英漢對照大慧禅师书信.doc

Preface
This book gives a translation of some letters and lectures on Ch'an by the great teacher Ta Hui. His remarks translated from Chinese here were in the main addressed to people in lay life, so the emphasis is on ways by which people immersed in worldly doings can learn Ch'an and achieve the liberation promised by Buddha. Though more than eight hundred years have passed since Ta Hui lived, the gist of his message is not bound to any particular time, place, or mode of expression---hopefully his words will still hit home and help people of today to unfold their potential.
About the Author
Ta Hui was born into the cosmopolitan world of the Sung dynasty. It was an age when both rationalistic philosophy and practical invention flourished, when printed books multiplied and the arts reached a mature sophistication still admired today. Communication and commerce intensified: five Chinese cities had populations over a million. Talents from all over the country were drawn to the brilliant circles in the imperial capital.
This was no charmed golden age, unself-conscious and unquestioning. The political sensibilities of many upper-class Chinese were affronted by the relative weakness of the dynasty towards the powerful "barbarian" states pressing in on the northeast and northwest, and reform measures to strengthen the government and augment its revenue were great issues of controvesy among gentlemen of affairs. The productive classes felt the pressure directly, as it was they who had to finance the swollen, ineffective army, and the heavy payments of silver and silk sent as tribute to the enemy. Pressure of taxation undercut the position of the small producers, more and more of whom had to give up their independence for the patronage of a big landlord who could fend off the tax burden through political pull. As the government tried to increase its revenue, it succeeded more in driving the nation's wealth beyond its own reach into powerful private hands, while millions of little people were deprived of their livelihood altogether.
Finally in the 1120s the dam broke. In 1126 the forces of the "barbarian" Chin state to the northeast captured the capital, Pien, along with the reigning emperor, his retired father, and a large number of high officials and top courtiers. Soon the Chin had set up their own puppets over vast stretches of China north of the Yangtse, and even the cities of south China were not immune from their raids. The Sung government regrouped around a new emperor and a new capital in the south, and eventually settled on a policy of acquiescence to Chin rule over north China. The old capital of the Northern Sung became the capital of the Chin (Pien, the modern K'aifeng, just south of the Yellow River) while the Southern Sung ruled from Lin An (the morden Hangchou, in Chekiang).
Ch'an Buddhism by Sung times was outwardly flourishing: it had arrived culturally and socially. The impact of Ch'an teaching and style had been felt up to the highest level of society, and many highly placed gentlemen of affairs considered themselves adherents. When Ta Hui lived some four hundred years had passed since the early greats of Ch'an's florescence had "opened mountains," clearing land in remote spots with their followers to farm for their livelihood. Now there were large official establishments, with revenues assigned by the state. Recognized adepts could be summoned by imperial "invitation" to take up residence and teach at these centers. Control over the possessions and capital of these places could become the object of conflicing desires and power struggles: established Buddhism was certainly not free of the taint of worldly ambition. Ta Hui's teacher Yuan Wu often exclaimed how numerous phony Ch'an followers had become.
Ta Hui was born in 1088 in Hsuan Ch'eng, just south of the Yangtse River in Anwhei, a son of the Hsi family. At school he soon showed a preference for Buddhism over worldly studies. Even at an early age he was considered remarkable throughout the vicinity. At the age of sixteen he left home; at seventeen, he "dropped his hair," having his head shaved as a monk.
He took delight in the doings of the Ch'an school, and read through the records of all the houses (the "Five Houses" named for classic masters of Ch'an; Kuei-Yang, Lin Chi, Ts'ao Tung, Yun Men, and Fa Yen). He especially liked the words of Yun Men and (his teacher) Mu Chou. But he had doubts about the five sects: since originally there had been but one Bodhidharma, why were there so many schools? By nature he was exceptionally talented and not bound by convention.
At nineteen Ta Hui began his travels, following the traditional practice in Ch'an of visiting the various communities and seeking instruction from the teachers there. Even at this early age, Ta Tui would be taken for a later embodiment of previous Ch'an Masters. From one he sought instruction on Hsueh Tou's hundred verses eulogizing the ancients (Hsueh Tou's verse comments on one hundred well-known public cases of Ch'an, which became the kernel of the Blue Cliff Record of Ta Hui's teacher, Yuan Wu). The teacher would not offer a word of explanation, but made Ta Hui express his own view: in every case Ta Hui completely comprehended the subtle meaning. The older master exclaimed, "You must be someone who's come again!"
