續傳燈錄 12.68

12.68

襄州石門元易禪師。潼川稅氏子。上堂。十方同聚會。箇箇學無為。此是選佛場。心空及第歸。大眾只如聞見覺知未嘗有間。作麼生說箇心空底道理。莫是見而不見聞而不聞為之心空耶錯。莫是忘機息慮萬法俱捐。銷能所以入玄宗。泯性相而歸法界。為之心空耶錯。恁麼也不得。不恁麼也不得。恁麼不恁麼總不得。未審畢竟作麼生。還會麼。良久曰。若實無為無不為。天堂地獄長相隨。三尺杖子攪黃河。八臂那吒冷眼窺。無限魚龍盡奔走。捉得循河三脚龜。脫取殼鐵錐錐。吉凶之兆便分輝。借問東村白頭老。吉凶未兆若何為。休休休。古往今來春復秋。白日騰騰隨分過。更嫌何處不風流咄。上堂。皓月當空澄潭無影。紫微轉處夕陽輝。彩鳳歸時天欲曉。碧霄雲外石筍橫空。綠水波中泥牛駕浪。懷胎玉兔曉過西岑。抱子金雞夜棲東嶺。於斯明得始知。夜明簾外別是家風。空王殿中聖凡絕跡。且道作麼生是夜明簾外事。還委悉麼。正值秋風來入戶。一聲砧杵落誰家。僧問。古鏡未磨時如何。師曰。精靈皺眉。曰磨後如何。師曰。波斯彈指。曰為什麼如此。師曰。好事不出門。紹興丁丑七月二十五日坐寂。火後收舍利塔于學射山。

Chan Master Yuanyi of Shimen in Xiangzhou was a native of the Shui clan in Tongchuan. He ascended the hall [and said]: 'From the ten directions they gather together, each studying non-action. This is the arena where buddhas are chosen; those whose minds are empty return having passed the examination.' Great assembly, if hearing, seeing, awareness, and knowing have never had any gap, how do you explain this principle of the mind being empty? Could it be that seeing without seeing and hearing without hearing constitutes mind-emptiness? That is wrong! Could it be that forgetting all contrivance, putting thoughts to rest, discarding all phenomena, melting away subject and object to enter the profound lineage, and obliterating nature and form to return to the Dharma realm constitutes mind-emptiness? That is wrong! Being thus is unacceptable; not being thus is unacceptable; being thus and not being thus are altogether unacceptable. I wonder, what is it ultimately? Do you understand? [After a] long silence, he said: 'If one is truly in non-action with nothing left unacted, heaven and hell will accompany each other forever. A three-foot staff stirs up the Yellow River; eight-armed Nata observes with cold eyes. Boundless fish and dragons completely scatter; caught is a three-legged turtle scurrying along the river. Strip off its shell and pierce it with an iron awl, then the omens of good and ill fortune will shine distinctly forth. I venture to ask the white-haired elder of the eastern village: before omens of good and ill have portended, what should be done? Desist, desist, desist! Through antiquity down to the present, spring follows autumn. In the bright daytime, let things rush on, passing as they will; why begrudge any place for lacking flair? Bah!'
He ascended the hall [and said]: 'The bright moon hangs in the sky, the clear pool casts no shadow. Where the Purple Microstar revolves, the evening sun blazes. When the colorful phoenix returns, dawn is about to break. Beyond the clouds of the azure ether, stone shoots stretch across the void; amidst the waves of the green waters, an earthen ox rides the surges. The pregnant jade hare passes over the western peaks at dawn; the golden pheasant carrying its young roosts on the eastern range by night. If you clarify this, you will first know that outside the night-shining screen there is an extraordinary house style, and in the hall of the Emptiness King the tracks of the noble and the ordinary are cut off. Now tell me, what is the matter outside the night-shining screen? Do you understand clearly? Just as the autumn wind enters through the doorway, into whose house falls the sound of a washing-block mallet?'
A monk asked: 'What is it like before the ancient mirror has been polished?'
The master said: 'Spirits and demons knit their brows.'
[The monk] asked: 'What is it like after it has been polished?'
The master said: 'A Persian snaps his fingers.'
[The monk] said: 'Why is it like this?'
The master said: 'Good things do not leave the door.'
On the twenty-fifth day of the seventh month in the dingchou year of the Shaoxing era (1157), he sat and passed into silence. After the cremation, his relics were collected and enshrined in a stūpa at Mount Xueshe.