The Five Lamps Meeting at the Source, Scroll Five
因往羅漢。路逢一騎牛公子。師問。羅漢路向甚麼處去。公拍牛曰。道。道。師喝曰。這畜生。公曰。羅漢路向甚麼處去。師卻拍牛曰。道。道。公曰。直饒恁麼。猶少蹄角在。師便打。公拍牛便走。
Because he was going to Luohan, on the road he met a young gentleman riding an ox. The master asked: 'Which way does the road to Luohan go?' The gentleman slapped the ox and said: 'Speak, speak.' The master shouted: 'You beast!' The gentleman said: 'Which way does the road to Luohan go?' The master then slapped the ox and said: 'Speak, speak.' The gentleman said: 'Even so, you are still short of hooves and horns.' The master then struck him. The gentleman slapped the ox and rode off.
唐朝因禪師
Chan Master Yin of the Tang Dynasty
微時。甞運槌擊土次。見一大塊。戲槌猛擊之。應碎。豁然大悟(後有老宿聞雲。盡山河大地。被因禪師一擊百雜碎)。
When he was of low station, he was once swinging a mallet at the earth when he saw a great clod. He struck it in play with a fierce blow, and it crumbled at the touch, and he was suddenly greatly awakened. (Later an old worthy heard of it and said: 'The whole earth, mountains and rivers, was smashed into a hundred fragments by one blow from Chan Master Yin.')
福州東山雲頂禪師
Chan Master Yunding of Mount Dong in Fuzhou
泉州人(遺其氏)。以再下春闈。往雲臺大吼寺剃染具戒。即謁大愚．芝神．鼎諲。後見羅漢下尊宿。始徹己事。道學有聞叢林。稱為頂三教。僧問。如何是和尚日用事。師曰。我吃飯。汝受飢。曰。法法不相到。又作麼生。師曰。汝作罪。我皆知。問。如何是和尚一枝拂。師曰。打破修行窟。曰。恁麼則本來無一物也。師曰。知無者是誰。曰。學人罪過。師曰。再思可矣。居士問洞山道。有一物上拄天。下拄地。未審是甚麼物。師曰。擔鐵架。吃鐵棒。曰。天地黑。山河走。師曰。閻老殿前添一鬼。北邙山下臥千年。士呌。快活。快活。師曰。也是野狐吞老鼠。九龍觀道士並三士人。請上堂。儒門畫八卦。造契書。不救六道輪回。道門朝九皇。鍊真氣。不達三祇劫數。我釋迦世尊。洞三祇劫數。救六道輪回。以大願攝人天。如風輪持日月。以大智破生死。若劫火焚秋毫。入得我門者。自然轉變天地。幽察鬼神。使須彌．鐵圍．大地．大海入一毛孔中。一切眾生。不覺不知。我說此法門。如虗空俱含萬象。一為無量。無量為一。若人得一。即萬事畢。珍重。
He was a man of Quanzhou, his family name lost. Having failed the spring examinations twice, he went to the Dahu Monastery in Yuntai to be tonsured and receive the precepts. He then paid homage to Dayu, Zhishen, and Dingyin. Later he met the venerable one under Luohan, and only then did he penetrate his own affair. His learning of the Way was heard of in the monastery, and he was called Ding of the Three Teachings. A monk asked: 'What is the master's daily business?' The master said: 'I eat rice, you suffer hunger.' [The monk] said: 'Dharmas do not reach one another — how then?' The master said: 'You commit offences and I know them all.' [A monk] asked: 'What is the master's single whisk?' The master said: 'It smashes the cave of cultivation.' [The monk] said: 'Then originally there is not a single thing.' The master said: 'Who is it that knows there is nothing?' [The monk] said: 'The student is at fault.' The master said: 'Think again, and that will do.' A layman asked: 'Dongshan said there is one thing that props up heaven above and props up earth below. I wonder what thing that is?' The master said: 'Carrying an iron frame, eating an iron rod.' [The layman] said: 'Heaven and earth are black, mountains and rivers run.' The master said: 'Add one ghost before King Yama's hall, and lie a thousand years below Mount Beimang.' The layman cried: 'How delightful, how delightful!' The master said: 'That too is a wild fox swallowing a mouse.' The Daoists of the Nine Dragons Abbey together with three scholars invited him to ascend the hall: 'The Confucians drew the eight trigrams and made contracts and documents, but they do not save one from the six paths of rebirth. The Daoists pay court to the Nine Sovereigns and refine true qi, but they do not reach the number of the three asamkhyeya kalpas. I, Shakyamuni World-Honoured One, penetrate the number of the three asamkhyeya kalpas and save beings from the six paths of rebirth. With the great vow I gather in gods and men, as the wind wheel holds the sun and moon. With the great wisdom I smash birth and death, as the kalpa fire burns a hair's tip. Whoever enters my gate naturally transforms heaven and earth and fathoms ghosts and spirits in the dark. He can bring Mount Sumeru, the Iron Enclosure, the great earth, and the great sea into a single pore, and all living beings do not notice and do not know. I expound this dharma gate as the void contains all forms. The one is the immeasurable, and the immeasurable is the one. If a person attains the one, then ten thousand matters are finished. Take care.'
