92The Buddha Takes His Seat

Introduction 垂示

動絃別曲，千載難逢；見兔放鷹，一時取俊。總一切語言為一句，攝大千沙界為一塵，同死同生，七穿八穴。還有證據者麼？試舉看。

Pluck one string and the master hears the whole song. A chance like this comes once in a thousand years. Spot the rabbit, loose the hawk, and take it in a single stroke. Pack every word ever spoken into one phrase. Squeeze a billion worlds into one speck of dust. Live together, die together, riddled through with openings on every side. Is there anyone here who can back this up? Let's see.

世尊一日陞座，文殊白槌云：「諦觀法王法，法王法如是。」世尊便下座。

One day the Buddha took his seat. Manjushri struck the gavel and announced, "Look closely at the Dharma of the King of Dharma. The Dharma of the King of Dharma is just this." The Buddha rose and left.

Verse 頌

列聖叢中作者知，
法王法令不如斯。
會中若有仙陀客，
何必文殊下一槌。

Among the ranked sages, the true adept knows:
the King of Dharma's law runs deeper than that show.
Had one sharp guest been sitting in the crowd,
why would Manjushri ever strike the gavel?

Pointer

The Buddha climbs up to deliver a sermon. Manjushri, the bodhisattva who stands for wisdom in these stories, bangs the gavel to call the hall to order and announces, in effect, here is the teaching, look at this. And the Buddha stands up and walks off without a word. That is the entire case. The silence was already the sermon, complete before anyone spoke, and Manjushri's announcement, correct as it is, lands one beat late and one word heavy: he is narrating what is already obvious. This echoes Vimalakirti's wordless answer a few cases back (84), the same suspicion that the truest teaching is the one nobody managed to say. The verse needles Manjushri outright: if even one person in the crowd had really been awake, there would have been no need for the gavel or the speech at all. So what exactly did the gavel interrupt?