Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp, Fascicle 3
遍觀修道者撥火覓浮漚
Look around at those who cultivate the Way: they poke at fire to seek bubbles on water.
但看弄傀儡線斷一時休
Just watch a puppet show: when the strings are cut, it is all over at once.
又有法空禪師者。問曰。佛之與道俱是假名。十二分教亦應不實。何以從前尊宿皆言修道。師曰。大德錯會經意。道本無修大德彊修。道本無作大德彊作。道本無事彊生多事。道本無知於中彊知。如此見解與道相違。從前尊宿不應如是。自是大德不會。請思之。師又有偈曰。
Then Zen Master Fakong asked: "Buddha and Way are both provisional names, and the twelve divisions of the teaching should also be unreal. Why then did the venerable elders of the past all speak of cultivating the Way?" The master said: "Great Virtue has misunderstood the meaning of the sutras. The Way is originally without cultivation; Great Virtue forces cultivation. The Way is originally without making; Great Virtue forces making. The Way is originally without affairs; you force the arising of many affairs. The Way is originally without knowing; within it you force knowing. Such views go against the Way. The venerable elders of the past should not be taken thus. It is simply that Great Virtue does not understand. Please reflect." The master also had a verse that said:
道體本無修不修自合道
The substance of the Way is originally without cultivation; without cultivating, one naturally accords with the Way.
若起修道心此人不會道
If one gives rise to a mind of cultivating the Way, this person does not understand the Way.
棄卻一真性卻入鬧浩浩
Throwing away the one true nature, he enters into noisy turmoil.
忽逢修道人第一莫向道
If you suddenly meet someone cultivating the Way, above all do not speak of the Way to him.
又有安禪師者。問曰。道既假名佛雲妄立。十二分教亦是接物度生。一切是妄以何為真。師曰。為有妄故將真對妄。推窮妄性本空。真亦何曾有故。故知真妄總是假名。二事對治都無實體。窮其根本一切皆空。曰既言一切是妄。妄亦同真。真妄無殊。復是何物。師曰。若言何物。何物亦妄。經云。無相似無比況。言語道斷如鳥飛空。安公慚伏不知所措。師又有偈曰。
Then Zen Master An asked: "Since the Way is a provisional name and the Buddha is said to be falsely established, the twelve divisions of the teaching are also a way to receive beings and save them. If everything is false, what is taken as true?" The master said: "Because there is falsehood, one takes the true to oppose the false. Tracing the nature of falsehood, it is originally empty, and the true too has never existed. Therefore know that true and false are all provisional names. The two are remedies for each other and have no real substance. Exhausting their root, all is empty." He said: "Since you say everything is false, falsehood is also the same as truth. If true and false are not different, what then is it?" The master said: "If you say 'what thing,' that 'what thing' is also false. The sutra says: No likeness, no comparison. The path of language is cut off, like a bird flying in the sky." Venerable An was ashamed and submitted, not knowing what to do. The master also had a verse that said:
推真真無相窮妄妄無形
Seek the true and the true has no form; exhaust the false and the false has no shape.
返觀推窮心知心亦假名
Turning to look back and seeking out the mind, you know the mind too is a provisional name.
會道亦如此到頭亦只寧
Meeting the Way is also like this; in the end it is simply quiet.
又有達性禪師者。問曰。禪是至妙至微。真妄雙泯佛道兩亡。修行性空名相不實。世界如幻一切假名。作此解時不可斷絕眾生善惡二根。師曰。善惡二根皆因心有。窮心若有根亦非虛。推心既無根因何立。經云。善不善法從心化生。善惡業緣本無有實。師又有偈曰。
Then Zen Master Daxing asked: "Zen is most marvelous and most subtle. True and false are both extinguished, and Buddha and Way both vanish. In cultivation nature is empty, and names and forms are unreal. The world is like an illusion, and everything is a provisional name. When one takes this view, one cannot cut off the two roots, good and evil, of sentient beings." The master said: "The two roots of good and evil both exist because of the mind. If, exhausting the mind, it exists, the roots too are not empty. Tracing the mind and finding it is nothing, on what are the roots established? The sutra says: Wholesome and unwholesome dharmas are transformed from the mind. The conditions of good and evil karma have originally no reality." The master also had a verse that said:
善既從心生惡豈離心有
Since the good arises from the mind, how can evil exist apart from the mind?
善惡是外緣於心實不有
Good and evil are external conditions; in the mind they do not truly exist.
