Records of the Transmission of the Lamp, Volume Fifteen

瑞州洞山至乾禪師

Chan Master Zhiqian of Dongshan, Ruizhou

上堂。洞山不會談禪。不會說道。祇是饑來吃飰。困來打睡。你諸人必然別有長處。試出來盡力道一句看。有麼。有麼。良久曰。睦州道底。

He mounted the hall: 'Dongshan cannot talk Chan and cannot speak the Way; he only eats when hungry and sleeps when tired. You people surely have some other advantage — try coming forward and speaking one phrase with all your strength. Is there any? Is there any?' After a long silence he said: 'What Muzhou said.'

平江府寶華普鑑佛慈禪師

Chan Master Pujian Foci of Baohua, Pingjiang Prefecture

本郡周氏子。幼不茹葷。依景德寺清智下髮。十七遊方。初謁覺印英禪師。不契。遂扣真淨之室。淨舉石霜䖍侍者話問之。釋然契悟。作偈曰。枯木無華幾度秋。斷雲猶掛樹梢頭。自從鬪折泥牛角。直至如今水逆流。淨肯之。命侍巾缽。晚狥眾開法寶華。次移高峰。上堂。參禪別無奇特。祇要當人命根斷。疑情脫。千眼頓開。如大洋海底輥一輪赫日。上昇天門照破四天之下。萬別千差。一時明瞭。便能握金剛王寶劍。七縱八橫。受用自在。豈不快哉。其或見諦不真。影像彷彿。尋言逐句。受人指呼。驢年得快活去。不如屏淨塵緣。竪起脊梁骨。著些精彩。究教七穿八穴。百了千當。向水邊林下長養聖胎。亦不枉受人天供養。然雖如是。臥雲門下。有箇鐵門限。更須猛著氣力。跳過始得。擬議之間。墮坑落壍。以拂子擊禪床。下座。上堂。月圓。伏惟三世諸佛。狸奴白牯。各各起居萬福。時中淡薄。無可相延。切希寬抱。老水牯牛近日亦自多病多惱。不甘水草。遇著暖日和風。當下和身便倒。教渠拽杷牽犂。直是搖頭擺腦。可憐萬頃良田。一時變為荒草。

He was a son of the Zhou family of this prefecture. As a child he would not eat meat, and he was shaved by Qingzhi of the Jingde Monastery. At seventeen he wandered in search of the Way. He first called on Chan Master Jueyin Ying, but did not accord, and so knocked at Zhenjing's room. Jing brought up the story of Qianshi, Shishuang's attendant, and asked him, and he was released into accord and awakening. He made a verse: 'A withered tree without flowers, how many autumns? A broken cloud still hangs at the treetop. Since the clay ox's horn was snapped in the struggle, the water flows backward even now.' Jing approved him and made him his attendant for towel and bowl. In his later years he followed the assembly and opened the teaching at Baohua, then moved to Gaofeng. He mounted the hall: 'Studying Chan has nothing extraordinary; it only requires that a man's root of life be cut off and his mass of doubt shed, so that a thousand eyes open at once, like a blazing sun rolling at the bottom of the great ocean and rising up to the gate of heaven, shining through all under the four heavens. The ten thousand differences and a thousand distinctions become clear at one time, and one can grasp the vajra king's precious sword, seven vertical and eight horizontal, using it freely — is this not delightful? But if one's insight is not true and one's images are vague, seeking words and chasing sentences, taking orders from others — in the year of the donkey will one come to happiness. Better to sweep clean the dust of conditions, straighten the backbone, put in some spirit, investigate until one is pierced seven ways and hollowed eight, a hundredfold finished and a thousandfold settled, and nourish the sacred embryo by the water and under the trees — then one does not vainly receive the offerings of gods and men. Even so, under the gate of Woyun there is an iron threshold, and one must put forth fierce strength to leap over it. In the space of deliberation one falls into a pit.' He struck the meditation seat with his fly whisk and descended. He mounted the hall: 'The moon is full. I wish the buddhas of the three ages and the cats and white oxen each abundant welfare in their rising and resting. Provisions are plain at this time and there is nothing to offer you; I beg you to be forbearing. The old water buffalo has lately been much ill and much troubled and is not content with water and grass; when it meets warm days and gentle wind, it at once falls over, body and all. Tell it to drag the harrow and pull the plow and it only shakes its head and wags its brain. Pitiful — a thousand hectares of good field have all at once turned to wild grass.'

