Records of the Transmission of the Lamp, Volume Eighteen

英州保福殊禪師

Chan Master Baofu Shu of Yingzhou

僧問。諸佛未出世時如何。師曰。山河大地。曰。出世後如何。師曰。大地山河。曰。恁麼則一般也。師曰。敲甎打瓦。問。如何是和尚家風。師曰。椀大椀小。曰。客來將何祇待。師曰。一杓兩杓。曰。未飽者。作麼生。師曰。少吃少吃。問。如何是大道。師曰。閙市裡。曰。如何是道中人。師曰。一任人看。問。如何是禪。師曰。秋風臨古渡。落日不堪聞。曰。不問這箇禪。師曰。你問那箇禪。曰。祖師禪。師曰。南華塔外松陰裡。飲露吟風又更多。問。如何是真正路。師曰。出門看堠子。乃曰。釋迦何處滅俱屍。彌勒幾曾在兜率。西覓普賢好慚愧。北討文殊生受屈。坐壓毗盧額汗流。行築觀音鼻血出。回頭摸著箇匾擔。卻道好箇木牙笏。喝一喝。下座。

A monk asked: 'What was it like before the Buddhas came into the world?' The master said: 'Mountains and rivers, the great earth.' [The monk] said: 'And after they came into the world?' The master said: 'The great earth, mountains and rivers.' [The monk] said: 'Then they are all the same.' The master said: 'Knocking bricks and striking tiles.' [A monk] asked: 'What is the master's family style?' The master said: 'Bowls big, bowls small.' [The monk] said: 'When a guest comes, with what will you serve him?' The master said: 'One ladle, two ladles.' [The monk] said: 'And one who is not yet full?' The master said: 'Eat little, eat little.' [A monk] asked: 'What is the great Way?' The master said: 'In the bustling market.' [The monk] said: 'What is the man in the Way?' The master said: 'Let people look as they please.' [A monk] asked: 'What is Chan?' The master said: 'The autumn wind comes to the old ferry; the setting sun is unbearable to hear.' [The monk] said: 'I am not asking about that Chan.' The master said: 'Which Chan are you asking about?' [The monk] said: 'The patriarchs' Chan.' The master said: 'In the pine shade outside the Nanhua stupa, drinking dew and chanting to the wind there is still more.' [A monk] asked: 'What is the true road?' The master said: 'Go out the door and look at the milestones.' He then said: 'Where did Shakyamuni enter nirvana at Kushinagara? How long has Maitreya been in Tushita? Seeking Samantabhadra in the west, what shame; seeking Manjushri in the north, wronged for nothing. Sitting, he presses Vairocana until his forehead sweats; walking, he pounds Guanyin until his nose bleeds. Turning his head he touches a carrying pole and says: what a fine wooden tablet of office.' He gave a shout and descended from the seat.

袁州崇勝院珙禪師

Chan Master Gong of Chongsheng Monastery in Yuanzhou

上堂。舉石鞏張弓架箭接機公案。頌曰。三十年來握箭弓。三平才到擘開𮌎。半箇聖人終不得。大顛弦外幾時逢。

He ascended the hall and brought up the case of Shigong drawing his bow and setting his arrow to receive the student. His verse said: 'For thirty years he held bow and arrow; only when Sanping arrived did he split open his chest. A half sage he never obtained; beyond the string, when will he meet Dadian?'

提刑郭祥正

Guo Xiangzheng, judicial commissioner

字功甫。號淨空居士。志樂泉石。不羨紛華。因謁白雲。雲上堂曰。夜來枕上作得箇山頌。謝功甫大儒。廬山二十年之舊。今日遠訪白雲之勤。當須舉與大眾。請已後分明舉似諸方。此頌豈唯謝功甫大儒。直要與天下有鼻孔衲僧脫卻著肉汗衫。莫言不道。乃曰。上大人。丘乙己。化三千。七十士。爾小生。八九子。佳作仁。可知禮也。公切疑。後聞小兒誦之。忽有省。以書報雲。雲以偈答曰。藏身不用縮頭。斂跡何須收腳。金烏半夜遼天。玉兔趕他不著。元祐中往衢之南禪。謁泉萬卷。請陞座。公趨前拈香曰。海邊枯木。入手成香。爇向爐中。橫穿香積如來鼻孔。作此大事。須是對眾白過始得。雲居老人有箇無縫布衫。分付南禪。禪師著得不長不短。進前則諸佛讓位。退步則海水澄波。今日嚬呻。六種震動。遂召曰。大眾。還委悉麼。有意氣時添意氣。不風流處也風流。泉曰。𮞏相鈍置。公曰。因誰致得。崇寧初。到五祖。命祖陞座。公趨前拈香曰。此一瓣香。爇向爐中。供養我堂頭法兄禪師。伏願於方廣座上。擘開面門。放出先師形相。與他諸人描邈。何以如此。白雲巖畔舊相逢。往日今朝事不同。夜靜水寒魚不食。一爐香散白蓮峰。祖遂雲。曩謨薩怛哆缽囉野。恁麼恁麼。幾度白雲谿上望黃梅。華向雪中開。不恁麼不恁麼。嫰柳垂金線。且要應時來。不見龐居士問馬大師雲。不與萬法為侶者。是甚麼人。大師雲。待汝一口吸盡西江水。即向汝道。大眾。一口吸盡西江水。萬丈深潭窮到底。掠彴不是趙州橋。明月清風安可比。後又到保寧。亦請陞座。公拈香曰。法皷既鳴。寶香初爇。楊岐頂𩕳門。請師重著楔。保寧卓拄杖一下。曰。著楔已竟。大眾證明。又卓一下。便下座。又到雲居。請佛。印陞座。公拈香曰。覺地相逢一何早。鶻臭布衫今脫了。要識雲居一句玄。珍重後園驢吃草。召大眾曰。

His courtesy name was Gongfu; his style name was Layman Jingkong. He delighted in springs and stones and did not envy bustle and splendour. Because he visited Baiyun, Yun ascended the hall and said: 'Last night on my pillow I made a mountain verse. I thank the great scholar Gongfu, twenty years an old friend of Mount Lu, for the diligence of his distant visit to Baiyun today. I ought to raise it before the great assembly, and ask that afterwards it be clearly raised before all quarters. This verse not only thanks the great scholar Gongfu; it is meant to make patch-robed monks under heaven who have nostrils take off their flesh-sticking undershirt. Do not say I have not spoken.' He then said: 'The great man above, Qiu Yi-ji, transformed three thousand and seventy scholars. You little ones, eight or nine children, do good and be humane, and you may know propriety.' The lord was deeply doubtful. Later, hearing a child recite it, he suddenly had an awakening. He wrote to Yun, and Yun answered with a verse: 'Hiding the body, no need to shrink the head; concealing the traces, why must you draw in the feet? The golden crow crosses the sky at midnight; the jade hare cannot catch up with him.' In the Yuan You period he went to the Southern Chan monastery in Quzhou and paid homage to Quan Wanjuan, asking him to ascend the seat. The lord stepped forward, picked up incense, and said: 'A withered tree by the sea; in the hand it becomes incense. Burning it in the censer, it runs crosswise through the nostrils of Tathagata Fragrance-Accumulated. To do this great matter, one must first have announced it before the assembly. The old man of Yunju has a seamless cloth robe; he hands it over to Southern Chan. The master wears it neither too long nor too short. Step forward and the Buddhas yield their seats; step back and the sea's waters turn to clear waves. Today at his frown the six kinds of trembling shake.' He then called out: 'Great assembly, do you understand? Where there is spirit, add spirit; where there is no romance, there is still romance.' Quan said: 'You keep dumping this on me.' The lord said: 'Through whom did it come about?' In the early Chong Ning period he came to the Fifth Patriarch and had the patriarch ascend the seat. The lord stepped forward, picked up incense, and said: 'This one stick of incense I burn in the censer as an offering to my dharma elder, the Chan master who is head of this hall. I pray that on the broad seat he will split open his face and let out the appearance of my late teacher, for all these people to paint and copy. Why so? On the cliffs of Baiyun we met of old; past days and this morning the matter is not the same. In the still night the water is cold and the fish do not eat; one censer of incense scatters on the White Lotus Peak.' The patriarch then said: 'Namo sad-dha-buddha-ya. Thus, thus: how many times on the Baiyun stream have I looked toward Huangmei; the flower opens in the snow. Not thus, not thus: tender willows hang golden threads, and one only wants them to come with the season. Do you not see how Layman Pang asked Great Master Ma: What sort of man is he who is not companion to the ten thousand dharmas? The master said: When you can swallow the West River in one gulp, then I will tell you. Great assembly, swallow the West River in one gulp; the ten-thousand-fathom deep pool is fathomed to the bottom. A plank bridge is not the Zhaozhou bridge; how can clear wind and bright moon compare?' Later he went to Baoning and also asked him to ascend the seat. The lord picked up incense and said: 'The dharma drum has sounded; the precious incense is first burned. At the crown of Yangqi's gate, please, master, drive the wedge in again.' Baoning planted his staff once and said: 'The wedge is driven in; let the great assembly bear witness.' He planted it once more and then descended from the seat. Again he went to Yunju and asked Foyin to ascend the seat. The lord picked up incense and said: 'How early we met on the ground of enlightenment; the falcon-smelling cloth robe is now taken off. If you want to know Yunju's one phrase of mystery, take care: the donkey in the back garden eats grass.' He called the assembly and said:

此一瓣香。熏天炙地去也。印曰。今日不著便。被這漢當面塗糊。便打。乃曰。謝公千里來相訪。共話東山竹徑深。借與一龍騎出洞。若逢天旱便為霖。擲拄杖下座。公拜起。印曰。收得龍麼。公曰。已在這裡。印曰。作麼生騎。公擺手作舞便行。印拊掌曰。祇有這漢。猶較些子。

(The master continued:) 'This one stick of incense goes up smoking to the heavens.' Yin said: 'Today I am not in luck; this fellow has plastered my face.' He then struck him. He then said: 'Thank you, lord, for coming a thousand li to visit; together we speak of the deep bamboo path of Dongshan. I lend you a dragon to ride out of the cave; if you meet a drought, then make rain.' He threw down his staff and descended from the seat. The lord bowed and rose. Yin said: 'Have you caught the dragon?' The lord said: 'It is already here.' Yin said: 'How do you ride it?' The lord waved his hand, danced, and went off. Yin clapped his hands and said: 'Only this fellow is still a bit better.'

