[BOS] -- Suddenly, Suddenly --

A sister piece to u/zerogr33n post

Case [8]: When Baizhang lectured in the hall, there was always an old man who listened to the teaching and then dispersed with the crowd.(Finding quiet in the midst of noise.) One day he didn't leave; (Been doubting this guy all along.) Baizhang then asked him, "Who is it standing there?"(Things can't be mixed up--when a guest comes you should wait on him.) The old man said, "In antiquity, in the time of the ancient Buddha Kasyapa, I lived on this mountain.(Originally he is a man of the house.) A student asked, 'Does a greatly cultivated man still fall into cause and effect or not?"(Just do good, don't ask about the road ahead.) I answered him, 'He does not fall into cause and effect,'(A fitting statement is a stake to tie a donkey to for ten thousand years.) and I fell into a wild fox body for five hundred lives. (You said one doesn't fall into cause and effect.) Now I ask the teacher to turn a word in my behalf."(What reason can you give?) Baizhang said, "He is not blind to cause and effect." (Buried in one pit.) The old man was greatly enlightened at these words.(Fox drool is still there.)

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Have you not heard it told how when Chan Master Yuan was in the assembly of Chan Master Hui he heard two monks bring up this story; one monk said, "Even if he's not blind to cause and effect, he still hasn't shed the wild fox body." The other monk replied, "Just this is not falling into cause and effect--and when has he ever fallen into cause and effect?" The master was startled and considered these words unusual; he hurried to the bamboo cluster hermitage on Mount Huangbo--as he crossed a valley stream he was suddenly enlightened. He saw Master Nan and told what happened; before he finished tears were streaming over his jaws. Master Nan made him sleep soundly on the attendants'bench; but suddenly he got up and wrote a verse: Not falling, not blind; For monks or layfolk there are no taboos. The bearings of a freeman is like a king's--How can he accept the enclosure of a bag or covering by a lid? One staff can be horizontal or vertical--The wild fox leaps into the company of the golden lion. Master Nan laughed.

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The Master of Xiushan and Fayan both studied with Dizang, deeply benefiting from the power of refinement of 'studying from the side.' This public case [17] is the same as when Fayan broke down Superintendent Ze, who was thereupon enlightened. Superintendent Ze was Chan Master Xuanze of Baoen Monastery in Jinling; Fayan asked him, "Who have you seen?" Xuanze said, "I saw Master Qingfeng." Fayan said, "What did he say?" Xuanze said, "I asked what is the student's self," and Qingfeng said, "The god of fire comes seeking fire." Fayan said, "How do you understand this?" Xuanze said, "The god of fire is in the province of fire; to seek fire by fire is like seeking the self by the self." Fayan said, "Even understanding in this way, how could you get it?" Xuanze said, "I am just thus; I don't know what your idea is, Master." Fayan said, "You ask me and I'll tell you." Xuanze asked, "What is the student's self?" Fayan said, "The god of fire comes seeking fire." Xuanze was suddenly enlightened at these words. Fayan had chisel and awl in his hands; 'taken away, the seal remains; left there, the seal is ruined'--he broke up superintendent Ze's barrier of feelings and pulled open Master Xiushan's chains of consciuosness.

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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.

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When Dongshan took leave of Yunyan, Dongshan asked, "After your death, if someone asks me if I can describe your reality, how shall I reply?" After a while Yunyan said, "Just this is it." Dongshan sank into thought. Yunyan said, "You are in charge of this great matter; you must be most thoroughgoing." Dongshan left without saying anything more; later, as he was crossing a river he saw his reflection and then for the first time was thoroughly enlightened. Thereupon he composed a verse: Just don't seek from others, or you'll be far estranged from Self. I now go on alone; everywhere I meet It: It now is me; I now am not It. One must understand in this way to merge with thusness.

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Venerable Yanyang of Xinxing monastery in Wuning district of Hong province first went to Zhaozhou and asked, "When not a single thing is brought, then what?" This is the same as a monk asking Baoci, " 'When feelings arise, wisdom is blocked; when characteristics change, the body differs'--how about when feelings haven't arisen?" Baoci said, "Blocked." The monk said, "If feelings haven't arisen, what can they block?" This is the same as "If I don't bring a single thing, what should I put down?" Brash fellows are much the same. Zhaozhou said, "If you can't put it down, then carry it out." At these words Yanyang was greatly enlightened.

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Don't you see how Elder Zifang also came from Changqing's place and Fayan asked him about the same saying--Zifang also held up his whisk. Fayan said, "How can you understand in this way?" Zifang said, "What is your honorable opinion?" Fayan said, "What do you call myriad forms?" Zifang said, "The ancients didn't efface myriad forms." Fayan said, "In myriad forms a single body is revealed--why talk about effacing or not?" Zifang was suddenly enlightened.