婺州雲幽重惲禪師(今曰法雲)
Chan Master Chongyun of Yunyou in Wuzhou, today called Fayun
初謁雪峰。次依石霜。乃開悟。旋里隱居。蔽形唯一衲。住後。上堂。雲幽一隻箭。虗空無背面。射去徧十方。要且無人見。時有僧問。如何是和尚一隻箭。師曰。盡大地人無髑髏。
He first paid homage to Xuefeng, then relied on Shishuang, and there was awakened. He then returned home and lived in hiding, covering his body with a single patched robe. After he had taken up residence, he ascended the hall: 'Yunyou's single arrow — the void has no front or back. Shot out, it fills the ten directions, and yet no one sees it.' At that a monk asked: 'What is the master's single arrow?' The master said: 'In all the great earth not a man has a skull.'
雙溪布衲如禪師
Chan Master Ru the Patch-robe Monk of Shuangxi
因嵩禪師戲以詩悼之曰。繼祖當吾代。生緣行可規。終身常在道。識病懶尋醫。貌古筆難寫。情高世莫知。慈雲布何處。孤月自相宜。師讀罷舉筆答曰。道契平生更有誰。閑卿於我最心知。當初未欲成相別。恐誤同參一首詩。投筆坐亡。於六十年後。塔戶自啟。其真容儼然。
Because Chan Master Song jokingly composed a poem to mourn him: 'You succeed me in continuing the ancestors; your life's conditions and conduct can be a model. All your life you dwelt in the Way, and knowing the sickness, you were too lazy to seek a physician. Your face was ancient and hard to paint; your feeling was lofty and the world did not know it. Where does the cloud of compassion spread? The lone moon suits itself alone.' Having read it, the master took up his brush and answered: 'Who else has a meeting of minds with the Way as I had with you? In leisure you were the one my heart knew best. At first I did not mean for us to part; I feared it would spoil a fellow student's one poem.' He threw down the brush and died sitting. Sixty years later the door of his stupa opened by itself, and his true likeness was exactly as before.
舒州投子通禪師
Chan Master Tong of Touzi in Shuzhou
僧問。達磨未來時如何。師曰。兩岸唱漁歌。曰。來後如何。師曰。大海湧風波。問。如何是孤峰頂上節操長松。師曰。能為萬象主。不逐四時凋。問。如何是和尚這裡佛法。師曰。東壁打西壁。
A monk asked: 'What about before Bodhidharma came?' The master said: 'On both banks, fishermen's songs.' [The monk] said: 'And after he came?' The master said: 'The great sea surges with wind and waves.' [A monk] asked: 'What is the integrity of the tall pine at the top of the lone peak?' The master said: 'It can be lord of the ten thousand forms, and does not wither with the four seasons.' [A monk] asked: 'What is the Buddha-dharma here with the master?' The master said: 'The eastern wall strikes the western wall.'
