u/ProbablyProvisional

Treasury of the Eye of True Teaching
[452]
A monk asked Muzhou, “Can the entire canon be recited in one breath?”
Muzhou said, “What pastries do you have? Set them right out!”

Dahui said, “When you get up early in the morning, there are also people who’ve been traveling by night.”

The Lankavatara Sutra-trans. Red Pine

“The Buddha told Mahamati, “I do not teach that there are no causes, nor do I confuse causes and conditions, rather ‘because this exists, that exists,’ the nonexistence of what grasps and what is grasped, and the awareness that these are nothing but perceptions of one’s own mind. Mahamati, as long as people cling to what grasps or what is grasped and are unaware that these are nothing but perceptions of their own mind, it is they who mistake the existence or nonexistence of external objects, not my teaching of dependent origination. I have always taught that things arise due to the conjunction of causes and conditions not that they arise without a cause.”

- - -

So, typically when someone post Zen texts, people expect some sort of explanation or exposition or something. Maybe that’s reasonable. But mostly I think Muzhou is giving a perfectly reasonable answer to the question.

In this case the answer is as much a demonstration of dependent origination as you could ask for. Question > Answer. Baker > Pastries. Monday morning > Donuts.

- - -

The Diamond Sutra

“Furthermore, Subhuti, undifferentiated is this dharma in which nothing is differentiated. Thus is it called ‘unexcelled, perfect enlightenment.’ Without a self, without a being, without a life, without a soul, undifferentiated is this unexcelled, perfect enlightenment by means of which all auspicious dharmas are realized. And how so? Auspicious dharmas, Subhuti, ‘auspicious dharmas’ are spoken of by the Tathagata as ‘no dharmas.’ Thus are they called ‘auspicious dharmas.’”

- - -

Auspicious donuts are spoken of as no donuts. Thus are they called auspicious donuts.

How do you read this case?
Do you prefer croissants?

師云：明眼漢沒窠臼。你尋常搆不及者，祇是眼不明。眼若明，却搆得也。所以說道：明眼人難得。你纔道是恁麼，便是窠臼也。若是明眼人，即不恁麼。不見德山示眾道：今夜不答話，問話者三十棒。若不是明眼漢，怎生搆得？纔搆不得，便落意思，即成眹兆。故德山平生則嵓頭一人搆得。所以道：須是明眼漢始得。久立。

A clear-eyed person has no fixed pattern or routine. You ordinary people fail to grasp it simply because your eyes are not clear. If you eyes were clear, then you would be able to grasp it. That’s why it is said, “A clear-eyed person is hard to find.” The moment you say, it is like this, you have already made a fixed pattern. If one is truly a clear-eyed person they are not like that. 

Have you not seen Deshan instructing the assembly:

>“Tonight I will answer no questions. Anyone who asks a question gets thirty blows.”

If you are not a clear-eyed person, how could you grasp this? The moment you cannot grasp it, meaning arises, and signs begin to appear. Thus, throughout Deshan’s entire life, only Yantou was able to grasp it. This is why it is said: “One must be a a clear-eyed person to manage it.”

—

Notes: 

• 明眼漢 (míng yǎn hàn) — literally “a clear-eyed fellow”; someone with genuine discernment, awakened insight, direct realization, or thorough understanding of the true nature of mind. 
• 窠臼 (kē jiù) – "set patterns" / "fixed framework"— a mold, rut, cliché, fixed pattern, or established formula. Literally, this means a bird's nest and a mortar (for grinding). Figuratively, it refers to conventional formulas, fixed mental ruts, habitual ways of thinking, or established doctrinal positions. In Chan, any fixed view, formula, or conceptual framework is an obstacle to direct insight. Hence the master says even saying "it is thus" is already falling into a pattern.
• 搆得 / 搆不及 — “to grasp,” “connect with,” “meet,” or “comprehend.” It suggests directly catching what someone is doing, not merely explaining it intellectually.
• 恁麼 (rèn me) – "it is thus" / "like this" A common Chan colloquialism meaning "thus," "in this manner," or "such." 
• 落意思 — to fall into ideas, interpretations, or conceptual deliberation.
• 眹兆 (zhèn zhào) — signs, indications, traces, omen, or telltale marks; once conceptualization begins, something definite and detectable has already been constructed. This refers to the slightest sign, clue, or premonition—something that gives away a mental movement.

