Records of the Transmission of the Lamp, Volume Fifteen

潭州大溈祖瑃禪師

Chan Master Zuchun of Dawei in Tanzhou

福州吳氏子。僧問。如何是溈山家風。師曰。竹有上下節。松無今古青。曰。未審其中飲噉何物。師曰。饑餐相公玉粒飯。渴點神運倉前茶。上堂。道無定亂。法離見知。言句相投。都無定義。自古龍門無宿客。至今鳥道絕行蹤。欲會箇中端的意。火裡蝍蟟吞大蟲。咄。上堂。雨下堦頭濕。晴乾水不流。鳥巢滄海底。魚躍石山頭。眾中大有商量。前頭兩句是平實語。後頭兩句是格外談。若如是會。祇見石磊磊。不見玉落落。若見玉落落。方知道寬廓。咦。

He was a son of the Wu family of Fuzhou. A monk asked, 'What is the family style of Weishan?' The Master said, 'The bamboo has upper and lower joints; the pine has no green of past or present.' He said, 'I wonder what he eats and drinks within it?' The Master said, 'When hungry he eats the lord's jade-grain rice; when thirsty he pours tea from before the Divine Transport Granary.' Ascending the hall: 'The Way has no settled disorder, and the Dharma is apart from knowledge and views. When words and phrases agree, there is no fixed meaning at all. From of old the dragon gate has no overnight guest, and to this day the bird path is cut off from tracks. If you would understand the exact meaning within it, in the fire the flycatcher swallows the great beast. Ho!' Ascending the hall: 'When the rain falls the steps are wet; when it clears and dries the water does not flow. A bird nests at the bottom of the blue sea; a fish leaps on a stone mountain top. Many in the assembly will deliberate: the first two lines are plain words, the last two are extraordinary talk. If you understand it so, you see only the piled stones and do not see the jade fallen loose. If you see the jade fallen loose, then you know the Way is broad and vast. Hm.'

南嶽福嚴文演禪師

Chan Master Wenyan of Fuyan in Nanyue

僧問。如何是佛。師當面便唾。

A monk asked, 'What is the Buddha?' The Master spat in his face.

南嶽南臺允恭禪師

Chan Master Yungong of Nantai in Nanyue

開堂日。上堂。稀逢難遇。正在此時。何謂釋迦已滅。彌勒未生。拈拂子曰。正當今日。佛法盡在這箇拂子頭上。放行把住。一切臨時。放行也。風行草偃。瓦礫生光。拾得寒山。點頭拊掌。把住也。水洩不通。精金失色。德山臨濟。飲氣吞聲。當恁麼時。放行即是。把住即是。良久曰。後五日看。

On the day he opened the hall he ascended the seat: 'Rarely met and hard to encounter — it is just at this moment. What does it mean that Sakyamuni is already extinct and Maitreya not yet born?' He picked up his whisk and said, 'At this very day the Buddha Dharma is all on the tip of this whisk. Letting go and holding fast, everything depends on the moment. Let go, and the wind blows and the grass bends, tiles and pebbles give forth light, and Shide and Hanshan nod and clap. Hold fast, and it is watertight, and fine gold loses its color, and Deshan and Linji swallow their voices and hold their breath. At such a time, is it letting go or holding fast?' After a long silence he said, 'Look five days from now.'

黃檗勝禪師法嗣

Dharma Heirs of Chan Master Sheng of Huangbo

成都府昭覺純白紹覺禪師

Chan Master Chunbai Shaojue of Zhaojue in Chengdu Prefecture

上堂。寒便向火。熱即搖扇。饑時吃飯。困來打眠。所以趙州庭前柏。香嚴嶺後松。栽來無別用。祇要引清風。且道畢竟事作麼生。甲子乙丑海中金。丙寅丁卯罏中火。

Ascending the hall: 'When cold, go to the fire; when hot, wave a fan; when hungry, eat; when tired, sleep. Therefore Zhaozhou's cypress before the courtyard and Xiangyan's pine behind the ridge were planted for no other use than to draw the clear wind. But tell me, what of the final matter? Jia-zi and yi-chou: metal in the sea; bing-yin and ding-mao: fire in the furnace.'

開元琦禪師法嗣

Dharma Heirs of Chan Master Qi of Kaiyuan

饒州薦福道英禪師

Chan Master Daoying of Jianfu in Raozhou

僧問。佛未出世時如何。師曰。瑠璃缾貯華。曰。出世後如何。師曰。瑪瑙缽盛果。曰。未審和尚今日是同是別。師曰。趯倒缾。拽倒缽。上堂。據道而論。語也不得。默也不得。直饒語默兩忘。亦沒交涉。何故。句中無路。意在句中。無意無不意。非計較之所及。若是劈頭點一點頂門。豁然眼開者。於此卻有疾速分。若低頭向意根下尋思。卒摸索不著。是知萬法無根。欲窮者錯。一源絕跡。欲返者迷。看他古佛光明．先德風彩。一一從無欲無依中發現。或時孤峻峭㧞。竟不可搆。或時含融混會。了無所睹。終不樁定一處。亦不擊係兩頭。無是無不是。無非無不非。得亦無所得。失亦無所失。不曾隔越纖毫。不曾移易絲髮。明明古路。不屬玄微。覿面擎來。瞥然便過。不居正位。豈落邪途。不蹈大方。那趨小徑。騰騰兀兀。何住何為。回首不逢。觸目無對。一念普觀。廓然空寂。此之宗要。千聖不傳。直下了知。當處超越。是知赤灑灑處。恁麼即易。明歷歷處。恁麼還難。不用沾黏點染。直須剝脫屏除。若是本分。手腳放去。無收不來底。一一放光現瑞。一一削跡絕蹤。機上了不停。語中無可露。徹底攪不渾。通身撲不碎。且道畢竟是箇甚麼。得恁麼靈通。得恁麼奇特。得恁麼堅確。諸仁者。休要識渠面孔。不用安渠名字。亦莫覓渠所在。何故。渠無所在。渠無名字。渠無面孔。才起一念追求如微塵許。便隔十生五生。更擬管帶思惟。益見紛紛叢雜。不如長時放教。自由自在。要發便發。要住便住。即天然非天然。即如如非如如。即湛寂非湛寂。即敗壞非敗壞。無生戀。無死畏。無佛求。無魔怖。不與菩提會。不與煩惱俱。不受一法。不嫌一法。無在無不在。非離非不離。若能如是。見得釋迦自釋迦。達磨自達磨。幹我甚麼椀。恁麼說話。衲僧門下。推勘將來。布裙芒靸。不免撩他些些泥水。

A monk asked, 'What was it like before the Buddha came into the world?' The Master said, 'A crystal bottle holds flowers.' He said, 'And after he came into the world?' The Master said, 'An agate bowl holds fruit.' He said, 'I wonder whether the Reverend today is the same or different?' The Master said, 'Kick over the bottle and drag down the bowl.' Ascending the hall: 'Judged by the Way, speech will not do and silence will not do. Even if you forget both speech and silence, there is still no connection. Why? In the phrase there is no road, and the meaning lies in the phrase. No meaning and no no-meaning: it is not something reckoning can reach. If there is one who, with a single point right on the crown of the head, suddenly opens his eyes, for him there is a swift part in this. But if he lowers his head and thinks it out from the root of consciousness, he will grope and never touch it. Thus know that the ten thousand dharmas have no root; those who would exhaust them are wrong. The one source cuts off traces; those who would return to it are lost. Look at the ancient Buddhas' radiance and the former worthies' style: each and every one of them appears from no-desire and no-reliance. Sometimes it is lone and sheer and impossible to lay hold of; sometimes it is all-embracing and merged, and nothing at all is seen. It never fixes on one place, and never ties up both ends. There is no yes and no not-yes, no not-no and no not-not-no. Attaining, there is nothing attained; losing, there is nothing lost. It has never been separated by a hair, never shifted by a thread. Bright and clear the ancient road does not belong to the profound and subtle. Face to face it is lifted up and in a flash it is past. It does not dwell in the correct position — how could it fall into a crooked path? It does not tread the great square — how could it run to a small byway? Vast and towering, where does it dwell and what does it do? Turning the head, one does not meet it; meeting the eye, there is no counterpart. In one thought one universally observes, and all is vast and empty. This essential purport has not been transmitted by a thousand sages. Only understand it directly here, and on the spot you transcend. Thus know that where it is utterly free, it is easy to be like that; where it is bright and distinct, it is still hard to be like that. No need to smear or dye it; one must strip and remove. If you are one whose original hands and feet, let go, can never be gathered back, then one after another they give forth light and manifest auspiciousness, and one after another their traces are pared away. On the mechanism it does not stop at all, and in the words there is nothing to reveal. Thoroughly stirred, it is not muddied; wholly struck, it is not broken. Tell me, what is it after all, that it is so numinous, so extraordinary, so firm and solid? Good people, do not try to recognize its face, do not set a name on it, and do not seek where it is. Why? It has no location, it has no name, it has no face. The moment a single thought of seeking arises, even as small as a dust mote, you are separated by ten lives or five lives. If you further try to manage and think about it, you will see it ever more scattered and tangled. Better to let it go free and at ease for a long time: when it wants to rise, let it rise; when it wants to stay, let it stay. It is natural and not natural, suchness and not suchness, utterly still and not utterly still, decaying and not decaying. Have no attachment to birth, no fear of death, no seeking of Buddha, no terror of Mara; do not meet with bodhi, do not consort with affliction; receive no dharma and reject no dharma; neither existent nor non-existent, neither apart nor not apart. If you can be like this, then seeing Sakyamuni as Sakyamuni and Bodhidharma as Bodhidharma — what business is that of mine? Speaking like this, when the patch-robed monk's gate presses and examines it, with cloth skirt and hempen sandals one cannot avoid stirring up a bit of mud and water.'

豈況汝等諸人。更道這箇是平實語句。這箇是差別門庭。這箇是關棙巴鼻。這箇是道眼根塵。𮞏相教習。如七家村裡傳口令相似。有甚交涉。無事珍重。

(The Master continued:) 'How much less should you people further say, "This is a plain statement," "This is a differentiated gate," "This is a latch and a nose," "This is the eye of the Way, faculty and dust" — teaching and learning it from one another, like passing a password around in a village of seven households. What connection is there? Nothing further. Take care.'

泉州尊勝有朋講師

Lecturer Youpeng of Zunsheng in Quanzhou

本郡蔣氏子。丱歲試經。中選下髮。多歷教肆。甞疏楞嚴．維摩等經。學者宗之。每疑祖師直指之道。故多與禪衲遊。一日。謁開元。跡未及閫。心忽領悟。元出遂問。座主來作甚麼。師曰。不敢貴耳賤目。元曰。老老大大。何必如是。師曰。自是者不長。元曰。朝看華嚴。夜讀般若則不問。如何是當今一句。師曰。日輪正當午。元曰。閑言語更道來。師曰。平生仗忠信。今日任風波。然雖如是。祇如和尚恁麼道有甚交涉。須要新戒草鞋穿。元曰。這裡且放你過。忽遇達磨問。你作麼生道。師便喝。元曰。這座主。今日見老僧氣沖牛鬥。師曰。再犯不容。元拊掌大笑。

He was a son of the Jiang family of the prefecture. In childhood he sat the sutra examination, was selected and had his hair cut, and passed through many lecture halls. He once wrote commentaries on the Surangama and the Vimalakirti sutras, and students took him as their model. He always doubted the Ancestor's way of direct pointing, and so he often associated with patch-robed Chan monks. One day he called on Kaiyuan, and before his tracks reached the threshold his mind was suddenly awakened. Yuan came out and asked, 'What has the lecturer come to do?' The Master said, 'I dare not value the ear and slight the eye.' Yuan said, 'Old as you are, old as you are, what need is there for this?' The Master said, 'One who considers himself right does not grow.' Yuan said, 'I do not ask about reading the Avatamsaka in the morning and the Prajna at night — what is the one phrase of today?' The Master said, 'The sun wheel is exactly at noon.' Yuan said, 'Idle words — say more.' The Master said, 'All my life I have relied on loyalty and trust; today I let the wind and waves do as they will.' Yet though it is so, as for the Reverend speaking like this, what connection is there? One still must wear the straw sandals of a newly ordained monk.' Yuan said, 'Here I will let you pass. But if you suddenly met Bodhidharma and he asked you, how would you speak?' The Master then shouted. Yuan said, 'This lecturer today sees the old monk and his spirit rushes to the Dipper.' The Master said, 'A second offense will not be forgiven.' Yuan clapped his hands and laughed heartily.

仰山偉禪師法嗣

Dharma Heirs of Chan Master Wei of Yangshan

潭州龍王山善隨禪師

Chan Master Shansui of Longwang Mountain in Tanzhou

僧問。如何是龍王境。師曰。水晶宮殿。曰。如何是龍王如意寶珠。師曰。頂上髻中。僧禮拜。師曰。莫道不如意好。

A monk asked, 'What is the realm of the dragon king?' The Master said, 'A crystal palace.' He said, 'What is the dragon king's wish-fulfilling pearl?' The Master said, 'In the topknot on his head.' The monk bowed. The Master said, 'Do not say it is not as you wish.'

瑞州黃檗山祗園永泰禪師

Chan Master Yongtai of Qiyuan on Huangbo Mountain in Ruizhou

僧問。如何是祖師西來意。師曰。鐵鑄就。僧擬議。師曰。會麼。僧禮拜。師曰。何不早如此。

A monk asked, 'What is the Ancestor's meaning of the coming from the West?' The Master said, 'Forged of iron.' As the monk began to deliberate, the Master said, 'Do you understand?' The monk bowed. The Master said, 'Why did you not do this earlier?'

廬山慧日明禪師

Chan Master Ming of Huiri in Mount Lu

上堂。不用求心。唯須息見。三祖大師。雖然迴避金鉤。殊不知已吞紅線。慧日又且不然。不用求真並息見。倒騎牛兮入佛殿。牧笛一聲天地寬。稽首瞿曇。真箇黃面。

Ascending the hall: 'No need to seek the mind; you need only put an end to views.' Though the Third Ancestor Master avoided the golden hook, little did he know he had already swallowed the red thread. Huiri is not like that: 'No need to seek the truth and put an end to views; riding the ox backward into the Buddha hall. One note of the herdsman's flute and heaven and earth are broad. I bow my head to Gautama — truly a yellow face.'

福嚴感禪師法嗣

Dharma Heirs of Chan Master Gan of Fuyan

慶元府育王法達寶鑑禪師

Chan Master Fada Baojian of Yuwang in Qingyuan Prefecture

饒州餘氏子。僧問。不落階級處請師道。師曰。蠟人向火。曰。畢竟如何。師曰。薄處先穿。

He was a son of the Yu family of Raozhou (Yu being the surname). A monk asked, 'I beg the Master to speak of the place that does not fall into stages.' The Master said, 'A wax figure goes to the fire.' He said, 'After all, how is it?' The Master said, 'The thin place wears through first.'

雲蓋智禪師法嗣

Dharma Heirs of Chan Master Zhi of Yungai

安吉州道場法如禪師

Chan Master Faru of Daochang in Anji Prefecture

衢州徐氏子。參雲蓋。悟汾陽十智同真話。尋常多說十智同真。故叢林號為如十同也。水庵圓極皆依之。圓極甞贊之曰。生鐵麵皮難湊泊。等閑舉步動乾坤。戲拈十智同真話。不負黃龍嫡骨孫。上堂。知見立知。即無明本。知見無見。斯即涅槃。無漏真淨。云何是中。更容他物。釋迦老子和身放倒。後代兒孫如何接續。要會麼。通玄不是人間世。滿目青山何處尋。

He was a son of the Xu family of Quzhou. He studied under Yungai and awakened to Fenyang's words on 'the ten wisdoms are the same as the true.' He often spoke of the ten wisdoms being the same as the true, and so the monasteries called him 'Ru the Ten Same.' Shui'an and Yuanji both relied on him. Yuanji once praised him: 'An iron face, hard to get near; idly lifting a step, he shakes heaven and earth. Playfully picking up the words on the ten wisdoms being the same as the true, he does not fail to be a true bone-and-blood descendant of Huanglong.' Ascending the hall: 'Establishing knowledge upon knowledge is the root of ignorance; when knowledge and views are without views, that is nirvana. Without outflows, true and pure — how could anything else be admitted within it? Old Sakyamuni is laid out together with his body — how will the children and grandchildren of later generations continue it? Do you want to understand? The mysterious is not the human world; with green mountains filling the eyes, where will you seek it?'

福州寶壽最樂禪師

Chan Master Zuile of Baoshou in Fuzhou

古田人也。上堂。諸佛不真實。說法度群生。菩薩有智慧。見性不分明。白雲無心意。灑為世間雨。大地不含情。能長諸草木。若也會得。猶存知解。若也不會。墮在無記。去此二途。如何即是。海闊難藏月。山深分外寒。

He was a man of Gutian. Ascending the hall: 'The Buddhas are not true and real, yet they speak the Dharma to save the multitude. The bodhisattvas have wisdom, yet they do not see the nature clearly. The white clouds have no mind or intent, yet they pour down as rain on the world. The great earth holds no feeling, yet it can grow all grasses and trees. If you understand this, you still keep knowledge and understanding. If you do not understand it, you fall into blankness. Apart from these two roads, what is right? The sea is broad and hard to hide the moon in; the mountain is deep and especially cold.'

紹興府石佛慧明解空禪師

Chan Master Huiming Jiekong of Shifo in Shaoxing Prefecture

僧問。如何是寶相境。師曰。三生鑿成。曰。如何是境中人。師曰。一佛二菩薩。

A monk asked, 'What is the realm of Baoxiang?' The Master said, 'Chiseled out over three lives.' He said, 'What is the man within the realm?' The Master said, 'One Buddha and two bodhisattvas.'

玄沙文禪師法嗣

Dharma Heirs of Chan Master Wen of Xuanzha

福州廣慧達杲禪師

Chan Master Dagao of Guanghui in Fuzhou

上堂。佛為無心悟。心因有佛迷。佛心清淨處。雲外野猿啼。

Ascending the hall: 'The Buddha awakened because the mind was no-mind; the mind is deluded because there is a Buddha. Where the Buddha's mind is pure, beyond the clouds a wild gibbon cries.'

建隆慶禪師法嗣

Dharma Heirs of Chan Master Qing of Jianlong