Buddha crossing a predestined person: Dharma and wisdom in life

Chapter 10: A Clash at the Head——If you don’t write about it, you will pass it on outside the classroom (4)
Dawei Mountain is located in Hunan, thousands of miles away from Wutai Mountain in Shanxi, and there is only half a day left. Why did Liu Tiemo ask Master Lingyou to participate in the Lent? Liu Tiemo meant that she was going to participate It is not a big deal for her to travel thousands of miles.She, however old she may be, is still her own master.That is to say, no matter how her body moves, her heart remains unmoved.

And what is the difference between Weishan's "letting himself down and lying on the ground" and flying over thousands of miles? There is no distance between the sky and the sky!Weishan Lingyou deserves to be called a great master. He lifted the weight as lightly as he lay down on the ground, and expressed the Zen "upward thing" vividly and vividly.

Wei Yan refuses to say
Once everyone asked Chan Master Weiyan to give a lecture, but Weiyan refused, but everyone begged hard, and the Zen master reluctantly agreed.The crowd rushed to tell each other, and a lot of people gathered at once, and everyone was looking forward to this great Zen master.Zen master Weiyan finally appeared in the Dharma hall. Everyone held their breaths and prepared to listen to the teachings.But the Zen master just looked around the meeting place slowly, and then went back to the room without saying a word.

The abbot, who was giving the sermon this time, was in a hurry, and chased after him and said, "As a Zen master, how can you tease the public like this? Why did you go back to your room in a hurry after you agreed to go to the hall to speak?"

Wei Yan said: "There are Dharma masters who teach scriptures, and lawyers who talk about precepts. I am a Zen master, but Zen can't be taught, and it's useless if I talk about it. How can you blame me?"

Another time, Zen Master Shunde asked Zen Master Xuefeng: "The ancestors of our Zen sect paid attention to the heart-to-heart communication, right?"

Zen Master Xuefeng nodded and replied, "Yes, and there is no written statement."

Shunde asked back: "Since there is no written statement, how can the Dharma be taught?"

Zen Master Xuefeng was dignified and silent for a long time.

Shunde then thanked him.

■Sentiment——

Zen points out that speech is a phenomenon of birth and death, a product of relative consciousness, while truth is an eternal entity, so speech cannot express truth.Zen practitioners must go beyond all kinds of pseudonyms and concepts, and forget words and thoughts before they can reach the realm of truth.

The only way
Zen master Huanglong Zuxin often raised his fist in the meditation room and asked the monks: "Is this called a fist? Isn't this called a fist? Calling it a fist means affirmation, which you know is wrong; not calling it a fist means negation, you know This is also wrong, what should it be called?" The student monks looked at each other, not daring to answer.

Zen Master Basho once said to his disciples: "If you have a stick in your hand, I will give you a stick; if you don't have a stick in your hand, I will take your stick." The disciples were also puzzled.

Zen Master Weishan once said to his disciples: "The old monk passed away a hundred years later. He went to the foot of the mountain to be a water gun ox, and wrote a few words 'Weishan Monk Mojia' under his left side. At that time, what should you call me? Call me Weishan Monk. , it’s another Shui Gun Niu; it’s called Shui Gun Niu, and it’s Wei Shan Monk. What is it appropriate to call it?” The disciples were speechless, and only Chan Master Yang Shan stood up and bowed before retreating.Zen Master Weishan laughed happily.

■Sentiment——

The essence cannot be spoken, but in order to express the realization of the essence, in most cases, we have to resort to language.Therefore, when master Wei Yang talked about Zen, he adopted a special method and set up a series of touch-back barriers.The so-called touch the back, that is, the dilemma of thinking.Touching is affirmative, backing is negative.Only by keeping away from the two sides of affirmation and negation can we touch and grasp the physical body.Touching the back is a thinking bottleneck set up by Zen masters for students.For the back-touching level, the listener can no longer follow the line of thinking of yes and no to answer, otherwise he will never be able to break through it.But it is not unsolvable. Retiring after worshiping on the mountain, using the one and only method of transcending language and smashing appearances, implying that there is no need to pay too much attention to this problem.

play lion

Yaoshan Weiyan asked Yunsheng Tancheng: "I heard that you know how to play lions, do you?"