保寧勇禪師法嗣

Dharma heirs of Chan Master Yong of Baoning

郢州月掌山壽聖智淵禪師

Chan Master Zhiyuan of Shengsheng Monastery on Yuezhang Mountain in Yingzhou

僧問。祖意西來即不問。如何是一色。師曰。目前無闍黎。此間無老僧。曰。既不如是。如何曉會。師曰。領取鉤頭意。莫認定盤星。乃曰。凡有問答。一似擊石迸火。流出無盡法財。三草二木。普霑其潤。放行也。雲生谷口。霧罩長空。把定也。碧眼胡僧。亦須罔措。壽聖如斯舉唱。猶是化門。要且未有衲僧巴鼻。敢問諸人。作麼生是衲僧巴鼻。良久曰。布針開兩眼。君向那頭看。

A monk asked: 'The ancestral meaning's coming from the west I do not ask about; what is the one colour?' The master said: 'Before my eyes there is no acarya; here there is no old monk.' [The monk] said: 'Since it is not so, how am I to understand?' The master said: 'Take the meaning at the hook's end; do not fix on the pole star.' He then said: 'Whenever there is question and answer, it is like striking stone and striking out fire, pouring forth inexhaustible dharma wealth. The three grasses and two trees all receive its moisture. Let go, and clouds rise at the valley mouth, mist covers the long sky. Hold fast, and even the blue-eyed foreign monk must be at a loss. Shengsheng's raising and singing thus is still the gate of transformation; there is still no patch-robed monk's nose. I venture to ask you all: what is the patch-robed monk's nose?' After a long pause he said: 'A cloth needle has two eyes; you look at that end.'

安吉州烏鎮壽聖院楚文禪師

Chan Master Chuwen of Shengsheng Monastery in Wuzhen, Anji Zhou

上堂。拈拄杖曰。華藏木楖栗。等閑亂拈出。不是不惜手。山家無固必。點山山動搖。攪水水波溢。忽然把定時。事事執法律。要橫不得橫。要屈不得屈。驀召大眾曰。莫謂棒頭有眼明如日。上面光生盡是漆。隨聲敲一下。上堂。一叉一劄。著骨連皮。一搦一擡。粘手綴腳。電光石火。頭垂尾垂。劈箭追風。半生半死。撞著磕著。討甚眉毛。明頭暗頭。是何眼目。總不恁麼。正在半途。設使全機。未至涯岸。直饒淨躶躶。赤灑灑。沒可把。尚有廉纖。山僧恁麼道。且道口好作甚麼。良久曰。嘻。留取吃飯。

He ascended the hall, picked up his staff, and said: 'The wood staff of Huazang; at leisure I raise it out in disorder. It is not that I grudge my hand; the mountain house has no fixed rule. Point at a mountain and the mountain shakes; stir the water and the water overflows. Suddenly when held fast, every matter holds to law and rule. You cannot have it crosswise when you want it crosswise; you cannot have it bent when you want it bent.' He suddenly called the assembly and said: 'Do not say the top of the staff has an eye bright as the sun; the light on its surface is all lacquer.' He struck once as he spoke. He ascended the hall: 'One fork, one jab: it clings to bone and skin. One grip, one lift: it sticks to hand and foot. Lightning flash, flint spark: head droops, tail droops. Cleaving arrow chasing the wind: half alive, half dead. Bumping and knocking: what eyebrows are there to seek? Bright head, dark head: what kind of eyes are these? If you are not thus at all, you are right on the halfway road. Even if the whole mechanism works, you have not reached the shore. Even if you are utterly naked, bare and clean, with nothing to grasp, there is still a fine thread. When the mountain monk speaks thus, tell me, what is the mouth good for?' After a long pause he said: 'Hee. Keep it for eating.'

信州靈鷲山寶積宗映禪師

Chan Master Baoji Zongying of Lingjiu Mountain in Xinzhou

開堂日。乃橫按拄杖曰。大眾。到這裡無親無疎。自然不孤。無內無外。縱橫自在。自在不孤。清淨毗盧。釋迦舉令。彌勒分疎。觀根逗教。更相回互。看取寶積拄杖子。黑漆光生。兩頭相副。阿呵呵。是何言歟。良久曰。世事但將公道斷。人心難與月輪齊。卓一下。下座。

On the day he opened the hall, he held his staff crosswise and said: 'Great assembly, when you get here there is neither kin nor stranger; naturally you are not alone. Neither inside nor outside; moving freely, at ease. At ease and not alone: pure Vairocana; Shakyamuni issues the command; Maitreya divides and explains. Observing faculties and dispensing teaching, each mutually responding. Look at Baoji's staff: black lacquer gives off light, both ends matching. Ah, ha ha! What sort of words are these?' After a long pause he said: 'Worldly matters are judged only by fairness; the human heart is hard to make level with the moon's wheel.' He planted it once and descended from the seat.

隆興府景福日餘禪師

Chan Master Riyu of Jingfu in Longxing Prefecture

僧問。如何是道。師曰。天共白雲曉。水和明月流。曰。如何是道中人。師曰。先行不到。末後太過。又僧出眾畫一圓相。師以手畫一畫。僧作舞歸眾。師曰。家有白澤之圖。必無如是妖怪。乃拈拄杖曰。無量諸佛向此轉大法輪。今古祖師向此演大法義。若信得及。法法本自圓成。念念悉皆具足。若信不及。山僧今日。因行不妨掉臂。更為重說偈言。卓一下。下座。

A monk asked: 'What is the Way?' The master said: 'The sky with white clouds at dawn; the water flowing with the bright moon.' [The monk] said: 'What is the man in the Way?' The master said: 'Going first he does not arrive; coming last he overshoots.' Again a monk came out from the assembly and drew a circle. The master drew a line with his hand. The monk danced and returned to the assembly. The master said: 'If a house has a picture of the White Marsh beast, it will surely have no such goblin as this.' He then picked up his staff and said: 'Immeasurable Buddhas turn the great dharma wheel here; patriarchs of past and present expound the great dharma meaning here. If you can believe it, every dharma is originally perfect and complete, every thought fully sufficient. If you cannot believe it, the mountain monk today, since he is going anyway, will not spare his arm, but will speak another verse for you.' He planted it once and descended from the seat.

安吉州上方日益禪師

Chan Master Riyi of Shangfang in Anji Zhou

開堂日。上首白槌罷。師曰。白槌前觀一又不成。白槌後觀二又不是。到這裡任是鐵眼銅睛。也須百雜碎。莫有不避危亡底衲僧。試出來看。時有兩僧齊出。師曰。一箭落雙鵰。僧曰。某甲話猶未問。何得著忙。師曰。莫是新羅僧麼。僧擬議。師曰。撞露柱漢。便打。問。如何是未出世邊事。師曰。井底蝦蟇吞卻月。曰。如何是出世邊事。師曰。鷺鷥踏折枯蘆枝。曰。去此二途。如何是和尚為人處。師曰。十成好箇金剛鑽。攤向街頭賣與誰。問。如何是多年水牯牛。師曰。齒疎眼暗。問。閙市相逢事若何。師曰。東行買賤。西行賣貴。曰。忽若不作貴不作賤。又作麼生。師曰。鎮州蘿蔔。問。一切含靈具有佛性。既有佛性。為甚麼卻撞入驢胎馬腹。師曰。知而故犯。曰。未審向甚麼處懺悔。師打曰。且作死馬醫。問。覿面相呈時如何。師曰。左眼半斤。右眼八兩。僧提起坐具。曰。這裡聻。師曰。不勞拈出。乃左右顧視曰。黃面老周行七步。腳根下正好一錐。碧眼胡兀坐九年。頂門上可惜一劄。當時若有箇為眾竭力底衲僧。下得這毒手。也免得拈花微笑。空破面顏。立雪齊腰。翻成轍跡。自此將錯就錯。相簍打簍。遂有五葉芬芳。千燈續燄。向曲彔木上唱二作三。於楖栗杖頭指南為北。直得進前退後。有問法問心之徒。倚門傍牆。有覓佛覓祖底漢。庭前指栢。便喚作祖意西來。日裡看山。更錯認學人自己。殊不知此一大事。本自靈明。盡未來際。未甞間斷。不假修證。豈在思惟。雖鶖子有所不知。非滿慈之所能辯。不見馬祖一喝。百丈三日耳聾。寶壽令行。鎮州一城眼瞎。大機大用。如迅雷不可停。一唱一提。似斷崖不可履。正當恁麼時。三世諸佛。祇可傍觀。六代祖師。證明有分。大眾且道。今日還有證明底麼。良久曰。劄。上堂。拾得搬柴。寒山燒火。唯有豐幹。巖中冷坐。且道豐幹有甚麼長處。