 

師云：今夜與你諸人說箇譬喻，恰似諸人有箇眼，能照見一切長短方圓等象，為什麼却不自見？但識取長短方圓等象，若要見眼則不可。你心亦如是，其光照矚，通徹十方，包容萬有，為什麼却不自知？要會麼？但識取照矚等事，若見心則不可也。古人道：刀不自割，指不自觸。心不自知，眼不自見，則真實矣。久立。

Tonight I will give you all a simile. It is just as if you all have an eye, which can illuminate and perceive every kind of form; long and short, square and round. Yet, why is it that cannot see itself? If you recognize forms as long and short, square and round, but if you want see the eye, it is impossible. Your mind is also like this. Its radiance illuminates and penetrates throughout the ten directions, encompassing the myriad things and containing everything. Why, then does it not know itself? Do you want to understand? Simply discern the activity of illumination and observation; but as for seeing mind itself, that is impossible.

The ancients said: 

>A knife does not cut itself
A finger does not touch itself
The mind does not know itself
The eye does not see itself 

This is the genuine state of affairs. 

---

Notes:

• 「照見」 → illuminate and perceiveThis compound carries both the sense of casting light (照) and seeing/recognizing (見).
• 「長短方圓等象」 → images of long and short, square and round. 象 here means "forms," "appearances," or "phenomena." 
• 「十方」 → the ten directions. A standard Buddhist term referring to all spatial directions (four cardinal + four intermediate + up + down), i.e., the entire universe.
• 「包容萬有」 → encompassing all things. 萬有 literally means "ten thousand existences" – a classical Chinese way of saying "all phenomena" or "everything that exists."
• The final quote – 「刀不自割，指不自觸。心不自知，眼不自見」 – is a canonical simile found in multiple Buddhist sources (e.g., Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra). It is used to demonstrate that subject and object are mutually dependent and that consciousness cannot take itself as an object.

師云：諸人上來要箇什麼事？須是當人自作活計，莫聽他人說。古人道：我十八上便解作活計。你諸人須是解自作活計始得。你道作箇什麼活計？但莫別求。如今人多愛動脚動手，者箇不解作活計了，也喚作拋家散宅漂流去。分明不會，祇管尋討，學些子知解、記些子言句，此喚作運糞。入到者裏，須是行李正當，日久月深，淹浸得熟便會去。古人道：一切處是你，東去也是你、西去也是你。你是阿誰？若云某甲者箇是情識，須是透得過始得。昔日天親問無著兄：往內院見彌勒說什麼法？著云：說者箇法。且道者箇是什麼法？須是揀得出始得，不要認著者箇，多是被者箇一句子瞞住了也。所以說病為法，是故名為可憐愍者。久立。

You people have come up here, what is it that you are after? You must each make your own living; don’t listen to what others say. An ancient said: “By eighteen I already knew how to make a living on my own.” You all must also learn how to make your own living, only then can you get anywhere.

You tell me: what kind of living are you supposed to make?

Just don’t seek elsewhere. 

People nowadays just like to busy themselves moving their feet and waving their hands, they don’t know how to make a living at all. We call this abandoning home and aimlessly scattering the family. Clearly not understanding, they keep searching everywhere, learning a tiny bit of intellectual interpretation and memorizing a few phrases. This is called hauling sewage. Once you come here you have to get your affairs in order. As the days and months pile up, once you’ve soaked in it long enough, you’ll naturally come to understand.

An ancient said, “Everywhere is you. Going east is also you; going west is also you.”

Who are you?

If you say “so and so” that is just emotional consciousness, you have to break right through before you will get it. 

In the past, Vasubandu asked his elder brother Asanga, “When you went to the inner courtyard to see Maitreya, what Dharma did he speak?” Asanga replied, “He spoke this Dharma.”

Now tell me what is this Dharma? You have to be able to pick it out clearly to get there, just don’t get attached to this because most people get fooled by this one phrase. That is why it is said: “Taking the sickness as the Dharma, they are called 'the pitiable ones.'”

---

Notes: 

「自作活計」– “make your own living” / “self-enact your livelihood”

In secular Chinese, huó jì means a means of subsistence (a trade, a craft). In Chan, it becomes a metaphor for self-reliant awakening; not relying on scriptures, teachers, or ritual.