Yun Sheng replied, "Yes."

Yaoshan asked, "How much did you make?"
Yun Sheng replied, "Six out."

Yaoshan said, "I can do it too."

Yunlu asked, "How much did the monk make?"

Yaoshan replied, "I can figure it out."

The voice of the cloud said: One is six, and six is ​​one. "

Later Yunsheng went to Weishan Lingyou, and Weishan also asked Yunsheng: "I heard that the elder is playing with lions in Yaoshan, is it true?"

Yun Sheng replied, "Yes."

Wei Shanji asked, "Are you playing with the lion? Or do you let it rest sometimes?"

Yun Sheng replied: "If you want to do it, you can do it, if you want to rest, you can rest."

Wei Shan asked again, "Where is the lion when it is resting?"

Yun Sheng replied: "Rest, rest!"

■Sentiment——

Here, the lion who is the subject of the conversation represents nature, and the lion-bearer represents the ego or 'subject'.The ego grasps nature with five sense organs (six places or six roots according to Buddhist psychology).When Wei Shan said that Yunmen knew how to make six lions, he was referring to the five sense organs (or six faculties) with which we grasp nature.Human senses are like six windows, through which one can observe nature.Everyone knows that nature may be more than what we observe, but we only have five senses, and there is nothing else to distinguish nature.In the material world with more than five (or six) sense organs, we will feel more things in nature, and our life will be richer accordingly.

it's the second month

When Yun Shengtan was sweeping the floor, Wei Shan asked him, "You're busy with something, aren't you?"

Yun Sheng replied, "You need to know that there are people who are not busy doing things."

Wei Shan asked, "In this way, there will be a second month?"

Yun Sheng held up the broom and said, "What month is this?"

Wei Shan bowed his head and left.

After hearing this, Master Xuansha said, "It's the second month!"

■Sentiment——

"Second month" refers to the dualistic view of self.There is one person who is busy working, and another person who is not working and watching everything that is happening in front of him.This way of thinking is not the Zen way of thinking.In the Zen School, there is no such distinction between the worker and the watcher, between the mover and the mover, between the watcher and the watched, and between the subject and the object.

In the case of Yunsheng Tancheng, sweeping the floor, the person sweeping the floor and the broom are one, and it even includes the ground being swept.There is no second month, no third month, and no first month.This is not literalism.But man is not man unless he knows how to communicate with one another.So, Yunsheng raised his broom.

Good sunbathing today

A monk asked Chan Master Wuzhi: "A cloudless sky is not the original sky. How is it the original sky?"

The Zen master replied, "It's good to dry the wheat today."

■Sentiment——

From a relative point of view, this is not an answer at all.Because when we raise this kind of question, we always want to define the words "original heaven".The Zen master mentioned wheat because their residence is close to the fields and they also live by the harvest of the fields.The wheat mentioned here may also be replaced by rice or hay.If the Zen master wants to take a walk at this time, he may say: "Let's take a walk outside and relax. We have studied too much recently."

pussy on the column

A monk asked Zen Master Huisheng, a disciple of Yaoshan Weiyan, "What is a Buddha?"

Huixing replied, "The cat is on the dew column."

The monk did not understand what the Zen master meant.

Huixing then said, "Ask Luzhu."

■Sentiment——

To someone encountering this dialogue for the first time, the Zen master may seem like a man out of his mind.First, what is the relationship between Buddha and cats, Luzhu and Moer on Luzhu? Second, how could Luzhu explain to the monk what the Chan Master said? No matter how we analyze it with ordinary reasoning, we cannot learn from this Find any meaning in a paragraph of dialogue.

If it is not that we ourselves have lost our capacity for human understanding, then this Zen master has gone where we usually do not.Undoubtedly, there is a transcendent world in which all Zen masters live, and it must be nature that keeps my sensory and intellectual world out of reach of this transcendent world.