捨惡送何處取善令誰守
Where would one send away the evil one has abandoned? To whom would one entrust the good one has taken?
傷嗟二見人攀緣兩頭走
How sad are those with the two views, clinging and running to both ends.
若悟本無心始悔從前咎
If you awaken to original no-mind, only then will you regret your earlier faults.
又有近臣。問曰。此身從何而來。百年之後復歸何處。師曰。如人夢時從何而來。睡覺時從何而去。曰夢時不可言無。既覺不可言有。雖有有無來往無所。師曰。貧道此身亦如其夢。又有偈曰。
Then a close minister asked: "From where does this body come? After a hundred years, where does it return?" The master said: "When a person dreams, from where does he come? When he wakes from sleep, where does he go?" He said: "In the dream one cannot say it is nothing, and once awake one cannot say it is something. Though there is being and non-being, there is no place of coming and going." The master said: "This poor monk's body is also like that dream." He also had a verse that said:
視生如在夢夢裡實是鬧
See life as being in a dream; in the dream it is truly noisy.
忽覺萬事休還同睡時悟
Suddenly awaken and all affairs end, just as when one awakens from sleep.
智者會悟夢迷人信夢鬧
The wise understand the dream and awaken; the deluded believe the dream's noise.
會夢如兩般一悟無別悟
Understanding the dream and awakening seem like two things, but one awakening has no other awakening.
富貴與貧賤更亦無別路
Wealth and rank, poverty and lowliness, have no other road either.
上元二年五月五日歸寂。勅諡大曉禪師。
On the fifth day of the fifth month of the second year of Shangyuan, he returned to stillness. By imperial decree he was given the posthumous title Zen Master Daxiao.
婺州玄策禪師者婺州金華人也。出家遊方屆於河朔。有智隍禪師者。曾謁黃梅五祖。庵居二十年自謂正受。師知隍所得未真。往問曰。汝坐於此作麼。隍曰入定。師曰。汝言入定。有心耶無心耶。若有心者一切蠢動之類皆應得定。若無心者一切草木之流亦合得定。曰我正入定時。則不見有有無之心。師曰。既不見有有無之心。即是常定。何有出入。若有出入則非大定。隍無語良久。問師嗣誰。師曰。我師曹谿六祖。曰六祖以何為禪定。師曰。我師雲。夫妙湛圓寂體用如如。五陰本空六塵非有。不出不入不定不亂。禪性無住離住禪寂。禪性無生離生禪想。心如虛空亦無虛空之量。隍聞此說。遂造於曹谿請決疑翳。而祖意與師冥符。隍始開悟。師後卻歸金華。大開法席。
Zen Master Xuance of Wuzhou was a man of Jinhua in Wuzhou. He left home and traveled, reaching Heshuo. There was Zen Master Zhihuang, who had visited the Fifth Patriarch at Huangmei, lived in a hermitage for twenty years, and claimed to be in right concentration. The master knew that what Huang had attained was not yet true, and went to ask: "What are you doing sitting here?" Huang said: "Entering samadhi." The master said: "You say you enter samadhi; do you do it with mind or without mind? If with mind, all kinds of living creatures should attain samadhi. If without mind, all grasses and trees should also attain samadhi." He said: "When I am just entering samadhi, I do not see a mind of being or non-being." The master said: "Since you do not see a mind of being or non-being, you are constantly in samadhi, so how could there be entering or emerging? If there is entering and emerging, it is not great samadhi." Huang had no words. After a long time he asked whom the master succeeded. The master said: "My teacher is the Sixth Patriarch of Caoxi." He said: "What does the Sixth Patriarch take as Zen concentration?" The master said: "My teacher says: The marvelous, serene, perfect stillness has substance and function as suchness. The five aggregates are originally empty, and the six dusts are not existent. There is no leaving, no entering, no fixed concentration, no disorder. The nature of Zen has no abiding; apart from abiding it is Zen stillness. The nature of Zen has no arising; apart from arising it is Zen thought. The mind is like empty space, and yet it has no measure of empty space." Hearing this, Huang went to Caoxi to ask the Patriarch to resolve his doubts and obscurations. The Patriarch's intent silently accorded with the master's, and Huang first awakened. The master later returned to Jinhua and widely opened a Dharma seat.