On the day he opened the hall, after the head seat had struck the mallet, the master said: 'Looking before the mallet strike, one is not yet; looking after the mallet strike, two is not it either. When you get here, even with iron eyes and copper pupils you must be smashed to bits. Is there a patch-robed monk who does not shrink from danger? Try coming out.' At that time two monks came out together. The master said: 'One arrow brings down two eagles.' The monk said: 'I have not yet asked my question; why are you in such a hurry?' The master said: 'Are you not a monk from Silla?' The monk hesitated, and the master said: 'A fellow who runs into the exposed pillar.' He then struck him. [A monk] asked: 'What is the matter before coming into the world?' The master said: 'A shrimp at the bottom of the well swallows the moon.' [The monk] said: 'What is the matter after coming into the world?' The master said: 'An egret steps and breaks a withered reed.' [The monk] said: 'Setting aside these two roads, what is the master's way of dealing with people?' The master said: 'A perfectly fine diamond drill: spread out at the street corner, to whom will you sell it?' [A monk] asked: 'What is the many-year water buffalo?' The master said: 'Teeth sparse, eyes dim.' [A monk] asked: 'What is it like to meet in the bustling market?' The master said: 'Going east you buy cheap; going west you sell dear.' [The monk] said: 'Suppose one neither buys cheap nor sells dear, what then?' The master said: 'A Zhenzhou turnip.' [A monk] asked: 'All sentient beings possess Buddha-nature. Since they possess Buddha-nature, why do they fall into donkey wombs and horse bellies?' The master said: 'Knowing it and deliberately offending.' [The monk] said: 'I wonder where one should repent?' The master struck him and said: 'For now, treat a dead horse as a live horse.' [A monk] asked: 'What about when face meets face in presentation?' The master said: 'Left eye half a catty; right eye eight ounces.' The monk raised his sitting cloth and said: 'And here?' The master said: 'No need to raise it.' He then looked left and right and said: 'The yellow-faced old man walked seven steps; at the base of his heel one could well give him a jab. The blue-eyed foreigner sat upright nine years; on the crown of his head one could well give him a prod. If at that time there had been a patch-robed monk who spent himself for the assembly and dealt this poisonous hand, then the holding up of a flower and the faint smile would have been spared, and the face would not have been broken for nothing. Standing in the snow to the waist would have reversed into a rut. From then on, taking a mistake for a mistake, basket matching basket, there came to be the five leaves' fragrance and the thousand lamps' continuing flame. On the curved wooden seat they sing two and make three; on the top of the staff they point south and call it north. So it is that stepping forward and back there are men who ask about dharma and ask about mind; leaning at the gate and beside the wall there are fellows seeking Buddha and seeking the patriarch. Pointing at the cypress before the courtyard, they at once call it the ancestral meaning's coming from the west; looking at the mountain in the daytime, they further mistake the student himself. They do not realize that this one great matter is originally numinous and bright; to the end of the future it has never been interrupted. It does not await cultivation or certification; how could it lie in thought? Though Shariputra has what he does not know, it is not something Purna can expound. Do you not see how at Mazu's one shout Baizhang was deaf for three days? The command of Baoshou went forth, and a whole city of Zhenzhou went blind. Great mechanism, great function, like a sudden thunderclap that cannot be halted. One singing, one lifting, like a sheer cliff that cannot be trodden. Just at such a time, the Buddhas of the three ages can only look on from the side; the patriarchs of six generations have a share in bearing witness. Great assembly, tell me, is there anyone to bear witness today?' After a long pause he said: 'Thrust.' He ascended the hall: 'Shide carried firewood; Hanshan tended the fire; only Fenggan sat cold in the rocks. Tell me, what special merit does Fenggan have?'

良久曰。家無小使。不成君子。

After a long pause he said: 'A house with no young servant does not make a gentleman.'

南嶽下十四世

Fourteenth generation below Nanyue

五祖演禪師法嗣

Dharma heirs of Chan Master Yan of the Fifth Patriarch

成都府昭覺寺克勤佛果禪師

Chan Master Keqin Foguo of Zhaojue Monastery in Chengdu Prefecture

彭州駱氏子。世宗儒。師兒時日記千言。偶遊妙寂寺。見佛書。三復悵然。如獲舊物。曰。予殆過去沙門也。即去家。依自省祝髮。從文照通講說。又從敏行授楞嚴。俄得病。瀕死。歎曰。諸佛涅槃正路不在文句中。吾欲以聲求色見。宜其無以死也。遂棄去。至真覺勝禪師之席。勝方創臂出血。指示師曰。此曹谿一滴也。師矍然。良久曰。道固如是乎。即徙步出蜀。首謁玉泉皓。次依金鑾信．大溈喆．黃龍心．東林度。僉指為法器。而晦堂稱他日臨濟一派屬子矣。最後見五祖。盡其機用。祖皆不諾。乃謂祖強移換人。出不遜語。忿然而去。祖曰。待你著一頓熱病打時。方思量我在。師到金山。染傷寒困極。以平日見處試之。無得力者。追繹五祖之言。乃自誓曰。我病稍間。即歸五祖。病痊尋歸。祖一見而喜。令即參堂。便入侍者寮。方半月。會部使者解印還蜀。詣祖問道。祖曰。提刑少年。曾讀小艶詩否。有兩句頗相近。頻呼小玉元無事。祇要檀郎認得聲。提刑應喏喏。祖曰。且子細。師適歸侍立次。問曰。聞和尚舉小艶詩。提刑會否。祖曰。他祇認得聲。師曰。祇要檀郎認得聲。他既認得聲。為甚麼卻不是。祖曰。如何是祖師西來意。庭前栢樹子。聻。師忽有省。遽出。見鷄飛上欄幹。鼓翅而鳴。復自謂曰。此豈不是聲。遂袖香入室。通所得。呈偈曰。金鴨香銷錦繡幃。笙歌叢裡醉扶歸。少年一段風流事。祇許佳人獨自知。祖曰。佛祖大事。非小根劣器所能造詣。吾助汝喜。祖徧謂山中耆舊曰。我侍者參得禪也。由此。所至推為上首。崇寧中還裡省親。四眾迓拜。成都帥翰林郭公知章請開法六祖。更昭覺。政和間謝事。復出峽南遊。時張無盡寓荊南。以道學自居。少見推許。師艤舟謁之。劇談華嚴旨要。曰。華嚴現量境界。理事全真。初無假法。所以即一而萬。了萬為一。一復一。萬復萬。浩然莫窮。

A son of the Luo family of Pengzhou; his family for generations revered Confucianism. As a child the master could recite a thousand words a day. By chance he wandered into Miaojie Monastery and saw a Buddhist book; reading it over three times he was downcast, as if he had recovered an old possession. He said: 'I must have been a monk in a past life.' He at once left home, and relying on Zixing had his head shaved. He studied exposition under Wenzhao, and again received the Surangama from Minxing. Soon he fell ill and was near death. He sighed and said: 'The Buddhas' true road to nirvana does not lie in phrases and sentences. To seek it by sound and see it by form, no wonder I have nothing with which to face death.' He then abandoned that and went to the seat of Chan Master Sheng of Zhenjue. Sheng had just cut his arm and let blood, and pointing it out to the master said: 'This is one drop from Caoxi.' The master was startled, and after a long pause said: 'So the Way is like this.' He then went on foot out of Shu. He first paid homage to Yuquan Hao, then relied on Jinluan Xin, Dawei Zhe, Huanglong Xin, and Donglin Du; all pointed to him as a vessel of the dharma, and Huitang declared that one day the Linji line would belong to him. Last of all he saw the Fifth Patriarch and exhausted his mechanism and function, but the patriarch would not approve any of it. He then said the patriarch was forcibly shifting people around, and spoke disrespectful words, and left in anger. The patriarch said: 'When you are struck down by a bout of fever, then you will think of me.' The master went to Jinshan and caught typhoid fever, and was extremely ill. He tested what he had seen before, and none of it had any power. He recalled the Fifth Patriarch's words and then vowed: 'As soon as my illness eases a little, I will return to the Fifth Patriarch.' When he recovered he sought his way back. The patriarch was delighted at the sight of him, had him at once enter the hall of practice, and he went into the attendant's quarters. Only half a month had passed when it happened that a commissioner relinquished his seal and was returning to Shu, and came to the patriarch to ask about the Way. The patriarch said: 'Commissioner, when you were young, did you ever read the Little Flame poems? There are two lines that are quite close. She calls Little Jade again and again, though there is nothing the matter; she only wants Tanlang to recognize the voice.' The commissioner answered, yes, yes. The patriarch said: 'Be careful.' The master happened to return and was standing in attendance, and asked: 'I heard the master raise the Little Flame poem. Did the commissioner understand?' The patriarch said: 'He only recognized the voice.' The master said: 'She only wants Tanlang to recognize the voice. Since he recognized the voice, why is it not it?' The patriarch said: 'What is the ancestral teacher's meaning coming from the west? The cypress tree in the courtyard. Well?' The master suddenly had an awakening. He hurried out, and saw a chicken fly up onto the railing, flap its wings, and crow. He said to himself again: 'Is this not the voice?' He then put incense in his sleeve and entered the room, reporting what he had attained, and presented a verse: 'The golden duck incense is burnt out in the brocade canopy; amid the reeds and songs, drunk, I am helped home. One passage of youthful romance is allowed only to the fair one to know alone.' The patriarch said: 'The great matter of buddhas and patriarchs is not something a small-rooted, inferior vessel can reach. I share your joy.' The patriarch said to the elders of the mountain everywhere: 'My attendant has understood Chan.' From this, wherever he went he was pushed forward as the head. In the Chong Ning period he returned home to visit his kin; the four assemblies welcomed and bowed to him. The Chengdu commander, the Hanlin Guo Zhizhang, invited him to open the teaching at the Sixth Patriarch's, and then at Zhaojue. In the Zheng He period he retired from affairs and again left the gorge, travelling south. At that time Zhang Wujin was lodging in Jingnan, and prided himself on his learning of the Way, rarely offering his approval to anyone. The master moored his boat and visited him, and they talked at length on the essentials of the Huayan. He said: 'The Huayan's realm of direct perception: principle and phenomena wholly real, from the first with no false dharmas. Therefore one is the ten thousand and the ten thousand are understood as one; one again one, ten thousand again ten thousand, vast and inexhaustible.'

