續傳燈錄 21.54

21.54

平江府泗洲用元禪師。一日問建隆曰。臨濟在黃檗。三回問佛法大意。三回被打。意旨如何。語猶未了被打一拂子。師頓領宗旨。開堂日僧問。四眾雲臻請師說法。師曰。有眼無耳朵。六月火邊坐。曰一句截流萬機頓息。師曰。聽事不真喚鐘作甕。問朝參暮請成得甚麼邊事。師曰。秖要爾歇去。曰早知燈是火。飯熟已多時。師曰。爾鼻孔因甚麼著拄杖穿却。曰拗曲作直又爭得。師曰。且教出氣。上堂。一二三四五。火裏蝍蟟吞却虎。六七八九十。水底泥牛波上立。一日一夜雨霖霖。無孔鐵鎚灑不入。灑不入著底急。百川洶湧須彌岌。八臂那吒撞出來。稽首讚嘆道難及。咦。上堂。橫按拄杖顧視大眾曰。今日平地上喫交。便下座。

Chan Master Yongyuan of Sizhou in Pingjiang Prefecture. One day he asked Jianlong, "When Linji was with Huangbo, three times he asked about the great meaning of the Buddha Dharma, and three times he was beaten. What was the meaning?" Before he had finished speaking, he was struck with a whisk. The master immediately grasped the lineage tenets. On the day he opened the hall, a monk asked, "The fourfold assembly gathers like clouds; we invite the master to expound the Dharma." The master said, "Having eyes without ears, sitting by the fire in the sixth month." The monk said, "A single phrase cuts off the flow; the myriad workings abruptly cease." The master said, "Not listening accurately, you call a bell a jar." The monk asked, "What purpose is served by morning audiences and evening queries?" The master said, "Just that you rest." The monk said, "Had I known early on that the lamp was fire, the rice would have been cooked long ago." The master said, "Why has your nostril been pierced by the staff?" The monk said, "How could one bend the crooked into the straight?" The master said, "Just let him exhale." He ascended the hall: "One, two, three, four, five: in the fire, a mantis swallows a tiger. Six, seven, eight, nine, ten: at the bottom of the water, a mud ox stands upon the waves. For a whole day and night the rain pours down; the unpierced iron hammer cannot be penetrated. If it cannot be penetrated, what is there to worry about? A hundred rivers surge, Mount Sumeru totters. Eight-armed Nata rushes out, bows with palms joined, praising, 'It is hard to equal!' Bah!" He ascended the hall, laid his staff horizontally across his lap, looked around at the assembly, and said, "Today I took a fall on level ground." Then he stepped down from the seat.