曹谿令韜禪師者吉州人也。姓張氏。依六祖出家。未嘗離左右。祖歸寂遂為衣塔主。唐開元四年玄宗聆其德風詔令赴闕。師辭疾不起。上元元年肅宗遣使取傳法衣入內供養。仍勅師隨衣入朝。師亦以疾辭。終於本山。壽九十五。勅諡大曉禪師。
Zen Master Lingtao of Caoxi was a man of Jizhou, surnamed Zhang. He left home under the Sixth Patriarch and never left his side. When the Patriarch returned to stillness, he became the keeper of the robe and the stupa. In the fourth year of Kaiyuan of the Tang, Emperor Xuanzong, hearing of his virtue, summoned him to the palace. The master declined on grounds of illness and did not go. In the first year of Shangyuan, Emperor Suzong sent an envoy to take the Dharma-transmission robe into the palace for offerings, and ordered the master to accompany the robe to court. The master also declined on grounds of illness. He died at his home mountain, at the age of ninety-five. By imperial decree he was given the posthumous title Zen Master Daxiao.
西京光宅寺慧忠國師者越州諸暨人也。姓冉氏。自受心印居南陽白崖山黨子谷。四十餘祀不下山門。道行聞於帝裡。唐肅宗上元二年勅中使孫朝進。齎詔徵赴京。待以師禮。初居千福寺西禪院。及代宗臨御復迎止光宅精藍。十有六載隨機說法。時有西天大耳三藏。到京雲。得他心慧眼。帝勅令與國師試驗。三藏才見師便禮拜立於右邊。師問曰。汝得他心通耶。對曰。不敢。師曰。汝道老僧即今在什麼處。曰和尚是一國之師。何得卻去西川看競渡。師再問。汝道老僧即今在什麼處。曰和尚是一國之師。何得卻在天津橋上看弄猢猻。師第三問語亦同前。三藏良久罔知去處。師叱曰。遮野狐精。他心通在什麼處。三藏無對(僧問。仰山曰。大耳三藏第三度為什麼不見國師。仰山曰。前兩度是涉境心。後入自受用三昧。所以不見。又有僧舉前語問玄沙。玄沙曰。汝道前兩度還見麼。玄覺雲。前兩度若見。後來為什麼不見。且道利害在什麼處。僧問趙州曰。大耳三藏第三度不見國師。未審國師在什麼處。趙州雲。在三藏鼻孔上。僧問玄沙。既在鼻孔上。為什麼不見。玄沙雲。只為太近)一日喚侍者。侍者應諾。如是三召皆應諾。師曰。將謂吾孤負汝。卻是汝孤負吾(僧問玄沙。國師喚侍者意作麼生。玄沙雲。卻是侍者會。雲居錫雲。且道侍者會不會。若道會。國師又道汝孤負吾。若道不會。玄沙又道卻是侍者會。且作麼生商量。玄覺徵問僧。什麼是侍者會處。僧雲。若不會爭解恁麼應玄覺雲。汝少會在。又云。若於這裡商量得去。便見玄沙。僧問法眼。國師喚侍者意作麼生。法眼雲。且去別時來。雲居錫雲。法眼恁麼道。為復明國師意不明國師意。僧問趙州。國師喚侍者意作麼生。趙州雲。如人暗裡書字。字雖不成文彩已彰)南泉到參。師問。什麼處來。對曰江西來。師曰。還將得馬師真來否。曰只遮是。師曰。
National Teacher Huizhong of Guangzhai Temple in the Western Capital was a man of Zhuji in Yuezhou, surnamed Ran. After receiving the mind-seal himself, he lived in Dangzi Valley on Mount Baiya in Nanyang, and for more than forty years did not go down the mountain gate, yet his practice of the Way was known in the imperial capital. In the second year of Shangyuan of Emperor Suzong of Tang, the palace envoy Sun Chaojin was sent by edict to summon him to the capital, and he was treated with the courtesy due a teacher. At first he lived in the West Zen Hall of Qianfu Temple. When Emperor Daizong took the throne, he was again welcomed and settled at Guangzhai, a fine monastery. For sixteen years he taught according to the capacities of those he met. At that time the Tripitaka Master Great Ears from the Western Heavens arrived in the capital, and was said to have attained the wisdom eye of knowing others' minds. The emperor ordered him to be tested with the National Teacher. As soon as the Tripitaka Master saw the master, he bowed and stood on the right. The master asked: "Have you attained the power of knowing others' minds?" He answered: "I dare not say." The master said: "Tell me, where is this old monk right now?" He said: "Venerable, you are the teacher of a state; how can you be in Xichuan watching the boat races?" The master asked again: "Tell me, where is this old monk right now?" He said: "Venerable, you are the teacher of a state; how can you be on Tianjin Bridge watching monkeys perform?" The master asked a third time, with the same words as before. The Tripitaka Master was silent for a long time, not knowing where he was. The master rebuked him: "You wild fox spirit, where is your power of knowing others' minds?" The Tripitaka Master had no reply. (A monk asked Yangshan: "Why did Tripitaka Great Ears not see the National Teacher the third time?" Yangshan said: "The first two times he was in the mind that deals with objects; later he entered the