12Ruiyan Calls 'Master'巖喚主人

瑞巖彥和尚。每日自喚主人公。復自應諾。乃云。惺惺著喏。他時異日。莫受人瞞。喏喏。

Every day Master Yan of Ruiyan would call out to himself, "Master!" — and answer himself, "Yes."
Then: "Stay awake!"
"Yes."
"And from now on, day in and day out, don't let anyone fool you."
"Yes, yes."

Wumen's Comment 無門曰

瑞巖老子自買自賣。弄出許多神頭鬼面。何故聾一箇喚底。一箇應底。一箇惺惺底。一箇不受人瞞底。認著依前還不是。若也傚他。總是野狐見解。

Old Ruiyan runs his own shop, buying from himself and selling to himself. And look at all the masks he hauls out: one face does the calling, one the answering, one says stay awake, one says don't get fooled. Take any of those for the real thing and you're still wide of the mark. And if you go and copy him? Nothing but wild-fox tricks.

Verse 頌曰

學道之人不識真
只為從前認識神
無量劫來生死本
癡人喚作本來人

People who chase the Way never see what's true:
all along they've banked on the mind that thinks.
That mind is the root of endless birth and death,
and the fool calls it his original face.

Pointer

Ruiyan spent his days, by his own account, in conversation with himself: he'd shout "Master!", answer "Yes," then coach himself to stay sharp and not get conned. It sounds like a sturdy practice, a constant check-in. The catch is that "Master" he keeps phoning. It's easy to assume some true inner self is in there picking up, the real you sitting behind the thoughts. The verse names that assumption as precisely the error: the voice doing the calling and the answering is just the chattering thinking mind, and mistaking it for your actual nature is what keeps the whole wheel of birth and death turning. Wumen's warning is blunt: admire Ruiyan all you like, but the second you turn his self-talk into an imitation routine, it's a wild-fox trick (the same dead copying that costs the boy in case 3).