心佛眾生。三無差別。卷舒自在。無礙圓融。此雖極則。終是無風帀帀之波。公於是不覺促榻。師遂問曰。到此與祖師西來意。為同為別。公曰。同矣。師曰。且得沒交涉。公色為之慍。師曰。不見雲門道。山河大地。無絲毫過患。猶是轉句。直得不見一色。始是半提。更須知有向上全提時節。彼德山．臨濟。豈非全提乎。公乃首肯。翌日復舉事法界．理法界．至理事無礙法界。師又問。此可說禪乎。公曰。正好說禪也。師笑曰。不然。正是法界量裡在。蓋法界量未滅。若到事事無礙法界。法界量滅。始好說禪。如何是佛。乾屎橛。如何是佛。麻三斤。是故真淨偈曰。事事無礙。如意自在。手把豬頭。口誦淨戒。趂出婬坊。未還酒債。十字街頭。解開布袋。公曰。美哉之論。豈易得聞乎。於是以師禮留居碧巖。復徙道林。樞密鄧公子常奏賜紫服師號。詔住金陵蔣山。學者無地以容。勑補天寧萬壽。上召見。褒寵甚渥。建炎初。又遷金山。適駕幸維揚。入對。賜圓悟禪師。改雲居。久之。復領昭覺。僧問。雲門道。須彌山。意旨如何。師曰。推不向前。約不退後。曰。未審還有過也無。師曰。坐卻舌頭。問。法不孤起。仗境方生。提坐具曰。這箇是境。那箇是法。師曰。卻被闍黎奪卻鎗。問。古人道。楖栗橫擔不顧人。直入千峰萬峰去。未審那裡是他住處。師曰。騰虵纏足。路布繞身。曰。朝看雲片片。暮聽水潺潺。師曰。卻須截斷始得。曰。此回不是夢。真箇到廬山。師曰。高著眼。問。猿抱子歸青嶂後。鳥銜華落碧巖前。此是和尚舊時安身立命處。如何是道林境。師曰。寺門高開洞庭野。殿腳插入赤沙湖。曰。如何是境中人。師曰。僧寶人人滄海珠。曰。此是杜工部底。作麼生是和尚底。師曰。且莫亂道。曰。如何是奪人不奪境。師曰。山僧有眼不曾見。曰。如何是奪境不奪人。師曰。闍黎問得自然親。

'Mind, Buddha, and living beings: the three are without difference. Rolling and unrolling at ease, unobstructed and perfectly interfused. Though this is the ultimate, in the end it is still a wave where no wind blows.' The lord could not help shifting closer on his couch. The master then asked: 'Is this the same as or different from the ancestral teacher's meaning coming from the west?' The lord said: 'The same.' The master said: 'Then you have no connection with it at all.' The lord's face showed annoyance. The master said: 'Do you not see what Yunmen said: mountains, rivers, and the great earth are without the slightest fault or trouble, yet they are still a turning phrase. Only when you do not see a single form is it a half lifting. You must further know that there is a season of the upward complete lifting. Were not Deshan and Linji complete liftings?' The lord then nodded. The next day he again brought up the dharma-realm of phenomena, the dharma-realm of principle, up to the dharma-realm of principle and phenomena being unobstructed. The master asked again: 'Can one speak Chan of this?' The lord said: 'It is just right for speaking Chan.' The master laughed and said: 'Not so. This is still within the measure of the dharma-realm, for the measure of the dharma-realm is not yet extinguished. Only when you reach the dharma-realm of phenomena mutually unobstructed, where the measure of the dharma-realm is extinguished, is it then good to speak Chan. What is the Buddha? A dried shit-stick. What is the Buddha? Three catties of hemp. Therefore Zhenjing's verse says: Phenomena mutually unobstructed, freely at ease as one wishes; the hand holds a pig's head, the mouth recites the pure precepts. Driving out of the brothel, not yet having repaid the wine debt, at the crossroads he unties the cloth bag.' The lord said: 'A splendid argument, how could it be easy to hear?' Thereupon he kept the master with the rites of a teacher and lodged him at Biyan, and later moved him to Daolin. The privy councillor Deng Zichang memorialized and had purple robes and a master's title conferred on him; by imperial edict he was made to reside at Jiangshan in Jinling, and students had no room to be accommodated. He was ordered to fill the post at Tianning Wanshou; the emperor summoned him to an audience and favoured and honoured him most generously. In the early Jian Yan period he was again moved to Jinshan. It happened that the imperial carriage visited Weiyang, and he was received in audience and granted the title Chan Master Yuanwu. He was transferred to Yunju, and after a long time again took charge of Zhaojue. A monk asked: 'Yunmen said, Mount Sumeru. What is the meaning?' The master said: 'Push it and it does not go forward; pull it and it does not go back.' [The monk] said: 'I wonder whether there is any fault in it?' The master said: 'Sit on your tongue.' [A monk] asked: 'Dharmas do not arise alone; relying on circumstances they are born. Raising his sitting cloth, he said: This is circumstance; which is the dharma?' The master said: 'The acarya has snatched away my spear instead.' [A monk] asked: 'The ancients said: with the staff carried crosswise, heedless of others, going straight into a thousand peaks and ten thousand peaks. I wonder where his dwelling place is?' The master said: 'A flying snake coils around the feet; road cloth wraps the body.' [The monk] said: 'In the morning I watch the clouds piece by piece; in the evening I listen to the water murmuring.' The master said: 'You must cut it off before you can.' [The monk] said: 'This time it is not a dream; truly I have arrived at Mount Lu.' The master said: 'Open your eyes wide.' [A monk] asked: 'The ape carries its child back behind the green peaks; the bird carries a flower and drops it before the jade cliff. This is where the master formerly settled his body and established his life. What is the realm of Daolin?' The master said: 'The temple gate opens high onto the Dongting wilds; the base of the hall thrusts into the Red Sand Lake.' [The monk] said: 'What is the man in the realm?' The master said: 'The jewel of the Sangha: each man a pearl of the vast sea.' [The monk] said: 'That is Du Gongbu's. What is the master's own?' The master said: 'Do not speak wildly.' [The monk] said: 'What is snatching the man but not the surroundings?' The master said: 'The mountain monk has eyes but has never seen it.' [The monk] said: 'What is snatching the surroundings but not the man?' The master said: 'The acarya's question came naturally intimate.'

曰。如何是人境俱奪。師曰。收。曰。如何是人境俱不奪。師曰。放。問。有句無句。如藤倚樹。如何得透脫。師曰。倚天長劍逼人寒。曰。祇如樹倒藤枯。溈山為甚麼呵呵大笑。師曰。愛他底。著他底。曰。忽被學人掀倒禪床。拗折拄杖。又作箇甚麼伎倆。師曰。也是賊過後張弓。問。明歷歷。露堂堂。因甚麼乾坤收不得。師曰。金剛手裡八稜棒。曰。忽然一喚便回。還當得活也無。師曰。鶖子目連無奈何。曰。不落照。不落用。如何商量。師曰。放下雲頭。曰。忽遇其中人時如何。師曰。騎佛殿。出山門。曰。萬象不來渠獨語。教誰招手上高峰。師曰。錯下名言。上堂。通身是眼見不及。通身是耳聞不徹。通身是口說不著。通身是心鑒不出。直饒盡大地明得。無絲毫透漏。猶在半途。據令全提。且道如何展演。域中日月縱橫掛。一亙晴空萬古春。上堂。山頭鼓浪。井底揚塵。眼聽似震雷霆。耳觀如張錦繡。三百六十骨節。一一現無邊妙身。八萬四千毛端。頭頭彰寶王剎海。不是神通妙用。亦非法爾如然。苟能千眼頓開。直是十方坐斷。且超然獨脫一句。作麼生道。試玉須經火。求珠不離泥。上堂。本來無形段。那復有唇觜。特地廣稱揚。替他說道理。且道他是阿誰。上堂。十五日已前。千牛拽不回。十五日已後。俊鶻趂不及。正當十五日。天平地平。同明同暗。大千沙界不出當處。可以含吐十虗。進一步。超越不可說香水海。退一步。坐斷千里萬裡白雲。不進不退。莫道闍黎。老僧也無開口處。舉拂子曰。正當恁麼時如何。有時拈在千峰上。劃斷秋雲不放高。上堂。十方同聚會。本來身不昧。箇箇學無為。頂上用鉗鎚。此是選佛場。深廣莫能量。心空及第歸。利劍不如錐。龐居士舌拄梵天。口包四海。有時將一莖草作丈六金身。有時將丈六金身作一莖草。甚是奇特。雖然如此。要且不曾動著向上關。

[The monk] said: 'How is it when both man and surroundings are taken away?' The master said: 'Collect.' [The monk] said: 'How is it when neither man nor surroundings are taken away?' The master said: 'Release.' [A monk] asked: 'With phrases and without phrases, like a vine leaning on a tree — how does one get through and be released?' The master said: 'A sword propped against heaven chills a man.' [The monk] said: 'Just so — when the tree falls and the vine withers, why did Weishan laugh heartily?' The master said: 'Loving what he loved, attached to what he was attached to.' [The monk] said: 'Suppose a student suddenly overturns the Chan bed and snaps the staff — what trick will you play then?' The master said: 'It is also drawing the bow after the thief has passed.' [A monk] asked: 'Bright and distinct, exposed and open — why can heaven and earth not gather it in?' The master said: 'The eight-sided club in the diamond king's hand.' [The monk] said: 'Suppose one is called and returns at once — does he still count as alive?' The master said: 'Shariputra and Maudgalyayana are helpless.' [The monk] said: 'Not falling into illumination, not falling into function — how do you discuss it?' The master said: 'Put down the cloud's head.' [The monk] said: 'What about when one suddenly meets the man within it?' The master said: 'Ride on the Buddha hall and go out the mountain gate.' [The monk] said: 'The ten thousand things do not come; he speaks alone. Whom will you teach to raise a hand to the high peak?' The master said: 'You have set down the words wrongly.' He ascended the hall: 'The whole body is eye and cannot see it; the whole body is ear and cannot hear it through; the whole body is mouth and cannot speak it; the whole body is mind and cannot discern it. Even if you understand the whole great earth with not the slightest leak, you are still on the halfway road. According to the command of the complete lifting, tell me, how will you unfold and display it? Sun and moon of the realm hang crosswise; one stretch of clear sky, ten thousand ages of spring.' He ascended the hall: 'Waves drummed on the mountain top; dust rose at the bottom of the well. The eye hears as if thunder shook; the ear sees as if brocade were spread. In the three hundred and sixty joints of bone, each one manifests the boundless wondrous body; at the eighty-four thousand tips of hair, each one reveals the sea of jewel-king lands. This is not the wondrous function of spiritual penetration, nor is it the natural suchness. If you can suddenly open a thousand eyes, you will straightaway sit and cut off the ten directions. Tell me, how will you speak the one phrase of transcendent, solitary release? To test jade you must pass it through fire; to seek a pearl you do not leave the mud.' He ascended the hall: 'Originally it has no shape or form; how then could it have lips and beak? Especially do I broadly praise it, speaking on its behalf of principle. Tell me, who is it?' He ascended the hall: 'Before the fifteenth day, a thousand oxen cannot drag it back. After the fifteenth day, a swift falcon cannot overtake it. Just on the fifteenth day, heaven is level and earth is level, the same brightness and the same darkness. The great chiliocosm of sand-realms does not go beyond this very place; it can swallow and spit out the ten quarters of space. Step forward, and you transcend the inexpressible ocean of fragrant water. Step back, and you sit and cut off the thousand-li, ten-thousand-li white clouds. Neither forward nor back — do not speak of the acarya; even the old monk has no place to open his mouth.' He raised his whisk and said: 'Just at such a time, what is it? Sometimes he holds it up on the thousand peaks; he cuts off the autumn clouds and does not let them rise high.' He ascended the hall: 'The ten directions gather together in one assembly; the original body is not obscured. Each one studies non-doing; on the crown of the head he uses tongs and hammer. This is the ground for selecting Buddhas; its depth and breadth cannot be measured. With mind emptied he returns having passed the examination; a sharp sword is not as good as an awl. Layman Pang's tongue propped up the Brahma heaven; his mouth wrapped around the four seas. Sometimes he took a single blade of grass as the sixteen-foot golden body; sometimes he took the sixteen-foot golden body as a single blade of grass. How very extraordinary. Yet even so, he never once moved the upward barrier.'