samadhi of his own enjoyment, so he did not see." Another monk raised this earlier saying to Xuansha. Xuansha said: "Tell me, did he see him the first two times?" Xuanjue said: "If he saw him the first two times, why did he not see him later? Tell me, where is the point of benefit and harm?" A monk asked Zhaozhou: "Tripitaka Great Ears did not see the National Teacher the third time; where was the National Teacher?" Zhaozhou said: "On the Tripitaka Master's nostrils." A monk asked Xuansha: "If he was on his nostrils, why did he not see him?" Xuansha said: "Only because he was too close.") One day he called his attendant. The attendant answered. He called three times, and each time the attendant answered. The master said: "I thought I was failing you, but it is you who fail me." (A monk asked Xuansha: "What was the National Teacher's intent in calling the attendant?" Xuansha said: "It was the attendant who understood." Yunju Xi said: "Tell me, did the attendant understand or not? If you say he understood, the National Teacher said you fail me. If you say he did not understand, Xuansha said it was the attendant who understood. How do you consider it?" Xuanjue questioned the monk: "What was the point where the attendant understood?" The monk said: "If he did not understand, how could he answer thus?" Xuanjue said: "You understand little." He also said: "If you can work it out here, you will see Xuansha." A monk asked Fayan: "What was the National Teacher's intent in calling the attendant?" Fayan said: "Go away for now and come back another time." Yunju Xi said: "When Fayan says so, is he making clear the National Teacher's intent or not?" A monk asked Zhaozhou: "What was the National Teacher's intent in calling the attendant?" Zhaozhou said: "Like a person writing characters in the dark. Though the characters are not formed, the pattern is already manifest.") Nanquan came to study. The master asked: "Where do you come from?" He answered: "From Jiangxi." The master said: "Did you bring the true likeness of Master Ma?" He said: "This is it." The master said:
背後底。南泉便休(長慶稜雲。大似不知。保福展雲。幾不到和尚此間。雲居錫雲。此二尊者盡扶背後。只如南泉休去。為當扶面前扶背後)麻谷到參繞禪床三匝於師前振錫而立。師曰。既如是何用更見貧道。麻谷又振錫。師叱曰。遮野狐精出去。師每示眾雲。禪宗學者。應遵佛語一乘了義契自心源。不了義者互不相許。如獅子身蟲。夫為人師者若涉名利。別開異端則自他何益。如世大匠斤斧不傷其手。香象所負非驢能堪。有僧問。若為得成佛去。師曰。佛與眾生一時放卻當處解脫。問作麼生得相應去。師雲。善惡不思自見佛性。問若為得證法身。師曰。越毘盧之境界。曰清淨法身作麼生得。師曰。不著佛求耳。問阿那箇是佛。師曰。即心是佛。曰心有煩惱否。師曰。煩惱性自離。曰豈不斷耶。師曰。斷煩惱者即名二乘。煩惱不生名大涅槃。問坐禪看靜此復若為。師曰。不垢不淨。寧用起心而看淨相。又問。禪師見十方虛空是法身否。師曰。以想心取之是顛倒見。問即心是佛可更修萬行否。師曰。諸聖皆具二嚴。豈撥無因果耶。又曰。我今答汝窮劫不盡。言多去道遠矣。所以道。說法有所得斯則野幹鳴。說法無所得。是名師子吼。南陽張濆行者問。伏承和尚說無情說法。某甲未體其事。乞和尚垂示。師曰。汝若問無情說法。解他無情方得聞我說法。汝但聞取無情說法去。濆曰。只約如今有情方便之中。如何是無情因緣。師曰。如今一切動用之中。但凡聖兩流都無少分起滅。便是出識不屬有無。熾然見覺。只聞無其情識繫執。所以六祖雲。六根對境分別非識。有僧到參禮。師問。蘊何事業。曰講金剛經。師曰。最初兩字是什麼。曰如是。師曰。是什麼無對。有人問。如何是解脫。師曰。諸法不相到當處解脫。曰恁麼即斷去也。師曰。向汝道諸法不相到斷什麼。師見僧來。以手作圓相。相中書日字。僧無對。
(The master continued:) "What is behind?" Nanquan stopped. (Changqing Leng said: "Very much like not knowing." Baofu Zhan said: "He almost did not reach the Abbot's place." Yunju Xi said: "These two venerables both support the back. As for Nanquan's stopping, is it supporting the front or the back?") Magu came to study, circled the Zen couch three times, shook his staff and stood before the master. The master said: "Since this is so, why see this poor monk again?" Magu shook his staff again. The master rebuked him: "You wild fox spirit, get out." The master often addressed the assembly, saying: "Students of the Zen school should follow the Buddha's words of the One Vehicle of definitive meaning and accord with the source of their own mind. Those who