續傳燈錄 27.6.6

27.6.6

一人解放不解收。 爾還辨得麼。 僧云。 一狀領過。 師曰。 領過後別有甚好消息。 僧拍手一下便出。 師曰。 三十年後悟去在。 又問僧云。 道不用修但莫染污。 如何是不染污底道。 僧云。 某甲不敢道。 師曰。 爾為什麼不敢道。 僧云。 恐染污。 師高聲叫曰。 行者將糞箕掃帚來。 僧茫然。 師便打出。 又僧才入。 師曰。 釋迦老子來也。 僧近前。 師曰。 元來不是便打。 次一僧入。 師亦曰。 釋迦老子來也。 僧當面問訊便出。 師曰。 却似真箇。 又問僧。 不是心不是佛不是物爾作麼生。 僧云領。 師曰。 領爾屋裏七代先靈。 僧便喝。 師曰。 適來領如今喝。 干他不是心不是佛不是物什麼事。 僧無語。 師便打。 又問僧。 路逢達道人不將語默對時如何。 僧珍重便行。 師呵呵大笑。 次一僧來。 師曰。 我適來問這僧路逢達道人不將語默對時如何。 他珍重便行。 爾道他會不會。 僧擬問訊。 師便打出。 又問僧。 不與萬法為侶者是什麼人。 云無面目漢。 師曰。 適來有箇師僧如此道。 打出去也。 僧擬議。 師便打。 又問僧。 馬大師道。 自從胡亂後三十年不曾少鹽醬意作麼。 云隨家豐儉。 師曰。 好箇隨家豐儉。 只是爾不會。 僧擬議。 師便喝出。 又問僧。 香嚴上樹話爾作麼生。 僧云。 好對春風唱鷓鴣。 師曰。 虎頭上座道。 樹上即不問。 未上樹請和尚道。 又作麼生。 僧云。 適來向和尚道了也。 師曰。 好對春風唱鷓鴣。 是樹上語樹下語。 僧無對。 師便打。 又問侍者曰。 許多人入室。 幾人道得著。 幾人道不著。 侍者云。 某甲只管看。 師忽展手曰。 我手何似佛手。 侍者云。 天寒且請和尚通袖行。 師打一竹篦曰。 且道是賞爾是罰爾。 侍者無對。 有僧請益。 不知某甲死向什麼處去。 師曰。 爾只今是生耶死耶。 僧云。 生也不道死也不道。 師曰。 爾做得漸源奴。 僧擬議。 師便打出。 又一僧來。 師曰。 適來這僧衲一場敗闕。 爾還知麼。 僧云知。 師亦打出。 又僧請益夾山境話。 聲未絕師便喝。 僧茫然。 師曰。 爾問什麼。 僧擬舉。 師連打喝出。 又僧請益。 某甲參禪不得病在什麼處。 師曰。 病在這裏。 云某甲為什麼參不得。 師曰。 開眼尿床漢我打爾去。 師室中機緣渦旋辨肆不可把翫。 自非上上根器不可湊泊。 師住徑山時名重一時。 如侍郎張公子韶狀元汪公聖錫少卿憑公濟川俱問道。 自餘皆一時名士大夫。 師隨機開悟無所回互。 而當時秉鈞軸者。 以其議己惡之。 遂遭捃拾毀衣。 屏去衡州凡十年。 又徙梅州。 梅州瘴癘寂莫之地。 而衲子裏糧從之雖死不悔。 又八年高宗特恩放還。 明年復僧衣。 四方虛席以邀率不就。 最後以朝旨住育王。 聚眾多食不繼。 築塗田凡數十頃。 詔賜其庄名般若。 又二年詔復移徑山。 師之再住徑山。 道俗歆慕如見其所親。 雖老接引後學不少倦。 退居明月堂。 先是孝宗皇帝為普安郡王時聞師名。 嘗遣內都監至徑山謁師。 師作偈以獻曰。 大根大器大力量。 荷擔大事不尋常。 一毛頭上通消息。 遍界明明不覆藏。 王甚悅。 及在建邸復遣內知客請師山中為眾說法。 親書妙喜庵大字。 及製真讚賜師曰。 生滅不滅。 常住不住。 圓覺空明。 隨物現處。 師演成四偈以獻。 王覽之尤喜。 又二年王即位。 遂賜號大慧禪師。 復取向所賜宸翰以御寶識之。 恩寵加厚欲召對。 而師已病矣。 以隆興元年八月十日於徑山明月堂示寂。 上聞之嘆惜不已。 詔以明月堂為妙喜庵。 賜諡普覺。 將示寂親書遺奏封畢。 侍僧請留頌。 師厲聲曰。 無頌便死不得也。 索筆大書曰。 生也只恁麼。 死也只恁麼。 有偈與無偈。

“One person understands how to release but does not understand how to gather in. Can you distinguish this?” The monk said, “I accept the indictment.” The Master said, “After accepting it, is there any other good news?” The monk clapped his hands once and walked out. The Master said, “Thirty years from now, you will come to awakening.” He also asked a monk, “The Way does not require cultivation; just do not defile it. What is the undefiled Way?” The monk said, “I do not dare to say.” The Master said, “Why do you not dare to say?” The monk said, “I fear defiling it.” The Master called out in a loud voice, “Practitioner, bring the manure basket and broom!” The monk was at a loss. The Master then struck him and drove him out. Another monk had just entered. The Master said, “Old Śākya has come!” The monk stepped forward. The Master said, “So it wasn't him after all!” and struck him. Next, a monk entered. The Master also said, “Old Śākya has come!” The monk bowed directly to him and walked out. The Master said, “He seemed almost genuine.” He also asked a monk, “It is not mind, it is not Buddha, it is not things—what do you make of it?” The monk said, “Understood.” The Master said, “Understood your family's seven generations of ancestors!” The monk then shouted. The Master said, “Just now you understood, and now you shout. What has that got to do with ‘not mind, not Buddha, not things’?” The monk had no words. The Master struck him. He also asked a monk, “When meeting someone who has attained the Way on the road, greeting them neither with speech nor with silence, how is it then?” The monk said, “Take care,” and walked off. The Master burst into loud laughter. Next, a monk came. The Master said, “I just asked that monk: ‘When meeting someone who has attained the Way on the road, greeting them neither with speech nor with silence, how is it then?’ He said ‘Take care’ and walked off. Do you say he understood or not?” The monk was about to make a bow. The Master struck him and drove him out. He also asked a monk, “What kind of person does not keep company with the ten thousand phenomena?” The monk said, “A faceless fellow.” The Master said, “Just now there was a monk who spoke like that, and I struck him out.” The monk hesitated. The Master struck him. He also asked a monk, “Great Master Ma said, ‘For thirty years since the barbarian rebellion, I have never lacked salt or sauce.’ What does this mean?” The monk said, “According to the family's means, whether abundant or meager.” The Master said, “A fine ‘according to the family's means, whether abundant or meager’—it is just that you do not understand.” The monk hesitated. The Master shouted him out. He also asked a monk, “What do you make of Xiangyan's ‘up a tree’ case?” The monk said, “A fine thing to sing ‘The Partridge’ facing the spring breeze.” The Master said, “Head Monk Hutou said, ‘I do not ask about being up in the tree; before going up the tree, please speak, Master!’ What would you make of that?” The monk said, “I just spoke to the Upādhyāya.” The Master said, “‘A fine thing to sing “The Partridge” facing the spring breeze’—are these words from up in the tree or under the tree?” The monk had no reply. The Master struck him. He also asked his attendant, “Of the many people who enter the abbot's room, how many hit the mark, and how many miss the mark?” The attendant said, “I only watch.” The Master suddenly held out his hand and said, “How is my hand like a Buddha's hand?” The attendant said, “The weather is cold; please, Master, put your hands in your sleeves and walk.” The Master struck him once with the bamboo clapper and said, “Tell me, is this rewarding you or punishing you?” The attendant had no reply. A monk asked for instruction: “I do not know where I will go when I die.” The Master said, “Right now, are you alive or are you dead?” The monk said, “I do not say alive, nor do I say dead.” The Master said, “You can only be Jianyuan's servant.” The monk hesitated. The Master struck him and drove him out. Another monk came. The Master said, “Just now that monk suffered a total defeat. Do you know it?” The monk said, “I know.” The Master also struck him out. Another monk asked for instruction on the Jiashan's border case. Before his voice ceased, the Master shouted. The monk was at a loss. The Master said, “What did you ask?” The monk was about to bring it up again. The Master struck him repeatedly and shouted him out. Another monk asked for instruction: “I cannot succeed in Chan investigation; where is the illness?” The Master said, “The illness is right here.” The monk said, “Why can I not investigate?” The Master said, “You fellow who wets the bed with open eyes, I will beat you away!” The dynamic encounters in the Master's abbot's room were like swirling whirlpools and fluent displays of eloquence, impossible to toy with; unless one was of the very highest spiritual capacity, one could not approach them. When the Master resided at Jingshan, his renown was celebrated in his era. Figures such as Vice-Minister Zhang Gong Shaoshao, Top Scholar Wang Gong Shengxi, and Vice-Director Feng Gong Jichuan all inquired about the Way, and the rest were all famous literati and