48Qianfeng's One Road乾峰一路
乾峰和尚因僧問。十方薄伽梵。一路涅槃門。未審路頭在甚麼處。峰拈起拄杖。劃一劃云。在者裏。後僧請益雲門。門拈起扇子云。扇子勃跳。上三十三天。築著帝釋鼻孔。東海鯉魚打一棒。雨似盆傾。
A monk asked Master Qianfeng, "The buddhas of all directions — one road, the gate to nirvana. Where does that road begin?"
Qianfeng lifted his staff, drew a line in the air, and said, "Right here."
Later the monk took the question to Yunmen. Yunmen held up his fan and said, "This fan leaps up to the highest heaven and bonks the king of the gods on the nose. One whack, and the carp in the Eastern Sea pours down rain by the bucketful."
Verse 頌曰
未舉步時先已到
未動舌時先說了
直饒著著在機先
更須知有向上竅
從上佛祖垂示機緣。據款結案。初無剩語。揭翻腦蓋。露出眼睛。肯要諸人直下承當不從他覓。若是通方上士。纔聞舉著。便知落處。了無門戶可入。亦無階級可升。掉臂度關。不問關吏。豈不見玄沙道。無門解脫之門。無意道人之意。又白雲道明明知道。只是者箇為甚麼。透不過。恁麼說話。也是赤土搽牛嬭。若透得無門關。早是鈍置無門。若透不得無門關。亦乃辜負自己。所謂涅槃心易曉。差別智難明。明得差別智。家國自安寧。
時。紹定改元解制前五日。楊岐八世孫無門比丘慧開謹識。
無門關卷【終】。
Before you take a step, you've already arrived.
Before your tongue moves, it's all been said.
Even a beat ahead of every move,
you still must know there's a hole that opens upward.
The buddhas and ancestors before us handed down these challenges. I've judged each case strictly on the evidence, adding nothing. I've pried off the top of my skull and laid my eyeballs bare, wanting you to grasp it directly, for yourself, not chase after it from someone else. If you're the real article, the instant you hear it raised you'll know where it lands. There's no gate to walk through, no rung to climb. You swing your arms and stroll past the checkpoint without asking the guard a thing.
Haven't you heard Xuansha say, "No gate is the gate to freedom; no mind is the mind of the person of the Way"? And Baiyun said, "Plain as day, you know exactly what it is, so why can't you get through?" Talk like this is smearing red clay on milk and calling it cream. Break through the Gateless Gate and you've already made a fool of Wumen. Fail to break through and you've let yourself down. As they say: the nirvana mind is easy to grasp; the wisdom that tells things apart is hard to make clear. Master that wisdom of distinctions, and your house and your country settle into peace of their own accord.
Five days before the lifting of the summer retreat, in the first year of the Shaoding era, respectfully recorded by the monk Wumen Huikai, eighth-generation heir of Yangqi.
End of the Gateless Gate.
Wumen's Comment 無門曰
一人向深深海底。行簸土揚塵。一人於高高山頂。立白浪滔天。把定放行各出一隻手。扶豎宗乘。大似兩箇馳子相撞著。世上應無直底人。正眼觀來。二大老總未識路頭在。
One man goes to the bottom of the sea and kicks up clouds of dust. The other stands on the highest peak and whips up waves that swamp the sky. One pins you down, one turns you loose, and each throws out a single hand to hold the teaching upright. They're like two runners slamming into each other head-on. In this whole world, nobody runs a straight course. But look with a clear eye: neither of these two old masters ever found where the road begins.