且如何是向上關。鑄印築高壇。上堂。有句無句。超宗越格。如藤倚樹。銀山鐵壁。及至樹倒藤枯。多少人失卻鼻孔。直饒收拾得來。已是千里萬裡。祇如未有恁麼消息時如何。還透得麼。風暖鳥聲碎。日高華影重。上堂。第一句薦得。祖師乞命。第二句薦得。人天膽落。第三句薦得。虎口橫身。不是循途守轍。亦非革轍移途。透得則六臂三頭。未透亦人間天上。且三句外一句作麼生道。生涯祇在絲綸上。明月扁舟泛五湖。示眾雲。一言截斷。千聖消聲。一劒當頭。橫屍萬裡。所以道。有時句到意不到。有時意到句不到。句能剗意。意能剗句。意句交馳。衲僧巴鼻。若能恁麼轉去。青天也須吃棒。且道憑箇甚麼。可憐無限弄潮人。畢竟還落潮中死。示眾雲。萬仞崖頭撒手。要須其人。千鈞之弩發機。豈為鼷鼠。雲門睦州。當面蹉過。德山臨濟。誑謼閭閻。自餘立境立機。作窠作窟。故是滅胡種族。且獨脫一句作麼生道。萬緣遷變渾閑事。五月山房冷似冰。紹興五年八月己酉。示微恙。趺坐書偈遺眾。投筆而逝。茶毗舌齒不壞。設利五色無數。塔於昭覺寺之側。諡真覺禪師。

'Tell me, what is the upward barrier? Casting a seal and building a high altar.' He ascended the hall: 'With phrases and without phrases, transcending lineage and surpassing norms; like a vine leaning on a tree, a silver mountain and an iron wall. When the tree falls and the vine withers, how many people lose their nostrils. Even if you gather it all back up, you are already a thousand li, ten thousand li away. Just at the time before there was such news, what then? Can you still get through? Wind warm, bird cries broken; sun high, flower shadows heavy.' He ascended the hall: 'If you understand the first phrase, the ancestral teachers beg for their lives. If you understand the second phrase, gods and men lose their courage. If you understand the third phrase, you place yourself sideways in the tiger's mouth. This is not following the road and keeping to the ruts, nor is it changing the ruts and shifting the road. If you get through, you have six arms and three heads; if you do not, you are still among men and gods. Tell me, how will you speak the one phrase outside the three phrases? One's whole livelihood lies only on the silk line; a bright moon, a flat boat drifting on the five lakes.' He addressed the assembly: 'One word cuts off; a thousand sages still their voices. One sword at the head; corpses lie across ten thousand li. Therefore it is said: sometimes the phrase arrives and the meaning does not; sometimes the meaning arrives and the phrase does not. The phrase can shave the meaning, the meaning can shave the phrase; meaning and phrase racing together — that is the patch-robed monk's nose. If you can turn in this way, even the blue sky must take a beating. Tell me, on what does it depend? Pitiable are the countless tide-players; in the end they still die in the tide.' He addressed the assembly: 'To let go at the top of a ten-thousand-fathom cliff requires the right man. A thousand-catty crossbow releases its trigger — surely not for a field mouse. Yunmen and Muzhou missed it face to face; Deshan and Linji deceived the village lanes. As for the rest, setting up realms and setting up mechanisms, making nests and making caves, this is truly to wipe out the Hu race. Tell me, how will you speak the one phrase of solitary release? The ten thousand conditions shifting and changing are all idle matters; in the fifth month the mountain room is cold as ice. In the eighth month of the fifth year of Shaoxing, on the jiyou day, he showed slight illness. Sitting cross-legged he wrote a verse and left it for the assembly; he threw down the brush and passed away. At cremation his tongue and teeth did not decay; his relics were of five colours and countless. A stupa was raised beside Zhaojue Monastery, and he was given the posthumous title Chan Master Zhenjue.'

舒州太平慧懃佛鑑禪師

Chan Master Huaiqin, Fojian, of Taiping in Shuzhou

本郡汪氏子。丱歲師廣教圓深。試所習得度。每以唯此一事實。餘二則非真。味之有省。乃徧參名宿。往來五祖之門有年。恚祖不為印據。與圓悟相繼而去。及悟歸五祖。方丈徹證。而師忽至。意欲他邁。悟勉令掛搭。且曰。某與兄相別始月餘。比舊相見時如何。師曰。我所疑者。此也。遂參堂。一日。聞祖舉。僧問趙州。如何是和尚家風。州曰。老僧耳聾。高聲問將來。僧再問。州曰。你問我家風。我卻識你家風了也。師即大豁所疑。曰。乞和尚指示極則。祖曰。森羅及萬象。一法之所印。師展拜。祖令主翰墨。後同圓悟語話次。舉東寺問仰山。鎮海明珠因緣。至無理可伸處。圓悟徵曰。既雲收得。逮索此珠。又道無言可對。無理可伸。師不能加答。明日謂悟曰。東寺祇索一顆珠。仰山當下傾出一栲栳。悟深肯之。乃告之曰。老兄更宜親近老和尚去。師一日造方丈。未及語。被祖詬罵。懡㦬而退。歸寮閉門打睡。恨祖不已。悟已密知。即往扣門。師曰。誰。悟曰。我。師即開門。悟問。你見老和尚如何。師曰。我本不去。被你賺累我。遭這老漢詬罵。悟呵呵大笑曰。你記得前日下底語麼。師曰。是甚麼語。悟曰。你又道東寺祇索一顆。仰山傾出一栲栳。師當下釋然。悟遂領師同上方丈。祖才見。遽曰。懃兄。且喜大事了畢。明年。命師為第一座。會大平靈源赴黃龍。其席既虗。源薦師於舒守孫鼎臣。遂命補處。五祖付法衣。師受而捧以示眾曰。昔釋迦文佛。以丈六金襴袈裟。披千尺彌勒佛身。佛身不長。袈裟不短。會麼。即此樣。無他樣。自是法道大播。政和初。詔住東都智海。五年乞歸。得旨居蔣山。樞密鄧公子常奏賜徽號椹服。僧問。如何是祖師西來意。師曰。吃醋知酸。吃鹽知鹹。曰。弓折箭盡時如何。師曰。一場懡㦬。問。不與萬法為侶者是甚麼人。師曰。拶破露柱。曰。歸鄉無路時如何。

A son of the Wang family of this prefecture. In his childhood he took Master Guangjiao Yuanshen as his teacher; he was tested on what he had studied and received ordination. He constantly chewed on 'only this one matter is true; the other two are not true', and had an awakening from its flavour. He then travelled everywhere paying homage to famous elders. He went back and forth at the Fifth Patriarch's gate for years, and was angry that the patriarch would not seal his approval; he and Yuanwu left one after the other. When Wu returned to the Fifth Patriarch and was thoroughly certified in the abbot's quarters, the master suddenly arrived, intending to go elsewhere. Wu urged him to stay and put up his staff, and said at the time: 'It is only a month since I parted from you, brother; how do you compare with when I saw you before?' The master said: 'What I doubt is just this.' He then entered the hall of practice. One day he heard the patriarch bring up: A monk asked Zhaozhou, 'What is the master's family style?' Zhou said, 'This old monk is deaf; ask it in a louder voice.' The monk asked again. Zhou said, 'You ask about my family style, but I have already recognized your family style.' The master's doubt suddenly opened wide, and he said: 'I beg the master to point out the ultimate.' The patriarch said: 'The myriads of phenomena and all things are sealed by one dharma.' The master bowed in thanks; the patriarch had him take charge of writing. Later, when he was talking with Yuanwu, they brought up the case of Dongsi asking Yangshan about the Zhenhai mani pearl; when it came to the point where no principle could be extended, Yuanwu pressed him, saying: 'Since you said you had received it, and then when he demanded the pearl you said you had no words to answer and no principle to extend —' The master could add no reply. The next day he said to Wu: 'Dongsi only demanded one pearl; Yangshan at once poured out a whole basketful.' Wu deeply approved, and told him: 'Elder brother, you had better draw closer to the old master.' One day the master went to the abbot's quarters; before he could speak he was reviled by the patriarch, and he withdrew in embarrassment. He returned to his quarters, shut the door, and slept, resenting the patriarch endlessly. Wu knew this secretly and went to knock on the door. The master said: 'Who is it?' Wu said: 'It is I.' The master opened the door. Wu asked: 'How do you see the old master?' The master said: 'I was not going to come; you dragged me into it, and I got reviled by that old fellow.' Wu laughed heartily and said: 'Do you remember what you said the day before yesterday?' The master said: 'What words?' Wu said: 'You again said Dongsi only demanded one pearl and Yangshan poured out a whole basketful.' The master was instantly released. Wu then led the master to the abbot's quarters. As soon as the patriarch saw him he said: 'Brother Qin, I am glad the great matter is finished.' The next year he made the master first seat. It happened that Taiping Lingyuan was going to Huanglong, and since the seat was vacant, Lingyuan recommended the master to the Shuzhou governor Sun Dingchen, who then appointed him to fill the post. The Fifth Patriarch gave him the dharma robe. The master received it and held it up before the assembly: 'Formerly Shakyamuni Buddha draped the sixteen-foot golden-brocade robe over the thousand-foot body of Maitreya. The Buddha's body was not long, the robe was not short. Do you understand? It is just this pattern, no other pattern.' From this the dharma way spread widely. In the early Zheng He period he was by edict made to reside at Zhihai in the Eastern Capital; in the fifth year he begged to return, and by imperial order resided at Jiangshan. The privy councillor Deng Zichang memorialized and had a laudatory title and a mulberry robe conferred on him. A monk asked: 'What is the ancestral teacher's meaning coming from the west?' The master said: 'Taste vinegar and know sour; taste salt and know salty.' [The monk] said: 'What about when the bow is broken and the arrows are gone?' The master said: 'One scene of embarrassment.' [A monk] asked: 'What sort of man is he who is not companion to the ten thousand dharmas?' The master said: 'Squeeze and break the exposed pillar.' [The monk] said: 'What about when there is no road home?'

