續傳燈錄 9.6

9.6

南嶽雲峯文悅禪師南昌徐氏子。初造大愚。聞示眾曰。大家相聚喫莖齏。若喚作一莖虀。入地獄如箭射。便下座。師大駭夜造方丈。愚問來何所求。師曰。求心法。愚曰。法輪未轉食輪先轉。後生趁色力健。何不為眾乞食。我忍飢不暇。何暇為汝說禪乎。師不敢違。未幾愚移翠巖。師納疏罷。復過翠巖求指示。巖曰。佛法未到爛却。雪寒宜為眾乞炭。師亦奉命能事罷。復造方丈。巖曰。堂司闕人今以煩汝。師受之不樂。恨巖不去心地坐後架。桶篐忽散自架墮落。師忽然開悟。頓見巖用處。走搭伽黎上寢堂。巖迎笑曰。維那且喜大事了畢。師再拜不及吐一辭而去服勤八年。後出世翠巖。時首座領眾出迎問曰。德山宗乘即不問。如何是臨濟大用。師曰。爾甚處去來。座擬議。師便掌。座擬對。師喝曰。領眾歸去。自是一眾畏服。僧問。如何是道。師曰。路不拾遺。曰如何是道中人。師曰。草賊大敗。僧禮拜。師噓一聲。問萬法歸一一歸何所。師曰。黃河九曲。曰如何是第一句。師曰。垂手過膝。曰如何是第二句。師曰。萬里崖州。曰如何是第三句。師曰。糞箕掃帚。問如何是深山巖崖佛法。師曰。猢猻倒上樹。問如何是衲衣下事。師曰。皮裏骨。問不涉廉纖請師速道。師曰。須彌山。問如何是清淨法身。師曰。柴場荻草。上堂。語不離窠道。焉能出蓋纏。片雲橫谷口。迷却幾人源。所以道。言無展事語不投機。承言者喪。滯句者迷。汝等諸人到這裏憑何話會。良久曰。欲得不招無間業。莫謗如來正法輪。上堂。過去諸佛已滅。未來諸佛未生。正當今日佛法委在翠巖。放行則隨機利物。把住則瓦解氷消。且道把住好放行好。良久曰咄。這野狐精。擊禪床下座。上堂。汝等諸人與麼上來。大似刺腦入膠盆。與麼下去也是平地喫交。直饒不來不去。朝打三千暮打八百。上堂。道遠乎哉觸事而真。聖遠乎哉體之則神。所以娑婆世界以音聲為佛事。香積世界以香飯為佛事。翠巖這裏秖於出入息內。供養承事過現未來塵沙諸佛無一空過者。過現未來塵沙諸佛。是翠巖侍者無一不到。如一不到三十拄杖。諸上座還會麼。將此深心奉塵剎。是則名為報佛恩。上堂。有情之本。依智海以為源。含識之流。總法身而為體。秖為情生智隔想變體殊。達本情忘知心體合。諸禪德會麼。古佛與露柱相交。佛殿與燈籠鬪額。若也不會單重交折。上堂。竿木隨身逢場作戲。然雖如是一手不獨拍。眾中莫有作家禪客本分。衲僧出來共相唱和。有麼。時有僧出禮拜。師曰。依希似曲纔堪聽。又被風吹別調中。便下座。上堂。天明平旦萬事成辦。北俱盧洲長粳米飯。下座。上堂。有佛處不得住。無佛處急走過。爾等諸人橫擔拄杖向甚麼處行脚。良久曰。東勝身洲持鉢。西瞿耶尼喫飯。上堂。假使心通無量時。歷劫何曾異今日。且道今日事作麼生。良久曰烏龜鑽破壁。上堂。見聞覺知無障礙。聲香味觸常三昧。衲僧道會也。山是山水是水。飢來喫飯困來打睡。忽然須彌山𨁝跳入爾鼻孔裏。摩竭魚穿爾眼睛中。作麼生商量。良久曰。參堂去。上堂。一刀兩段未稱宗師。就下平高固非作者。翠巖到這裏口似匾擔。爾等諸人作麼生商量。良久曰。欲得不招無間業。莫謗如來正法輪。上堂。若見諸相非相。即山河大地並無過咎。諸上座終日著衣喫飯。未曾咬著一粒米。未曾挂著一縷絲。便能變大地作黃金。攪長河為酥酪。然雖如是。著衣喫飯即不無。衲僧門下污臭氣也未夢見在。上堂。普賢行文殊智。補陀巖上清風起。瞎驢趁隊過新羅。吉䝤舌頭三千里。上堂。拈起拄杖曰。掌鉢盂向香積世界。為甚麼出身無路。挑日月於拄杖頭上。為甚麼有眼如盲。直得風行草偃響順聲和。無纖芥可留。猶是交爭底法。作麼生是不交爭底法。卓拄杖下座。上堂。臨濟先鋒放過一著。德山後令且在一邊。獨露無私一句作麼生道。良久曰。堪嗟楚下鍾離昧（音抹）以拂子擊禪床下座。上堂。教中道。種種取捨皆是輪回。未出輪回而辨圓覺。彼圓覺性即同流轉。若免輪回無有是處。爾等諸人到這裏。且作麼生辨圓覺。良久曰。荷葉團團團似鏡。菱角尖尖尖似錐。以拂擊禪床。上堂。古人道。山河石壁不礙眼光。師曰。作麼生是眼。拈拄杖打禪床一下曰。須彌山百雜碎即不問。爾且道。娑竭羅龍王年多少。俗士問。如何是佛。師曰。著衣喫飯量家道。曰恁麼則退身三步叉手當胸去也。師曰。醉後添杯不如無。小參。舉百丈歲夜示眾曰。爾這一隊後生。經律論固是不知。入眾參禪禪又不會。臘月三十日且作麼生折合去。師曰。灼然諸禪德。去聖時遙人心澹泊。看却今時叢林。更是不得所在之處。或聚徒三百五百浩浩地秖以飯食豐濃寮舍穩便為旺化。中間孜孜為道者無一人。設有十箇五箇走上走下半青半黃。會即總道我會。各各自謂握靈蛇之珠。孰肯知非。及乎挨拶鞭逼將來。直是萬中無一。苦哉苦哉。所謂般若叢林歲歲凋。無明荒草年年長。就中今時後生纔入眾來。便自端然拱手。受他別人供養。到處菜不擇一莖。柴不搬一束。十指不沾水。百事不干懷。雖則一期快意。爭奈三塗累身。豈不見教中道。寧以熱銕纏身。不受信心人衣。寧以洋銅灌口。不受信心人食。上座若也是去。直饒變大地作黃金。攪長河為酥酪。供養上座未為分外。若也未是。至於滴水寸絲。便須披毛戴角牽犁拽耙償他始得。不見祖師道。入道不通理。復身還信施。此是決定底事終不虛也。諸上座。光陰可惜時不待人。莫待一朝眼光落地。緇田無一簣之功。銕圍陷百刑之痛。莫言不道。珍重。

Chan Master Wenyue of Yunfeng on Mount Nanyue was a son of the Xu family of Nanchang. At first he went to Dayu. Hearing him instruct the assembly, saying: 'Everyone gathers together to eat a stalk of pickled vegetable; if you call it a single stalk of pickled vegetable, you enter hell like a shot arrow,' he then stepped down from his seat. The Master was greatly frightened, and that night he went to the Abbot's quarters. Dayu asked: 'What have you come seeking?' The Master said: 'I seek the mind Dharma.' Dayu said: 'Before the Dharma wheel turns, the food wheel turns first. While you are young and your physical strength is robust, why do you not beg for food on behalf of the assembly? I have no leisure even to endure hunger—what leisure do I have to expound Chan for you?' The Master did not dare disobey. Not long after, Dayu moved to Cuiyan. Having completed his fund-raising task, the Master again crossed over to Cuiyan to seek instruction. Cuiyan said: 'The Buddha Dharma has not yet rotted away. In the snowy cold, you should beg for charcoal on behalf of the assembly.' The Master also