瑞州九峰希廣禪師

Chan Master Xiguang of Jiufeng, Ruizhou

遊方日謁雲蓋智和尚。乃問。興化打克賓。意旨如何。智下禪床。展兩手吐舌示之。師打一坐具。智曰。此是風力所轉。又問石霜琳禪師。琳曰。你意作麼生。師亦打一坐具。琳曰。好一坐具。祇是不知落處。又問真淨。淨曰。你意作麼生。師復打一坐具。淨曰。他打你也打。師於言下大悟。淨因有頌曰。丈夫當斷不自斷。興化為人徹底漢。已後從教眼自開。棒了罰錢趂出院。後住九峰。衲子宗仰。

In his days of wandering he called on Elder Zhi of Yungai and asked: 'What is the meaning of Xinghua striking Kebin?' Zhi came down from the meditation seat, spread both hands and stuck out his tongue to show him. The Master struck him with his sitting cloth. Zhi said: 'That is turned by the power of the wind.' He also asked Chan Master Lin of Shishuang. Lin said: 'What is your meaning?' The Master also struck him with his sitting cloth. Lin said: 'A fine sitting cloth — only you do not know where it falls.' He also asked Zhenjing. Jing said: 'What is your meaning?' The Master again struck him with his sitting cloth. Jing said: 'He strikes and you strike too.' At these words the Master had a great awakening. Jing then made a verse: 'A true man should cut but does not cut himself; Xinghua worked for people as a thoroughgoing fellow. Hereafter let your eyes open of themselves — after the blows, fined and chased out of the monastery.' Later he resided at Jiufeng, and the patch-robed monks revered him.

瑞州黃檗道全禪師

Chan Master Daoquan of Huangbo, Ruizhou

上堂。以拂子擊禪床曰。一槌打透無盡藏。一切珍寶吾皆有。拈來普濟貧乏人。免使波吒路邊走。遂喝曰。誰是貧乏者。

He mounted the hall and struck the meditation seat with his fly whisk and said: 'One blow breaks through the inexhaustible storehouse; all treasures are mine. I bring them out to relieve the poor, so that they need not walk the roadside in misery.' Then he shouted and said: 'Who is the poor one?'

瑞州清涼慧洪覺範禪師

Chan Master Huihong Juefan of Qingliang, Ruizhou

郡之彭氏子。年十四。父母俱亡。乃依三峰靘禪師為童子。日記數千言。覽群書殆盡。靘器之。十九。試經於東京天王寺。得度。從宣秘講成實唯識論。逾四年。棄謁真淨於歸宗。淨遷石門。師隨至。淨患其深聞之獘。每舉玄沙未徹之語。發其疑。凡有所對。淨曰。你又說道理耶。一日頓脫所疑。述偈曰。靈雲一見不再見。紅白枝枝不著華。尀耐釣魚船上客。卻來平地摝魚鰕。淨見為助喜。命掌記。未久。去謁諸老。皆蒙賞音。由是名振叢林。顯謨朱公彥請開法撫州北景德。後住清涼。示眾。舉首楞嚴如來語阿難曰。汝應齅此爐中栴檀。此香若復然於一銖。室羅筏城四十里內同時聞氣。於意云何。此香為復生栴檀木。生於汝鼻。為生於空。阿難。若復此香生於汝鼻。稱鼻所生。當從鼻出。鼻非栴檀。云何鼻中有栴檀氣。稱汝聞香。當於鼻入。鼻中出香。說聞非義。若生於空。空性常恆。香應常在。何藉爐中爇此枯木。若生於木。則此香質。因爇成煙。若鼻得聞。合蒙煙氣。其煙騰空。未及遙遠。四十里內。云何已聞。是故。當知香鼻與聞。俱無處所。即齅與香。二處虗妄。本非因緣。非自然性。師曰。入此鼻觀。親證無生。又大智度論。問曰。聞者云何。聞用耳根聞邪。用耳識聞邪。用意識聞邪。若耳根聞。耳根無覺識知。故不能聞。若耳識聞。耳識一念。故不能分別。不應聞。若意識聞。意識亦不能聞。何以故。先五識識五塵。然後意識識意識。不能識現在五塵。唯識過去未來五塵。若意識能識現在五塵者。盲聾人亦應識聲也。何以故。意識不破故。師曰。究此聞塵。則合本妙。既證無生。又合本妙。畢竟是何境界。良久曰。白猿已叫千巖晚。碧縷初橫萬字鑪。住景德日。僧問。南有景德。北有景德。德即不問。如何是景。師曰。頸在頂上。崇寧二年。會無盡居士張公於峽之善溪。

