示眾云。入理深談。嘲三攞四。長安大道。七縱八橫。忽然開口說破。舉步踏著。便可高掛鉢囊拗折拄杖。且道。誰是其人。
Introduction: The profound talk entering into noumenon decides three and weeds out four; the Great Way to the Capital goes seven ways across and eight ways up and down. Suddenly if you can open your mouth and explain fully, take steps and walk, then you can hang your bowl and bag up high and brreak your staff. But tell me, who is this?

舉。地藏問法眼。上座何往(羅織人作麼)。
眼云。迤邐行脚(索草鞋錢去也)。
藏云。行脚事作麼生(果然放不過)。
眼云。不知(何不早恁麼道)。
藏云。不知最親切(就身打劫)。
眼豁然大悟(險費盤纏)。
Case: Dizang asked Fayan, "Where are you going?"(Why frame the man?)
Fayan said, "Around on pilgrimage."(He goes looking for money to buy sandals.)
Dizang said, "What is the purpose of pilgrimage?"(After all he doesn't let him go.)
Fayan said, "I don't know." (Why didn't you say so earlier?)
Dizang said, "Not knowing is nearest."(He goes right up and bumps him off.)

師云。楊無為問芙蓉楷和尚。相別幾年。蓉云。七年。公云。學道來參禪來。蓉云。不打這鼓笛。公云。恁麼則空游山水。百無所能也。蓉云。相別未久善能高鑒。公大笑。南泉道。道不屬知。不屬不知。知是妄覺。不知是無記。今人見道不知最親切。更是法眼悟頭。便一向不知不會。只這是也。殊不知。古人一句子。如天普蓋。似地普擎。既不知最親切。荷澤道知之一字眾妙之門。又作麼生。爾但是則總是。莫坐在是處。不是總不是。莫坐在不是處。兼通五位正偏。豈可死在句下。只這法眼悟處。也是偶爾成文。柏山大隱和尚道。因禍致福也在。地藏接人手段。鉤在不疑之地。驀下一釣。法眼猛省。元來却在這裏。磁州老師道。爾但行裏。坐裏。心念未起時。猛提起覤見即便見不見。且却拈放一邊。恁麼做功夫。休歇也不礙參學。參學也不礙休歇。投子青和尚道。既金龍失水。妙翅急提。地藏時節因緣。絲毫無間。天童筆端有舌。更為重宣。
Commentary: Yang Wuwei asked Master Furong, "How long has it been since we last met?" Furong said, "Seven years." Mr. Yang said, "Have you been studying the Way? Engrossed in meditation?" Furong said, "I don't play that fife and durm." Mr. Yang said, "Then you wander for nothing over mountains and rivers, incapable of anything." Furong said, "While we haven't been apart for long, you can sure reflect on high." Mr. Yang laughed aloud. Nanquan said, "The Way is not in knowing or in not knowing. Knowing is false consciousness, not knowing is indifference." Now when people hear it said that not knowing is nearest, and that this is where Fayan was enlightened, they immediately go over to just not knowing, not understanding--"Just this is it." They hardly realize that a phrase of the ancients covers everywhere, like the sky, supports everywhere, like the earth. If not knowing is nearest, then what about Heze's saying, "The one word 'knowing' is the gate of myriad wonders." Just affirm totally when affirming, but don't settle down in affirmation; deny totally when denying, but don't settle down in denial. Passing through all the five ranks, absolute and relative, how could you die under a phrase? But this enlightenment of Fayan's too just spontaneously creates a pattern. Master Dayin of Boshan said, "He is still making a fortune out of a disaster." In Dizang's method of guiding people, the hook is in an unsuspected place--suddenly he gives a yank, and Fayan has a powerful insight; after all it was right to begin with.Old Master Cizhou said, "In walking, in sitting, just hold to the moment before thought arises, look into it, and you'll see not seeing--and then put it to one side. When you direct your effort like this, rest does not interfere with meditation study, meditation study does not interfere with rest." Master Touzi Qing said, "Once the golden dragon strays from the water, the giant garuda bird quickly picks it up." Dizang's timing of cause and condictions had not a thread of gap. There is a tongue on Tiantong's brush, to reiterate.

頌云。而今參飽似當時(吾猶昔人非昔人也)。脫盡簾纖到不知(猶有這箇在)。任短任長休剪綴(枉費工夫)。隨高隨下自平治(不勞心力)。家門豐儉臨時用(闕鹽醋不得)。田地優游信步移(要行即行)。三十年前行脚事(沒可思量)。分明辜負一雙眉(依舊在眼上)。
Verse: Now having studied to the full, it's like before(I'm like the people of yore, not one of the people of yore.)--Having shed entirely the finest thread, he reaches not knowing.(There is still this?) Let it be short, let it be long--stop cutting and patching;(A waste of effort.) Going along with the high, along with the low, it levels itself.(Don't bother to exert your mind.) The abundance or scarcity of the house is used according to the occasion;(Can't lack salt and vinegar.) Roaming serenely in the land, he goes where his feet take him.(If you want to go, go.) The purpose of ten years' pilgrimage(Inconceivable.)--Clearly he'd turned his back on one pair of eyebrows.(As before they're above the eyes.)

