景德傳燈錄 9.14

9.14

Chan Master Da'an of Fuzhou was a native of that prefecture, with the surname Chen. In his youth, he underwent training at Mount Huangbo and studied the vinaya vehicle. He once thought to himself, "Though I have toiled diligently, I have not yet heard the profound and ultimate principle." Thereupon, with solitary staff he wandered on pilgrimage. On his way to Hongzhou via Shangyuan, he met an old man who said to him, "If you go to Nanchang, Master, you will surely attain something." The master went straight to Baizhang, paid homage, and asked, "I wish to seek knowledge of the Buddha. Which is it?" Baizhang said, "It is very much like riding an ox in search of an ox." The master said, "What after knowing it?" Baizhang said, "It is like a person riding an ox to reach home." The master said, "I do not know how to maintain and protect it from beginning to end." Baizhang said, "It is like an oxherd holding a staff and watching it, not allowing it to encroach on people's crops." From this, the master grasped the meaning and no longer sought elsewhere. When his fellow student Chan Master You first established the monastery at Mount Gui, the master personally plowed to support the Way. When Chan Master You passed into silence, the assembly requested him to take up the succession as abbot. The master entered the hall and said: "Why have all of you come to An to seek anything? If you wish to become a buddha, you yourselves are buddhas, yet you run from door to door, in a flurry like thirsty deer chasing a mirage. When will you ever tally [with the truth]? If you wish to become buddhas, merely have none of these many inverted, clinging,妄想 delusive thoughts, evil perceptions, defiled desires, and impure minds of sentient beings, and then you are the freshly awakened, fully enlightened Buddha! Where else would you search for a reason? I, An, was at Mount Gui for thirty-odd years. I ate Guishan's rice and excreted Guishan's feces, not studying Guishan's Chan, but only watching a water ox. If it strayed from the path into the grass, I led it out; if it encroached on people's crops, I whipped and subdued it. After a long time, pitifully, it could accept people's words. Now it has transformed into a white ox on open ground, always before my face, fully visible all day long; even if chased, it does not leave. Each of you has an invaluable great jewel: from the eye-gate it radiates light illuminating the mountains, rivers, and great earth; from the ear-gate it radiates light taking in all sounds, good and bad. The six gates constantly emit bright light day and night; this is also named the light-radiating samādhi. You yourselves do not recognize it, grasping at reflections within the four-element body, sustained internally and externally without letting it topple. It is like a person carrying a heavy burden crossing a single-plank bridge, without letting his footing slip. What thing, after all, maintains and bears it so? If you seek a hairsbreadth of it, it cannot be seen. Therefore Master Zhigong said, 'Searching within and without, nothing at all is found; yet acting upon phenomena, it is abundantly present.'" A monk asked, "All activities are the functioning of the Dharmakāya; what is the Dharmakāya?" The master said, "All activities are the functioning of the Dharmakāya." The monk said, "Apart from the five aggregates, what is the original body?" The master said, "Earth, water, fire, wind; sensation, perception, volition, consciousness." The monk said, "These are the five aggregates." The master said, "These are different from the five aggregates." A monk asked, "What is it like when this skandha has ceased and that skandha has not yet arisen?" The master said, "This skandha has not ceased; which one is the Great Worthy?" The monk said, "I do not understand." The master said, "If you understand this skandha, you will be clear about that skandha." A monk asked, "What is it like when the great functioning manifests before one, without abiding by rules?" The master said, "If you can use it, simply use it." The monk then bared his shoulder and walked around the master three times. The master said, "Why do you not speak of the transcendental matter?" The monk made as if to open his mouth, and the master struck him, saying, "Out with you, wild fox spirit!" A monk went up to the Dharma hall, looked east and west without seeing the master, and said, "A fine Dharma hall, but there is no one here." The master came out from behind the door and said, "What are you doing?" The monk had no reply. Master Xuefeng, having entered the mountain, gathered a piece of wood shaped like a snake. On its back he inscribed: "Naturally so of itself, not needing carving or chiseling," and sent it to the master. The master said, "A mountain dweller true to form, with no trace of knife or axe." Someone asked the master, "Where is the Buddha?" The master said, "Not apart from the mind." He also asked, "What did the Venerable Shuangfeng attain?" The master said, "In the Dharma there is nothing attained; even if there were an attainment, one attains that originally there is no attainment." A monk asked, "When Huang Chao's army comes, where will the upādhyāya hide?" The master said, "Within the mountain of the five aggregates." The monk said, "What if you are suddenly captured by them?" The master said, "It will trouble the general." The master extensively transformed people in the city of Min for more than twenty years. On the twenty-second day of the tenth month in the third year of the Zhonghe reign era of the Tang dynasty, he returned to Huangbo Monastery, manifested illness, and passed away. His stūpa was erected on Mount Laṅkā. By imperial decree, he was posthumously granted the title Chan Master Yuanzhi, and the stūpa was named Zhengzhen.