He was a son of the Peng family of the prefecture. At fourteen both his parents died, and he became a boy attendant under Chan Master Qing of Sanfeng, memorizing several thousand words a day and reading almost all the books, and Qing esteemed him. At nineteen he sat the sutra examination at the Tianwang Monastery in the Eastern Capital and was ordained. He studied the Satyasiddhi and the Vijnaptimatrata under Xuanmi for over four years, then gave it up and called on Zhenjing at Guizong. When Jing moved to Shimen, the Master followed him there. Jing was concerned about the fault of his deep learning, and kept bringing up Xuanzha's words about 'not yet penetrated' to rouse his doubt. Whenever he made a reply, Jing would say, 'Are you talking principles again?' One day he suddenly shed his doubt and wrote a verse: 'Lingyun saw once and did not see again; branch after branch, red and white, bears no flower. How I resent that guest on the fishing boat, who comes to level ground to scoop up fish and shrimp.' Jing, seeing it, rejoiced for him and made him secretary. Before long he left to call on the various elders, and was appreciated by them all; from this his fame shook the monasteries. Lord Zhu Yan, the Xianmo, invited him to open the teaching at North Jingde in Fuzhou, and later he resided at Qingliang. Addressing the assembly, he brought up the Surangama, where the Tathagata said to Ananda: 'You should smell the sandalwood in this censer. If this fragrance is burned even to a single dram, all within forty li of Sravasti smells it at the same time. What do you think? Is this fragrance born from the sandalwood, born from your nose, or born from space? Ananda, if this fragrance were born from your nose, what is called what is born from the nose should come out of the nose. The nose is not sandalwood — how could there be sandalwood fragrance in the nose? If you say you smell the fragrance, it should enter at the nose. If fragrance comes out of the nose, saying you smell it makes no sense. If it is born from space, the nature of space is permanent; the fragrance should always be there, and what need would there be to burn this dry wood in the censer? If it is born from the wood, then the substance of this fragrance becomes smoke because of the burning. If the nose gets to smell it, it should be covered with smoke. But the smoke rises into the air and does not reach far — how then is it already smelled within forty li? Therefore you should know that fragrance, nose and smelling have no location. That is, smelling and fragrance, these two places, are empty and false, and are originally neither conditions nor spontaneous nature.' The Master said, 'Enter this contemplation of smell and personally realize no-birth.' Again, in the Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom it is asked: 'What is a hearer? Does hearing hear with the ear faculty, with the ear consciousness, or with the mind consciousness? If the ear faculty hears, the ear faculty has no awareness or knowledge and so cannot hear. If the ear consciousness hears, the ear consciousness is a single thought and so cannot discriminate; it should not hear. If the mind consciousness hears, the mind consciousness also cannot hear. Why? First the five consciousnesses cognize the five dusts, and then the mind consciousness cognizes. The mind consciousness cannot cognize the present five dusts; it cognizes only past and future five dusts. If the mind consciousness could cognize the present five dusts, the blind and deaf should also cognize sound. Why? Because the mind consciousness is not broken.' The Master said, 'Investigate this dust of hearing, and it accords with the original wonder. Having realized no-birth and again accorded with the original wonder, what realm is it after all?' After a long silence he said, 'The white gibbon has already cried through the late evening of a thousand cliffs; the blue threads first lie across the ten-thousand-character censer.' During his time at Jingde a monk asked, 'In the south there is Jingde and in the north there is Jingde. I do not ask about De — what is Jing?' The Master said, 'The neck is on top of the head.' In the second year of Chongning he met the layman Lord Zhang Wujin at Shanxi in the gorge.