"That" why doesn't it hurt

When Baofu saw a monk walking towards him from Chan Master Zhan, he hit the pillar with his staff and then the monk's head.

The monk made a painful sound.

The Zen master said, "Why doesn't 'that' hurt?"

The monk didn't know what to answer.

■Sentiment——

A column is a thing in nature.As long as nature is opposed to man, it is unwise and shows no sign of kindness.But if one sees it or smells it, nature at once becomes a part of man, and is felt in all its parts.When people ask about it, it will definitely nod.So, when a Zen master heard a monk hitting a board in front of a meditation hall, he was said to make a cry of pain.

Xuefeng Enlightenment
When Zen Master Xuefeng was not yet enlightened, in order to get rid of the confusion in his heart, he went all the way through mountains and rivers, visited Zen Master Touzi three times, and visited Zen Master Dongshan nine times.

This time, Xuefeng visited Zen Master Dongshan and lived in Zen Master Dongshan's monastery.Zen masters all oppose getting something for nothing and advocate self-reliance, so even if Xuefeng came from afar, he still had to do things in the Zen monastery.Once, when Zen Master Dongshan was on a tour, Xuefeng was washing rice and asked Xuefeng, "What are you doing?"

Xuefeng answered truthfully: "Report Zen Master, the disciple is washing rice."

Zen Master Dongshan didn't give up, and asked: "Do you wash the sand to get the rice, or wash the rice to get the sand?"

Xuefeng immediately replied: "If Zen master asks such a question, why don't Shami go together!"

Dong Shan smiled and said, "Throw them away together, so what will everyone eat?"

Xuefeng didn't answer, but really overturned the rice bucket.

Dongshan looked at the white rice on the ground, and was not angry, but said regretfully, "I don't regret my rice, but it's a pity that your fate is not with me. Go to Monk Deshan!"

Xuefeng came to Zen Master Deshan according to his words, and upon meeting him, he asked dejectedly: "Chan Master, do you think I still have the foundation of Mahayana Buddhism? Is there any hope for me to learn it?"

Deshan didn't answer his question, instead he hit him on the head and cursed loudly: "You brat, what are you talking about?"

Xuefeng touched the bag on his head, although it hurt a lot, he suddenly realized in his heart.

Later, when Xuefeng was traveling, the return journey was blocked by heavy snow in Aoshan Mountain. He talked about this incident to the monk Yantou, and said with fresh memory: "I received the blow from Zen Master Deshan at that time, it was really worth it! Then At that time, my heart felt as if the bottom of the barrel had suddenly come off, and my heart was open and bright."

But Yantou shouted loudly: "Bah! Is that what you call enlightenment? Haven't you heard the saying, 'He who enters from the door is not a treasure'? The Dharma must be realized in your own heart, conceived in your brain, and flowed out from your chest. , that is the real approach to Buddhism!"

Xuefeng suddenly realized that he bowed his head to Chan Master Yantou and said, "I used to think I had enlightened, but today I realize that I am truly enlightened in Aoshan!"

■Sentiment——

Dongshan drove Xuefeng to Deshan, because he saw that Xuefeng's Zen style was very close to Deshan.But Deshan gave him a head-on blow, why?Because the Tao is not learned, and the Tao is endless, he will naturally be hit with the "Deshan stick" for asking this question.Despite the blow, he was enlightened, but it was just the beginning, and he didn't know it.Therefore, when Yantou scolded him later, he was telling him that true enlightenment does not depend on other people's sticks, but on oneself.If it is enlightened by others, then the realm is still very low!
Full of flavors
When Zen Master Yunyan Tansheng first joined Zen Master Yaoshan, Zen Master Yaoshan asked:

"Where are you from?"

Tan Sheng: "It came from Zen Master Baizhang Huaihai."

Yaoshan: "What words and sentences does Baizhang have to teach?"

Tan Sheng: "I usually say: I have a saying that is full of flavors."

Yaoshan: "Salty is salty, light is mild, neither salty nor bland is the usual taste, what is a hundred flavors?"

Chan Master Tan Cheng was speechless.