師曰。王程有限。曰。前三三。後三三。又作麼生。師曰。六六三十六。問。承聞和尚親見五祖。是否。師曰。鐵牛齧碎黃金草。曰。恁麼則親見五祖也。師曰。我與你有甚冤讎。曰。祇如達磨見武帝意旨如何。師曰。胡言易辯。漢語難明。曰。為甚棲棲暗渡江。師曰。因風借便。問。如何是主中賓。師曰。進前退後愁殺人。曰。如何是賓中主。師曰。真實之言成妄語。曰。如何是賓中賓。師曰。夫子遊行厄在陳。曰。如何是主中主。師曰。終日同行非伴侶。曰。賓主已蒙師指示。向上宗乘事若何。師曰。大斧斫了手摩挲。問。即心即佛即不問。非心非佛事如何。師曰。昨日有僧問。老僧不對。曰。未審與即心即佛相去多少。師曰。近則千里萬裡。遠則不隔絲毫。曰。忽被學人截斷兩頭。歸家穩坐。又作麼生。師曰。你家在甚麼處。曰。大千沙界內。一箇自由身。師曰。未到家在。更道。曰。學人到這裡。直得東西不辨。南北不分去也。師曰。未為分外。上堂。至道無難。唯嫌揀擇。桃華紅。李華白。誰道融融只一色。燕子語。黃鸎鳴。誰道關關祇一聲。不透祖師關捩子。空認山河作眼睛。上堂。日日日西沉。日日日東上。若欲學菩提。擲下拄杖曰。但看此模樣。五祖周祥。上堂。去年今日時。紅爐片雪飛。今日去年時。曹娥讀夜碑。末後一句子。佛眼莫能窺。白蓮峰頂上。紅日繞須彌。鳥啄珊瑚樹。鯨吞離水犀。太平家業在。千古襲楊岐。上堂。橫拄杖曰。先照後用。竪起曰。先用後照。倒轉曰。照用同時。卓一下曰。照用不同時。汝等諸人。被拄杖一口吞盡了也。自是你不覺。若向這裡道得轉身句。免見一場氣悶。其或未然。老僧今日失利。上堂。金烏急。玉兔速。急急流光七月十。無窮遊子不歸家。縱歸祇在門前立。門前立。把手牽伊不肯入。萬裡看看寸草無。殘華落地無人拾。無人拾。

The master said: 'The royal itinerary has its limits.' [The monk] said: 'Three before and three after — what then?' The master said: 'Six sixes are thirty-six.' [A monk] asked: 'We hear the master saw the Fifth Patriarch in person; is that so?' The master said: 'An iron ox gnaws to bits the golden grass.' [The monk] said: 'Then you did see the Fifth Patriarch in person.' The master said: 'What enmity is there between you and me?' [The monk] said: 'What was the meaning of Bodhidharma seeing Emperor Wu?' The master said: 'Barbarian words are easy to dispute; Chinese words are hard to understand.' [The monk] said: 'Why did he cross the river secretly in such haste?' The master said: 'He borrowed the wind for convenience.' [A monk] asked: 'What is the guest within the host?' The master said: 'Stepping forward and back, sorrow kills a man.' [The monk] said: 'What is the host within the guest?' The master said: 'True words become false words.' [The monk] said: 'What is the guest within the guest?' The master said: 'The Master travels and is distressed at Chen.' [The monk] said: 'What is the host within the host?' The master said: 'Walking together all day, not companions.' [The monk] said: 'Guest and host have been pointed out by the master; what of the matter of the upward ancestral vehicle?' The master said: 'The great axe has chopped it; rub it with the hand.' [A monk] asked: 'Mind itself is Buddha — I do not ask about that; what of the matter of no-mind and no-Buddha?' The master said: 'Yesterday a monk asked; the old monk did not answer.' [The monk] said: 'I wonder how far it is from mind itself is Buddha.' The master said: 'Near, then a thousand li, ten thousand li; far, then not separated by a hair.' [The monk] said: 'Suppose a student suddenly cuts off both ends and sits steadily at home — what then?' The master said: 'Where is your home?' [The monk] said: 'Within the great chiliocosm of sand-realms, one free body.' The master said: 'You have not arrived home yet. Say more.' [The monk] said: 'When the student reaches here, he truly cannot tell east from west nor north from south.' The master said: 'That is no more than expected.' He ascended the hall: 'The utmost Way is without difficulty; it only dislikes picking and choosing. Peach blossoms red, plum blossoms white — who says the blending is only one colour? Swallows chirp, orioles sing — who says the twittering is only one sound? If you do not get through the ancestral teacher's latch, you will vainly take mountains and rivers as your eyes.' He ascended the hall: 'Day by day the sun sinks in the west; day by day the sun rises in the east. If you would learn bodhi,' he threw down his staff and said, 'then just look at this pattern.' On the anniversary of the Fifth Patriarch he ascended the hall: 'Last year at this time, a flake of snow flew in the red furnace. Today, at the time of last year, Cao E reads the night stele. The final phrase — even the Buddha eye cannot peer into it. On the summit of the White Lotus Peak, the red sun circles Mount Sumeru. A bird pecks at the coral tree; a whale swallows the water-leaving rhinoceros. The Taiping family estate endures; for a thousand ages it inherits Yangqi.' He ascended the hall: holding his staff crosswise, he said: 'Illumination first, function after.' Raising it upright he said: 'Function first, illumination after.' Turning it upside down he said: 'Illumination and function at the same time.' Planting it once he said: 'Illumination and function at different times. You people have all been swallowed whole by the staff in one gulp. It is just that you are unaware. If you can speak a turning phrase here, you will be spared a bout of stifled gloom. If not, the old monk has lost today.' He ascended the hall: 'The golden crow is swift, the jade hare is fast; hurrying, hurrying, the light flows to the seventh month's tenth day. The endless wanderer does not return home; even if he returns he only stands before the gate. Standing before the gate, you take his hand and pull, but he will not enter. Ten thousand li, and look — not an inch of grass; fallen blossoms lie on the ground and no one picks them up. No one picks them up'

一回雨過一回濕。上堂。世尊有密語。迦葉不覆藏。乃曰。你尋常說黃道黑。評品古今。豈不是密語。你尋常折旋俯仰。拈匙把箸。祇揖萬福。是覆藏不覆藏。忽然瞥地去。也不可知。要會麼。世尊有密語。冬到寒食一百五。迦葉不覆藏。水洩不通已露贓。靈利衲僧如會得。一重雪上一重霜。上堂。十五日已前事。錦上鋪華。十五日已後事。如海一漚發。正當十五日。大似一尺鏡照千里之像。雖則真空絕跡。其奈海印發光。任他露柱開華。說甚佛面百醜。何故。到頭霜夜月。任運落前溪。上堂。舉。僧問趙州。如何是不遷義。州以手作流水勢。其僧有省。又僧問法眼。不取於相。如如不動。如何是不取於相。見於如如不動。眼曰。日出東方夜落西。其僧亦有省。若也於此見得。方知道旋嵐偃嶽。本來常靜。江河競注。元自不流。其或未然。不免更為饒舌。天左旋。地右轉。古往今來經幾徧。金烏飛。玉兔走。才方出海門。又落青山後。江河波渺渺。淮濟浪悠悠。直入滄溟晝夜流。遂高聲曰。諸禪德。還見如如不動麼。師室中以木骰子六隻。面面皆書麼字。僧才入。師擲曰。會麼。僧擬不擬。師即打出。七年九月八日。上堂。祖師心印。狀似鐵牛之機。去即印住。住即印破。直饒不去不住。亦未是衲僧行履處。且作麼生是衲僧行履處。待十月前後。為諸人注破。至後月八日。沐浴更衣。端坐。手寫數書別故舊。停筆而化。闍維收靈骨設利。塔於本山。

'One rain makes one wetting.' He ascended the hall: 'The World-Honoured One has a secret word; Kashyapa does not conceal it.' He then said: 'You ordinarily talk of yellow and discuss black, appraising past and present — is this not the secret word? You ordinarily bend and turn, bow and look up, take up the spoon and hold the chopsticks, merely salute and say ten thousand blessings — is that concealing or not concealing? Suddenly you may go off in a blink, and it cannot be known. Do you want to understand? The World-Honoured One has a secret word: winter comes and the Cold Food festival is a hundred and five. Kashyapa does not conceal it: not a drop of water leaks through, and the evidence is already exposed. A sharp patch-robed monk, if he understands, will find one layer of frost upon another layer of snow.' He ascended the hall: 'The matter before the fifteenth day is brocade embroidered with flowers. The matter after the fifteenth day is like one bubble rising on the sea. Just on the fifteenth day it is very like a one-foot mirror reflecting the images of a thousand li. Though it is true emptiness with traces cut off, what can be done about the ocean-seal giving off light? Let the exposed pillar bloom; what of the Buddha's face of a hundred uglinesses? Why so? At the end, the frosty night moon drifts down before the stream as it will.' He ascended the hall: he brought up: A monk asked Zhaozhou, 'What is the meaning of no-moving?' Zhou made the gesture of flowing water with his hand, and the monk had an awakening. Again a monk asked Fayan, 'Not grasping at marks, thusness unmoving. How is it not grasping at marks and seeing thusness unmoving?' Yan said: 'The sun comes out in the east and sets in the west at night.' The monk also had an awakening. If you can see it here, then you will know that the whirlwind lays low the peaks, yet it is originally always still; rivers race and pour, yet from the first they do not flow. If not, then I cannot avoid wagging my tongue further. Heaven turns left, earth turns right; from ancient times to now, how many times has it gone round? The golden crow flies, the jade hare runs; it has just come out the sea gate, and already it falls behind the green mountains. The rivers and seas are vast with waves; the Huai and Ji roll on endlessly, flowing into the dark sea day and night.' He then said in a loud voice: 'Chan worthies, do you see the thusness that does not move?' In the master's room there were six wooden dice, every face inscribed with the character one. As soon as a monk entered, the master threw them and said: 'Do you understand?' If the monk hesitated at all, the master at once drove him out. On the eighth day of the ninth month of the seventh year he ascended the hall: 'The ancestral teacher's mind seal is like the mechanism of an iron ox: go and it seals, stay and it breaks the seal. Even if you neither go nor stay, it is still not the patch-robed monk's ground of practice. Tell me, what is the patch-robed monk's ground of practice? Wait until around the tenth month and I will break it open for you all.' On the eighth day of the following month he bathed and changed clothes, sat upright, wrote several letters in his own hand to take leave of old friends, stopped his brush, and passed away. After cremation his relics were collected; a stupa was raised on this mountain.'

