續傳燈錄 27.6.3

27.6.3

太平寰宇斬癡頑。 卓一下喝一喝。 示眾曰。 顛倒想生生死續。 顛倒想滅生死絕。 生死絕處涅槃空。 涅槃空處眼中屑。 涅槃既空喚什麼作眼中屑。 白雲乍可來青嶂。 明月難教下碧天。 又曰。 摩竭提國猶在半途。 少室峯前全無巴鼻。 談玄說妙好肉剜瘡。 舉古明今拋沙撒土。 爭似飢飡渴飲閑坐困眠。 從教四序推移都不干預我事。 雖然如是。 也須實到這箇田地始得。 只如實到這箇田地底如何親近。 喝一喝曰。 灸瘡瘢上更著艾炷去也。 又曰。 我宗無語句。 實無一法與人。 早是通身浸在屎窖裏了也。 那堪踏步向前。 如之若何問向上向下三玄三要銀盌裏盛雪北斗裏藏身意旨如何。 豈不是屎窖邊更掘屎窖。 雖然如是若於屎窖中知些氣息。 方知三世諸佛歷代祖師天下老和尚古往今來一切善知識盡在屎窖裏轉大法輪。 其或未然。 切忌向屎窖裏作活計。 又上堂問答罷乃曰問得亦好不問更親。 何故聲前一路千聖不傳。 學者勞形如猿捉影。 可中有箇英靈漢。 恁麼不恁麼。 聊聞舉著剔起便行。 猶在葛藤窠裏。 直得內無所證外無所修似地擎山如石含玉。 亦未是衲僧放身命處。 敢問大眾。 作麼生是衲僧放身命處。 若也知得塵塵念念皆無空闕。 折旋俯仰盡在其中。 正恁麼時畢竟是誰家風月還委悉麼。 千聖不知何處去。 倚天長劍逼人寒。 下座。 師說法不立窠臼不守規轍。 大率如此不可概舉。 嘗垂語問學者。 我這裏無法與人。 只是據欵結案。 恰如爾將箇琉璃瓶子來護惜。 似箇什麼。 我一見便與爾打破了。 爾又將箇摩尼珠來。 我又與爾奪了。 待爾只恁麼來。 我又和爾兩手截了。 所以臨濟和尚道。 逢佛殺佛逢祖殺祖逢羅漢殺羅漢。 既稱善知識。 為什麼却要殺人去。 且道是什麼道理。 又嘗語僧俗言。 參得禪了凡讀經看文字。 如去自家屋裏行一遭相似。 又如與舊時相識底人相見一般。 若欲以文字語言糟粕求無有是處。 參禪人請師子細說禪病。 師言。 禪有什麼病可說。 禪又不曾患頭痛。 又不曾患脚痛。 又不曾患耳聾。 又不曾患眼暗。 只是參禪底人參得差別。 證得差別。 用心差別。 依師差別。 因此差別故說名為病。 非謂禪有病也。 如何是佛即心是佛。 有什麼病狗子還有佛性也無。 無有什麼病。 喚作竹篦則觸。 不喚作竹篦則背。 有什麼病。 如何是佛麻三斤。 有什麼病。 如何是佛乾屎橛。 有什麼病。 爾不透了纔作道理要透。 便千里萬里沒交涉也。 擬心湊泊他。 擬心思量他。 向舉起處領略。 擊石火閃電光處會。 這箇方始是病。 世醫拱手。 然究竟不干禪事。 趙州云。 要與空王為弟子。 莫教心病最難醫。 嘗舉。 南院問風穴。 南方一棒作麼生商量。 風穴云。 作奇特商量。 風穴却問。 此間一棒作麼生商量。 南院橫拄杖云。 棒下無生忍。 臨機不見師。 師舉了曰。 風穴當時好大展坐具禮他三拜。 不然與他掀倒繩床。 乃回顧衲子冲密云。 爾道風穴當時禮拜是。 掀倒繩床是。 冲密云。 草賊大敗。 師曰。 爾看這瞎漢便打。 又舉。 睦州凡見僧來便云。 見成公案放爾三十棒。 雲峯悅云。 作賊人心虛。 師曰。 又添得一箇道了。 問冲密云。 爾道我恁麼道還有過也無。 冲密云。 作賊人心虛。 師曰。 三箇也。 又舉。 僧問大龍。 色身敗壞如何是堅固法身。 大龍云。 山花開似錦。 㵎水湛如藍。 作麼生會。 僧云。 不會。 師舉了指拜席問旁僧曰。 見麼。 云見。 師曰。 又道不會。 復曰。 太近也因什麼不會。 僧罔措。 師曰。 只為分明極。 翻令所得遲。 師室中多問衲子。 喚作竹篦即觸。 不喚作竹篦即背。 不得下語。 不得無語。 不得思量。 不得擬議。 不得於意根下卜度。

"In a universe at peace, beheading the foolish and stubborn!"