The phrase also echoes agrarian Chan monasteries, where manual labor was required for survival, so “making a living” also literally meant chopping wood and carrying water.

*This ancient is likely Nanquan. 

Sayings of the Ancient Worthies, Volume Twelve - Essential Sayings of Chan Master Puyuan of Nanquan in Chizhou, second generation under Nanyue, first heir to Mazu

From a lecture by Nanquan followed by a long Q&A: 

>Ascending the hall, he said: All of you, this old monk knew how to make a living by the age of eighteen. If there is anyone who knows how to make a living, come out and we can discuss it together. Only then is one truly a mountain-dweller.
After a long while, he looked over the assembly and, joining his palms, he said: Take care. With nothing the matter, each of you cultivate on your own...

「拋家散宅漂流去」– “abandoning home and scattering the household, drifting away”

• On one level, it describes monastics who leave home (chūjiā 出家) but then wander aimlessly, collecting teachings like trinkets—spiritual vagrants.
• On another level, “home” is your original nature (本分事). To “abandon home” is to lose touch with your innate Buddhahood and chase externalities.

「運糞」– “hauling dung” / “conveying excrement” (hauling sewage)

• It refers to memorizing others’ words and treating them as precious, when in fact they are mere intellectual waste.
• The image comes from Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra and earlier Chan texts: the mind is a container; if you fill it with secondhand concepts, you’re just moving filth from one place to another.

「行李正當」– “your luggage / travel-gear must be rightly ordered” (get your affairs in order)

Xíngli (行李) here is not modern “baggage” but the equipment for a journey—often used in Chan to mean the proper orientation of mind and practice (right view, right effort, etc.).

「者箇是情識」– “this is emotional consciousness / vijñāna” Qíngshí (情識) is a technical term from Yogācāra—discriminative, affect-laden consciousness. 

「天親問無著」– "Vasubandhu asked Asaṅga” Vasubandhu and Asaṅga are the great Yogācāra patriarchs. Asaṅga says Maitreya taught “this Dharma” (zhě ge fǎ 者箇法)—but refuses to name it.

「說病為法，是故名為可憐愍者」 (Illness is the Dharma, therefore they are called those worthy of pity): A direct citation from the Sutra of Complete Enlightenment (Yuanjue Jing). It critiques those who mistake intellectual conceptualizations, symptoms, and mental constructs for the actual medicine of the Dharma, thereby multiplying their spiritual ailments while thinking they are making progress.

「說病為法」– “taking the sickness as the Dharma” This is also echoed in the Vimalakīrti Sūtra. In that sūtra, Vimalakīrti says: “Because all beings are sick, I am sick.”

Master Daning Kuan said to an assembly,
“No thought is the source, no dwelling is the basis, true emptiness is the substance, ethereal being is the function. That is why it is said that the whole earth is true emptiness, the whole universe is ethereal being.
Now tell me, who can apply this?
The four seasons go on and on, the sun and moon are always light; reality basically never changes, the Way has no location. Adapt to conditions and you will be free; pursue objects and you will rise and fall.
In this land and other regions, you enter the ordinary and the holy, but tell me, how do you express going into a village and adapting to its customs?”

Who is brave enough to misunderstand and misinterpret this lecture/sermon?

1. Source
2. Basis
3. Substance
4. Function

How can rising and falling be avoided?
Why avoid it?
Free from what?

“how do you express going into a village and adapting to its customs?”

“Sanskrit in India, Chinese in China”

Obligatory jibber jabber on Reddit.

>Gaofeng asked Stonehouse his reason for coming.
Stonehouse said, "I've come for the Dharma."
Gaofeng answered, "The Dharma isn't so easy to find. You've got to burn your fingers [like] incense."
To this Stonehouse replied, "But I see the Master before me with my own eyes. How could the Dharma be hidden?"
Gaofeng nodded his approval and suggested he study the koan "All things return to one."

Okay. Is the dharma hard to find or not?

>All things return to the one. To what does the one return?

or maybe it's

>Myriad dharmas return to one.
The one returns to (?)  

What is hard to find about that? What is hidden?

>The ancient teacher attains unification
and I too am thus;
before the end of this month,
I will break it up for you again.

Okay, but what is about burning your fingers like incense?

>Medicine King Bodhisattva (Sanskrit: Bhaiṣajyarāja; Chinese: Yaowang Pusa) is a prominent bodhisattva in the Lotus Sutra, where he represents profound devotion to the Dharma and the healing power of enlightened compassion. 

