續傳燈錄 31.18

31.18

台州國清簡堂行機禪師。本郡人姓楊氏。風姿挺異才壓儒林。年二十五棄妻拏學出世法。晚見此庵密有契識。出應莞山。刀耕火種單丁者一十七年。嘗有偈云。地爐無火客囊空。雪似楊花落歲窮。拾得斷麻穿壞衲。不知身在寂寥中。每謂人曰。某猶未穩在。豈以住山樂吾事耶。一日偶看斫樹倒地忽然大悟。平昔礙膺之物泮然氷釋。未幾有江州圓通之命。乃曰。吾道將行。即欣然曳杖而去。登座說法云。圓通不開生藥鋪。單單只賣死猫頭。不知那箇無思算。喫著通身冷汗流。上堂。單明自己樂是苦因。趣向宗乘地獄劫住。五日一參三八普說自揚家醜。更若問理問事問心問性克由叵耐。若是英靈漢。窺藩不入據鼎不嘗。便於未有生佛以前轉得身。却於今時大官路上捷行闊步。終不向老鼠窟草窠裏頭出頭沒。若也根性陋劣。要去有滋味處齩嚼。遇著義學阿師遞相錮鏴。直饒說得雲興雨現。也是蝦蟇化龍下梢依舊喫泥喫土。堪作甚麼。上堂。仲秋八月旦。庭戶入新涼。不露風骨句。愁人知夜長。上堂。無隔宿恩可參臨濟禪。有肯諾意難續楊岐派。窮廝煎餓廝炒。大海秖將折筋攪。爾死我活。猛火然鐺煮佛喋。恁麼作用方可撐門拄戶。更說聲和響順形直影端。驢年也未夢見僧問。三聖問雪峯。透網金鱗未審以何為食。峯云。待汝出網來即向汝道意旨如何。師曰。同途不同轍。曰三聖道。一千五百人善知識話頭也不識。峯云。老僧住持事繁又作麼生。師曰。前箭猶輕後箭深。曰秖如雪竇道。可惜放過好與三十棒。這棒一棒也較不得。直是罕遇作家。意又作麼生。師曰。陣敗說兵書。曰這棒是三聖合喫雪峯合喫。師以拂子擊禪床曰。這裏薦取。示眾云。衲僧拄杖子不用則已。用則如鴆鳥落水魚鼈皆死。正按傍提風颯颯地。獨步大方殺活在我。所以道。千人排門不如一人拔關。若一人拔關。千人萬人得到安樂田地。還知麼。鴛鴦繡出從君看。不把金針度與人。示眾云。觀色即空。成大智故不住生死。觀空即色。成大悲故不證涅槃。生死不住涅槃不證。漢地不收秦地不管。且道在甚麼處安身立命。莫是昭昭於心目之間而相不可覩。晃晃於色塵之內而理不可分麼。莫是起坐鎮相隨語默同居止麼。若恁麼總是髑髏前敲磕。須知過量人自有過量用。且作麼生是過量用。北斗藏身雖有語。出群消息少人知。

