公案 · kōan

20Dizang's "I Don't Know"地藏親切

Introduction 示眾

入理深談,嘲三攞四;長安大道,七縱八橫。忽然開口說破,舉步踏著,便可高掛鉢囊,拗折拄杖。且道:誰是其人?

Talk deep enough into the truth and you start tripping over your own words. The great highway runs straight to the capital, wide open every way you turn. But the moment you open your mouth to pin it down, the moment you take a step, you've stepped on it. Get this, and you can hang up your begging bowl and snap your staff in two. So tell me: who is that person?

地藏問法眼:「上座何往?」眼云:「迤邐行脚。」藏云:「行脚事作麼生?」眼云:「不知。」藏云:「不知最親切。」眼豁然大悟。

Dizang asked Fayan, "Where are you headed?"
Fayan said, "Just wandering, on pilgrimage."
Dizang said, "What's the point of all this wandering?"
Fayan said, "I don't know."
Dizang said, "Not knowing. Now that's the most intimate thing of all."
And Fayan woke wide open.

Verse 頌

而今參飽似當時, 脫盡簾纖到不知。 任短任長休剪綴, 隨高隨下自平治。 家門豐儉臨時用, 田地優游信步移。 三十年前行脚事, 分明辜負一雙眉。
Now I've trained my fill, the same as I was back then, stripped past the last loose thread, down to not-knowing. Short or long, leave it be: no trimming, no patching. High ground or low, it levels itself. Rich house or lean, you use what the moment hands you; the open field, you roam it, your feet going where they go. Thirty years gone, that pilgrimage business, and plain as day, I let down this pair of eyebrows.