10Zhaozhou Takes Questions示眾

師示眾云：「老僧此間即以本分事接人。若教老僧隨伊根機接人，自有三乘十二分教接他了也。若是不會，是誰過歟？已後遇著作家漢，也道老僧不辜他。但有人問，以本分事接人。」問：「從上至今即心是佛，不即心還許學人商量也無？」師云：「即心且置，商量箇什麼？」問：「古鏡不磨，還照也無？」師云：「前生是因，今生是果。」問：「三刀未落時如何？」師云：「森森地。」云：「落後如何？」師云：「迥迥地。」問：「如何是出三界底人？」師云：「籠□不得。」問：「牛頭未見四祖，百鳥銜花供養；見後為什麼百鳥不銜花供養？」師云：「應世不應世。」問：「白雲自在時如何？」師云：「爭似春風處處閑。」問：「如何是露地白牛？」師云：「月下不用色。」云：「食噉何物？」師云：「古今嚼不著。」云：「請師答話。」師云：「老僧合與麼。」

Zhaozhou addressed the assembly: "Around here I meet people with the real thing, straight up. If you wanted me to meet you where you are, measured out to fit your capacity, well, that's what the whole canon is for, the three vehicles, the twelve divisions. Let those handle it. And if you still don't get it, whose fault is that? Down the road, if I run into someone who actually has it, that one will say old Zhaozhou never shortchanged him. So go ahead. Ask. I deal in the real thing."

A monk asked, "From the old days down to now they've said, 'This very mind is Buddha.' Drop the 'this very mind,' and is there still something for me to chew on?"
Zhaozhou said, "Set the mind aside. Chew on what?"

A monk asked, "The ancient mirror, left unpolished, does it still reflect?"
Zhaozhou said, "Your last life was the cause. This life is the result."

A monk asked, "The moment before the three blades fall, what then?"
Zhaozhou said, "Thick and dense."
"And after they've fallen?"
Zhaozhou said, "Wide open, clear."

A monk asked, "Who is the one that breaks out of the three realms?"
Zhaozhou said, "No cage can hold him."

A monk asked, "Before Niutou met the Fourth Patriarch, the birds brought him flowers. After he met him, why did the birds stop?"
Zhaozhou said, "He answers the world, or he doesn't."

A monk asked, "When the white cloud drifts free, what's that like?"
Zhaozhou said, "How does it beat the spring wind, idling everywhere it goes?"

A monk asked, "What is the white ox in the open field?"
Zhaozhou said, "Under the moon, no need for color."
"What does it eat?"
Zhaozhou said, "Past and present, it never bit down on a thing."
"Then answer me straight, master."
Zhaozhou said, "This is me answering straight."

Pointer

Zhaozhou opens by drawing a hard line: he won't meter out beginner doctrine to suit your level, since the whole canon already exists for that. He deals only in the bare fact in front of you, and if you miss it the fault is yours. Then the stock ideas come and he swats each one. "This very mind is Buddha" is Mazu's famous slogan; the monk tries to be clever by subtracting the mind, and Zhaozhou refuses the game. The "ancient mirror, unpolished" is a classic figure for the pure mind under its grime, and where the monk wants metaphysics, Zhaozhou hands back plain cause and effect. Niutou was a hermit so holy that birds reportedly brought him flowers, until he woke up and left no trace for the birds to find, so they stopped, which is Zhaozhou's wry standard for real attainment: it disappears rather than glows. The "white ox in the open field" is a sutra image for the fully awakened person, nothing hidden, out where anyone could see. Every time a monk reaches for a concept to hold, Zhaozhou closes the hand.