續傳燈錄 22.42

22.42

南嶽石頭懷志菴主。婺州吳氏子。年十四師智慧院寶稱。二十二試所習落髮。肆講十二年。宿學敬慕。嘗欲會通諸宗正一代時教。有禪者問曰。杜順乃賢首宗祖師也。談法身則曰。懷州牛喫禾益州馬腹脹。此偈合歸天台何義邪。師無對。即出游方晚至洞山謁真淨問古人一喝不作一喝用意旨如何。淨叱之。師趨出。淨笑呼曰。浙子齋後游山好。師忽領悟。久之辭去。淨曰。子所造雖逸格。惜緣不勝耳。因識其意。自爾諸方力命出世。師却之。菴居二十年不與世接。士夫踵門略不顧。有偈曰。萬機休罷付癡憨。踪跡時容野鹿參。不脫麻衣拳作枕。幾生夢在緣蘿菴。或問。住山多年有何旨趣。師曰。山中住。獨掩柴門無別趣。三箇柴頭品字煨。不用援毫文彩露。崇寧改元冬曳杖造龍安。人莫之留。明年六月晦問侍僧曰。早暮。曰已夕矣。遂笑曰。夢境相逢。我睡已覺。汝但莫負叢林。即是報佛恩德。言訖示寂。於最樂堂茶毘。收骨塔于乳峯之不。

Hermitage Master Huaizhi of Shitou on the Southern Sacred Peak was a son of the Wu clan in Wuzhou. At fourteen, he took Baocheng of Zhihui Cloister as his master. At twenty-two, he was tested on what he had studied and had his head shaved. He gave lectures for twelve years, and senior scholars revered and admired him. He once wished to synthesize the various traditions and rectify the teachings of the Buddha's entire lifetime. A Chan practitioner asked him, 'Dushun was the patriarch of the Xianshou school. When discussing the Dharma body, he said: "The oxen in Huaizhou eat grain, and the horses in Yizhou get bloated bellies." To what doctrine of Tiantai should this verse properly belong?' The master had no response. He immediately set out on itinerant pilgrimage. Late in his travels, he reached Dongshan and called upon Zhenjing, asking, 'What was the ancient master's meaning in "one shout does not function as a shout"?' Zhenjing scolded him. The master hurried out. Zhenjing laughed and called out, 'Man of Zhejiang, it is fine to roam the mountains after the midday meal!' The master suddenly had an awakening. After a long while, he took his leave to depart. Zhenjing said, 'Although what you have attained is of an exceptional standard, it is a pity that your conditions are not favorable.' Recognizing his meaning from this, ever since then, when various quarters urged him with all their might to emerge in the world, the master declined. He lived in a hermitage for twenty years without mingling with the mundane world. When scholar-officials came to his door, he paid them no heed at all. He had a verse that went: / 'All myriad workings brought to rest, entrusted to foolish simplicity; / in my tracks, wild deer are sometimes permitted to join. / Without taking off my hemp robe, I curl my fist for a pillow; / how many lives of dreams have dwelt in the hermitage of trailing vines?' / Someone asked, 'You have dwelt in the mountains for many years; what is your core intention?' The master said, 'Dwelling in the mountains, / alone I shut the brushwood gate with no other intention. / Three chunks of firewood smolder in the shape of the character pin; / no need to pick up a brush—the pattern reveals itself.' / In the winter of the first year of the Chongning era, trailing his staff, he visited Long'an; no one could detain him. On the last day of the sixth month of the following year, he asked the attendant monk, 'Is it morning or evening?' The monk replied, 'It is already evening.' He then smiled and said, 'Met in a dream; I have now awakened from sleep. Only do not fail the monasteries, and that is repaying the Buddha's kindness.' Having finished speaking, he showed nirvana. He was cremated at the Hall of Utmost Joy, and his bones were gathered into a stupa at the foot of Ru Peak.