張甞自謂得龍安悅禪師末後句。叢林畏與語。因夜話及之。曰。可惜雲庵不知此事。師問所以。張曰。商英頃自金陵酒官移知豫章。過歸宗見之。欲為點破。方敘悅末後句未卒。此老大怒。罵曰。此吐血禿丁．脫空妄語。不得信。既見其盛怒。更不欲敘之。師笑曰。相公但識龍安口傳末後句。而真藥現前不能辨也。張大驚。起執師手曰。老師真有此意耶。曰。疑則別參。乃取家藏雲庵頂相。展拜贊之。書以授師。其詞曰。雲庵綱宗。能用能照。天皷希聲。不落凡調。冷麵嚴眸。神光獨耀。孰傳其真。覿面為肖。前悅後洪。如融如肇。大慧處眾日。甞親依之。每歎其妙悟辯慧。建炎二年五月。示寂於同安。大尉郭公天民奏賜寶覺圓明之號。

(The text continues:) Zhang had once claimed to have obtained the final phrase of Chan Master Longan Yue, and the monasteries feared to speak with him. One night as they talked, the matter came up, and Zhang said, 'It is a pity that Yun'an does not know this matter.' The Master asked why. Zhang said, 'Some time ago I moved from being wine officer of Jinling to be prefect of Yuzhang, and passing Guizong I called on him and wanted to point it out to him. I had not finished recounting Yue's final phrase when this old fellow flew into a rage and cursed, saying: "This blood-vomiting bald-head, this empty deceitful talker — do not believe him." Seeing him so angry, I had no wish to continue.' The Master laughed and said, 'Sir, you only know Longan's final phrase as it was transmitted by word of mouth, and so you cannot distinguish the true medicine when it appears before you.' Zhang was greatly startled, rose and grasped the Master's hand, saying, 'Does the Reverend really have this intent?' The Master said, 'If you doubt it, go and inquire elsewhere.' Then he took out the portrait of Yun'an kept in the family, spread it out, bowed and praised it, and wrote it out and gave it to the Master. Its words were: 'Yun'an's essential school can use and can illumine. The heavenly drum's rare sound does not fall into common tunes. Cold face and stern eyes, the spiritual light alone shines. Who transmits his truth? Face to face one makes him like. First Yue, then Hong, like Sengrong and like Sengzhao.' When Dahui was in the assembly he attended on him personally, and often sighed over his wondrous awakening and eloquent wisdom. In the fifth month of the second year of Jianyan he passed away at Tong'an. The Grand Commandant Lord Guo Tianmin memorialized and was granted the title Baojue Yuanming.

衢州超化靜禪師

Chan Master Jing of Chaohua in Quzhou

上堂。聲前認得。已涉廉纖。句下承當。猶為鈍漢。電光石火。尚在遲疑。點著不來。橫屍萬裡。良久雲。有甚用處。咄。

Ascending the hall: 'To recognize it before the sound has already touched the slightest bit; to undertake it beneath the words is still to be a dull fellow. Lightning and sparks — you are still hesitating; pricked and you do not come — corpses lie across ten thousand li.' After a long silence he said, 'What use is it? Ho!'

南嶽石頭懷志庵主

The hermit master Huaizhi of Shitou in Nanyue

婺州吳氏子。年十四。師智慧院寶偁。二十二試所習。落髮。肆講十二年。宿學敬慕。甞欲會通諸宗。正一代時教。有禪者問曰。杜順乃賢首宗祖師也。談法身則曰。懷州牛吃禾。益州馬腹脹。此偈合歸天台何義耶。師無對。即出遊方。晚至洞山。謁真淨。問。古人一喝不作一喝用。意旨如何。淨叱之。師趨出。淨笑呼曰。浙子齋後遊山好。師忽領悟。久之辭去。淨曰。子所造雖逸格。惜緣不勝耳。因識其意。自爾諸方。力命出世。師卻之。庵居二十年。不與世接。士夫踵門。略不顧。有偈曰。萬機休罷付痴憨。蹤跡時容野鹿參。不脫麻衣拳作枕。幾生夢在綠蘿庵。或問。住山多年。有何旨趣。師曰。山中住。獨掩柴門無別趣。三箇柴頭品字煨。不用援毫文彩露。崇寧改元冬。曳杖造龍安。人莫之留。明年六月晦。問侍僧曰。早暮。曰。已夕矣。遂笑曰。夢境相逢。我睡已覺。汝但莫負叢林。即是報佛恩德。言訖。示寂於最樂堂。茶毗收骨。塔於乳峰之下。

He was a son of the Wu family of Wuzhou. At fourteen he studied under Baocheng of the Zhihui Cloister. At twenty-two he sat the examination on what he had studied and had his head shaved. He expounded the lectures for twelve years, and senior scholars revered and looked up to him. He once wished to harmonize all the schools and rectify the teaching of one age. A Chan monk asked him, 'Dushun is the founding patriarch of the Xianshou school. Speaking of the dharma body he said: "In Huaizhou the ox eats grain; in Yizhou the horse's belly swells." To what meaning of Tiantai does this verse belong?' The Master had no answer, and at once went out on pilgrimage. Late in life he came to Dongshan and called on Zhenjing, asking, 'The ancients said a single shout is not used as a single shout — what does it mean?' Jing shouted at him. The Master hurried out. Jing laughed and called after him, 'Man of Zhe, after the meal it is good to roam the mountain.' The Master was suddenly awakened. After a long time he took his leave. Jing said, 'Though what you have made is out of the ordinary, it is a pity your conditions do not match it.' The Master understood his meaning. From then on the various quarters strongly urged him to come forth into the world, and the Master declined. He lived in a hermitage for twenty years and did not have dealings with the world. Scholars and officials came to his gate, and he paid them no heed at all. He had a verse: 'The ten thousand mechanisms are all put down and given over to foolish simplicity; my tracks sometimes permit the wild deer to come. I do not take off my hempen robe, and I use my fist as a pillow; for how many lives have I dreamt in the Green Vine Hermitage?' Someone asked, 'Dwelling in the mountains for many years, what purport do you find?' The Master said, 'Dwelling in the mountains, I alone shut the brushwood gate, and there is no other purport. Three firebrands burn in the shape of the character "pin"; no need to raise the brush and let the colors show.' In the winter of the first year of Chongning he dragged his staff to Longan, and no one could keep him. In the last days of the sixth month of the next year he asked his attendant monk, 'Is it early or late?' The monk said, 'It is already evening.' Then he laughed and said, 'Meeting in a dream, and I have already awakened from sleep. If you only do not fail the monasteries, that is repaying the Buddha's grace and virtue.' Having spoken he passed away in the Hall of Utmost Joy. After cremation his bones were collected and enshrined in a stupa below Milk Peak.

𭤇州雙溪印首座

Head Seat Yin of Shuangxi in Wuzhou (The character in the source could not be confirmed; the various editions read Wuzhou for this entry, and that is followed here.)

自見真淨。徹證宗猷。歸遯雙溪。一日。偶書云。折腳鐺兒謾自煨。飯餘長是坐堆堆。一從近日生涯拙。百鳥御華去不來。又以觸衣碎甚。作偈曰。不掛寸絲方免寒。何須特地裊長竿。而今落落零零也。七佛之名甚處安。

After seeing Zhenjing he thoroughly realized the school's aim and returned to hide at Shuangxi. One day he happened to write: 'A broken-legged pan simmers by itself in vain; after the meal I always sit in a heap. Since lately my livelihood has been clumsy, the hundred birds carry flowers and come no more.' (The source reads 'imperial flower'; it should be 'carrying flowers'.) Again, because his robe was badly torn, he made a verse: 'Not hanging a single thread, one is free of cold; why trouble to hang up a long pole? And now, scattered and sparse as it is, where can the names of the seven Buddhas be placed?'

南嶽下十三世下

Thirteenth Generation below Nanyue, latter part

雲居祐禪師法嗣

Dharma Heirs of Chan Master You of Yunju

廬山羅漢院系南禪師

Chan Master Xinan of Luohan Monastery in Mount Lu

汀州張氏子。上堂。禪不禪。道不道。三寸舌頭胡亂掃。昨夜日輪飄桂華。今朝月窟生芝草。阿呵呵。萬兩黃金無處討。一向絕思量。諸法不相到。師臨示寂。陞座告眾曰。羅漢今日。倒騎鐵馬。逆上須彌。踏破虗空。不留眹跡。乃歸方丈。跏趺而逝。

He was a son of the Zhang family of Tingzhou. Ascending the hall: 'Chan is not Chan and the Way is not the Way; the three-inch tongue sweeps about at random. Last night the sun wheel drifted with cassia flowers; this morning in the moon cave mushroom grass grew. Ah ha ha — ten thousand ounces of gold are nowhere to be sought. Facing only the cutting off of deliberation, no dharma reaches one another.' As the Master was about to pass away he ascended the seat and told the assembly, 'Today Luohan rides an iron horse backward and climbs against the current up Sumeru, treading the void to bits and leaving no trace.' He then returned to the abbot's quarters and passed away sitting cross-legged.

潭州慈雲彥隆禪師

Chan Master Yanlong of Ciyun in Tanzhou

上堂。舉玄沙示眾曰。盡大地都來是一顆明珠。時有僧問。既是一顆明珠。學人為甚不識。沙曰。全體是珠。更教誰識。曰。雖然全體是。爭奈學人不識。沙曰。問取你眼。師曰。諸禪德。這箇公案。喚作嚼飯餧小兒。把手更與杖。還會麼。若未會。須是扣己而參。直要真實。不得信口掠虗。徒自虗生浪死。

Ascending the hall, he brought up Xuanzha's instruction to the assembly: 'The whole great earth comes up as a single bright pearl.' At that time a monk asked, 'Since it is a single bright pearl, why does the student not recognize it?' Zha said, 'The whole body is the pearl — who else would you have recognize it?' He said, 'Though the whole body is it, what can be done, since the student does not recognize it?' Zha said, 'Ask your eyes.' The Master said, 'Chan worthies, this case is called chewing food to feed a small child, and then handing him a staff as well. Do you understand? If you do not, you must question yourself and inquire, and must be true and real; do not trust your mouth and snatch at emptiness, vainly living in vain and dying in vain.'

郢州子陵山自瑜禪師

Chan Master Ziyu of Ziling Mountain in Yingzhou

僧問。如何是古佛心。師曰。赤腳䟕泥冷似冰。曰。未審意旨如何。師曰。休要拖泥帶水。問。泗洲大聖為甚麼楊州出現。師曰。業在其中。曰。意旨如何。師曰。降尊就卑。曰。謝和尚答話。師曰。賊是小人。智過君子。

A monk asked, 'What is the ancient Buddha's mind?' The Master said, 'Barefoot treading mud, colder than ice.' (The character in the source has the foot radical and should be read as 'tread'.) He said, 'I wonder what it means?' The Master said, 'Stop dragging mud and carrying water.' He asked, 'Why did the Great Sage of Sizhou appear in Yangzhou?' (The source reads 'Yang' with the wood radical; as a place name it should be Yangzhou.) The Master said, 'Karma is within it.' He said, 'What does it mean?' The Master said, 'Lowering the noble to accord with the lowly.' He said, 'I thank the Reverend for answering.' The Master said, 'The thief is a petty man with wisdom beyond a gentleman.'

隆興府東山景福省悅禪師

Chan Master Xingyue of Jingfu on East Mountain in Longxing Prefecture

上堂。十二時中。跛跛挈挈。且與麼過。大眾。利害在甚麼處。良久曰。聽諸方斷看。擊禪床。下座。

Ascending the hall: 'Through the twelve hours, limping and hobbling, just pass it like that. Assembly, where is the gain and loss?' After a long silence he said, 'Listen to what the various quarters decide.' He struck the meditation bed and descended from the seat.

亳州白藻清儼禪師

Chan Master Qingyan of Baizao in Bozhou

信州人。僧問。楊廣失橐駞。到處無人見。未審是甚麼人得見。師以拂子約曰。退後退後。妨他別人所問。曰。畢竟落在甚麼處。師曰。可煞不識好惡。便打。

He was a man of Xinzhou. A monk asked, 'When Yang Guang lost his camel, no one anywhere saw it. I wonder who got to see it?' The Master blocked him with his whisk and said, 'Back up, back up — you are hindering others from asking.' He said, 'Where does it land after all?' The Master said, 'You truly do not know good from bad.' He then beat him.

台州寶相元禪師

Chan Master Yuan of Baoxiang in Taizhou

僧問。一切諸佛及諸佛阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。皆從此經出。如何是此經。師曰。長時誦不停。非義亦非聲。曰。如何受持。師曰。若欲受持者。應須用眼聽。

A monk asked, 'All the Buddhas and all the Buddhas' utmost, right and perfect enlightenment come forth from this sutra. What is this sutra?' The Master said, 'Chanted long without cease, it is neither meaning nor sound.' He said, 'How does one receive and hold it?' The Master said, 'If you would receive and hold it, you must use your eyes to listen.'

信州永豐慧日庵主

The hermit master Huiri of Yongfeng in Xinzhou

本郡丘氏子。丱歲出家。於明心寺得度。自機契雲居。熟遊湘漢。暨歸永豐。或處巖谷。或居鄽市。令鄉民稱丘師伯。凡有所問。以莫曉答之。忽語邑人曰。吾明日行腳去。汝等可來相送。於是賮路者畢集。師笑不已。眾問其故。即書偈曰。丘師伯莫嘵。寂寂明皎皎。日午打三更。誰人打得了。投筆而逝。

He was a son of the Qiu family of the prefecture. He left home in childhood and was ordained at the Mingxin Monastery. His mechanism accorded with Yunju, and he traveled widely through Xiang and Han. When he returned to Yongfeng, he sometimes dwelt in the rocky valleys and sometimes in the marketplace, and had the country people call him Uncle Qiu. Whatever he was asked, he answered with 'I do not know.' Suddenly he told the townspeople, 'Tomorrow I am going on pilgrimage; you may all come and see me off.' So those who would provide for the journey gathered in full. The Master laughed without stopping. The crowd asked why, and he at once wrote a verse: 'Uncle Qiu does not know; still and silent, bright and clear. At noon the third watch is struck — who can strike it through?' He threw down the brush and passed away.

泉州南峰永程禪師

Chan Master Yongcheng of Nanfeng in Quanzhou

示眾。始自雞峰續𦦨。少室流芳。大布慈雲。宏開慧日。教分三藏。直指一心。或全提而棒喝齊施。或縱奪而賓主互設。或金剛按劍。或師子飜身。或照用雷奔。或機鋒電掣。無非剪除邪妄。開廓玄微。直下明宗。到真實地。諸仁者。到此方許一線道。與你商量。苟或未然。盡是依師作解。無有是處。

He addressed the assembly: 'From the Cock Peak the flame was continued, and at Shaoshi the fragrance spread; the cloud of compassion was spread abroad and the sun of wisdom widely opened. The teaching divides into three baskets and points directly at the one mind. Sometimes it wholly raises, and staff and shout are applied together; sometimes it releases and seizes, and host and guest are set against each other. Sometimes it is a vajra resting his hand on a sword, sometimes a lion turning over. Sometimes illumination and function run like thunder, sometimes the point of the mechanism flashes like lightning. None of it is anything but cutting away the false and the deluded, opening up the profound and subtle, directly clarifying the school, and arriving at the ground of the real. Good people, only when you get here will I allow one thread of the road and deliberate with you. If not, everything is understanding made in dependence on a teacher, and there is no such place.'

大溈秀禪師法嗣

Dharma Heirs of Chan Master Xiu of Dawei