accepted the charge and performed his duties well. He again went to the Abbot's quarters. Cuiyan said: 'The hall superintendent's office lacks a person; now I trouble you with it.' The Master received it without joy, resenting Cuiyan for not penetrating his mind-ground. While sitting behind the privy racks, a bucket hoop suddenly broke and fell from the rack. The Master suddenly attained awakening and instantly saw Cuiyan's function. He ran, throwing on his saṅghāṭī robe, and went up to the sleeping hall. Cuiyan smiled to welcome him, saying: 'Karmadāna, I am pleased indeed that the great matter is finished!' The Master bowed twice, and before he could utter a single word, he departed. He attended on him for eight years. Later, he appeared in the world at Cuiyan. At that time, the head monk led the assembly out to welcome him and asked: 'The ancestral vehicle of Deshan is not what I ask about; what is the great function of Linji?' The Master said: 'Where have you come from?' As the head monk hesitated, the Master struck him with his palm. As the head monk prepared to reply, the Master shouted and said: 'Lead the assembly back!' From then on, the entire assembly stood in awe of him. A monk asked: 'What is the Way?' The Master said: 'No picking up lost articles on the road.' The monk said: 'What is the person on the Way?' The Master said: 'The grass-bandit is utterly defeated.' The monk bowed. The Master sighed with a hiss. A monk asked: 'The ten thousand dharmas return to the one; where does the one return?' The Master said: 'The Yellow River has nine bends.' The monk asked: 'What is the first phrase?' The Master said: 'Hands hanging past the knees.' The monk asked: 'What is the second phrase?' The Master said: 'Ten thousand miles to Yaizhou.' The monk asked: 'What is the third phrase?' The Master said: 'A dung basket and a broom.' A monk asked: 'What is the Buddha Dharma in the deep mountains and precipitous cliffs?' The Master said: 'A monkey climbing a tree upside down.' A monk asked: 'What is the matter beneath the patch-robe?' The Master said: 'Bones inside the skin.' A monk asked: 'Without involving trivialities, please, Master, speak quickly.' The Master said: 'Mount Sumeru.' A monk asked: 'What is the pure Dharma body?' The Master said: 'Firewood grounds and reed grass.' He ascended the hall and said: 'If words do not leave the rut, how can one escape coverings and entanglements? A patch of cloud lying across the valley entrance—how many people are confused as to the source? Therefore it is said: "Words do not display the matter; speech does not accord with the capacity. Those who accept words are lost; those who stagnate in phrases are confused." When you people arrive here, upon what do you base your understanding?' After a long pause, he said: 'If you wish not to incur the retribution of uninterrupted hell, do not slander the Tathāgata's true wheel of the Dharma.' He ascended the hall and said: 'The past buddhas have already perished; the future buddhas are not yet born. Right at this very day, the Buddha Dharma is entrusted fully to Cuiyan. Letting go, it accords with capacities and benefits beings; holding fast, it crumbles like tiles and dissolves like