續傳燈錄 28.25

28.25

侍郎李彌遜號普現居士。少時讀書五行俱下。年十八中鄉舉登第京師旋歷華要。至二十八歲為中書舍人。常入圓悟室。一日早朝回至天津橋。馬躍。忽有省。通身汗流。直造天寧。適悟出門遙見便喚曰。居士且喜大事了畢。公厲聲曰。和尚眼花作甚麼。悟便喝。公亦喝。於是機鋒迅捷。凡與悟問答當機不讓。公後遷吏部。乞祠祿歸閩連江築庵自娛。忽一日示微恙。遽索湯沐浴畢遂趺坐作偈曰。謾說從來牧護。今日分明呈露。虛空拶倒須彌。說甚向上一路。擲筆而逝覺庵道人祖氏。建寧游察院之侄女也。幼志不出適。留心祖道。於圓悟示眾語下了然明白。悟曰。更須颺却所見始得自由。祖答偈曰。露柱抽橫骨。虛空弄爪牙。直饒玄會得。猶是眼中沙。

Vice Minister Li Mixun, having the sobriquet Upāsaka Puxian, in his youth read books five lines at a time. At eighteen he passed the provincial examination, attained the jinshi degree in the capital, and successively held prominent and crucial offices. By the age of twenty-eight, he was a Secretariat Drafter. He frequently entered Yuanwu's room. One day, returning from the morning court audience and reaching Tianjin Bridge, his horse leaped, and suddenly he had an awakening, breaking into a sweat over his whole body. He went straight to Tianning. Just as Yuanwu was stepping out the door, seeing him from afar, he called out, 'Upāsaka, rejoice that the great matter is finished!' The minister said in a stern voice, 'Why are the Upādhyāya's eyes blurred?' Yuanwu gave a shout. The minister also gave a shout. Thereupon his sharp wit was swift and agile; whenever he engaged in questions and answers with Yuanwu, he would not yield in the midst of the encounter. The minister was later transferred to the Ministry of Personnel; he petitioned for a temple sinecure and returned to Lianjiang in Min, where he built a hermitage to please himself. One day he suddenly manifested a slight illness. Hurriedly requesting hot water, he finished bathing, sat cross-legged, and composed a gāthā: 'In vain has there been talk of herding and protecting all along; / Today it is distinctly and clearly revealed. / Empty space crushes Mount Sumeru down; / What need to speak of the single road leading upward?' Throwing down his brush, he passed away. / The Daoist practitioner of Jue'an, née Zu, was the niece of Censor You of Jianning. From youth she had determined not to marry, devoting her mind to the ancestral Dao. Under Yuanwu's words of instructional discourse to the assembly, she understood completely and clearly. Yuanwu said, 'You must also cast away what you have seen before you can attain freedom.' Zu answered with a gāthā: 'The exposed pillar extracts its crossbones; / Empty space displays its claws and fangs. / Even if you comprehend it mysteriously, / It is still sand in the eyes.'