He struck once with his staff, gave a shout, and instructed the assembly, saying:
"When inverted thoughts arise, birth and death continue.
When inverted thoughts are extinguished, birth and death cease.
Where birth and death cease, nirvāṇa is void.
Where nirvāṇa is void, it is dust in the eye.
Since nirvāṇa is already void, what do you call dust in the eye?
White clouds may well come over the green peaks,
Yet the bright moon is hard to make descend from the azure sky."
He also said: "Magadha is still halfway along the road; before Shaoshi peak there is no graspable handle at all. Talking of the mysterious and speaking of the wondrous is gouging a wound in healthy flesh. Citing the ancients to illuminate the present is throwing sand and scattering dirt. How could that compare to eating when hungry, drinking when thirsty, sitting at leisure, and sleeping when tired? Letting the four seasons move along, none of it concerns my affair. Although it is like this, one must actually reach this stage before it works. But for one who has actually reached this stage, how can one approach him?"
He gave a shout and said, "Placing another moxa cone right upon the cauterized scar!"
He also said: "In my lineage there are no words or phrases, and truly not a single dharma to give to people. Already one's whole body is soaked in a cesspool. How can you bear stepping forward, asking about this and that—about going upward, going downward, the three mysteries and three essentials, snow heaped in a silver bowl, or the intent of hiding one's body within the Northern Dipper? Is this not digging yet another cesspool beside a cesspool? Although it is like this, if in the cesspool you catch some scent of it, only then will you know that all the buddhas of the three times, the ancestral masters of past generations, the venerable old monks throughout the world, and all kalyāṇamitras of past and present are all in the cesspool turning the great wheel of the Dharma. If you have not yet reached this, by all means avoid setting up your livelihood in a cesspool."
Again, he ascended the hall, and after the questions and answers were concluded, he said: "It is good to ask, but not asking is even more intimate. Why? The single path before sound is not transmitted by the thousand sages. Students wear out their bodies like monkeys grasping at reflections. If among them there were an exceptional fellow who, whether thus or not thus, upon barely hearing it mentioned, kicked his legs and walked off—he would still be in a thicket of entangled vines! Even if one attains having nothing to realize within and nothing to cultivate without, like the earth supporting mountains or a rock containing jade, this is still not the place where a patch-robed monk casts away body and life. I venture to ask the assembly: what is the place where a patch-robed monk casts away body and life? If you understand that every speck of dust and every thought is never empty or deficient, turning and bending down, looking up and down are all completely within it. Just at such a time, whose wind and moon is it after all? Do you understand? The thousand sages do not know where he has gone; the long sword leaning against heaven chills one to the bone." He stepped down from the seat.
When the Master preached the Dharma, he did not establish fixed patterns and did not keep to established tracks; mostly it was like this, impossible to cite in full. He once put forward a question to students: "Here I have no dharma to give to people; I merely settle the case based on the confession. It is just like you bringing a lapis lazuli vase, treasuring and guarding it as something precious—as soon as I see it, I smash it to pieces for you. Then you bring a mani jewel, and I snatch that away from you as well. When you come with nothing at all like this, I chop off both your hands too. Therefore Upādhyāya Linji said: 'If you meet a buddha, kill the buddha; if you meet an ancestor, kill the ancestor; if you meet an arhat, kill the arhat.' Since he was called a kalyāṇamitra, why did he instead want to go killing people? Tell me, what principle is this?"
