續傳燈錄 32.30

32.30

平江府資壽尼無著妙總禪師。丞相蘇公頌之孫女也。年三十許厭世浮休脫去緣飾。咨參諸老已入正信。作夏徑山大慧陞堂。舉藥山初參石頭後見馬祖因緣。師聞豁然省悟。慧下座。不動居士馮公檝隨至方丈曰。某理會得和尚適來所舉公案。慧曰。居士如何。曰恁麼也不得囌嚧娑婆訶。不恁麼也不得㗭哩娑婆訶。恁麼不恁麼總不得囌嚧㗭哩娑婆訶。慧舉似師。師曰。曾見郭象註莊子。識者曰。却是莊子註郭象。慧見其語異。復舉巖頭婆子話問之。師答偈曰。一葉扁舟泛渺茫。呈橈舞棹別宮商。雲山海月都拋却。贏得莊周蝶夢長。慧休去。馮公疑其所悟不根。後過無錫招至舟中。問曰。婆生七子六箇不遇知音。秖這一箇也不消得。便棄水中。大慧老師言。道人理會得且如何會。師曰。已上供通並是詣實。馮公大驚。慧挂牌次師入室。慧問。古人不出方丈。為甚麼却去莊上喫油餈。師曰。和尚放妙總過。妙總方敢通箇消息。慧曰。我放爾過爾試道看。師曰。妙總亦放和尚過。慧曰。爭奈油餈何。師喝一喝而出。於是聲聞四方。隆興改元舍人張公孝祥來守是郡。以資壽挽開法。入院上堂。宗乘一唱三藏絕詮。祖令當行十方坐斷。二乘聞之怖走。十地到此猶疑。若是俊流未言而喻。設使用移星換斗底手段。施攙旗奪鼓底機關。猶是空拳豈有實義。向上一路千聖不傳。學者勞形如猿捉影。靈山付囑俯徇時機。演唱三乘各隨根器始於鹿野苑。轉四諦法輪度百千萬眾。山僧今日與此界他方乃佛乃祖山河大地草木叢林現前四眾。各轉大法輪。交光相羅如寶絲網。若一草一木不轉法輪。則不得名為轉大法輪。所以道。於一毫端現寶王剎。坐微塵裏轉大法輪。乘時於其中間作無量無邊廣大佛事周遍法界。一為無量無量為一。小中現大大中現小。不動步游彌勒樓閣。不返聞入觀音普門。情與無情性相平等。不是神通妙用。亦非法爾如然。於此俶儻分明。皇恩佛恩一時報足。且道如何是報恩一句。天高群象正。海闊百川朝。上堂舉。雲門示眾云。十五日已前則不問。十五日已後道將一句來。自代云。日日是好日。師曰。日日是好日。佛法世法盡周畢。不須特地覓幽玄。秖管鉢盂兩度濕。上堂。黃面老人橫說竪說權說實說法說喻說。建法幢立宗旨。與後人作榜樣。為甚麼却道。始從鹿野苑。終至跋提河。於是二中間。未嘗說一字。點檢將來大似抱贓叫屈。山僧今日人事忙冗。且放過一著。便下座。尼問。如何是奪人不奪境。師曰。野花開滿路。遍地是清香。曰如何是奪境不奪人。師曰。茫茫宇宙人無數。幾箇男兒是丈夫。曰如何是人境俱不奪。師曰。處處綠楊堪繫馬。家家門首透長安。曰如何是人境兩俱奪。師曰。雪覆蘆花舟橫斷岸。曰人境已蒙師指示。向上宗乘事若何。師便打。

Chan Master Wuzhuo Miaozong, a nun of Zishou [Monastery] in Pingjiang Prefecture, was the granddaughter of Chancellor Su Song. At around thirty years of age, she grew weary of the world’s floating vanity and cast off decorative ornaments. Inquiring of and practicing with the elder masters, she entered right faith. During the summer retreat at Jingshan, Dahui ascended the hall and brought up the nidāna of Yaoshan’s initial audience with Shitou and later meeting with Mazu. Upon hearing it, the master was suddenly enlightened.

When Dahui descended the seat, Upāsaka Budong, Feng Ji, followed him to the abbot’s quarters and said: “I understand the gong'an that the upādhyāya just brought up.”
Dahui said: “How does the upāsaka understand it?”
[Feng Ji] said: “Like this will not do: suru svāhā. Not like this will not do: siri svāhā. Both like this and not like this will not do at all: suru siri svāhā.”

Dahui related this to the master. The master said: “I have seen Guo Xiang annotate the Zhuangzi; those who know say that it is rather Zhuangzi annotating Guo Xiang.”

Seeing that her words were extraordinary, Dahui again brought up the dialogue of Yantou and the old woman to test her. The master replied with a verse:

A single leaf of a flat skiff drifts over the boundless expanse,
Displaying oars and dancing paddles, distinct from courtly tunes.
Cloudy mountains and ocean moon are entirely cast aside,
Winning Zhuang Zhou's butterfly dream that lingers long.