Yaoshan: "I also have a question, how can I live or die now?"

Tan Sheng: "There is no life or death at the moment."

Yaoshan: "How long have you been with Zen Master Baizhang?"

Tan Sheng: "20 years."

Yaoshan: "After 20 years at Baizhang, the vulgarity has not been removed."

One day, Zen Master Yaoshan asked again: "In addition to the sentence Baiwei, what other Buddhist teachings did Zen Master Baizhang say?"

Tan Sheng: "Sometimes we say three sentences, but if we want to save six sentences, we will take it."

Yaoshan: "It's three thousand miles away and I'm happy not to negotiate."

Zen Master Yaoshan was overjoyed, and then asked, "What else do you say?"

Tan Sheng: "Sometimes when people stand still in the hall, they will use sticks to drive everyone away for a while, and then call them back. Instead of saying anything, they ask people 'what is it?'"

Yaoshan: "Why didn't you say that earlier, from your mouth, I can see Senior Brother Huaihai today."

Chan Master Tan Sheng also realized this.

■Sentiment——

If you want to get to know a person, sometimes you have to go through many years, and you have to go through some setbacks if you want to know some things. Twenty years is not long, and three thousand miles is not far away. I didn't know Baizhang Huaihai until I said nothing. This is the so-called one hundred flavors.

under the stick
A student monk from Dingzhou Zen Master went to study under Zen Master Nijiu. Zen Master Niujiu asked, "What's the difference between Pazhou and my place?"

The student monk replied, "There is no particular difference."

Zen Master Torijiu said: "If there is no special difference, then you don't have to stay here, go back to the original place!" Then he swung his stick.

The student monk replied: "If you really have a good eye, you should see people clearly before you beat them. Although it is a Zen stick, you can't hit people casually!"

Zen Master Torijiu said: "Today I found someone who is truly worthy of my beating!" After speaking, he slapped the student monk three times.

After the student monk was beaten, he immediately turned around and wanted to leave.

Zen Master Torijiu hurriedly said, "Even if the stick is blind, there should be people who are willing to accept it!"

The student monk said: "The stick is in your hands, what can I do?"

Zen Master Torisu said, "If you think so, I will give you the stick."

After hearing this, the student monk walked over according to his words, snatched the stick from Zen Master Toriusu, and hit Zen Master Torisu three times.

Zen Master Torijiu said fearfully: "Qubang! Qubang!" Meaning: I am really wronged, I am really wronged.

The student monk immediately said tit for tat: "Although it is a blind stick, there are people who are willing to accept it!"

Master Torisuji finally said, "I'm really sorry for such an outstanding talent, so casually using the stick."

■Sentiment——

We really don't understand why the Chan masters use the sticks. It turns out that they are talking to each other under the sticks and competing with each other. It turns out that they are not using the blind sticks, but the wisdom sticks.The more you hit me, the more I thank you.If you fight right, I will worship you; if you fight well, I will never be able to kneel down.

One Finger Zen
One day, when it was almost dusk and it was drizzling, a monk and nun named Shishi came to the nunnery where Zen Master Jinhua Judi was. Walk around the seat of Zen Master Judi three times and say, "You are right, I will take off my bamboo hat."

She asked three times in a row, but Zen Master Judi didn't know what was going on for a while, and couldn't even answer a word.The actual monk and nun got angry and wanted to leave, but Chan Master Judi felt ashamed and said politely: "It's getting late, let's stay overnight!"

The actual monk and nun stopped and said, "You are right, so I will stay."

Zen Master Judi still didn't know how to answer, so he was right.

Later, Zen Master Tianlong came here, and Zen Master Judi asked Zen Master Tianlong for instructions on how the actual monks and nuns were questioned.Zen Master Tianlong held up a finger to teach him, and Ju Di was instantly enlightened.

From then on, whenever Zen Master Judi met someone who asked for instructions on the way of Buddhism and Zen, he would hold up a finger, and scholars could get some enlightenment from it, so "Judi One Finger" became famous.

