續傳燈錄 17.28

17.28

洪州泐潭景祥禪師。建昌南城傅氏子。僧問。如何是祖師西來意。師曰。十箇指頭八箇丫。問我手何似佛手。師曰。金鍮難辨。曰我脚何似驢脚。師曰。黃龍路險。曰人人有箇生緣。如何是和尚生緣。師曰。把定要津不通凡聖。中秋上堂。靈山話曹谿指。放過初生斫額底。未問龍眠老古錐。昨夜三更轉向西。正當恁麼時。有人問如何是月向明暗未分處道得一句。便與古人共出一隻手。如或未然。寶峯不免依模畫樣應箇時節。乃打一圓相曰。清光萬古復千古。豈止人間一夜看。師室中問僧。達磨西歸手携隻履。當時何不兩隻都將去。曰此土也要留箇消息。師曰。一隻脚在西天。一隻脚在東土。著甚來由。僧無語。問僧。唯一堅密身一切塵中現。如何是塵中現底身。僧指香爐曰。這箇是香爐。師曰。帶累三世諸佛生陷地獄。僧罔措。師便打。師不安次有僧問。和尚近日尊候如何。師曰。土地前燒二陌紙著。師常叉手夜坐如對大賓。初坐手與趺綴。至五鼓必齊膺。因號祥叉手焉。

Chan Master Jingxiang of Letan in Hongzhou was a son of the Fu family of Nancheng in Jianchang. A monk asked, "What is the meaning of the Patriarch's coming from the West?" The master said, "Ten fingers, eight spaces in between." [The monk] asked, "How does my hand resemble a Buddha's hand?" The master said, "Gold and brass are hard to distinguish." [The monk] asked, "How does my foot resemble a donkey's foot?" The master said, "The road of Huanglong is perilous." [The monk] said, "Everyone has their karmic conditions of birth. What are the Upādhyāya's karmic conditions of birth?" The master said, "Holding fast the essential ford, neither ordinary nor sage can pass." Ascending the hall at Mid-Autumn, [the master said], "The words at Gṛdhrakūṭa, the finger at Caoxi—let pass the newborn one who struck his forehead. Not yet questioning the old awl of Longmian, last night at the third watch it turned toward the west. Right at such a time, if someone asks what is the moon, and can utter a phrase where brightness and darkness are not yet divided, they join hands with the ancients. If not yet so, Baofeng cannot avoid following the pattern and drawing the likeness to correspond to the season." He then drew a circle and said, "Pure radiance for myriad kalpas and thousands of kalpas more; / How could it be seen for only one night in the human realm?" In his room, the master asked a monk, "When Bodhidharma returned to the west, he carried a single shoe in hand. Why didn't he take both away at that time?" [The monk] said, "This land also needed to have some news left behind." The master said, "One foot in the Western Heavens, one foot in the Eastern Land—what reason is there for that?" The monk was speechless. He asked a monk, "Only the single, adamantine-dense body manifests amidst all dust. What is the body that manifests amidst dust?" The monk pointed to an incense burner and said, "This is an incense burner." The master said, "You implicate the Buddhas of the three periods in falling alive into hell." The monk was at a loss; the master then struck him. When the master was indisposed, a monk asked, "How has the Upādhyāya's health been lately?" The master said, "Go burn two hundred sheets of paper money before the Earth God." The master used to sit at night with folded hands as if facing an eminent guest. When he first sat, his hands were joined at his crossed legs; by the fifth watch they invariably reached his chest. For this reason he was nicknamed 'Folded-Hands Xiang'.