處州法海立禪師
Chan Master Fahai Li of Chuzhou
因朝廷有旨。革本寺為神霄宮。師陞座謂眾曰。都緣未徹。所以說是說非。葢為不真。便乃分彼分此。我身尚且不有。身外烏足道哉。正眼觀來。一場笑俱。今則聖君垂旨。更僧寺作神霄。佛頭上添箇冠兒。算來有何不可。山僧今日不免橫擔拄杖。高掛缽囊。向無縫塔中安身立命。於無根樹下嘯月吟風。一任乘雲仙客。駕鶴高人。來此呪水書符。叩牙作法。他年成道。白日上昇。堪報不報之恩。以助無為之化。秖恐不是玉。是玉也大奇。然雖如是。且道山僧轉身一句作麼生道。還委悉麼。擲下拂子。竟爾趨寂。郡守具奏其事。奉旨改其寺曰真身。
Because the court issued an order converting this monastery into a Palace of the Divine Empyrean, the master mounted the seat and said to the assembly: 'It is all because we have not penetrated through that we speak of right and wrong. It is because we are not true that we divide this from that. Even my own body is not mine — how much less anything beyond the body. Seen with the right eye, it is all one great joke. Now the sage sovereign has sent down an order changing the monks' monastery into a Palace of the Divine Empyrean. Adding a cap to the Buddha's head — by my reckoning, what is wrong with that? Today this mountain monk cannot but carry his staff crosswise on his shoulder and hang his alms bowl up high. I shall settle my body and establish my life within the seamless stupa, and chant to the moon and sing to the wind beneath the rootless tree. Let the cloud-riding immortal guests and the crane-driving eminent ones come here to spell water, write talismans, click their teeth, and work their rites. In another year they will accomplish the Way and ascend to heaven in broad daylight. It is enough to repay the grace that cannot be repaid, and to aid the transformation that does nothing. I only fear it is not jade — but if it is jade, it is very strange.' Then he said: 'Yet even so, tell me: how would this mountain monk speak the one phrase of turning the body? Do you fully understand?' He threw down his whisk and quietly passed into stillness. The prefect memorialized the matter in full. By imperial order the monastery was renamed Zhengshen, True Body.
汝州天寧明禪師
Chan Master Ming of Tianning in Ruzhou
改德士日。師登座謝恩畢。乃曰。木簡信手拈來。坐具乘時放下。雲散水流去。寂然天地空。即斂目而逝。
On the day the court changed the monks' registration, the master mounted the seat, and having finished thanking the imperial grace, he said: 'A wooden slip picked up as the hand pleases, a sitting cloth laid down when the time comes. The clouds scatter, the water flows away, and all is still — heaven and earth are empty.' He then closed his eyes and passed away.
蜀中仁王欽禪師
Chan Master Qin of Renwang in Shu
僧問。如何是佛。師曰。聞名不如見面。曰。如何是祖師西來意。師曰。閙市裡弄猢猻。曰。如何是道。曰。大蟲看水磨。
A monk asked: 'What is the Buddha?' The master said: 'Hearing the name is not as good as seeing the face.' [The monk] said: 'What is the meaning of the patriarch's coming from the West?' The master said: 'Playing with a monkey in a busy marketplace.' [The monk] said: 'What is the Way?' [The master] said: 'An ox watching a water mill.'
金陵鐵索山主(遺其名)
The Master of Mount Tiesuo in Jinling, his name lost
僧問。久嚮鐵索。未審作何面目。主打露柱。僧曰。謝見示。主曰。你據箇甚麼便恁麼道。僧卻打露柱。主曰。且道索在恁麼處。僧作量勢。主曰。今日遇箇同參。
A monk asked: 'I have long heard of Tiesuo, but I do not know what manner of face he has.' The master struck the exposed pillar. The monk said: 'Thank you for showing me.' The master said: 'On what basis do you talk like that?' The monk in turn struck the exposed pillar. The master said: 'Tell me, where is the chain in this?' The monk made a measuring gesture. The master said: 'Today I have met a fellow student.'
樓子和尚
The monk Louzi
不知何許人也。遺其名氏。一日偶經遊街市間。於酒樓下整襪帶次。聞樓上人唱曲雲。你既無心我也休。忽然大悟。因號樓子焉。
No one knows where he was from; his name and family are lost. One day, happening to pass through the streets and markets, while he was straightening his sock garters below a wine house, he heard someone upstairs singing: 'Since you have no mind, I too will rest.' He was suddenly greatly awakened, and so was called Louzi, the one of the upper floor.
神照本如法師
Dharma Master Shenzhao Benru
甞以經王請益四明尊者。者震聲曰。汝名本如。師即領悟。作偈曰。處處逢歸路。頭頭達故鄉。本來成現事。何必待思量。
He once presented the King of Sutras to the Venerable of Siming to seek instruction. The venerable thundered: 'Your name is Benru, Suchness Itself.' The master was at once enlightened. He made a verse: 'Everywhere I meet the road home; at every turn I reach my old village. It was originally a present fact — why wait for thought?'