ice. Tell me, is holding fast good, or is letting go good?' After a long pause, he said: 'Bah! You wild fox spirits!' He struck the Chan bed and stepped down from the seat. He ascended the hall and said: 'You people coming up like this is much like thrusting your heads into a tub of glue. Going down like this is also stumbling on level ground. Even if you neither come nor go, morning brings three thousand strikes and evening brings eight hundred.' He ascended the hall and said: 'Is the Way far off? Touch anything and it is true. Is the sage far off? Embody him and you are spiritual. Therefore, the Sahā world uses sound to perform the Buddha's work; the Gandhavyūha world uses fragrant food to perform the Buddha's work. Here at Cuiyan, solely within inhalation and exhalation, one makes offerings to and serves all the buddhas of past, present, and future, as numerous as dust and sand, without a single one being neglected. All the buddhas of past, present, and future, as numerous as dust and sand, are Cuiyan's attendants—not a single one fails to arrive. If a single one fails to arrive, thirty blows of the staff! Do you head monks understand? Offering this profound mind to the dust-mote realms is called repaying the Buddha's kindness.' He ascended the hall and said: 'The root of sentient beings relies on the ocean of wisdom as its source. The flow of conscious beings takes the entire Dharma body as its substance. It is only because sentiments arise that wisdom is blocked, and thoughts change so that substance seems different. When one reaches the origin, sentiments are forgotten, and the mind is known to unite with substance. Do you Chan worthies understand? The ancient Buddha crosses paths with an exposed pillar; the Buddha hall butts heads with a lantern. If you do not understand, double layers snap in two.' He ascended the hall and said: 'Carrying a bamboo pole along, one acts out the play wherever an occasion arises. Even so, one hand alone does not clap. In the assembly, is there a master Chan guest, a patch-robed monk of fundamental capacity, who will step forward to sing in harmony together? Is there?' At that time a monk came forward and bowed. The Master said: 'Barely resembling a tune, it was just worthy to hear, / When blown by the wind again into another melody.' He then stepped down from his seat. He ascended the hall and said: 'Dawn breaks and daylight appears; the ten thousand matters are all accomplished. Uttarakuru grows non-glutinous rice.' He stepped down from his seat. He ascended the hall and said: 'Where there is a Buddha, do not stay; where there is no Buddha, run quickly past. With staffs slung across your shoulders, where are you people going on itinerant pilgrimage?' After a long pause, he said: 'Holding the alms-bowl in Pūrvavideha; eating rice in Aparagodānīya.' He ascended the hall and said: 'Even if the mind penetrates measureless time, across kalpas how has it ever differed from today? Tell me, what about today's matter?' After a long pause, he said: 'A black turtle bores through a wall.' He ascended the hall and said: 'Seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing are free of obstruction; sights, sounds, scents, and touches