officials of the time. The Master opened up awakening according to their capacities, without any evasion. However, those who held the helm of state power at the time hated him because he criticized them. Consequently, trumped-up charges were brought against him, his robes were stripped, and he was banished to Hengzhou for a total of ten years, and then moved to Meizhou. Meizhou was a desolate place of pestilential vapors, yet patch-robed monks packed their provisions and followed him, with no regrets even unto death. After another eight years, Emperor Gaozong showed special favor and pardoned his return. The following year, his monastic robes were restored. Monasteries everywhere left their seats vacant to invite him, but he consistently declined to take them up. Finally, by imperial decree, he resided at Yuwang. A large assembly gathered, and food supplies could not keep up; he embanked several tens of qing of tidal land into fields, and an edict bestowed on his estate the name ‘Prajñā’. After another two years, an edict reassigned him back to Jingshan. When the Master resided at Jingshan a second time, both monastics and laity admired him as though seeing their own kin. Though old, he guided younger students without the least weariness. He retired to reside in the Mingyue Hall. Prior to this, when Emperor Xiaozong was Prince of Pu'an, he had heard the Master's name and once sent an internal chief supervisor to Jingshan to pay respects to the Master. The Master composed a gāthā to present to him, which said: ‘Of great roots, great capacity, and great strength, / Bearing the great matter, extraordinary. / Communicating the message on the tip of a single hair, / Distinct and bright throughout the world, not hidden.’ The Prince was greatly pleased. When he resided at the Jian mansion, he again sent an internal guest-prefect to invite the Master to preach the Dharma for the assembly in the mountains, personally wrote the large characters ‘Miaoxi Hermitage’, and composed a verse of praise for the Master's portrait, which he bestowed upon him: ‘Arising and ceasing are unceasing; / The ever-abiding does not abide. / Complete enlightenment, empty and luminous, / Manifesting wherever things appear.’ The Master expanded this into four gāthās and presented them; when the Prince read them, he was even more pleased. After another two years, the Prince ascended the throne; he thereupon bestowed the title Chan Master Dahui, took the imperial calligraphy bestowed earlier, and affixed the imperial seal to it. The imperial favor grew increasingly generous, and the Emperor wished to summon him for an audience, but the Master had already fallen ill. On the tenth day of the eighth month in the first year of Longxing, he manifested his passing into quiescence at Mingyue Hall on Jingshan. When His Majesty heard of it, he sighed and lamented incessantly; by decree, Mingyue Hall was made Miaoxi Hermitage, and the posthumous title Pujue was bestowed. When he was about to manifest quiescence, he personally wrote his final memorial to the throne, and after sealing it, the attendant monks requested a final verse. The Master said in a stern voice, ‘Without a verse, I wouldn't be able to die, eh?’ He asked for a brush and wrote in large characters: ‘Birth is just like this; / Death is just like this. / Having a verse or having no verse—