舒州龍門清遠佛眼禪師

Chan Master Qingyuan, Foyan, of Longmen in Shuzhou

臨邛李氏子。嚴正寡言。十四圓具。依毗尼。究其說。因讀法華經。至是法非思量分別之所能解。持以問講師。講師莫能答。師嘆曰。義學名相。非所以了生死大事。遂卷衣南遊。造舒州太平演禪師法席。因丐於廬州。偶雨足跌仆地。煩懣間。聞二人交相惡罵。諫者曰。你猶自煩惱在。師於言下有省。及歸。凡有所問。演即曰。我不如你。你自會得好。或曰。我不會。我不如你。師愈疑。遂諮決於元禮首座。禮乃以手引師之耳。繞圍爐數帀。且行且語曰。你自會得好。師曰。有冀開發。乃爾相戲耶。禮曰。你他後悟去。方知今日曲折耳。太平將遷海會。師慨然曰。吾持缽方歸。復參隨往一荒院。安能究決己事耶。遂作偈告辭。之蔣山坐夏。邂逅靈源禪師。日益厚善。從容言話間。師曰。比見都下一尊宿語句。似有緣。靈源曰。演公天下第一等宗師。何故捨而事遠遊。所謂有緣者。蓋知解之師與公初心相應耳。師從所勉。徑趨海會。後命典謁。適寒夜孤坐。撥爐見火一豆許。恍然自喜曰。深深撥。有些子。平生事。只如此。遽起閱几上傳燈錄。至破灶墮因緣。忽大悟。作偈曰。刀刀林鳥啼。披衣終夜坐。撥火悟平生。窮神歸破墮。事皎人自迷。曲淡誰能和。念之永不忘。門開少人過。圓悟因詣其寮。舉青林般土話驗之。且謂。古今無人出得。你如何會。師曰。也有甚難。悟曰。祇如他道。鐵輪天子寰中旨意作麼生。師曰。我道帝釋宮中放赦書。悟退語人曰。且喜遠兄便有活人句也。自是隱居四面大中庵。屬天下一新崇寧萬壽寺。舒守王公渙之命師開法。次補龍門。道望尤振。後遷和之褒禪。樞密鄧公洵武奏賜師號紫衣。上堂。臺山路上。過客全稀。破灶堂前。感恩無地。雪埋庭栢。冰鎻偃谿。雖在南方火爐頭。不入他家韲甕裡。看看臘月三十日。便是孟春猶寒。你等諸人。各須努力向前。切忌自生退屈。

A son of the Li family of Linqiong. Severe and correct, sparing of words. At fourteen he received full ordination, relied on the Vinaya, and investigated its teachings. Because he read the Lotus Sutra and came to the passage 'this dharma is not something that can be understood by thought or discrimination', he took it to question the lecturer, and the lecturer could not answer. The master sighed and said: 'The names and marks of doctrinal study are not the means to settle the great matter of birth and death.' He then rolled up his robe and travelled south, arriving at the dharma seat of Chan Master Yan of Taiping in Shuzhou. Because he was begging in Luzhou, it happened that his foot slipped in the rain and he fell to the ground; amid his vexation he heard two men cursing each other, and a man who tried to dissuade them said: 'You are still troubled yourself.' The master had an awakening at these words. When he returned, whatever he asked, Yan would say: 'I am not as good as you; you understand it well yourself.' Or he would say: 'I do not understand; I am not as good as you.' The master grew more doubtful. He then sought resolution from the head seat Yuanli. Li took the master by the ear and led him around the fire pit several times, walking and saying: 'You understand it well yourself.' The master said: 'I hoped for your guidance — is this how you make sport of me?' Li said: 'When you awaken later, you will know today's twists and turns.' When Taiping was about to move to Haihui, the master said with feeling: 'I have just returned from holding my bowl, and now I must follow along to another desolate monastery — how can I settle my own matter?' He then made a verse and took his leave, and went to Jiangshan for the summer retreat. There he happened to meet Chan Master Lingyuan, and day by day they grew closer. In the course of leisurely conversation the master said: 'Recently I saw the sayings of a venerable one in the capital; there seems to be an affinity.' Lingyuan said: 'Master Yan is the foremost teacher under heaven; why abandon him and go on a distant journey? The affinity you speak of is merely that a teacher of understanding accords with your initial mind.' The master followed his urging and went straight to Haihui. Later he was put in charge of receiving visitors. It happened on a cold night that he sat alone and poked the fire, and saw a spark the size of a bean. Suddenly delighted, he said: 'Poke deep, and there is a little something. A lifetime's matter is just like this.' He rose at once and read the Transmission of the Lamp on his desk; when he came to the case of the broken stove's fall, he was suddenly greatly enlightened. He made a verse: 'Knife by knife, the forest birds cry; putting on my robe I sit the whole night. Poking the fire I awaken to a lifetime; exhausting the spirit I return to the broken fall. The matter is clear, yet people delude themselves; the tune is plain, who can join in? Thinking of it I never forget; the gate is open, few pass through.' Yuanwu came to his quarters and brought up Qinglin's carrying-the-soil words to test him, saying: 'No one past or present has got out of it. How do you understand it?' The master said: 'What difficulty is there?' Wu said: 'Just so, he said: what is the meaning of the iron-wheel emperor within the realm?' The master said: 'I say: in Indra's palace a writ of amnesty is issued.' Wu withdrew and said to people: 'I am glad brother Yuan has the phrase of a living man.' From this he lived in seclusion at the Dazhong hut on Mount Simian. It happened that the world was newly making Chongning Wanshou Monastery; the Shuzhou governor Wang Huanzhi appointed the master to open the teaching, and he next filled the post at Longmen, where his reputation grew even more. Later he moved to Baochang in Hezhou. The privy councillor Deng Xunwu memorialized and had a master's title and purple robe conferred. He ascended the hall: 'On the Tiantai road, passing travellers are wholly rare. Before the broken stove hall, one has no place to show gratitude. Snow buries the courtyard cypress; ice locks the Yan stream. Though he is at the fire pit of the south, he does not enter that family's pickle jar. Look — the thirtieth day of the twelfth month; even so, the first month of spring is still cold. You people must each press forward with effort, and above all must not breed your own discouragement.'

上堂。卓拄杖曰。圓明瞭知。不由心念。抵死要道。墮坑落壍。畢竟如何。乃倚拄杖。下座。上堂。泡幻同無礙。如何不了悟。眼裡瞳人吹呌子。達法在其中。非今亦非古。六隻骰子滿盆紅。大眾。時人為甚麼坐地看楊州。缽盂著柄新飜樣。牛上騎牛笑殺人。上堂。趙州不見南泉。山僧不識五祖。甜瓜徹蔕甜。苦瓠連根苦。上堂。一葉落。天下春。無路尋思笑殺人。下是天。上是地。此言不入時流意。南作北。東作西。動而止。喜而悲。虵頭蠍尾一試之。猛虎口裡活雀兒。是何言。歸堂去。上堂。千說萬說。不如親面一見。縱不說亦自分明。王子寶刀喻。眾盲摸象喻。禪學中隔江招手事。望州亭相見事。迥絕無人處事。深山巖崖處事。此皆親面而見之。不在說也。上堂。蘇武牧羊。辱而不屈。李陵望漢。樂以忘歸。是在外國。在本國佛諸弟子中。有者雙足越坑。有者聆箏起舞。有者身埋糞壤。有者呵罵河神。是習氣。是妙用。至於擎叉打地。竪拂敲床。睦州一向閉門。魯祖終年面壁。是為人。是不為人。信知一切凡夫。埋沒寶藏。殊不丈夫。諸人何不擺柁張帆。拋江過岸。休更釘樁搖艣。何日到家。既作曹谿人。又是家裡漢。還見家裡事麼。僧問。劫火洞然。大千俱壞。未審這箇壞不壞。師曰。黑漆桶裡黃金色。問。道遠乎哉。觸事而真。如何是道。師曰。頂上八尺五。曰。此理如何。師曰。方圓七八寸。問。劫火威音前。別是一壺天。御樓前射獵。不是刈茆田。提起坐具曰。這箇喚作甚麼。師曰。正是刈茆田。僧便喝。師曰。猶作主在。問僧。孤燈獨照時如何。僧無對。師代曰。露柱證明。師聞開靜板聲。乃曰。據款結案。師甞題語於龍門延壽壁間曰。佛許有病者當療治。容有將息所也。禪林凡有數名。或曰涅槃。見法身常住。了法不生也。或曰省行。知此違緣。皆從行苦也。或曰延壽。欲得慧命。