Dahui let the matter rest.

Feng doubted that her realization had roots. Later, passing through Wuxi, he invited her onto his boat and asked: “The old woman bore seven sons; six did not meet an intimate friend, and even this single one was not needed, so she abandoned him into the water. Old Teacher Dahui said that you understood it; so how do you understand it?”
The master said: “The statements recorded above are entirely according to reality.”
Feng was greatly astonished.

When Dahui was hanging the sign [for interviews], the master entered the room. Dahui asked: “The ancient did not leave the abbot’s room; why then did he go to the estate to eat fried dough cakes?”
The master said: “If the upādhyāya lets Miaozong pass, only then will Miaozong dare to give some information.”
Dahui said: “I let you pass; try to speak!”
The master said: “Miaozong also lets the upādhyāya pass.”
Dahui said: “What will you do about the fried dough cakes?”
The master gave a shout and walked out. Thereupon her renown spread in all four directions.

In the first year of the Longxing era, Secretariat Drafter Zhang Xiaoxiang came to govern the prefecture and invited her to Zishou to open the Dharma hall.

Entering the monastery, she ascended the hall [and said]: “When the lineage vehicle is once proclaimed, the Tripitaka ceases explanation. When the ancestral command is strictly enforced, the ten directions are cut off. Hearing it, the Two Vehicles flee in terror; arriving here, the Ten Stages still hesitate. If one is of superior caliber, it is understood before speech. Even if one employs methods that shift the stars and replace the Dipper, or displays mechanisms that seize flags and capture drums, they are still an empty fist—how could there be real substance? The one path of transcendence is not transmitted by the thousand sages; learners exhaust their bodies like monkeys grasping at reflections. Entrusted atop Gṛdhrakūṭa, bending down to accord with the faculties of the times, the Three Vehicles were expounded according to individual capacity, beginning at the Deer Park, turning the wheel of the Four Noble Truths, liberating hundreds of thousands of beings.

“Today, this mountain monk—together with this world and other realms, the Buddhas and Patriarchs, mountains, rivers, the great earth, grasses, trees, forests, and the fourfold assembly present here—turns the great Dharma wheel, their lights interweaving and netting one another like a web of precious silk. If even a single blade of grass or a single tree does not turn the Dharma wheel, it cannot be called turning the great Dharma wheel. Therefore it is said: ‘Upon the tip of a single hair, the precious king’s lands appear; sitting within a speck of dust, turning the great Dharma wheel.’ Taking the opportunity therein to perform measureless and boundless, vast Buddhist deeds that pervade the Dharma realm: the one becomes the measureless, the measureless becomes the one; within the small the great appears, within the great the small appears. Without moving a step, one roams Maitreya’s pavilion; without turning back the hearing, one enters Guanyin’s universal gate. The sentient and insentient are equal in nature and characteristics. This is neither a wondrous functioning of supernatural powers, nor is it the naturalness of things being just so. Clearly and unrestrainedly discerning this here, the imperial kindness and the Buddha’s kindness are fully repaid all at once. And tell me, what is the single phrase that repays this kindness?

The sky is high, the celestial signs are upright;
The sea is broad, the hundred rivers pay court.”

Ascending the hall, she cited: “Yunmen instructed the assembly: ‘I do not ask you about before the fifteenth day; bring me a phrase regarding after the fifteenth day.’ Answering on their behalf, he said: ‘Every day is a good day.’”
The master said: “Every day is a good day; Buddha Dharma and worldly affairs are entirely complete. There is no need to specially seek the subtle and mysterious; just mind that the almsbowl gets wet twice [a day].”

Ascending the hall, [she said]: “The yellow-faced old man spoke horizontally and vertically, spoke provisionally and spoke genuinely, spoke with Dharma and spoke with metaphors, setting up the Dharma banner and establishing lineage tenets to serve as a model for later people. Why then did he say: ‘Beginning from the Deer Park and ending at the River Hiraṇyavatī, between these two, I have not yet spoken a single word’? Examining it closely, it is much like clutching stolen goods and crying foul. Today this mountain monk has busy and tedious affairs; I will let this move pass for now.” She then descended the seat.

A nun asked: “What is snatching away the person but not snatching away the environment?”
The master said: “Wild flowers bloom all over the road; the entire earth is full of pure fragrance.”
[The nun] asked: “What is snatching away the environment but not snatching away the person?”
The master said: “In the boundless universe, people are countless; how many men are true heroes?”
[The nun] asked: “What is snatching away neither person nor environment?”
The master said: “Everywhere green willows are fit to tether a horse; before the gate of every house leads straight to Chang'an.”
[The nun] asked: “What is snatching away both person and environment?”
The master said: “Snow covers the reed blossoms; a boat lies athwart the broken shore.”
[The nun] asked: “The person and environment have already received the master’s instruction; what about the matter of the transcendent lineage vehicle?”
The master immediately struck her.