He also once said to monks and laypeople: "After you have investigated Chan, whenever you read sūtras or look at writings, it is just like taking a stroll inside your own house, and just like meeting someone you knew of old. If you wish to seek it through the dregs of words and phrases, there is no truth in that." A Chan practitioner asked the Master to explain Chan sicknesses in detail. The Master said: "What sickness in Chan is there to speak of? Chan has never suffered from headaches, nor has it ever suffered from footaches; it has never suffered from deafness, nor has it ever suffered from dimmed eyesight. It is only that Chan practitioners differ in their investigation, differ in their realization, differ in their application of mind, and differ in their reliance on teachers. Because of these differences, it is nominally called 'sickness'; it does not mean Chan itself has any sickness. 'What is Buddha? Mind itself is Buddha'—what sickness is there? 'Does a dog have buddha-nature or not? No'—what sickness is there? 'If you call it a bamboo comb, you offend; if you do not call it a bamboo comb, you betray'—what sickness is there? 'What is Buddha? Three pounds of hemp'—what sickness is there? 'What is Buddha? A dried shit-stick'—what sickness is there? When you have not penetrated it, as soon as you make conceptual reasoning wanting to penetrate it, you are already ten thousand miles away with no connection whatsoever. Scheming in your mind to converge with it, scheming in your mind to deliberate over it, trying to grasp it where it is raised, or understanding it at the flash of flint-spark or lightning—only this is sickness. Even worldly physicians fold their hands [in helplessness]. Yet ultimately it does not concern the matter of Chan. Zhaozhou said: 'If you want to be a disciple of the Void King, do not allow mind sickness, which is hardest to cure.'"
He once cited: Nanyuan asked Fengxue, "How do they negotiate a single blow of the stick in the South?" Fengxue said, "They negotiate it as extraordinary." Fengxue then asked, "How do they negotiate a single blow of the stick here?" Nanyuan held his staff horizontally and said, "Under the stick, patience with the unarisen; when facing the dynamic, one does not see the master." After the Master cited this, he said, "At that time Fengxue should have properly spread his sitting mat wide and made three prostrations to him; otherwise, he should have overturned his corded chair." Then, looking back at the patch-robed monk Chongmi, he said, "You tell me: at that time, was Fengxue's bowing right, or was overturning the corded chair right?" Chongmi said, "The petty bandit suffered a great defeat." The Master said, "Look at this blind fellow!" and struck him.
He also cited: Whenever Muzhou saw a monk coming, he would say, "A ready-made gong'an—I let you off with thirty blows!" Yunfeng Yue said, "A thief's heart is timid." The Master said, "Another one added who can speak!" He asked Chongmi, "Tell me, is there any fault in my speaking thus?" Chongmi said, "A thief's heart is timid." The Master said, "That makes three." He also cited: A monk asked Dalong, "When the physical body decays and disintegrates, what is the solid Dharma-body?" Dalong said, "The mountain flowers bloom like brocade; the ravine water is deep blue as indigo. How do you understand this?" The monk said, "I do not understand." After the Master cited this, he pointed to the prostration mat and asked a monk standing beside him, "Do you see?" The monk said, "I see." The Master said, "And yet you say you do not understand!" He added, "It is too close; why do you not understand?" The monk was at a loss. The Master said, "Only because it is so extremely distinct, it conversely makes what you attain delayed." In the abbot's room, the Master often asked patch-robed monks: "If you call it a bamboo comb, you offend; if you do not call it a bamboo comb, you betray. You may not utter a word, you may not be without words, you may not deliberate, you may not hesitate, and you may not speculate beneath the sense-faculty of mind."