do not understand the definitive meaning do not recognize each other, like worms in a lion's body. Those who serve as teachers of others, if they touch fame and profit or open different heterodox ways, what benefit is there for themselves or others? Like a great craftsman in the world, whose axe does not hurt his hand. What a fragrant elephant carries cannot be borne by a donkey." A monk asked: "How can one attain Buddhahood?" The master said: "Let go of Buddha and sentient beings at once, and be liberated right where you are." He asked: "How can one attain correspondence?" The master said: "Without thinking of good or evil, you will see your own Buddha-nature." He asked: "How does one realize the Dharma body?" The master said: "Go beyond the realm of Vairocana." He said: "How is the pure Dharma body attained?" The master said: "By not seeking while clinging to the Buddha." He asked: "Who is the Buddha?" The master said: "This very mind is the Buddha." He said: "Does the mind have afflictions?" The master said: "The nature of affliction departs of itself." He said: "Is it not cut off?" The master said: "One who cuts off afflictions is called one of the Two Vehicles. When afflictions do not arise, it is called great nirvana." He asked: "What of sitting in meditation and watching for stillness?" The master said: "Neither dirty nor pure. Why use a mind that arises to look for a pure aspect?" He asked again: "Does the Zen Master see the empty space of the ten directions as the Dharma body?" The master said: "To grasp it with a thinking mind is an inverted view." He asked: "If this very mind is the Buddha, should one still cultivate the myriad practices?" The master said: "All the sages possess the two adornments; how could they deny cause and effect?" He also said: "If I answer you, it will not end for endless kalpas. The more words, the farther from the Way. Therefore it is said: Preaching the Dharma with something attained is the cry of a jackal. Preaching the Dharma with nothing attained is called the lion's roar." Zhang Xi, a lay practitioner of Nanyang, asked: "I have heard the Venerable say that insentient beings preach the Dharma. I have not grasped this; I ask the Venerable to instruct me." The master said: "If you ask about insentient beings preaching the Dharma, you must understand the insentient before you can hear me preach. Just go and listen to the insentient preach the Dharma." Xi said: "Within the present expedient means of sentient beings, what is the cause and condition of the insentient?" The master said: "Now, in all actions, there is not the slightest arising or ceasing between the common and the holy; this is emerging from consciousness, not belonging to being or non-being, blazingly seeing and sensing, but hearing is without the binding of feeling and consciousness. Therefore the Sixth Patriarch said: When the six faculties face their objects, discrimination is not consciousness." A monk came to pay respects. The master asked: "What work do you do?" He said: "I lecture on the Diamond Sutra." The master said: "What are the first two words?" He said: "Thus." The master said: "What is 'thus'?" He had no reply. Someone asked: "What is liberation?" The master said: "When dharmas do not reach one another, one is liberated right there." He said: "Then it is cut off." The master said: "I told you that dharmas do not reach one another; what is cut off?" When the master saw a monk coming, he made a circle with his hand and wrote the character for "sun" in the circle. The monk had no reply.
