha-Dharma has been different recently."
The Master said: "How is it different?"
The monk said: "Recently he also says: 'Neither mind nor Buddha.'"
The Master said: "That old fellow confuses and deranges people, with no end in sight! Let him have his 'neither mind nor Buddha'; I only hold to 'mind itself is Buddha.'"
The monk returned and related this to Mazu. Mazu said: "Assembly, the plum (mei) has ripened!" (A monk asked Heshan: "Damei spoke like this; what was his meaning?" Heshan said: "A true lion's cub!")
From then on, students gathered in increasing numbers, and the Master's way grew ever more renowned.
The Master ascended the hall and addressed the assembly, saying: "All of you should each turn your mind back to reach the fundamental, and not pursue the branch-tips. Merely attain the fundamental, and the branch-tips will come on their own. If you wish to know the fundamental, simply comprehend your own mind. Because this mind is originally the root of all mundane and supramundane dharmas, when the mind arises, diverse dharmas arise; when the mind ceases, diverse dharmas cease. The mind does not attach to any good or evil, yet the myriad dharmas that arise are originally such as they are."
A monk asked: "What is the great meaning of the Buddha-Dharma?"
The Master said: "Cattail flowers, willow fluff, bamboo needles, hempen thread."
Jiashan and Dingshan were once walking together. In their conversation, Dingshan said: "If there is no Buddha within birth and death, then it is not birth and death." Jiashan said: "If there is a Buddha within birth and death, then one is not deluded by birth and death." The two ascended the mountain to pay homage. Jiashan then brought this forward and asked the Master: "We do not know which of the two's views is closer?"
The Master said: "One is close, one is distant."
Jiashan said: "Which one is close?"
The Master said: "Go for now; come back tomorrow."
The next day Jiashan came up again and asked the Master. The Master said: "The close one does not ask; the one who asks is not close." (After Jiashan became abbot, he himself said: "Back then I lost one eye.")
Suddenly one day the Master said to his disciples: "What comes cannot be suppressed; what goes cannot be pursued." Amid their composure, they heard the sound of a flying squirrel. The Master said: "Just this thing, not another thing. All of you, protect and uphold it well. I am now passing away." Having spoken, he displayed cessation. His age was eighty-eight; his monastic age was sixty-nine. Chan Master Zhijue Yanshou praised him in verse: