The Five Lamps Meeting at the Source, Scroll Five

安州大安山興古禪師

Chan Master Xinggu of Mount Da'an in Anzhou

僧問。亡僧遷化。向甚麼處去也。師曰。昨夜三更拜南郊。問。維摩默然。意旨如何。師曰。黯黑石牛兒。超然不出戶。問。如何是那邊事。師曰。黑漆牧童不展手。銀籠鶴畔野雲飛。

A monk asked: 'When a dead monk is transformed in passing away, where does he go?' The master said: 'Last night at the third watch he made obeisance at the southern suburb.' [A monk] asked: 'What was the meaning of Vimalakirti's silence?' The master said: 'A dark black stone ox, transcendent, does not come out of its door.' [A monk] asked: 'What is the matter on the other shore?' The master said: 'The lacquer-black cowherd does not open his hand; by the silver cage the crane, wild clouds flying.'

蘄州烏牙山行朗禪師

Chan Master Xinglang of Mount Wuya in Qizhou

僧問。未作人身已前作甚麼來。師曰。海上石牛歌三拍。一條紅線掌間分。問。迦葉上行衣。何人合得披。師曰。天然無相子。不掛出塵衣。

A monk asked: 'Before one took human form, what was one doing?' The master said: 'A stone ox on the sea sings three beats; a single red thread is divided in the palm.' [A monk] asked: 'Kashyapa's robe handed down from above — who deserves to wear it?' The master said: 'One who is naturally without marks does not put on the robe that leaves the dust.'

青峰楚禪師法嗣

Heirs of Chan Master Chu of Qingfeng

西川靈龕禪師

Chan Master Lingkan of Xichuan

僧問。如何是諸佛出身處。師曰。出處非幹佛。春來草自青。問。碌碌地時如何。師曰。試進一步看。

A monk asked: 'Where do the Buddhas come forth from?' The master said: 'The place they come from is not the Buddha's doing; when spring comes, the grass is green of itself.' [A monk] asked: 'What about when one is bustling and busy?' The master said: 'Try taking one step forward.'

京兆府紫閣山端己禪師

Chan Master Duanji of Mount Zige in Jingzhao Prefecture

僧問。四相俱盡。立甚麼為真。師曰。你甚麼處去來。問。渭水正東流時如何。師曰。從來無間斷。

A monk asked: 'When the four marks are all exhausted, what is established as true?' The master said: 'Where have you been?' [A monk] asked: 'What about when the Wei River is flowing due east?' The master said: 'It has never had a break.'

房州開山懷晝禪師

Chan Master Huaizhou of Kaishan in Fangzhou

僧問。作何行業。即得不違於千聖。師曰。妙行無倫匹。情玄體自殊。問。有耳不臨清水洗。無心誰為白雲幽時如何。師曰。無木掛千金。曰。掛後如何。師曰。杳杳人難辯。問。如何是塵中師。師曰。荊棘林中隨處到。旃檀林裡任縱橫。問。如何是祖師西來意。師曰。月隱澄潭。金輝正午。

A monk asked: 'What practice can one do so as not to go against the thousand sages?' The master said: 'Wondrous practice has no peer; when feeling is profound, the essence is of itself distinct.' [A monk] asked: 'With ears that do not come to clear water to be washed, and no mind — who makes the white clouds secluded?' The master said: 'No tree can hang a thousand in gold.' [The monk] said: 'And after hanging it?' The master said: 'So far and faint that people can hardly discern it.' [A monk] asked: 'What is the teacher within the dust?' The master said: 'In a thicket of thorns he arrives anywhere; in a sandalwood grove he goes freely, lengthwise and crosswise.' [A monk] asked: 'What is the meaning of the patriarch's coming from the West?' The master said: 'The moon hides in the clear pool; the golden radiance is at high noon.'

幽州傳法禪師

Chan Master Chuanfa of Youzhou

僧問。教意祖意。是同是別。師曰。華開金線秀。古洞白雲深。問。別人為甚麼徒弟多。師為甚麼無徒弟。師曰。海島龍多隱。茅茨鳳不棲。

A monk asked: 'Are the teaching's meaning and the patriarch's meaning the same or different?' The master said: 'Gold threads bloom in beauty; the ancient cave's white clouds are deep.' [A monk] asked: 'Why does another man have many disciples, while the master has no disciples?' The master said: 'Sea islands hide many dragons; the phoenix does not perch on a thatched roof.'

益州淨眾寺歸信禪師

Chan Master Guixin of Jingzhong Monastery in Yizhou

僧問。蓮華未出水時如何。師曰。菡萏滿池流。曰。出水後如何。師曰。葉落不知秋。問。不假浮囊。便登巨海時如何。師曰。紅觜飛超三界外。綠毛也解道煎茶。問。如何是自在底人。師曰。劒樹霜林去便行。曰。如何是不自在底人。師曰。釋迦在闍黎後。

A monk asked: 'What about before the lotus comes out of the water?' The master said: 'The whole pool is filled with lotus buds.' [The monk] said: 'And after it comes out of the water?' The master said: 'Leaves fall and one does not know it is autumn.' [A monk] asked: 'What about crossing the great sea without a buoy?' The master said: 'The red-beaked one flies beyond the three realms; the green-feathered one too knows how to brew tea.' [A monk] asked: 'What is a man who is at ease?' The master said: 'Where the sword trees and frosty groves are, he goes straight on.' [The monk] said: 'What is a man who is not at ease?' The master said: 'Shakyamuni is behind you, Acharya.'

青峰山清勉禪師

Chan Master Qingmian of Mount Qingfeng

僧問。久醞蒲萄酒。今日為誰開。師曰。飲者方知。問。如何是祖師西來意。師曰。耨池無一滴。四海自滔滔。

A monk asked: 'Long-brewed grape wine — for whom is it opened today?' The master said: 'Only the drinker knows.' [A monk] asked: 'What is the meaning of the patriarch's coming from the West?' The master said: 'In the Nitai Pool there is not a drop, yet the four seas surge of themselves.'

宋世玉音

The Words of the Song Court

宋太宗皇帝

Emperor Taizong of the Song

一日幸相國寺。見僧看經。問曰。是甚麼經。僧曰。仁王經。帝曰。既是寡人經。因甚卻在卿手裡。僧無對(雪竇代雲。皇天無親。唯德是輔)。幸開寶塔。問僧。卿是甚人。對曰。塔主。帝曰。朕之塔為甚麼卿作主。僧無對(雪竇代曰。合國鹹知)。一日。因僧朝見。帝問。甚處來。對曰。廬山臥雲庵。帝曰。朕聞臥雲深處不朝天。為甚到此。僧無對(雪竇代雲。難逃至化)。僧入對次。奏曰。陛下還記得麼。帝曰。甚處相見來。奏曰。靈山一別。直至如今。帝曰。卿以何為驗。僧無對(雪竇代曰。貧道得得而來)。京寺回祿。藏經悉為煨燼。僧欲乞宣賜。召問。昔日摩騰不燒。如今為甚卻燒。僧無對。(雪竇代雲。陛下不忘付囑)。帝甞夢神人報曰。請陛下發菩提心。因早朝宣問左右街。菩提心作麼生發。街無對(雪竇代雲。實謂今古罕聞)。智寂大師進三界圖。帝問。朕在那一界中。寂無對(保寧勇代曰。陛下何處不稱尊)。一日朝罷。帝擎缽問丞相王隨曰。既是大庾嶺頭提不起。為甚麼卻在朕手裡。隨無對。

One day he visited the Xiangguo Monastery and saw a monk reading a sutra. He asked: 'What sutra is that?' The monk said: 'The Benevolent King Sutra.' The emperor said: 'Since it is my own sutra, why is it in your hands?' The monk had no reply. (Xuedou spoke in his place: 'Heaven is impartial; virtue alone it aids.') He visited the Kaibao Pagoda. He asked a monk: 'Who are you?' He replied: 'I am the pagoda keeper.' The emperor said: 'This is my pagoda — why do you keep it?' The monk had no reply. (Xuedou spoke in his place: 'The whole country knows it.') One day, when a monk came to have audience, the emperor asked: 'Where have you come from?' He replied: 'From the Woyun Hut on Mount Lu.' The emperor said: 'I have heard that in the depths of the reclining clouds one does not pay court to heaven — why have you come here?' The monk had no reply. (Xuedou spoke in his place: 'It is hard to escape the highest transformation.') While a monk was having audience, he memorialized: 'Does Your Majesty still remember?' The emperor said: 'Where did we meet?' He memorialized: 'Since we parted at Vulture Peak, it has been so until now.' The emperor said: 'What is your proof?' The monk had no reply. (Xuedou spoke in his place: 'This poor monk has come with difficulty upon difficulty.') The capital's monastery was destroyed by fire, and the whole canon was reduced to ashes. The monks wished to beg for an imperial gift. He summoned them and asked: 'In former days the Matanga sutra did not burn — why did it burn now?' The monk had no reply. (Xuedou spoke in his place: 'Your Majesty does not forget the entrustment.') The emperor once dreamed that a spirit told him: 'Please, Your Majesty, arouse the bodhi mind.' At morning court he proclaimed to the left and right streets: 'How does one arouse the bodhi mind?' The streets had no reply. (Xuedou spoke in his place: 'It is truly rare in past and present.') Chan Master Zhiji presented a map of the three realms. The emperor asked: 'In which realm am I?' Ji had no reply. (Baoning Yong spoke in his place: 'Where is Your Majesty not honoured?') One day after court, the emperor held up his bowl and asked the chancellor Wang Sui: 'Since it could not be lifted at the top of Dayu Ridge, why is it here in my hand?' Sui had no reply.

徽宗皇帝

Emperor Huizong

政和三年。嘉州巡捕官奏。本部路傍有大古樹。因風摧折。中有一僧禪定。鬚髮被體。指爪遶身。帝降旨。令肩輿入京。命西天總持三藏以金磬出其定。遂問。何代僧。曰。我乃東林遠法師之弟。名慧持。因遊峨嵋。入定於樹。遠法師無恙否。藏曰。遠法師晉人也。化去七百年矣。持不復語。藏問。師既至此。欲歸何所。持曰。陳留縣。復入定。帝製三偈。令繪像頒行。偈曰。七百年來老古錐。定中消息許誰知。爭如隻履西歸去。生死何勞木作皮。藏山於澤亦藏身。天下無藏道可親。寄語莊週休擬議。樹中不是負趍人。有情身不是無情。彼此人人定裡身。會得菩提本無樹。不須辛苦問盧能。

In the third year of Zhenghe, the patrol officer of Jiazhou memorialized: beside the road in his district there was a great ancient tree, which the wind had broken down, and inside it a monk sat in meditation, his beard and hair covering his body and his nails and claws wrapped around him. The emperor issued an order to bring him to the capital by sedan chair and commanded the Tripitaka Master Zongchi of the Western Heaven to bring him out of his samadhi with a golden chime. He then asked: 'A monk of what age are you?' He said: 'I am the younger brother of Dharma Master Yuan of Donglin, named Huichi. Because I was travelling on Mount Emei, I entered samadhi in a tree. Is Dharma Master Yuan well?' The Tripitaka master said: 'Dharma Master Yuan was a man of Jin; he passed away seven hundred years ago.' Chi spoke no more. The master asked: 'Since you have come here, where do you wish to return?' Chi said: 'Chenliu County.' And he re-entered samadhi. The emperor composed three verses and had a portrait painted and circulated. The verses said: 'For seven hundred years an old wooden peg; who can know the news within his samadhi? Better to have gone west on a single shoe — why trouble wood to make skin for birth and death? Hiding the mountain in the marsh, he hides his body too; in all the world no hiding place is dearer to the Way. Tell Zhuangzi to stop his speculations: the one in the tree is not a man fleeing with a load. A sentient body is not an insentient one, yet each and every one is a body within samadhi. If you understand that bodhi is originally no tree, you need not labour to question Lu Neng.'

孝宗皇帝

Emperor Xiaozong

宣問靈隱佛照光禪師。曰。釋迦佛入山修道。六年而成。所成者何事。請師明說。對曰。將謂陛下忘卻。

He proclaimed a question to Chan Master Fozhao Guang of Lingyin: 'Shakyamuni Buddha entered the mountains to cultivate the Way and completed it in six years. What was it that he completed? Please, master, say it plainly.' He replied: 'I had thought Your Majesty had forgotten.'

未詳法嗣

Dharma heirs unknown

實性大師

Master Shixing

因同參芙蓉訓禪師至。上堂。以右手拈拄杖。倚放左邊。良久曰。此事若不是芙蓉師兄。也大難委悉。便下座。

Because his fellow student Chan Master Xun of Furong had arrived, he ascended the hall. He picked up his staff with his right hand and laid it down on his left. After a long pause he said: 'Were it not for brother Furong, this matter would be very hard to comprehend fully.' He then stepped down from the seat.

茶陵鬱山主

The Lay Master of Mount Yu in Chaling

不曾行腳。因廬山有化士至。論及宗門中事。教令看僧問法燈。百尺竿頭。如何進步。燈雲。噁。凡三年。一日乘驢度橋。一踏橋板而墮。忽然大悟。遂有頌雲。我有神珠一顆。久被塵勞關鏁。今朝塵盡光生。照破山河萬朵。因茲更不遊方。師乃白雲端和尚得度師。雲有贊曰。百尺竿頭曾進步。溪橋一踏沒山河。從茲不出茶川上。吟嘯無非囉哩囉。

He had never gone on pilgrimage. Because a mendicant from Mount Lu came and discussed the affairs of the school with him, he was told to contemplate the monk's question to Fadeng: 'At the top of a hundred-foot pole, how does one step forward?' Deng said: 'Hateful.' He did this for three years. One day, riding a donkey across a bridge, he stumbled on a bridge plank and fell, and suddenly was greatly awakened. He then had a verse: 'I have a single divine pearl, long locked away by the toil of dust. This morning the dust is gone and its light is born, shining through the mountains and rivers in ten thousand blooms.' After this he no longer travelled. The master was the ordaining teacher of the monk Baiyun Duan. Yun had a praise: 'At the top of the hundred-foot pole he once stepped forward; one stumble on the creek bridge wiped out mountains and rivers. From then on he never left the Tea River, and all his chanting and whistling was nothing but lo-li-lo.'

僧肇法師

Dharma Master Sengzhao

遭秦王難。臨就刑說偈曰。四大元無主。五陰本來空。將頭臨白刃。猶似斬春風(玄沙雲。大小肇法師。臨死猶寱語)。

He met with trouble from the King of Qin. As he was about to be executed he spoke a verse: 'The four elements have no master at all; the five aggregates are originally empty. Facing the white blade with my head, it is like cutting the spring wind.' (Xuansha said: 'Dharma Master Zhao, great or small, still talks in his sleep at the point of death.')

禪月貫休禪師

Chan Master Chanyue Guanxiu

有詩曰。禪客相逢祇彈指。此心能有幾人知。大隨和尚舉問曰。如何是此心。師無對(歸宗柔代雲。能有幾人知)。

He had a poem: 'When Chan guests meet they only snap their fingers; how many can know this mind?' The monk Dashui raised it and asked: 'What is this mind?' The master had no reply. (Guizong Rou spoke in his place: 'How many can know it?')

先淨照禪師

Chan Master Xianjingzhao

問楞嚴大師。經中道。若能轉物。即同如來。若被物轉。即名凡夫。祇如昇元閣作麼生轉。嚴無對(汾陽代雲。彼此老大)。

He asked the Surangama Master: 'The sutra says that if one can turn things, one is the same as the Tathagata; if one is turned by things, one is called an ordinary man. How does one turn the Shengyuan Pavilion?' Yan had no reply. (Fenyang spoke in his place: 'Both of us are old.')

公期和尚

The monk Gongqi