are constantly in samādhi. A patch-robed monk says: "I understand! Mountains are mountains, waters are waters; when hungry, I eat rice, when tired, I sleep." Suddenly Mount Sumeru jumps up into your nostril, and a makara fish pierces through your eyes—how do you deliberate this?' After a long pause, he said: 'Go to the hall and practice!' He ascended the hall and said: 'Severing with a single sword cut does not yet deserve to be called an ancestral master; leveling the high to suit the low is certainly not the work of a master craftsman. When Cuiyan reaches here, his mouth is like a carrying pole. How do you people deliberate this?' After a long pause, he said: 'If you wish not to incur the retribution of uninterrupted hell, do not slander the Tathāgata's true wheel of the Dharma.' He ascended the hall and said: 'If you see that all marks are not marks, then the mountains, rivers, and great earth are completely free of fault. You head monks wear robes and eat rice all day long, yet you have never bitten into a single grain of rice, nor have you ever had a single thread hanging on you. Then you can turn the great earth into gold and churn the long river into ghee. Even though it is like this, wearing robes and eating rice are not absent, yet you have not even dreamed of the foul stench under a patch-robed monk's gate.' He ascended the hall and said: 'Samantabhadra's practice, Mañjuśrī's wisdom: on Potalaka cliff a pure breeze arises. A blind donkey follows the herd across Silla; the magpie's tongue is three thousand miles long.' He ascended the hall, held up his staff, and said: 'Holding an alms-bowl toward the Gandhavyūha world, why is there no way to step out? Carrying the sun and moon on the tip of the staff, why do those with eyes act as if blind? Even if the wind moves and the grass bends, echoes conform and sounds harmonize, with not the slightest speck remaining, it is still the dharma of contention. What is the dharma of non-contention?' He struck with his staff and stepped down from the seat. He ascended the hall and said: 'Linji's vanguard was let off by one move; Deshan's later command is put aside for now. How do you speak the single phrase that stands uniquely revealed without partiality?' After a long pause, he said: 'Lamentable indeed was Zhongli Mei under Chu!' He struck the Chan bed with his fly-whisk and stepped down from the seat. He ascended the hall and said: 'The teaching says: "All kinds of grasping and rejecting are saṃsāra. If one attempts to discern complete enlightenment without having escaped saṃsāra, that nature of complete enlightenment joins in the transmigration; if one hopes to escape saṃsāra, there is no such possibility." When you people arrive here, how will you discern complete enlightenment?' After a long pause, he said: 'Lotus leaves are round, round like mirrors; water caltrops are pointed, pointed like awls.' He struck the Chan bed with his fly-whisk. He ascended the hall and said: 'An ancient said: "Mountains, rivers, and stone walls do not obstruct the eye's vision."' The Master said: 'What is the eye?' He picked up his staff, struck the Chan bed once, and said: 'Mount Sumeru shattered into a hundred fragments is not what I