Chan Master Jiantang Xingji of Guoqing in Taizhou was a native of that prefecture, surnamed Yang. His bearing was extraordinarily upright and his talent surpassed the Confucian circle. At age twenty-five he abandoned wife and children to study the world-transcending Dharma. Later he saw Ci'an and had a close, tacit realization. He went out to respond to the call at Guanshan, practicing slash-and-burn farming alone for seventeen years. He once had a verse: 'The hearth has no fire, the traveler's bag is empty; / Snow falls like willow catkins at the year's end. / Picking up broken hemp to stitch a ragged robe, / I do not realize my body is in desolate solitude.' He often said to people, 'I am not yet secure; how could I make dwelling in the mountains my joy?' One day, happening to watch a tree being chopped down to the ground, he suddenly had a great awakening; the things that had troubled his chest dissolved like melting ice. Soon after, an invitation came from Yuantong in Jiangzhou; he said, 'My Way is about to be practiced,' and joyfully set out dragging his staff. Ascending the seat to preach the Dharma, he said: 'Yuantong does not open an apothecary shop; / Exclusively he sells only dead cat heads. / Wondering who is without calculation, / Eating one, cold sweat pours over the whole body.' Ascending the hall, he said: 'Merely clarifying oneself and being attached to joy is a cause of suffering; heading toward the ancestral vehicle brings eons of dwelling in hell. An inquiry every five days and general talks on three and eight days simply broadcast our household disgrace. Furthermore, if you ask about principle, ask about phenomena, ask about mind, or ask about nature—it is truly unbearable! If you are a hero, you do not peer through the hedge or taste from the cauldron; you immediately turn your body before there are sentient beings and buddhas, and on the great highway of today stride swiftly with wide steps, never poking your head in and out of mouse-holes and grassy nests. But if your faculties are base and poor, you will want to go chew where there is flavor; meeting scholastic teachers, you will rivet each other in bondage. Even if you speak so that clouds arise and rain appears, it is still a toad transforming into a dragon—in the end, still eating mud and earth! What is it good for?' Ascending the hall: 'The first day of the eighth month in mid-autumn; / In the courtyard enters a new coolness. / A phrase that does not reveal its bones— / The sorrowful know the night is long.' Ascending the hall: 'Without overnight kindness one may investigate Linji's Chan; having an attitude of agreement, it is hard to continue the Yangqi branch. Boiling together in poverty, frying together in hunger; stirring the great ocean with only a broken chopstick. You die and I live; burning a fierce fire to boil the cauldron and cook the Buddha to shreds! Only with such functioning can one sustain the household. If you further speak of harmonious voices and obedient echoes, upright forms and straight shadows, you have not dreamed of it even in the year of the donkey!' A monk asked, 'Sansheng asked Xuefeng, "I wonder what the golden fish that has passed through the net takes for food?" Feng said, "Wait until you come out of the net, then I will tell you." What was his meaning?' The Master said, 'Same road, different tracks.' The monk asked, 'Sansheng said, "A teacher of fifteen hundred people, yet you do not even recognize the topic of the dialogue!" Feng said, "This old monk has many administrative duties as abbot." What about this?' The Master said, 'The first arrow was still light; the second arrow went deep.' The monk asked, 'As for Xuedou saying, "What a pity to let it slip by; he should have been given thirty blows of the stick! Not one of these blows could be spared; truly it is rare to meet an expert!" What was his meaning?' The Master said, 'Losing the battle and discussing military manuals.' The monk asked, 'Were these blows deserved by Sansheng, or were they deserved by Xuefeng?' The Master struck the meditation seat with his whisk and said, 'Apprehend it here!' He instructed the assembly: 'The staff of a patch-robed monk—if not used, let it be; but if used, it is like a poison bird dropping into the water: all fish and turtles die. Pressing directly or lifting obliquely, the wind howls fiercely. Walking alone in the great sphere, killing and enlivening belong to me. Therefore it is said: A thousand people pushing a gate is not as good as one person lifting the bar. If one person lifts the bar, thousands and myriads reach the realm of peace and joy. Do you know? "The mandarin ducks are embroidered for all to see, / But the golden needle is not passed on to anyone."' He instructed the assembly: 'Viewing form as emptiness accomplishes great wisdom, and therefore one does not abide in birth and death; viewing emptiness as form accomplishes great compassion, and therefore one does not realize nirvāṇa. Not abiding in birth and death and not realizing nirvāṇa—not gathered by the land of Han, not governed by the land of Qin. Tell me, where do you establish your life? Could it be shining brightly between mind and eyes yet no appearance can be seen, or glaring brilliantly within sensory dust yet the principle cannot be separated? Could it be rising and sitting constantly together, speaking and keeping silent dwelling together? If it is like this, it is all knocking against a skull. You must know that an extraordinary person naturally has extraordinary function. And what is extraordinary function? "Though there is a saying about hiding one's body in the Northern Dipper, / Few people know the news of leaving the herd."'"