After mastering a meditation that let him take any form for the benefit of others, he wanted to express his gratitude.

First he made lavish offerings of flowers, incense, and precious fragrances but thought it wasn't good enough. He then offered his own body by setting it ablaze through supernatural means, an act portrayed in the text as the supreme dharma offering motivated by complete selflessness rather than self-destruction. After being reborn, he later burned his arms as another offering.

This is is often interpreted within Mahāyāna Buddhist traditions as symbolic demonstrations of perfect generosity, fearlessness, and complete dedication to awakening.

So if we're taking these references seriously rather than quoting them as decoration, what is Gaofeng pointing at?

1. Perfect generosity?
2. Fearlessness?
3. Complete dedication to awakening?

But then what about "How could the Dharma be hidden?"

>Myriad dharmas return to one.
To what does the one return?

昔日有一僧曾參舉道者，一日遊山問曰：和尚，香林道：老僧三十年求成一片不可得。此意如何？舉道者曰：老僧也恁麼。却問其僧：會麼？曰：不會。舉道者又與者僧一偈曰：香林成一片，老僧也恁麼。不待此月終，重為子決破。至月末，舉道者遂遷化去。你道一片事作麼生？好不好？香林成一片，龍門也恁麼。為報諸禪和，當面莫蹉過。各自下去。久立。

>In the past, there was a monk who once visited Master Ju.
One day while wandering in the mountains, he asked, "Venerable, Xianglin said, 'For thirty years, I tried to make it all one continuous piece, but could not.' What is the meaning of this?"
Master Ju said, "This old monk is also like this."
Then he asked the monk, "Do you understand?"
The monk said, "No."

Master Ju then gave the monk a verse:
Xianglin became one continuous piece,
and this old monk is also like this.
Before the end of this month,
I will break it open for you once more.

At the end of that month, Master Ju passed away. Tell me, what is this matter of “one continuous piece”? How about it?

Xianglin became one continuous piece,
Longmen is also like this.
I tell all you Chan worthies:
Do not miss what is right before your eyes.

In Instant Zen Thomas Cleary often chooses not give us the names of Zen masters that Foyan is quoting and referencing. Does he assume it doesn't matter to his readers? He also translated dharma and buddha dharma in ways that suggest that he might not have thought his readers would understand what the words mean. One notable example is his translation of this Zen Master's name as simply "a Wayfarer" at the end of "Facing it Directly." But it is a little bit tricky... Another notable example is Foyan quoting Nanquan and Cleary choosing to just refer to him as an ancient. "I knew how to make a living by time I was eighteen..." is Nanquan.

The characters for Master Ju's name in this passage are:  舉道者 (Jǔ Dàozhě). "舉道者" refers to the monk 全舉 (Quán Jǔ), also known as 法華全舉 (Fǎhuá Quán Jǔ). He was a disciple of Fenyang Shanzhao and a prominent master in the Linji school during the Northern Song dynasty, who taught at Fahua Temple in Shuzhou. "道者" (Dàozhě) is an honorific title often used for accomplished masters. (according to deepseek)

The first case in Treasury of the Eye of True Teaching features Master Ju of Fahua. Cleary has no problem translating the name here.

舒州法華山舉和尚語要
(Essential Sayings of Master Ju of Fahua Mountain, Shuzhou)

Master Ju's record is scroll 26 of the Sayings of Ancient Worthies. Foyan's record is 27-34. So it seems likely that Foyan's audience would be very familiar with Master Ju. Dahui certainly was.

---

A little something extra for you most excellent people...The first entry in Master Ju's Record. He comes out swing with the four statements and a poem, then straight into questions. And there are plenty of questions.

>師入院，上堂示眾云：夫第一義諦，非智辯所詮，心機所測，教外別傳，不立文字。既到這裏，復且如何？直須坐斷毗盧，不存凡聖。還能如是麼？若也未能，山僧重說偈言去也：不結毗盧印，那弘古佛心？明月照幽谷，寒濤助夜砧。諸人委悉麼？各希發問。　

>When the Master entered the monastery and took the teaching seat, he addressed the assembly, saying:

>The ultimate truth of the First Principle cannot be expressed through intellectual argument or measured by the workings of the calculating mind. It is a separate transmission outside the teachings, not established in words and letters. Since we have arrived at this point, what then?
You must directly sit beyond Vairocana, allowing neither ordinary nor holy to remain. Can you do this?
If you cannot yet do so, this mountain monk will recite a verse for you:

>Without forming Vairocana’s seal,
how could you propagate the mind of the ancient buddhas?
The bright moon illumines the quiet valley;
Cold waves aid the night washing-block.

