續傳燈錄 36.8

36.8

杭州徑山雲峯禪師名妙高。福之長溪人也。家世業儒。母阮夢池上嬰兒合爪坐蓮華心手捧得之。覺而生師。因名夢池。神彩秀徹嗜書力學尤耽釋典。固請學出世法。依吳中雲夢澤公受具戒。師銳意求道首參癡絕。次見無準。準尤器愛。遂之育王見偃溪。入室掌藏鑰。一日溪舉譬如牛過窓櫺頭角四蹄都過了因甚尾巴過不得。師劃然有省答曰。鯨吞海水盡。露出珊瑚枝。溪可之。會溪遷南屏師與俱。後出世住宣興大蘆。遂為嫡嗣。遷江陰勸忠霅川何山雲衲四來。蔣山虛席師奉朝命居之。歷十有三載眾踰五千指。德祐乙亥寺被兵軍士有迫師求金者。俄以刃擬師。師延頸曰。欲殺即殺。吾頭非汝礪刃死。辭色了無怖畏。軍士感動擲刃而去。丞相伯顏公見師加敬。施牛百齋糧五百。寺賴以濟。至元庚辰遷徑山。寺罹回祿。草創纔什一。師究心興建。不十年悉還舊觀。戊子春魔事忽作。有譖毀禪宗者。師嘆曰。此宗門大事。吾當忍死爭之。遂趨京。有旨集諸宗徒廷辨。上問。禪以何為宗。師奏。淨智妙圓體本空寂。非見聞覺知思慮分別所能到。宣問再三。師歷舉西天東土諸祖以至德山臨濟棒喝因緣。大抵禪是正法眼藏涅槃妙心。趨最上乘。孰有過於禪。詞指明顯餘二千言。又宣進榻前。與譖者反復論難。譖者辭屈。上大悅。禪宗安堵如初。陛辭南歸。示眾云。我本深藏岩竇隱遯過時。不謂日照天臨難逃至化。又云。衲帔蒙頭萬事休。此時山僧都不會。徑山復災師謂眾曰。吾夙負此山債耳。遂竭力再營建。匯殿坡為池。他屋以次落成。癸巳六月十七日書偈而逝。師生於嘉定己卯二月十七日。壽七十五。臘五十九。葬于寺之西麓云。

Chan Master Yunfeng of Jingshan in Hangzhou was named Miaogao. He was a man of Changxi in Fuzhou. His family had been literati for generations. His mother, Ruan, dreamed of an infant above a pond sitting with palms joined within the core of a lotus flower, holding it with both hands; upon awakening, she gave birth to the Master, hence he was named Mengchi. His spirit was elegant and clear-sighted; he was fond of reading, exerted himself in learning, and was especially immersed in the Buddhist scriptures. He earnestly requested to study the world-transcending Dharma, and relied upon Master Ze of Yunmeng in the Wu region to receive the full ordination precepts. The Master was keen in his quest for the Way; first he visited Chijue, and next he saw Wuzhun. Wuzhun especially esteemed and cherished him. Thereupon he went to Yuwang to see Yanxi; he entered the room and was put in charge of the sūtra treasury keys. One day, Yanxi brought up: "It is like a cow passing through a latticed window: head, horns, and four hooves have all passed through—why can the tail not pass through?" The Master had an immediate awakening and answered: "The whale swallows the seawater dry, / exposing the coral branches." Yanxi approved of him. When Yanxi moved to Nanping, the Master accompanied him. Later he appeared in the world to reside at Dalu in Xuanxing, thereby becoming his true Dharma heir. Moving to Quanzhong in Jiangyin and Heshan in Zhichuan, patch-robed cloud-wanderers came from all directions. The seat at Jiangshan fell vacant, and the Master received an imperial decree to reside there; across thirteen years, the congregation numbered over five thousand fingers. In the yihai year of the Dexiu era, the monastery was beset by soldiers; some soldiers pressed the Master demanding gold, and presently brandished a blade at the Master. The Master extended his neck and said: "If you wish to kill me, kill me right away. My head is not for your whetstone blade to kill!" His words and expression were completely free from fear. Moved, the soldier threw down the blade and left. When Prime Minister Lord Bayan met the Master, he showed increased reverence, donating one hundred oxen and five hundred measures of vegetarian grain, by which the monastery was saved. In the gengchen year of the Zhiyuan era, he moved to Jingshan. The monastery had suffered a fire, and its rough reconstruction was barely one-tenth complete; the Master devoted his mind to rebuilding it, and within ten years it was completely restored to its old appearance. In the spring of the wuzi year, demonic disturbances suddenly arose; there were those who slandered and denounced the Chan school. The Master sighed and said: "This is a great matter of the school; I must endure death to dispute it." He thereupon hastened to the capital. There was an imperial decree assembling the adherents of various schools to debate at court. The Emperor asked: "What does Chan take as its principle?" The Master memorialized: "Pure wisdom is wondrously round, its essence originally empty and tranquil; it is not something that seeing, hearing, perceiving, knowing, or deliberative discrimination can reach." The Emperor inquired repeatedly. The Master cited the various patriarchs of the Western Heavens and the Eastern Land one by one, up to the stick-and-shout nidānas of Deshan and Linji; generally, Chan is the treasury of the true Dharma eye and the wondrous mind of nirvāṇa, tending toward the supreme vehicle—what could surpass Chan? His words and intentions were distinct and clear, totaling more than two thousand words. He was also summoned before the imperial couch to argue and debate back and forth with the slanderers; the slanderers ran out of words. The Emperor was greatly pleased, and the Chan school remained secure as before. Bidding farewell at the throne, he returned south. He addressed the assembly, saying: "I originally hid deep in rock caves, living in seclusion to pass the time; I never expected that the sun shining and heaven looking down would make it difficult to evade supreme transformation." He also said: "Covering the head with a patch-robe, the myriad affairs cease; / at this moment, this mountain monk understands nothing at all." Jingshan suffered another disaster, and the Master said to the assembly: "I merely owe this mountain a debt from previous lives." He then exerted all his strength to rebuild it once more, transforming the slope of the hall into a pond; the other buildings were completed one after another. On the seventeenth day of the sixth month of the guisi year, he wrote a verse and passed away. The Master was born on the seventeenth day of the second month of the jimao year of the Jiading era; his age was seventy-five, and his monastic age was fifty-nine. He was buried on the western slope of the monastery.