46Jingqing's Raindrops

Introduction 垂示

一槌便成，超凡越聖；片言可折，去縛解粘。如氷凌上行，劍刃上走，聲色堆裏坐，聲色頭上行。縱橫妙用則且置，剎那便去時如何？試舉看。

One blow and you're past the saints, beyond the ordinary. A word or two, and the knot slips, the glue lets go. It is walking a ridge of ice, running the edge of a sword. Sit down in the thick of all the sights and sounds; walk right over the top of them. Set the free and easy play of it aside for now. What about the moment you cut clean through, all at once? Let's look.

鏡清問僧：「門外是什麼聲？」僧云：「雨滴聲。」清云：「眾生顛倒，迷己逐物。」僧云：「和尚作麼生？」清云：「洎不迷己。」僧云：「洎不迷己，意旨如何？」清云：「出身猶可易，脫體道應難。」

Jingqing asked a monk, "What's that sound outside the gate?"
The monk said, "Raindrops."
Jingqing said, "People have it backwards. They lose themselves and go chasing things."
The monk said, "And you?"
Jingqing said, "I came close to not losing myself."
The monk said, "'Close to not losing myself' — what does that mean?"
Jingqing said, "Getting yourself out is easy enough. Saying it with your whole body, that's the hard part."

Verse 頌

虛堂雨滴聲，
作者難酬對。
若謂曾入流，
依前還不會。
曾不會，
南山北山轉𩃎霈。

Rain on the empty hall.
Even a master can hardly answer.
Say you once entered the stream:
you still don't get it, same as before.
Never got it at all,
and south hill, north hill, the rain comes harder.