>Do you all understand? I invite each of you to ask questions.

>問：昔日靈山分半座，師今登陟意如何？　師云：你承當得麼？　Someone asked: "In the past, at Vulture Peak, half the seat was shared [with Kāśyapa]. Now that you, Master, have ascended this seat, what is your intention?"
The Master said: "Can you take it up or not?"

>問：如何是法華境？　師云：後不搆前。
Someone asked: "What is the realm of Fahua [Dharma Flower]?"
The Master said: "What follows does not reach what came before."

>如何是境中人？　師云：三日後看。　
Someone asked: "What is the person within that realm?"
The Master said: "Look again in three days."

>問：祖意西來事，請師直指陳。　師云：截耳臥街。　
僧云：見者盡攢眉。　師云：非公境界。　
Someone asked: "The matter of the Patriarch's intention in coming West—please, Master, point it out directly."
The Master said: "Cut off your ears and lie in the street."
The monk said: "All who see it furrow their brows."
The Master said: "That is not your realm, sir"

>問：不落今時，請師道。　師云：落。　
Someone asked: "Not falling into the present moment—please, Master, speak."
The Master said: "Falling."

>問：如何是佛？　師云：蘆芽穿膝。　
僧云：如何是道？　師云：七縱八橫。　
僧云：如何是道中人？　師云：緊褁頭。　
僧云：如何是和尚家風？　師云：廣額旃陀羅。　
Someone asked: "What is Buddha?"
The Master said: "Reed shoots pierce his knees."
The monk said: "What is the Way?"
The Master said: "Seven up and down, eight across."
The monk said: "What is the person within the Way?"
The Master said: "A fellow with his head tightly wrapped."
The monk said: "What is the master's family style?"
The Master said: "The caṇḍāla Guang’e."

Guang’e was a notorious butcher figure in Chinese Buddhist lore whose immediate attainment of buddhahood became a prominent example in later Chan literature.

>問：如何是祖師西來意？　師云：朱唇皓齒。　
僧云：學人不會。　師云：斜墜搔首。　
Someone asked: "What is the meaning of the Patriarch's coming from the West?"
The Master said: "Red lips, white teeth."
The monk said: "This student does not understand."
The Master said: "Hanging askew, scratching the head."

>問：牛頭未見四祖時，為什麼百鳥㘅花？　師云：果熟猿猱重。　
僧云：見後為什麼不㘅花？　師云：踈林鳥不過。　
Someone asked: "When Niutou [Ox-Head] had not yet seen the Fourth Patriarch, why did a hundred birds bring flowers to him?" The Master said: "Ripe fruit brings crowds of apes and monkeys."
The monk said: "After he saw him, why did they no longer bring flowers?"
The Master said: "In a sparse forest, birds do not pass."

>問：雪覆千山時如何？　師云：樵人迷古路，漁父鏁孤舟。　
Someone asked: "When snow covers a thousand mountains—what then?"
The Master said: "The woodcutter loses the ancient path;
the fisherman moors his solitary boat."

>問：可來白雲裏，教你紫芝歌。如何是紫芝歌？　師云：不是吳音，切須漢語。　
Someone asked: "It is said, 'You may come within the white clouds, and I will teach you the song of the purple mushroom.' What is the song of the purple mushroom?"
The Master said: "It is not a Wu pronunciation; it must be spoken in the Han tongue."

The “Purple Mushroom Song” is associated with the Four Hoaryheads of Mount Shang, legendary recluses who withdrew into the mountains and lived on purple fungus. It became an emblem of eremitic withdrawal.

>問：數日不聞師誨語，今朝陞座意如何？　師云：一年春盡一年春。　
Someone asked: "For days we have not heard the Master's teaching words; today you have ascended the seat—what is your intention?"
The Master said: "One year’s spring ends; another year’s spring."