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Shishuang said, "Going out the gate, already it's grass." The monk then related this to Dongshan, who said, "These are words of a teacher of fifteen hundred people--how many could there be in all China?" For the first time he became known as an enlightened man; he emerged from anonymity, and he dwelt as abbot at Shishuang monastery; ultimately according with Dongshan's prophecy, for twenty years he had an oceanic congregation of over a thousand. Again and again they sat constantly without lying down, erect as tree stumps--the name of his 'dead tree hall' originated from this. A monk asked about getting rid of the dust to see Buddha: the question is one; Jia shan said, "If you don't swing the sword, the fisherman stays in a nest." Shishuang said, "He has no country--where will you meet him?"

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Chan Master Judi [Gutei] of Jinhua mountain in Wu province first lived in a hut on Mount Tiantai. There was a nun named Shiji ('Reality') who arrived with a rain hat on her head and a staff in her hand. She circled Judi three times and asked, "If you can speak, I'll take off my hat." Three times she asked, but Judi had no reply at all: Shiji went away. Judi said, "It's getting late; just stay for the night." She said, "If you can speak, I'll stay." Again Judi had no reply. After Shiji had left, Judi lamented to himself, "Though I'm in the body of a man, I don't have the spirit of a man." He was about to abandon his hut to go traveling to study, but that night the spirit of the mountain told him, "You don't need to leave this mountain. There will be a great bodhisattva who will come explain the Dharma for you." As it turned out, after ten days Master Tianlong arrived: Judi welcomed him, bowing to him in all sincerity, and recounted the foregoing events to him in detail. Tianlong raised his finger and pointed at him; Judi was greatly enlightened on the spot. After this, whenever a monk came, Judi would just raise a finger, with no other explanation. The servant boy at his place was asked by people on the outside, "What does your master teach?" The boy held up a finger. When he returned, he reported this to Judi, and Judi cut off that finger with a knife. The boy ran out screaming: Judi called to him, whereat the boy turned his head; Judi then held up one finger--the boy suddenly attained englightenment. As Judi was about to die, he said to the people, "I attained Tianlong's 'one-finger' Chan, and used it all my life without exhausting it." When he finished speaking he passed away

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In the original record, immediately after Linji was enlightened he said, "Basically there's nothing much to Buddhism." Dayu said, "You bedwetting devil! You just asked if you had any error or not, and now you say there's not much to Buddhism? How much is this?" Dayu grabbed and held Linji, saying, "Speak! Speak!" Linji knocked Dayu three times in the side with his fist. Dayu let him go and said, "Your teacher is Huangbo--it has nothing to do with me." Linji returned to Huangbo, who asked, "Coming and going over and over--when will it ever end?" Linji said, "It's just because you are so kind." Then he told the story of what happend; Huangbo said, "That old fellow Dayu is too talkative--wait 'till I see him; I'll give him a beating!" Linji said, "Why talk about waiting to see him? Hit right now!" Then he gave Huangbo a slap. Huangbo laughed, "Ha, ha! This lunatic comes to grab the tiger's whiskers!" Linji then hollered. Huangbo said, "Attendant, take this madman into the meditation hall." Guishan asked Yangshan, "Did Linji get Dayu's power or Huangbo's power?" Yangshan said, "He not only took the tiger's whiskers, he also knew how to sit on the tiger's head." Linji later said to the assembly, "At my late teacher's place I asked about the ultimate meaning of buddhism three times, and three times was beaten--it was like being brushed with a branch of mugwort. Right now I'm thinking of another beating--who can do it for me?" At that point a certain monk came forth and said, "I'll do it." Linji held up his cane to hand it to him; as the monk was going to take it, Linji hit him. Xuedou said, "Linji's letting go was a bit dangerous; he gathers in exceedingly fast."

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Shizu...was enlightened by this case:

Case [93]: Luzu asked Nanquan, " 'The wish-fulfilling jewel, people don't know--it is personally obtained from the mine of realization of thusness'.(Don't brag so much.) What is the mine?"(In front of the teaching hall, behind the buddha shrine.) Nanquan said, "That in me which comes and go?"(Say the head, and he knows the tail; speak of going, and he knows coming.) Nanquan said, "It's also the mine."(One living made twice.) Luzu said, "What is the jewel?"(Getting one, he looks for two.) Nanquan called him by name:(It's not that I'm not setting it out.) Luzu responded, "Yes?"(It's not that you're not pulling it forth.) Nanquan said, "Go--you don't understand my words." (He spills his guts.)

Submitted October 14, 2020 at 05:36AM by surupamaerl https://ift.tt/3jXuiBn