臨安府上竺圓智證悟法師
Dharma Master Yuanzhi Zhengwu of Shangzhu in Lin'an Prefecture
台州林氏子。依白蓮僊法師。問具變之道。蓮指行燈曰。如此燈者。離性絕非。本自空寂。理則具矣。六凡四聖。所見不同。變則在焉。師不契。後因掃地誦法華經。至知法常無性。佛種從緣起。始諭旨。告蓮。蓮然之。師領徒以來。甞患本宗學者囿於名相。膠於筆錄。至以天台之傳為文字之學。南宗鄙之。乃謁護國此庵元禪師。夜語次。師舉東坡宿東林偈。且曰。也不易到此田地。庵曰。尚未見路徑。何言到耶。曰。祇如他道。溪聲便是廣長舌。山色豈非清淨身。若不到此田地。如何有這箇消息。庵曰。是門外漢耳。曰。和尚不吝。可為說破。庵曰。卻秖從這裡猛著精彩覷捕看。若覷捕得他破。則亦知本命元辰落著處。師通夕不寐。及曉鍾鳴。去其秘畜。以前偈別曰。東坡居士太饒舌。聲色關中欲透身。溪若是聲山是色。無山無水好愁人。特以告此庵。庵曰。向汝道是門外漢。師禮謝。未幾。有化馬祖殿瓦者。求語發揚。師書曰。寄語江西老古錐。從教日炙與風吹。兒孫不是無料理。要見冰消瓦解時。此庵見之。笑曰。須是這闍黎始得。
He was a son of the Lin family of Taizhou. He relied on Dharma Master Xian of Bailian and asked about the way of the complete-and-transforming. Lian pointed to a travelling lamp and said: 'A lamp like this is beyond nature and cuts off the wrong; it is originally empty and still, and the principle is complete in it. The six ordinary states and the four sage states see it differently, and there the transformation lies.' The master did not agree. Later, while sweeping the ground and reciting the Lotus Sutra, he came to the line 'Know that dharmas are always without nature; the Buddha-seed arises from conditions', and only then did he understand the purport. He told Lian. Lian agreed. From the time he began leading students, the master had always been troubled that scholars of his own school were confined by names and marks and stuck to written records, so that the transmission of Tiantai came to be a study of letters, which the Southern school despised. He then paid homage to Chan Master Yuan of the Cian Hermitage at Huguo. During a night conversation, the master brought up Dongpo's verse on lodging at Donglin and said: 'It is no easy matter to reach that field.' An said: 'You have not yet seen the path — how can you speak of reaching it?' [The master] said: 'Take his line, the sound of the stream is the long broad tongue, is the mountain's colour not the pure body? If he had not reached that field, how would he have this news?' An said: 'He is one outside the gate.' [The master] said: 'If the master does not begrudge it, you can expose it for me.' An said: 'Just from this point, apply your spirit sharply and peer at it. If you can peer through it, then you will know where your original destiny rests.' The master did not sleep the whole night. When the dawn bell sounded, he took out what he had secretly kept, and made another verse on the earlier lines: 'The layman Dongpo is too talkative; within the pass of sound and form he would pierce the body. If the stream is sound and the mountain is colour, then with no mountain and no water one is left grieving.' He especially told this to Cian. An said: 'I told you he is one outside the gate.' The master bowed in thanks. Before long, someone seeking donations for tiles for Mazu's hall asked him for words to spread the merit. The master wrote: 'Send word to the old wooden peg of Jiangxi: let him be scorched by the sun and blown by the wind. His sons and grandsons are not without means — you must wait for the time when the ice melts and the tiles crack.' When Cian saw it, he laughed and said: 'It must be this Acharya and no one else.'
本嵩律師
Vinaya Master Bensong
因無為居士楊傑請問宣律師所講毗尼性體。師以偈答曰。情智何甞異。犬吠虵自行。終南的的意。日午打三更。
Because the layman Yang Jie of Wuwei asked what nature-essence the Vinaya Master Xuan had expounded in his lectures on the vinaya, the master answered with a verse: 'How have feeling and wisdom ever been distinct? The dog barks and the snake goes on its own. The true meaning of Zhongnan is: at noon, strike the third watch.'
昔有一老宿。一夏不為師僧說話。有僧歎曰。我秖恁麼空過一夏。不敢望和尚說佛法。得聞正因兩字也得。老宿聞。乃曰。闍黎莫𧬊速。若論正因。一字也無。道了叩齒雲。適來無端。不合與麼道。隣壁有一老宿聞曰。好一釜羹。被一顆鼠糞汙卻(雪竇代雲。誰家釜裡無一兩顆)。
Long ago there was an old worthy who for a whole summer did not speak to the monks. A monk sighed: 'I have spent a whole summer in vain like this. I do not presume to hope the master will speak the Buddha-dharma; to hear the two words 'right cause' would be enough.' The old worthy heard and said: 'Acharya, do not be hasty. If you speak of the right cause, there is not even one word.' Having said this he clicked his teeth and said: 'Just now, for no reason, I should not have spoken like that.' An old worthy in the next room heard it and said: 'A fine pot of soup, spoiled by a single mouse dropping.' (Xuedou spoke in his place: 'Whose pot has not one or two?')