He ascended the hall: he planted his staff and said: 'Perfect clear knowing does not come from the mind's thoughts. Insist on speaking it to the death, and you fall into pit and ditch. After all, what is it?' He then leaned on his staff and descended from the seat. He ascended the hall: 'Bubbles and illusions are equally unobstructed; how is it one does not awaken and understand? The pupil in the eye blows a whistle. The dharma is attained within it; it is neither now nor ancient. Six dice, a basin full of red. Great assembly, why do people of the time sit and look at Yangzhou? The bowl has a handle, a new style turned over; riding an ox on an ox — a laugh that kills a man.' He ascended the hall: 'Zhaozhou did not see Nanquan; the mountain monk does not know the Fifth Patriarch. A sweet melon is sweet to the stem; a bitter gourd is bitter to the root.' He ascended the hall: 'One leaf falls; the world is spring. With no road for thought, the laugh kills a man. Below is heaven, above is earth; these words do not enter the mind of the age. South made north, east made west; moving yet stopping, joyful yet grieving. Try the snake's head and scorpion's tail; a live sparrow in the tiger's mouth. What sort of words are these? Return to the hall.' He ascended the hall: 'A thousand words, ten thousand words are not as good as meeting face to face once. Even if not spoken it is clear on its own. The parable of the prince's jewelled sword; the parable of the blind men feeling the elephant; in Chan study, the matter of beckoning across the river, the matter of meeting at Wangzhou Pavilion, the matter of utter absence of people, the matter of the deep mountain cliffs — all these are seen face to face; they do not lie in words.' He ascended the hall: 'Su Wu herded sheep, humiliated but unyielding. Li Ling looked toward Han, happy and forgetting to return. That is in a foreign land; in our own land, among the Buddha's disciples, some leap over the pit with both feet, some listen to the zither and dance, some bury themselves in dung and mud, some scold the river god. Is this habitual conditioning, or is it wondrous function? As for lifting the fork and striking the ground, raising the whisk and knocking the bed — Muzhou shut his door year in and year out; Luzu faced the wall all year. Is this dealing with people or not dealing with people? Truly know that all ordinary beings bury their treasure; how unmanly. Why do you not put the rudder over and hoist the sail, cast off from the river and cross to the other shore? Stop driving your stake and rowing your oar — when will you reach home? Since you are men of Caoxi, and are also fellows of the household, do you see the household matters?' A monk asked: 'When the fire of the kalpa burns, the great chiliocosm is destroyed. I wonder whether this is destroyed or not?' The master said: 'Golden colour in a black-lacquer bucket.' [A monk] asked: 'Is the Way far off? Touching things it is real. What is the Way?' The master said: 'Eight feet five on the crown of the head.' [The monk] said: 'What is this principle?' The master said: 'Seven or eight inches round or square.' [A monk] asked: 'Before the kalpa fire and the majestic sound, there is another pot of heaven. Shooting game before the imperial tower is not mowing the thatch field.' He raised his sitting cloth and said: 'What is this called?' The master said: 'Precisely mowing the thatch field.' The monk gave a shout. The master said: 'You are still playing the host.' He asked a monk: 'What about when a lone lamp shines alone?' The monk had no reply. The master answered in his place: 'The exposed pillar bears witness.' When the master heard the board for ending meditation, he said: 'The case is settled according to the evidence.' The master once inscribed words on the wall of Longmen Yanshou, saying: 'The Buddha permitted the sick to be treated, allowing a place for convalescence. Chan monasteries have several names for it. Some call it nirvana: seeing the dharma body as permanently abiding, understanding that dharmas do not arise. Some call it reducing practice: knowing that these adverse conditions all come from the suffering of formations. Some call it prolonging life: wishing to obtain the wisdom-life'

扶持色身也。其實使人了生死處也。多見少覺。微恙便入此堂。不強支吾。便有補益。及乎久病。思念鄉閭。不善退思。滅除苦本。先聖雲。病者眾生之良藥。若善服食。無不瘥者也。宣和初。以病辭歸蔣山之東堂。二年書云前一日。飯食訖趺坐。謂其徒曰。諸方老宿。臨終必留偈辭世。世可辭耶。且將安往。乃合掌。怡然趨寂。門人函骨歸龍門。塔於靈光臺側。

'and to support the physical body. In truth it is a place for making people settle birth and death. Many see little and awaken little; at the slightest illness they enter this hall. If they do not force themselves to struggle on, then there is benefit. But when the illness is long, they think of their home village and are not good at turning the thought back and extinguishing the root of suffering. The former sages said: illness is the good medicine of living beings. If taken well, there is none it does not cure.' In the early Xuan He period, on account of illness he took leave and returned to the east hall of Jiangshan. On the day before the cloud-writing day of the second year, after eating he sat cross-legged and said to his followers: 'Venerable ones everywhere, at the point of death they always leave a verse to take leave of the world. Can the world be taken leave of? And where would one go?' He then joined his palms and peacefully passed into quiescence. His disciples boxed his bones and returned to Longmen, and raised a stupa beside the Lingguang Terrace.

潭州開福道寧禪師

Chan Master Daoning of Kaifu in Tanzhou

歙溪汪氏子。壯為道人。於崇果寺執浴。一日將濯足。偶誦金剛經。至於此章句能生信心。以此為實。遂忘所知。忽垂足沸湯中。發明己見。後祝髮蔣山。依雪竇老良禪師。踰一年。徧歷叢林。參諸名宿。晚至白蓮。聞五祖小參。舉忠國師古佛淨瓶．趙州狗子無佛性話。頓徹法源。大觀中。潭帥席公震請住開福。衲子景從。浴佛。上堂。未離兜率。已降王宮。未出母胎。度人已畢。諸禪德。日日日從東畔出。朝朝鷄向五更啼。雖然不是桃華洞。春至桃華亦滿溪。又道。毗藍園內。右脇降生。七步周行。四方目顧。天上天下。唯我獨尊。大似貪觀天上月。失卻手中珠。還知落處麼。若知落處。方為孝子順孫。苟或未然。不免重下註腳。良久曰。天生伎倆能奇怪。末上輸他弄一場。示眾雲。秋日耀長空。秋江浸虗碧。傷嗟門外人。處處尋彌勒。驀路忽擡頭。相逢不相識。諸禪德。既是相逢。為甚麼卻不相識。剪盡霜前竹。臨溪不化龍。上堂。徧界不曾藏。通身無影像。相逢莫訝太愚痴。曠劫至今無伎倆。無伎倆。少人知。大抵還他肌骨好。何須臨鏡𦘕蛾眉。上堂。摩竭正令。未免崎嶇。少室垂慈。早傷風骨。腰囊挈錫。孤負平生。煉行灰心。遞相鈍置。爭似春雨晴。春山青。白雲三片四片。黃鳥一聲兩聲。千眼大悲看不足。王維雖巧畫難成。直饒便恁麼。猶自涉途程。且不涉途程一句作麼生道。人從汴州來。不得東京信。僧問。蓮華未出水時如何。師曰。人天合掌。曰。出水後如何。師曰。不礙往來看。問。如何是句到意不到。師曰。瑞草本無根。信手拈來用。曰。如何是意到句不到。師曰。領取鈎頭意。莫認定盤星。曰。如何是意句俱到。師曰。大悲不展手。通身是眼睛。曰。如何是意句俱不到。師曰。君向瀟湘我向秦。政和三年十一月四日。淨髮沐浴。次日齋罷小參。勉眾行道。辭語誠切。

A son of the Wang family of Shexi. In his prime he became a man of the Way, and at Chongguo Monastery he was put in charge of the bathhouse. One day as he was about to wash his feet, he happened to recite the Diamond Sutra, and when he came to the passage 'from this passage and phrase faith can be produced, and one takes it as real', he suddenly forgot all he knew; his foot came down into the scalding water and he made clear what he had seen for himself. Afterwards he had his head shaved at Jiangshan and relied on the old Chan master Liang of Xuedou. More than a year later he travelled through all the monasteries, paying homage to famous elders, and at last came to Bailian, where he heard the Fifth Patriarch's minor gathering in which he brought up National Teacher Zhong's ancient Buddha's pure bottle and Zhaozhou's case of the dog lacking Buddha-nature, and he was at once thoroughly through the source of dharma. In the Da Guan period the Tanzhou commander Xi Zhen invited him to reside at Kaifu, and patch-robed monks gathered to him like shadows. On the Buddha's bathing festival he ascended the hall: 'Before leaving Tushita he had already descended into the royal palace; before emerging from the mother's womb he had already finished saving beings. Chan worthies, day by day the sun comes out from the eastern side; morning by morning the cock crows at the fifth watch. Though this is not the Peach Blossom Cave, when spring comes the peach blossoms also fill the stream.' He also said: 'In the Lumbini garden he was born from the right side; he walked seven steps in a circle and looked in the four directions. Above heaven and below heaven, he alone is honoured. This is much like greedily watching the moon in the sky and losing the pearl in your hand. Do you know where it falls? If you know where it falls, then you are a filial son and obedient grandson. If not, I cannot avoid adding another footnote.' After a long pause he said: 'Natural trickery can work wonders, but in the end he loses out and is made a fool of.' He addressed the assembly: 'The autumn sun shines in the long sky; the autumn river soaks in empty blue. How sad for the man outside the gate, seeking Maitreya everywhere. Suddenly on the road he lifts his head — meeting face to face, yet not recognizing. Chan worthies, since you meet face to face, why is it you do not recognize? Cutting down all the bamboo before the frost, by the stream it does not turn into a dragon.' He ascended the hall: 'Throughout the whole realm it has never been concealed; the whole body has no image or shadow. Meeting it, do not be surprised that it is so foolish; from kalpa to kalpa until now it has had no trickery. No trickery — few know it. On the whole, if the flesh and bones are fine, why need one paint the moth eyebrows facing the mirror?' He ascended the hall: 'The true command of Magadha cannot avoid being rugged; Shaoshi's extending of compassion already wounded the wind and bones. Carrying the bag at the waist and the staff in hand, one fails a whole life. Refining practice and deadening the mind, each dumps on the other. How much better: spring rain clears, spring mountains green. White clouds three pieces, four pieces; yellow birds one cry, two cries. With a thousand eyes great compassion looks and cannot see enough; though Wang Wei was skilful he could not paint it. Even if you are just thus, you are still involved in a journey. Tell me, how will you speak the one phrase of not being involved in a journey? A man comes from Bianzhou and does not get news of the Eastern Capital.' A monk asked: 'What was it like before the lotus came out of the water?' The master said: 'Gods and men join their palms.' [The monk] said: 'And after it comes out of the water?' The master said: 'It does not hinder looking to and fro.' [A monk] asked: 'What is it when the phrase arrives and the meaning does not?' The master said: 'The auspicious herb has no root; pick it up at will and use it.' [The monk] said: 'What is it when the meaning arrives and the phrase does not?' The master said: 'Take the meaning at the hook's end; do not fix on the pole star.' [The monk] said: 'What is it when meaning and phrase both arrive?' The master said: 'Great compassion does not extend its hand; the whole body is eyes.' [The monk] said: 'What is it when neither meaning nor phrase arrives?' The master said: 'You go toward Xiaoxiang, I go toward Qin.' On the fourth day of the eleventh month of the third year of Zheng He he had his head shaved and bathed. The next day after the meal he held a minor gathering, urging the assembly to practise the Way; his leave-taking words were sincere and earnest.