Luoshan's "Arising And Vanishing"
One touch of the philosophers' stone turns iron into gold; one word of the ultimate principle transforms an ordinary man into a sage. If you know that hold and iron are not two, that ordinary and sage are fundamentally the same, then after all you'll have no use for it; but tell me, what one touch is it?
Case:
Luoshan asked Yantou, "when arising and vanishing go on unceasingly, what then?"
Yantou shouted and said, "whose arising and vanishing is it?"
Commentary:
Chan master Daojian of Luoshan in Shen province first asked Shishuang, "When arising and vanishing go on unceasingly, what then?" Shishuang said, "You must be cold ashes, a dead tree, one thought for ten thousand years, box and lid joining, pure and spotlessly clear." Luoshan didn't get it, so he went and asked Yantou; Yantou shouted and said "Whose arising and vanishing is it?" At this Luoshan awakened. Generally, Yantou just esteemed clarity of insight; Shishuang set up a 'dead tree hall' he demanded that one personally arrive once first.
Haven't you seen how Ruiyan asked Yantou, "what is the fundamentally constant principle?" Yantou said, "Moving." Ruiyan said, "how is it when moving?" Yantou said, "you don't see the fundamentally constant principle." Ruiyan stood there thinking; Yantou said, "If you agree, you've not yet escaped the senses; if you don't agree, you're forever sunk in birth and death," and Ruiyan too attained enlightenment.
Yantou was an outstanding spirit, beyond the ordinary; in awakening students, he accomplished his purpose with a sharpness that was no less than Deshan's. Later he produced the Dharma-Jewel of Luoshan--- ice is colder than water. This is what Guishan meant by "I only value your insight; I don't ask about your activity."
Luoshan's question is a model for everyone; and beginners these days time and again make their living in here--- like pushing down a gourd on water, they suppress afflictions. Zhijiao said, "don't be a companion of mind; when mindless, the mind is naturally at rest. If you take mind as a partner, when moving you'll be fooled by mind--- without it, there is no deluded mind. When the Patriarch came from the West, directly pointing to the human mind so they could see its nature and attain Buddhahood was he teaching you to be bandits escorting a thief, to recognize the servant as master?" Luoshan's question missed the real and grasped the false; Yantou's scolding merged with the false as the real itself. If it were me, I would stop after shouting; there is still something beyond real and false.
In the heroic march scripture Ananda says, "The realized one now is probing the whereabouts of the mind, and I am using the mind to investigate and seek it; therefore that which seeks is what I take to be mind." The Buddha said, "Tsk! Ananda, this is not your mind." Ananda startled, got up from his seat, joined his palms and said to the Buddha, "If this is not my mind, what should it be called?" The Buddha said to Ananda, "This is an empty conception of form of sense data before you--- it confuses your real nature. It is due to your having recognized a thief as your son since beginningless time, losing your fundamental constant thus you experience transmigration." This shout is like the diamond sword; Yantou's shout is like a lion crouching on the ground, the power of the great function of his full majesty, which cannot be fooled.
Layman Pang said, "One gang of six thieves, you fool people completely, life after life. Now I know you, and will not be your neighbors. If you don't submit to me, everywhere I go I'll inform people all about you, causing your road to be cut off. If you agree to submit to me, then I won't discriminate; I'll stay together with you, and together witness birthlessness and deathlessness."
Yantou's saying, "Whose arising and vanishing is it?" Is the same approach as Yunyan's lifting the broom up and saying, "Which moon is this?" Tiantong esteems his ability to produce transformation, and again speaks a verse:
Severing old entangling vines
Opening up a fox lair
A leopard covers itself with fog to change its spots
A dragon rides the thunder to change its bones
Bah!
Arising and vanishing in profusion--- what is it?
Cutting off the words, slicing away the intent of the question, simultaneously illumining and functioning, taking away both person and environment---Yantou had the action that transcends the teacher.
Yangzi said, "A sage is distinct as a tiger---his markings are clearly outstanding. A superior man is distinct as a leopard---his markings are fine. An eloquent man is distinct as a fox---his markings are clumped together. A fox changes into a leopard, a leopard changes into a tiger."
The dark leopard of the South mountains, shrouded in fog, changes its spots. In the biographies of the women of the ages by Liu Xiang of Han it says, "Dao Dazi worked as a potter for three years; he didn't become famous, but the prosperity of his house increased threefold. His wife, embracing her child, cried; her mother in law was angry, considering that unlucky. The wife said, 'I have heard that in the South mountains there is a dark leopard; it here's in the food and doesn't eat for seven days, to give luster to its coat and form its spots. As for dogs and pigs, they are not selective about food, therefore they get fat; because they're fat they incur calamity.' As it turned out in a year's time Dao was executed."
According to the Records of the Extraordinary recounted by Ren Fang, in the summer of the seventh year of the reign of Emperor Hui of the Han dynasty thunder shook the South Mountains, the wood blazed, and the earth was burnt to umber. After a violent rain they found dragon bones. Luoshan, meeting up with a bandit who destroyed his household, made a declaration of his case; Yantou summoned him and settled it. But tell me, where was the summons and settlement? Tch! Arising and vanishing in profusion'---who else could it be?
Added sayings/case:
When arising and vanishing go on unceasingly, what then?--- Diamond rubbing a clay mannequin's back.
Yantou shouted and said--- Stars fall, clouds scatter.
Whose arising and vanishing is it?---If you know, it's not inimical.
Added sayings /verse:
Severing old entangling vines---Producing even more branches and creepers.
Opening up a fox lair---Spitting out more stupid slobber.
A leopard covers itself with fog to change its spots---it sheds its skin.
A dragon rides the thunder to change its bones---Especially changing the shell of its body.
Bah!---At one shout myriad actions cease; for three days both ears are deaf.
Arising and vanishing in profusion---what is it?---A good guest has no strange companions.
Submitted May 03, 2019 at 08:56AM by Theslowcosby777 http://bit.ly/2GXtuvc
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