昔有一僧。在經堂內不看經。每日打坐。藏主曰。何不看經。僧曰。某甲不識字。主曰。何不問人。僧近前。叉手鞠躬曰。這箇是甚麼字。主無對(大通本代雲。大道不識)。
Long ago there was a monk who in the sutra hall did not read the sutras, but sat in meditation every day. The canon keeper said: 'Why do you not read the sutras?' The monk said: 'I cannot read.' The keeper said: 'Why not ask someone?' The monk came forward, crossed his hands, bowed, and said: 'What character is this?' The keeper had no reply. (Datong Ben spoke in his place: 'The great Way cannot be read.')
昔有一老宿。住菴。於門上書心字。於牕上書心字。於壁上書心字(法眼雲。門上但書門字。牕上但書牕字。壁上但書壁字。玄覺雲。門上不要書門字。牕上不要書牕字。壁上不要書壁字。何故。字義炳然)。
Long ago there was an old worthy living in a hut. On the door he wrote the character for mind, on the window he wrote the character for mind, and on the wall he wrote the character for mind. (Fayan said: 'On the door just write the character for door, on the window just write the character for window, on the wall just write the character for wall.' Xuanjue said: 'On the door do not write the character for door, on the window do not write the character for window, on the wall do not write the character for wall. Why? The meaning of the characters is blazing clear.')
昔有二庵主。住庵。旬日不相見。忽相會。上庵主問下庵主。多時不相見。向甚麼處去。下庵主曰。在庵中造箇無縫塔。上庵主曰。某甲也要造一箇。就兄借取塔樣子。下庵主曰。何不早說。恰被人借去了也(法眼雲。且道是借他樣。不借他樣)。
Long ago there were two hut masters who lived in huts. For ten days they did not meet, and then suddenly met. The upper hut master asked the lower hut master: 'We have not met for a long time — where have you been?' The lower hut master said: 'In my hut, building a seamless stupa.' The upper hut master said: 'I want to build one too; let me borrow the model for the stupa from you.' The lower hut master said: 'Why did you not say so earlier? It has just been borrowed by someone else.' (Fayan said: 'Tell me, was it his model that was borrowed, or not?')
昔有一庵主。見僧來豎起火筒曰。會麼。曰。不會。主曰。三十年用不盡底。僧卻問。三十年前用箇甚麼。主無對(歸宗柔代雲。也要知)。
Long ago there was a hut master who, seeing a monk come, held up his fire-tube and said: 'Do you understand?' [The monk] said: 'I do not.' The master said: 'This is what thirty years cannot use up.' The monk then asked: 'What did you use thirty years ago?' The master had no reply. (Guizong Rou spoke in his place: 'You still want to know.')
昔有一老宿。因江南國主問。予有一頭水牯牛。萬裡無寸草。未審向甚麼處放。宿無對(歸宗柔代雲。好處放)。
Long ago there was an old worthy. Because the ruler of the state of Jiangnan asked him: 'I have a water buffalo, and for ten thousand li there is not an inch of grass. I wonder where I should put it out to pasture?' The worthy had no reply. (Guizong Rou spoke in his place: 'Put it in a good place.')
昔有一老宿。問僧。甚麼處來。僧曰。牛頭山禮拜祖師來。宿曰。還見祖師麼。僧無對。(歸宗柔代雲。大似不相信)。
Long ago there was an old worthy who asked a monk: 'Where have you come from?' The monk said: 'From Mount Niutou, where I bowed to the patriarch.' The worthy said: 'Did you see the patriarch?' The monk had no reply. (Guizong Rou spoke in his place: 'It seems you do not believe.')
昔有一老宿。有偈曰。五蘊山頭一段空。同門出入不相逢。無量劫來賃屋住。到頭不識主人公。(有老宿雲。既不識他。當初問甚麼人賃)。
Long ago there was an old worthy who had a verse: 'On the hill of the five aggregates there is a stretch of emptiness; entering and leaving by the same door, they never meet. For immeasurable kalpas he has rented a house to live in, and to the end he does not know the host.' (There was an old worthy who said: 'If he does not know him, from whom did he rent in the first place?')
僧問老宿。如何是密室中人。老宿曰。有客不答話(玄沙雲。何曾密。歸宗柔別老宿雲。你因甚麼得見)。
A monk asked an old worthy: 'What is the man in the secret chamber?' The old worthy said: 'When there is a guest, he does not answer.' (Xuansha said: 'How has it ever been secret?' Guizong Rou gave the old worthy's words differently: 'How did you come to see him?')