>師乃云：夫參學須具擇法眼，不得顢頇。若得正眼精明，一切無滯。不見古人道：一句語中須具三玄，一玄中須具三要。古人恁麼道，意在於何？鵞王擇乳，素非鴨類。
The Master then said: "Students must possess the eye that selects the Dharma and must not be muddled. If the correct eye is clear and discerning, you will meet no obstruction anywhere. Have you not seen how the ancients said: 'In a single phrase, three mysteries must be contained; in each mystery, three essentials must be present'? What did the ancients mean by saying this? The goose king separates out the milk; naturally, it is no duck."

Since I have already shared some material from the Sayings of Ancient Worthies, I thought I would share the Preface which I think is pretty interesting. And because I know how much everyone enjoys long complicated posts featuring LLM generated translations and little direct exposition.

---

過去如是如是，見在如是如是，未來如是如是。幸自可憐生，無端

黃面老漢拈花瞬目，金色頭陀忍俊脫頥，不覺漏泄。一人傳虗，萬

人傳實，何時而已哉？人根有利鈍，故機語有開斂。鍼砭藥餌，膏

肓頓起，縱橫展拓，太虗不痕。雖古人用過，時無古今。死路活

行，死棊活著，觀照激發，如龍得水。故曰：言語載道之器，雖佛

祖不得而廢也。七佛偈及西天此土三十三傳，枝出派列，莫知其

幾。授受證據，洎夫抑揚示誨，見於傳燈，而多有載不盡者，往往

散落。

異時有頥藏主者，旁蒐廣採，僅得南泉而下二十二家示眾機語。厥

後又得雲門．真淨．佛眼．佛照等數家，總曰古尊宿語。非止乎此

也，據其所搜採而言耳。

夫古人得親故用親，行到故說到。其所說者，如國家兵器，不得已

而用之。從上為人，只貴眼正是。豈末流刻楮畵花，雕蚶鏤蛤，瞎

學者眼，所可同日語。

The past was thus and thus.
The present is thus and thus.
The future will be thus and thus.

Fortunately, it was already pitiable enough on its own — then, for no reason, that old yellow-faced fellow held up a flower and blinked his eyes. The golden-headed ascetic could not suppress a smile and his jaw came loose. Without realizing it, the matter leaked out.

One person transmitted an emptiness; ten thousand people transmitted it as something real. When will it ever stop?

People’s capacities have sharpness and dullness, and so the words used in response to circumstances have openings and closures. Needles, cauteries, medicines, and remedies: with them, even a mortal illness suddenly gets up. Freely extending in every direction, they leave no trace in the great void.

Although the ancients used them, time itself has no ancient or modern. On a dead road, one walks alive. With a dead chess position, one makes a living move. Observation and illumination arouse and activate, like a dragon gaining water.

Therefore it is said: “Words are vessels that carry the Way.” Even the Buddhas and Patriarchs could not discard them.

The verses of the Seven Buddhas, and the thirty-three transmissions from India to this land, branching out into lines and schools — who knows how many there are? The records of transmission and reception, the evidence of realization, and also the suppressions and elevations, the instructions and admonitions, are seen in the Transmission of the Lamp. Yet much of it could not be fully recorded, and often became scattered and lost.

At another time there was a head monk named Yi, who searched widely and gathered broadly. He obtained only the public instructions and encounter-dialogues of twenty-two houses from Nanquan onward. Later, he also obtained several more houses, including Yunmen, Zhenjing, Foyan, and Fozhao. Altogether these were called Sayings of the Ancient Worthies. This was not the limit of the matter; it only refers to what he had managed to search out and collect.

Now, the ancients had personally realized it, and therefore used it personally. They had walked to the place, and therefore spoke from the place.

What they said was like the weapons of a state: used only when there was no other choice. From the beginning, in dealing with people, what they valued was only that the eye be correct.

How could this be spoken of in the same breath as the later degenerates who carve paper leaves, paint flowers, engrave clams and carve shells, blinding the eyes of students?