師云。宗鏡道。從來迷悟似迷。今日悟迷非悟。所以道。悟了還同未悟人。地藏問時。要知發足道理。法眼答處。亦非謙讓推辭。地藏就便。一提道。不知最親切。法眼大悟元來這不知却親切。臨濟問洛浦甚處來。浦云。欒城來。濟云。有事相借問得否。浦云。某甲不會。濟云。打破大唐國。覓箇不會底不得。臨濟常用殺人刀。亦有活人劍。不似地藏殺人見血為人為徹。這箇不知不會。脫體逈別。直須脫盡簾纖方到不知不會處。溈山普請開田。仰山問。這頭得恁麼低。那頭得恁麼高。溈曰。水能平物。但以水平之。仰曰。水也無憑。和尚但高處高平。低處低平。溈然云。肇公般若無知論曰。諸法不異者。豈曰續鳧截鶴夷嶽盈壑。然後為無異哉。所以道。任短任長休剪綴。隨高隨下自平治。張無盡道。萬般支準費工夫。一切順隨成善巧。只麼信口便道。信手便用。信脚便行。春月花開。秋時葉落。恁麼會得。行甚驢脚。所以玄沙不出嶺。保壽不渡河。不出門知天下事。覺範頌云。一箇面如楪子大。眼耳鼻舌分疆界。髑髏裡頭都不知。聽汝外邊爭揑怪。口問鼻曰。飲食在我。言語在我。汝有何功。在吾之上。鼻曰。五嶽之中。中嶽居尊。鼻復問眼。汝何在上。眼曰。吾同日月。寔有照鑒之功。敢問眉。有何功處於吾上。眉曰。我寔無功。慚居上位。儻容在下。眼在眉上看。爾甚麼面孔。是以寶月明禪師上堂云。古者道。在眼曰見。在耳曰聞。且道。在眉毛。喚作什麼。良久云。憂則共慼。樂則同歡。人皆知有用之用。不知無用之大用。且道。賓頭盧尊者兩手撥眉意旨如何。師撥眉云。猫。
The Source Mirror says, "Hitherto deluded about enlightenment, seeming deluded; now awakened form delusion, it's not enlightenment. Therefore it is said, 'After complete enlightenment one again is the same as someone who is not yet enlightened." When Dizang asked the question, he wanted to know the reason for setting out. In Fayan's answer he is not modestly deferring, either. Dizang then took advantage of the opportunity and all at once said, "Not knowing is nearest." Fayan was greatly enlightened, that actually this not knowing is the nearest. Linji asked Luopu, "Where do you come from?" Luopu said, "From Luan city." Linji said, "There is something I would ask about--may I?" Luopu said, "I don't understand." Linji said, "Even searching throughout the whole of China it's hard to find one who doesn't understand." Linji always used the killing sword, and he also had the sword to give life, but was not comparable to Dizang's seeing blood when he killed people, doing his ulmost to help people. This 'I don't know, don't understand' is entirely transcendent; you must be utterly free from the minutest obstacles before you will reach the point of not knowing and not understanding. Once when Guishan had requested everyone to work the fields, there Yangshan asked, "Here is so low, there is so high." Guishan said, "Water can level things. Just level them with water." Yangshan said, "Even water has nothing to depend on--Teacher, the high places are just high level, the low places are low level." Guishan said, "So it is." In Sengzhao's treatise Wisdom Has No Knowledge it says, "The nondifference of all things doesn't mean that you add to a duck's legs and cut a crane's legs, level mountains to fill valleys, thereafter considering them on different." Thus it says, "Let it be long--stop cutting and patching; going along with the high, along with the low, it levels itself." Zhang Wujin said, "Myriad kinds of preparations are a waste of time. Adapting to everything becomes a fine skill." Thus one speaks freely and acts freely, goes where his legs go; in the spring moon the flowers bloom, in the autumn the leaves fall. If you can understand in this way, what donkey legs would you move? This is why Xuansha did not leave the mountains, Baoshou didn't cross the river--without going outside the gate they knew everything in the world. Jiaofan's verse said, One face, big as a slat; Eye, ear, nose, tongue, distinguish territories--Inside the skull, no knowledge at all. I leave to you the outside--how can you hoke up wonders? Mouth asked nose, "Eating is up to me, speaking is up to me--what good are you that you are above me?" Nose said, "Among the five mountains, the central one occupies the honored position." Nose then asked eyes, "Why are you above?" Eyes said, "We are like the sun and moon--truly we have the accomplishment of illumination and reflection. We dare ask eyebrows, what virtue do they have to be above us?" Eyebrows said, "We really have no merit; we are ashamed to be in the higher position. If you let us be below, let the eyes look from above--what face-holes are you?" So Baoyue Ming the Chan master said in a lecture, "An ancient said, 'In the eyes it's called seeing, in the ears it's called hearing'--but tell me, in the eyebrows what is it called?(a long silence). In sorrow we grieve together, in happiness we rejoice together. Everybody knows the useful function, but they don't know the useles great function. But tell me, what was the meaning of Venerable Pindola's brushing his eyebrows with both hands?" (Wansong brushed his eyebrows and said 'Cat.' )

Teachings and Commentary

Not Knowing is Most Intimate - Teah Strozer, City Center, 31-May-2025
Going On Intimate Pilgrimage - Eijun Linda Cutts, Green Gulch Farm, 11-Jun-2023
Not Knowing is Most Intimate - Zoketsu Norman Fischer, City Center, 18-Mar-2020
Dizang's Most Intimate - Rinso Ed Sattizahn, Green Gulch Farm, 16-Aug-2015

Post a Comment

Post a Comment