續傳燈錄 4.5

4.5

Chan Master Daguan Tanying of Jinshan in Runzhou was a son of the Qiu family of Hangzhou. First he visited Chan Master Dayang Xuan and asked, "When Dongshan specially set forth the biased and the right, ruler and minister, what matter did he intend to clarify?" Dayang said, "The matter before your parents gave birth to you." The Master asked, "How should one understand it?" Dayang said, "In the depth of night it is brightly illuminated; at dawn it does not show." The Master was bewildered. He then visited Guyin and brought up this previous conversation. Guyin said, "Dayang did not say it was not so, but his mouth was too narrow to express it fully. This old monk would not be like that." The Master asked, "What is the matter before one's parents gave birth to one?" Guyin said, "A lump of dried dung." The Master asked, "What is 'In the depth of night it is brightly illuminated; at dawn it does not show'?" Guyin said, "A cat sleeping beneath peony flowers." The Master became even more puzzled and startled. One day during general communal labor, Guyin asked, "Are you hauling firewood today?" The Master said, "Yes." Guyin said, "Yunmen asked a monk: 'Does the person carry the firewood or does the firewood carry the person? How do you understand this?'" The Master had no reply. Guyin said, "This matter is like someone learning calligraphy: those whose strokes and dots can be imitated are skilled; those who cannot are clumsy. This is simply because they have not yet been able to forget the rules. Only when the brush forgets the hand and the hand forgets the mind will it be right." Thereupon the Master experienced silent accord. After a long pause he said, "As Shitou said: 'Clinging to phenomena is fundamentally delusion; according with principle is also not awakening.'" Guyin said, "Do you consider these words medicine or words of sickness?" The Master said, "They are words of medicine." Guyin scolded him, "How can you take sickness as medicine?" The Master said, "Phenomena fit like a box and its lid; principle is wondrous like an arrow hitting the point straight on. How could anything be added to this? Yet you still consider it sickness—I truly have not grasped your meaning." Guyin said, "Wondrous as this is, it is still only called principle and phenomena. The Patriarch's intention cannot be reached by intellectual knowledge; how could principle and phenomena exhaust it? Therefore the Bhagavat said: 'The obstacle of principle obstructs right knowledge and vision; the obstacle of phenomena perpetuates various births and deaths.'" The Master was as if awakened from a dream and asked, "How can it be applied?" Guyin said, "If words do not leave the old ruts, how can they escape the coverings and entanglements?" The Master sighed, "As soon as it touches the lips, it falls into intentional thought; all of these are gates of death, never the living road." After taking up abbotship, he instructed the assembly, saying: "As soon as it touches the lips, it falls into intentional thought; all of these are gates of death, none the living road. Even if you break through, you are still submerged. Do not let yourself fail your whole life and waste this existence. Do you want not to fail your whole life?" Raising his staff and striking once, he said: "You must simply not be deceived by the staff—only then will you get it. Look! The staff pierces straight through all of your skulls and leaps into your nostrils!" He struck once more. A monk asked, "What are the very first two characters of the scripture?" The Master said, "The character *yi* (以)." The monk asked, "What connection is there?" The Master said, "The character *ba* (八)." The monk said, "You are truly misleading people!" The Master said, "Because of slandering this sutra, such retribution is incurred." A monk asked, "Who is made to bear an iron cangue of one hundred and twenty catties?" The Master said, "This old monk." The monk said, "You reap what you sow." The Master said, "Bitter, bitter!" A monk asked, "Has the Upādhyāya ever recited the Buddha's name or not?" The Master said, "I have never recited the Buddha's name." The monk asked, "Why do you not recite the Buddha's name?" The Master said, "I fear defiling people's mouths." He ascended the hall. When the assembly had gathered, the head monk stepped forward to bow. The Master said, "Ask properly!" Just as the head monk bowed his head to ask a question, the Master said, "Today I will not answer questions," and returned straight to the abbot's quarters. He ascended the hall and said: "This mountain monk's household is different: it has already altered the ruts of other quarters. For Mañjuśrī, I pull the wedge from his eye; I tell Samantabhadra to stop chewing the iron in his mouth. I urge people to open the hand that grasps the snake, and I chop away the post where you tie your donkey. If you hesitate and intend to deliberate—" Shouting, he said: "Pinch, pinch! Practice!" He ascended the hall and said: "Throughout my life this mountain monk has been fond of wrestling, but there has simply been no one to match me. Today let me pair up with the head monk!" Rolling up his kāṣāya, he stepped down from his seat and challenged the head monk to wrestle. As soon as the head monk came forward, the Master said, "Taking a fall on level ground!" and returned to the abbot's quarters. He ascended the hall and said: "The Buddhas of the three periods are servants and maids; the entire canon of teachings is spittle." After a long pause he said: "Now tell me, whose servants and maids are the Buddhas of the three periods?" He then took his whisk, drew a line, and said: "The Buddhas of the three periods, step over to this side! And tell me, whose spittle is the entire canon of teachings?" The Master then spat once. He ascended the hall and said: "A steelyard weight suddenly floats to the bottom of the well; an old rat, after many years, transforms into an ox. Huikong saw it and clapped his hands with laughter: the three-legged monkey is indeed an extraordinary ape!" He ascended the hall and said: "The five thousand volumes of scripture are the common talk of the Buddhas; the eighty-four thousand afflictions are the wondrous functioning of sentient beings. Yet this is still not the vajra eye. What is the vajra eye?" After a long pause he said, "Blind!" He ascended the hall. When the great assembly had settled, a monk just stepped forward to bow. The Master said, "If you wish to know the meaning of Buddha-nature, you should observe the causes and conditions of the right season." The monk then asked, "What are the causes and conditions of the right season?" The Master immediately stepped down from the seat. A monk asked, "What is a person who goes forward?" The Master said, "Having returned amidst the green peaks, he does not emerge from the white clouds." The monk asked, "What is a person who returns?" The Master said, "Ever since wandering the purple avenues, who would be willing to hide in the green mountains?" A monk asked, "What is taking away the person but not taking away the environment?" The Master said, "At home there is no longer news of the day of return; by the roadside, in vain, stands the marker for gazing toward home." The monk asked, "What is taking away the environment but not taking away the person?" The Master said, "Let the vast sea completely dry to the very bottom; let the green mountains be ground straight into dust." The monk asked, "What is taking away both the person and the environment?" The Master said, "Heaven and earth are empty of Qin's sun and moon; the mountains and rivers show no trace of Han's sovereign and ministers." The monk asked, "What is taking away neither the person nor the environment?" The Master said, "Orioles warble in a thousand groves, flowers carpet the ground; travelers wander in the third month, grass encroaches upon the sky." A monk asked, "What is the Upādhyāya's house style?" The Master said, "Stretching out the hand, one does not see the palm." The monk asked, "If suddenly a guest from Saindhava comes, what then?" The Master said, "Face to face, a thousand leagues apart." A monk asked, "Whose song does the Master sing, and whose lineage style do you succeed?" The Master said, "Linji." The monk said, "Then you are Guyin's true son!" The Master said, "Deshan." A monk asked, "What is the long Dharma-body?" The Master said, "A six-foot staff." The monk asked, "What is the short Dharma-body?" The Master said, "A three-inch counting stick." The monk said, "Then the Dharma-body is of two kinds?" The Master said, "There are still square and round ones!" He ascended the hall and said: "In other quarters the hooks are curved and the bait is fragrant; people rush together like bees swarming around their queen because of the sacred. Here the hook is straight and there is no bait at all, like pressing down a gourd in water." Raising his staff in the gesture of fishing, he said: "Taking fish from deep water, I have always trusted in fate; I have never offered wine to sacrifice to the river god." Throwing down his staff, he stepped down from his seat.