師問本淨禪師。汝已後見奇特言語如何淨曰。無一念心愛。師曰。是汝屋裡事。肅宗問。師得何法。師曰。陛下見空中一片雲麼。帝曰見。師曰。釘釘著懸掛著。又問。如何是十身調御。師乃起立曰。還會麼。曰不會。師曰。與老僧過淨瓶來。又曰。如何是無諍三昧。師曰。檀越蹋毘盧頂上行。曰此意如何。師曰。莫認自己清淨法身。又問師。師都不視之。曰朕是大唐天子。師何以殊不顧視。師曰。還見虛空麼。曰見。師曰。他還眨目視陛下否。魚軍容問。師住白崖山。十二時中如何修道。師喚童子來。摩頂曰。惺惺直然惺惺。歷歷直然歷歷。已後莫受人謾。師與紫璘供奉論義。既陞坐。供奉曰。請師立義某甲破。師曰。立義竟。供奉曰。是什麼義。師曰。果然不見。非公境界。便下坐。一日師問紫璘供奉。佛是什麼義。曰是覺義。師曰。佛曾迷否。曰不曾迷。師曰。用覺作麼無對。又問。如何是實相。師曰。把將虛底來。曰虛底不可得。師曰。虛底尚不可得。問實相作麼。僧問。如何是佛法大意。師曰。文殊堂裡萬菩薩。曰學人不會。師曰。大悲千手眼。耽源問。百年後有人問極則事作麼生。師曰。幸自可憐生。須要箇護身符子作麼。師以化緣將畢涅槃時至。乃辭代宗。代宗曰。師滅度後弟子將何所記。師曰。告檀越。造取一所無縫塔。曰就師請取塔樣。師良久曰。會麼。曰不會。師曰。貧道去後有侍者應真。卻知此事。大歷十年十二月九日右脅長往。弟子奉靈儀於黨子谷建塔。勅諡大證禪師。代宗後詔應真入內舉問前語。真良久曰。聖上會麼。曰不會。真述偈曰。
The master asked Zen Master Benjing: "What would you do if you saw extraordinary words later?" Jing said: "Not a single thought of love in my mind." The master said: "That is a matter in your own house." Emperor Suzong asked: "What Dharma has the master attained?" The master said: "Does Your Majesty see that one cloud in the sky?" The emperor said: "I see it." The master said: "Is it nailed in, or hung up?" He also asked: "What is the Ten-Bodied Tamer?" The master stood up and said: "Do you understand?" He said: "I do not understand." The master said: "Pass this old monk the pure water bottle." He also asked: "What is the samadhi of non-contention?" The master said: "The donor walks on top of Vairocana's head." He said: "What is the meaning of this?" The master said: "Do not take your own pure Dharma body for it." He asked the master again, and the master did not look at him at all. He said: "I am the Son of Heaven of the Great Tang; why does the master not look at me at all?" The master said: "Do you see empty space?" He said: "I see it." The master said: "Does it ever blink at Your Majesty?" The military commissioner Yu asked: "The master lives on Mount Baiya; how does he cultivate the Way in the twelve hours of the day?" The master called a boy over, rubbed his head and said: "Alert, simply alert; distinct, simply distinct. From now on do not be deceived by others." The master debated meaning with the Court Attendant Zilin. After taking his seat, the attendant said: "Please set up a thesis, Master, and I will refute it." The master said: "The thesis is set up." The attendant said: "What thesis?" The master said: "Indeed you do not see it; it is not your realm." And he came down from his seat. One day the master asked Court Attendant Zilin: "What is the meaning of 'Buddha'?" He said: "It means awakened." The master said: "Has the Buddha ever been deluded?" He said: "Never deluded." The master said: "What use is awakening?" He had no reply. He also asked: "What is true aspect?" The master said: "Bring the empty one here." He said: "The empty one cannot be obtained." The master said: "If the empty one cannot be obtained, why ask about the true aspect?" A monk asked: "What is the great meaning of the Buddha Dharma?" The master said: "Ten thousand Bodhisattvas in the Manjusri Hall." He said: "This student does not understand." The master said: "The Greatly Compassionate One with a thousand hands and eyes." Danyuan asked: "A hundred years from now, if someone asks about the ultimate matter, what shall I say?" The master said: "You are pitiable enough already; why do you need a protective talisman?" When the master's conditions for teaching were nearly finished and the time of nirvana had come, he took leave of Emperor Daizong. Daizong said: "After the master's passing, what will this disciple have to remember him by?" The master said: "Tell the donor to build a seamless stupa." He said: "I ask the master for a design of the stupa." The master was silent for a long time and said: "Do you understand?" He said: "I do not understand." The master said: "After this poor monk has gone, there is the attendant Yingzhen, who knows this matter." On the ninth day of the twelfth month of the tenth year of Dali, he lay on his right side and departed forever. His disciples carried his remains to Dangzi Valley and built a stupa. By imperial decree he was given the posthumous title Zen Master Dazheng. Later Daizong summoned Yingzhen into the palace and raised the earlier words. Zhen said after a long time: "Does Your Majesty understand?" He said: "I do not understand." Zhen recited a verse that said:
湘之南潭之北中有黃金充一國
South of the Xiang, north of the Tan, in the middle gold fills a whole country.
