93Luzu Doesn't Get It魯祖不會

Introduction 示眾

荊珍抵鵲，老鼠□金。不識其寶，不得其用。還有頓省衣珠底麼？

A priceless gem looks like a common stone. A rat squats on a heap of gold. They own the treasure but don't know it, hold it but can't use it. Is anyone here who can wake on the spot to the jewel sewn into his own robe?

魯祖問南泉：「摩尼珠人不識，如來藏裏親收得。如何是藏？」泉云：「王老師與汝往來者是。」祖云：「不往來者？」泉云：「亦是藏。」祖云：「如何是珠？」泉召云：「師祖！」祖應諾。泉云：「去！汝不會我語。」

Luzu asked Nanquan, "The mani jewel is the thing no one recognizes, yet here in the womb of the Buddha you can take hold of it directly. What is that womb?"

Nanquan said, "It's me, coming and going with you."

Luzu said, "And what does not come and go?"

Nanquan said, "That too is the womb."

Luzu said, "Then what is the jewel?"

Nanquan called out, "Luzu!"

Luzu answered, "Yes?"

Nanquan said, "Get out. You don't understand a word I say."

Verse 頌

別是非，明得喪，
應之心指諸掌。
往來不往來，
只這俱是藏。
輪王賞之有功，
黃帝得之罔象。
轉樞機，能伎倆，
明眼衲僧無鹵莽。

Sort right from wrong, settle gain against loss;
answer from the heart, and it lies in your palm.
Coming, going, not coming and going,
the whole of it is the womb.
The wheel-turning king rewards what has merit;
the Yellow Emperor's lost pearl was found by the Formless.
Working the pivot, playing every move with ease,
the clear-eyed monk is never clumsy.

Pointer

Luzu and Nanquan are Tang-dynasty Chan teachers. The "mani jewel" is a wish-granting gem from Buddhist lore, standing here for your own buddha-nature, the thing you already carry but keep failing to notice. The "womb of the Buddha" (tathagatagarbha) is the teaching that this nature is stowed inside everyone, treasure in a junk heap. Luzu keeps trying to corner the jewel as an object he can point at and define: what is the womb, what comes and goes, what doesn't. Nanquan plays along until the last beat, when he simply barks Luzu's name; Luzu answers "yes" on reflex, and that immediate live response is the jewel. Luzu misses it, still scanning for a thing to hold, so Nanquan throws him out. The setup is close kin to Nanquan's peony (case 91): the marvel is the thing right in front of you, not the doctrine you can recite about it.