(Excerpt from the Blue Cliff Record; Case 85)
POINTER
To hold the world fast without the slightest leak, so that all the people in the world lose their points and become tongue-tied ... this is the true imperative for patchrobed monks.
To release a light from one's forehead that shines through the four quarters ... this is the adamantine eye of patchrobed monks.
To touch iron and turn it into gold, to touch gold and turn it into iron, to suddenly capture and suddenly release ... this is the staff of patchrobed monks.
To cut off the tongues of everyone in the world so that there's no place for them to breathe out, to make them fall back three thousand miles ... this is the mettle of patchrobed monks.
But tell me, when one is not this way at all, who is he?
To test, I cite this to see.
CASE
A monk came to the place of the hermit of T'ung Feng and asked, "If you suddenly encountered a tiger here, what then?"
The hermit made a tiger's roar.
The monk then made a gesture of fright.
The hermit laughed aloud.
The monk said, "You old thief!"
The hermit said, "What can you do about me?"
The monk gave up.
Hsueh Tou said, "This is all right, but these two wicked thieves only knew how to cover their ears to steal the bell."
COMMENTARY
Look at how those two men had such knowing eyes and capable hands. Tell me, where is the place that's difficult to understand?
Though produced to meet the situation, the Ancients' one device, one object, one word, one phrase, are naturally leaping with life, since their eyes are perspicacious and true.
Hsueh Tou picked this case to make people know wrong from right and discern gain and loss. Nevertheless, from his standpoint as a man who has arrived, though it's handled in terms of gain and loss, after all there is no gain or loss.
If you view those Ancients in terms of gain and loss, you miss the point entirely. People of the present day must each comprehend the place where there's no gain or loss. If you only apply your mind to picking and choosing among words and phrases, when will you ever be done?
Haven't you heard how Great Master Yun Men said, "Foot-travelers, don't just wander over the country idly, just wanting to pick up and hold onto idle words. As soon as some old teacher's mouth moves, you immediately ask about Ch'an and ask about Tao, ask about transcendence and accommodation, ask about how and what. You make great volumes of commentaries which you stuff into your bellies, pondering and calculating. Wherever you go you put your heads together by the stove in threes and fives, babbling on and on. These, you say, are words of eloquence; these, words in reference to the self; these, words in reference to things; these, words from within the essence. You try to comprehend the old fathers and mothers of your house. Once you have gobbled down your meal, you only speak of dreams and say, 'I have understood the Buddha Dharma.' You should know that if you go foot-traveling this way, you will never be done."
When the Ancients briefly picked it up and played with it, how could there be such views as victory and defeat, gain and loss, or right and wrong?
...
To discuss this matter, it is necessary to have the ability to kill people without blinking an eye. If you always let go and never capture, if you always kill and never bring to life, you won't avoid the scornful laughter of others.
...
It's just that people of later times don't have their feet on the ground; they just go criticize the Ancients and say there is gain and loss. Some say that the hermit clearly lost the advantage, but this has nothing to do with it.
...
As for Te Shan immediately hitting people when they came in through the gate, and Lin Chi immediately shouting at people when they came in through the gate ... tell me, what was the intent of these Ancients?
In the end Hsueh Tou makes his verse just like this. But tell me, in the end, how will you avoid "covering your own ears to steal the bell"?
VERSE
If you don't grab it when you see it,
You'll think about it a thousand miles away.
Fine stripes,
But he hasn't got claws and teeth.
Haven't you seen the sudden encounter on Mt. Ta Hsiung? *
If you have a rule, go by the rule; if you have no rule, go by the example.
The vast sound and light shakes the earth.
Do great men of power see or not??
They take the tiger's tail and grab the tiger's whiskers.
* One day Pai Chang asked Huang Po, "Where are you coming from?" Po said, "From down the mountain." Chang said, "See any tigers?" Po then made a tiger's roar. Chang took the axe at his side and made the gesture of chopping. Po held it fast and slapped him. That evening Chang went up into the hall and said, "Down Ta Hsiung Mountain there's a tiger; all of you must watch out for him when you're going and coming. Today I myself have been bitten by him."
Submitted July 17, 2020 at 07:15PM by ZEROGR33N https://ift.tt/3eEfeVy
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