Under the seat of Zen Master Judi, there is a monk who also imitates the teacher. For all seekers, as long as Zen Master Judi is not around, no matter what people ask him, he also imitates the master and raises a finger.One day, Juti called the monk to the Dharma hall and asked, "Do you also understand Buddhism?"

The monk said: "Understood!"

Zen Master Judi said, "What is Zen?"

The monk naturally raised another finger, and Zen master Judi picked up the scissors and cut off the monk's finger. The monk screamed in pain, and Zen master Judi asked, "Explain again, what is Zen?"

The monk naturally wanted to raise another finger, but suddenly his finger disappeared, and he suddenly realized.

■Sentiment——

Zen is opposed to using language to comprehend Zen, but likes to use epiphany.But this kind of epiphany is neither an inconceivable mysterious realm nor a top-down revelation from the gods, but comes from the experience of daily life, and it is the shining spirituality from the heart.Ju Tuo was unwilling to let this shining spirituality become a fixed cliché among the monks, so he used extreme means to break the stylized cliché.

just to have, so come
The student monk asked Zen Master Yaoshan for instructions: "The major events of life and death are not yet clear, so I ask the teacher to give a merciful explanation!"

Zen Master Yaoshan said: "It's not difficult for me to say a word to you. It would be good if you can understand it. If I make you think about it, it is my sin. It is better not to speak to each other, so as not to drag each other down."

The student monk said: "When Bodhidharma did not come to China, did China have the image of Buddha?"

Zen Master Yaoshan replied, "Yes!"

The student monk asked again: "Since China has the image of Buddha, why did Bodhidharma come to China?"

Yaoshan replied, "I only come here because there is one."

The student monk asked again: "The teacher usually does not allow the student monks to read the scriptures, why does the teacher himself read the scriptures every day?"

Zen Master Yaoshan said, "I just want to cover my eyes with scriptures!"

The student monk asked again: "If the student monk wants to learn from the teacher, can he cover his eyes with scriptures?"

Zen Master Yaoshan said: "If it were you, even the thickness of cowhide would not be able to cover your eyes."

The student monks invited Zen Master Yaoshan to take the seat to give a lecture, but Zen Master Yaoshan left the seat without saying a word.

The student monk asked, "Why did the Zen master leave his seat without saying a word?"

Zen Master Yaoshan said: "There are scripture teachers, there are lawyers in law, and there are teachers in theory. How can you blame me?"

The student monk finally came to his senses.

■Sentiment——

Zen Master Yaoshan has a lonely family style and is unique. He often answers you with simple sentences, asking you to understand the mystery behind the words.There are too many problems with student monks, that is, too much rational thinking, and Zen Buddhism is the most anti-rational, so Yaoshan said that even a cowhide cannot cover his curious and searching eyes.

I'll tell you when I pass away

A monk asked Chan Master Qin, "What is the purpose of Damoxi's visit?"

Zen Master Daoqin said that his question was inappropriate.The Zen monk asked: "What is appropriate?"

Daoqin said, "I'll tell you when I pass away."

A senior official Cui Zhaogong said to Zen Master Daoqin: "Master, I want to become a monk, can I?"

Zen Master Daoqin said categorically: "Becoming a monk is a manly job, not a general's job!"

Under the slap in the face, Cui Zhaogong suddenly realized.

■Sentiment——

In the first koan, Chan Master Daoqin’s purpose is to make monks understand: Zen is not taught, and the essence of Zen must be experienced in practice; in the second koan, Chan Master Daoqin means senior officials The attachment to fame and fortune is too heavy, and the worldly relationship has not yet been resolved. How can I enter the Buddhist gate of peace?

where do people go

On the road, the younger brother met the older brother coming towards him, so he asked, "Brother, where are you going?"

The brother said: "Wherever the wind goes, I will go there."

The younger brother couldn't answer, so he went back and asked the master.The master said: "Next time you can continue to ask him, where are you going when the wind stops." The younger brother wrote it down.

The next day, the younger brother met his older brother on the road and asked, "Brother, where are you going?" The younger brother replied, "I will go wherever my feet go."

(End of this chapter)