ask about; tell me, how old is the Dragon King Sāgara?' A lay scholar asked: 'What is the Buddha?' The Master said: 'Wearing robes and eating rice according to the family's means.' The scholar said: 'If so, then I shall take three steps back, cross my hands in front of my chest, and leave.' The Master said: 'Adding a cup after being drunk is not as good as having none.' At an evening informal gathering, he cited Baizhang instructing the assembly on New Year's Eve: 'You crowd of youngsters certainly do not understand the sūtras, vinaya, and treatises, and having entered the assembly to practice Chan, you do not understand Chan either. On the thirtieth day of the twelfth month, how will you settle the account?' The Master said: 'Truly, Chan worthies! We are far removed in time from the sages, and people's minds are indifferent. Look at today's monasteries—there is simply no proper place anywhere. Either they gather three to five hundred disciples in a tumultuous crowd, considering abundant food and comfortable quarters alone to be a flourishing transformation, while among them there is not a single person diligently striving for the Way. Even if there are five or ten scurrying up and down, half-green and half-yellow, as soon as they understand something, they all say: "I understand!" Each considers himself to hold the jewel of the spiritual serpent, and who is willing to acknowledge error? When it comes to prodding and whipping them forward, there is truly not one in ten thousand. How bitter! How bitter! As the saying goes: "The grove of prajñā withers year by year; the wild grass of ignorance grows year by year." Especially among today's youngsters, as soon as they enter the assembly, they immediately hold their hands upright in their sleeves and receive offerings from others. Everywhere, they do not pick a single stalk of greens, nor do they carry a single bundle of firewood; their ten fingers do not touch water, and a hundred matters do not concern their minds. Although they enjoy pleasure for a time, how can they avoid burdening themselves in the three miserable destinies? Do you not see what is said in the teaching: "Better to wrap hot iron around one's body than to receive the robes of a person of faith; better to pour molten copper into one's mouth than to receive the food of a person of faith." If you head monks have truly realized it, even if the great earth is turned into gold and the long river is churned into ghee to make offerings to you, it would not be beyond your due. If you have not yet realized it, then even down to a drop of water or an inch of thread, you must put on fur and horns, pull the plow and drag the harrow, to repay them before you are done! Do you not see what the Patriarch said: "If one enters the Way without penetrating the principle, one will repay the offerings of faith in physical form." This is a definite matter, never in vain. Head monks! Time is to be cherished; time waits for no man. Do not wait until one day the light of your eyes falls to the ground, with not a single basket of work in the field of the black robes, sinking into the pains of a hundred punishments in the Iron Enclosure! Do not say I did not tell you. Take care!'