無影樹下合同船瑠璃殿上無知識
Under the shadowless tree, a shared boat; in the lapis lazuli hall, no one who knows.
應真後住耽源山。
Yingzhen later lived on Mount Danyuan.
西京荷澤神會禪師者襄陽人也。姓高氏。年十四為沙彌謁六祖。祖曰。知識遠來大艱辛將本來否。若有本則合識主。試說看。師曰。以無住為本。見即是主。祖曰。遮沙彌爭合取次語。便以杖打。師於杖下思惟曰。大善知識歷劫難逢。今既得遇。豈惜身命。自此給侍。他日祖告眾曰。吾有一物無頭無尾無名無字無背無面。諸人還識否。師乃出曰。是諸佛之本原。神會之佛性。祖曰。向汝道無名無字。汝便喚本原佛性。師禮拜而退。師尋往西京受戒。唐景龍中卻歸曹谿。祖滅後二十年間。曹谿頓旨沈廢於荊吳。嵩嶽漸門盛行於秦洛。乃入京。天寶四年方定兩宗(南能頓宗北秀漸教)乃著顯宗記盛行於世。一日鄉信至報二親亡。師入堂白槌曰。父母俱喪。請大眾念摩訶般若。眾才集師便打槌曰。勞煩大眾。師於上元元年五月十三日中夜奄然而化。俗壽七十五。二年建塔於洛京龍門。勅於塔所置寶應寺。大歷五年賜號真宗般若傳法之堂。七年又賜般若大師之塔。
Zen Master Shenhui of Heze in the Western Capital was a man of Xiangyang, surnamed Gao. At fourteen he became a novice and visited the Sixth Patriarch. The Patriarch said: "You have come a long way, a great hardship; have you brought the root? If you have the root you should know the master. Try to say it." The master said: "I take non-abiding as the root, and seeing is the master." The Patriarch said: "This novice speaks so casually." And he struck him with his staff. Under the staff the master thought: "A great good teacher is hard to meet in many kalpas. Now that I have met him, how could I spare my life?" From then he served him. On another day the Patriarch told the assembly: "I have one thing, without head or tail, without name or character, without back or face. Do you all know it?" The master came forward and said: "It is the root source of all Buddhas, and Shenhui's Buddha-nature." The Patriarch said: "I told you it has no name or character, and you call it the root source and Buddha-nature." The master bowed and withdrew. Not long after, the master went to the Western Capital to receive the precepts. In the Jinglong era of the Tang he returned to Caoxi. In the twenty years after the Patriarch's extinction, the sudden teaching of Caoxi sank into oblivion in Jing and Wu, while the gradual school of Mount Song flourished in Qin and Luo. He then entered the capital. In the fourth year of Tianbao the two schools were finally settled (the Southern Neng's Sudden School and the Northern Xiu's Gradual Teaching), and he composed the Xianzong Ji, which was widely circulated in the world. One day a letter from his home arrived, reporting that both of his parents had died. The master entered the hall, struck the gavel and announced: "Both my parents are gone; I ask the assembly to recite the Maha Prajna." When the assembly had gathered, the master struck the gavel and said: "Thank you, assembly, for the trouble." On the thirteenth day of the fifth month of the first year of Shangyuan, in the middle of the night, the master suddenly passed away, at the age of seventy-five. In the second year, a stupa was built at Longmen in Luojing. By decree Baoying Temple was set up at the stupa site. In the fifth year of Dali he was given the title Hall of Transmission of the Dharma of True School Prajna. In the seventh year, the stupa was also named Great Master Prajna's Stupa.
有僧舉臥輪禪師偈雲。
A monk cited a verse by Zen Master Wolun, which says:
臥輪有伎倆能斷百思想
Wolun has a trick, he can cut off a hundred thoughts.
對境心不起菩提日日長
Facing a realm his mind does not arise; bodhi grows day by day.