覺心居士出善女倫，秉烈丈夫志操，不為富貴所障、世相所縻，著

淨名衣，坐空生室，安住正受，動靜提撕，是孰使之然哉？謂頥所

編古尊宿語刊于閩中，而板亦漫矣。兩浙叢林得之惟艱，勇捐己資

鋟梓流通，命禪衲精校重楷，不鄙索序。噫！亦異矣。昔月上女抗

舍利弗發明大涅槃，菴提遮對曼殊室利不生生、不死死義，達磨來

震旦以後，其間善女、等倫、橫機諸大老發明向上者多矣。近世秦

國計氏與夫空室道人皆以鍾鼎家世而為般若眷屬，今覺心則發揮古

宿機語以遺佛種，無二無二分、無別無斷故。

覺心魏氏，紹興丞相文節公孫，余文昌之室。先瑩住林菴虗席，命

慈林解無言者攝。解催請主菴人，覺心著語云：菴主只在菴中，為

甚麼不見？道有又無，道無却有。又不近，又不遠，舉頭鷂子過新

羅。參得著，喫盌麫。餘偈語多有，皆不計較而得，則日用中無非

禪悅法喜之樂矣。併見于此。

旹聖宋咸湻丁卯春清明日，江浙等處明州府阿育王山廣利禪寺住持

沙門物初大觀序。唐宋諸碩師，傳佛心宗，道大德備。室中垂示勘

辨，學者徵拈代別，皆有機語流布寰中久矣。惟傳燈一書，甞賜入

藏。諸師之語，傳燈不能備載者，有賾公藏主別集南泉．趙州．黃

檗．臨濟．雲門．真淨．佛眼．東山二十餘家，總若干卷，題之曰

古尊宿語，實有補於宗門。

The laywoman Juexin came forth from among the ranks of good women, yet she held the fierce resolve and integrity of a great man. She was not obstructed by wealth and rank, nor entangled by worldly appearances. She wore Vimalakīrti’s robe and sat in Subhūti’s room. Abiding peacefully in right absorption, whether active or still, she kept herself alert and lifted up.

Who caused her to be this way?

She said that the Sayings of the Ancient Worthies, compiled by Yi, had been printed in Fujian, but that the printing blocks had already become blurred and worn. In the monasteries of Liangzhe, obtaining the text was very difficult. So she courageously donated her own funds to have new blocks carved and the text circulated. She ordered Chan monks to collate it carefully and recopy it in standard script, and she did not disdain to ask me for a preface.

Ah! This too is remarkable.

In the past, the Maiden Candrottarā challenged Śāriputra and clarified great nirvāṇa. Amṛtā answered Mañjuśrī on the meaning of “the unborn born” and “the undying dead.” After Bodhidharma came to China, among good women and their peers there were many great elders who, with spontaneous functioning, clarified the matter beyond.

In recent times, Lady Ji of Qin-guo and also the Daoist of the Empty Room both came from households of bells and tripods, yet became members of the family of prajñā. Now Juexin brings forth and illuminates the encounter-words of the ancient worthies in order to leave them to the seed of Buddha — because there is no duality, no division into two; no separation, no cutting off.

Juexin is of the Wei clan, a descendant of the Shaoxing-era Chancellor Wenjie, and the wife of Yu Wenchang.

When the ancestral grave-site Lin’an hermitage was vacant, she invited Cilin Xie Wuyan to take charge of it. Xie urged her to invite a resident hermitage-master. Juexin made this saying:

“The hermitage-master is right there in the hermitage. Why is he not seen? Say he exists, and yet he does not. Say he does not exist, and yet he does. He is neither near nor far. Raise your head — a hawk has flown past Silla. If you can investigate and get it, eat a bowl of noodles.”

There are many other verses and sayings of hers. They were all attained without calculation or contrivance. Thus, in daily use, there was nothing that was not the joy of Chan and the delight of Dharma. These are included here as well.

Written on Qingming day in the spring of dingmao, in the Xianchun era of the sacred Song, by the śramaṇa Wuchu Daguan, abbot of Guangli Chan Monastery on Mount Ayuwang, Mingzhou Prefecture, Jiangzhe and other circuits.

The eminent masters of the Tang and Song transmitted the mind-school of the Buddha. Their Way was great and their virtue complete. Their instructions and examinations within the room, and the students’ citations, takings-up, substitutions, and distinctions, all had encounter-words that circulated throughout the world for a long time.

Only the single work Transmission of the Lamp was once granted entry into the canon. But the sayings of the various masters could not be fully included in the Transmission of the Lamp. So the head monk Zegong separately collected more than twenty houses, including Nanquan, Zhaozhou, Huangbo, Linji, Yunmen, Zhenjing, Foyan, and Dongshan, totaling a number of fascicles. He titled it Sayings of the Ancient Worthies. It truly supplements the Chan school.