From long contact with the Ts'ao-Tung tradition communities, Ta Hui understood their message thoroughly, but he saw the formalized, ceremonious way they certified the transmission, and repudiated it, thinking to himself, "If there were transmission in Ch'an, how could this be the self-realized, self-awakened-to Dharma of the ancestral teachers?"
Later he was directed to go to Master Chun of Chan T'ang. When Ta Hui first got there his intellectualism was unrestrained. One day Chan T'ang asked, "Why are your nostrils boundless today?" Ta Hui replied, "(Because) I'm at your place." T'ang said, "You phony Ch'an man."
Again, when Ta Hui was reading a scripture, Chan T'ang asked, "What scripture are you reading?" He answered, "The Diamond Sutra." T'ang said, " 'This Dharma is everywhere equal, without high or low.' Why is Yun Chu Mountain high and Pao Feng Mountain Low?" Ta Hui replied, " 'This Dharma is everywhere equal, without high or low.' " T'ang said, "You could be a lecturer's assistant."
One day Chan T'ang said, "Reverend Kao (Ta Hui's initiatory name was Tsung Kao), you understood my Ch'an here at once. When I had you explain, you could explain, and when I had you give informal talks or general lectures commenting on and extolling the ancients, you could do that too. There's just one thing that's not there: do you know what?" Ta Hui answered, "What?" T'ang said, "You only lack this one liberation that's in the burst of power. If you don't get this one liberation, there's Ch'an while I'm talking with you in private, but as soon as you leave the private room, there's not; there's Ch'an while you're awake and thinking, but as soon as you fall asleep, there's not. If you're like this, how can you be a match for birth and death?" Ta Hui replied, "This is precisely my point of doubt."
When Chan T'ang was extremely ill, Ta Hui asked him, "If you don't recover, whom should I take as a teacher so I can complete this great affair?" T'ang said, "There's a fellow from Szechuan named Ch'in (Yuan Wu's initiatory name was K'e Ch'in). Though I don't know him, you must place your reliance in him, and you'll be able to complete your affair. If you see him without completely comprehending, then go on practicing, and in a later life you'll appear and learn Ch'an."
When Ta Hui met him, Yuan Wu was staying at T'ien Ning Monastery (in the imperial capital, Pien). On his way there Ta Hui said to himself, "I'll make nine summers the time limit: if his Ch'an is no different from the other places, and he falsely considers himself right, then I'll write that there is no Ch'an. A great scripture or treatise is better than wasting energy and getting bogged down for years. By cultivating the fundamentals, I'll not slip from being a man of the Buddha Dharma in future lives." When he got to see Yuan Wu, he was asking for instruction all day long.
Yuan Wu brought up Yun Men's saying, "East Mountain walks on the water," and had Ta Hui come to grips with it. Ta Hui offered some forty-nine replies but Yuan Wu didn't approve. One day Yuan Wu had gone up to his seat (to teach the assembly), and he cited Yun Men's words and said, "I am not this way. If someone asks, 'What is the place where all the buddhas appear?' I just say to them, 'From the south comes a fragrant wind, producing a slight chill in the recesses of the palace.' "Hearing this, Ta Hui emptied out, and thought he was enlightened. Yuan Wu investigated and found that though Ta Hui had managed to get before and after cut off, so the aspect of motion does not arise, yet he was settling down in purity and nakedness. He told Ta Hui, "It wasn't easy for you to get to this stage---too bad that having died, you are unable to come back to life. Without a doubt, words and phrases are a great disease, but haven't you seen the saying
Hanging from a cliff, let go---
And agree to accept the experience.
After annihilation, come back to life---
I couldn't deceive you.
You must be aware that this truth exists." Ta Hui said, "Just based on today's attainment, I'm already joyous and lively; I can't understand any more."
Yuan Wu directed Ta Hui to spend time receiving and conversing with gentlemen of affairs who came calling. Whenever Ta Hui entered his room for private instruction, Yuan Wu brought up the same saying every time: "Having words or wordlessness, both are like clinging vines on the tree." Questioning him with this, Yuan Wu would immediately say "Wrong, that's not it!" as soon as Ta Hui opened his mouth. Ta Hui said, "This truth is like a dog looking at a pan of hot oil, wanting to taste it but unable to, wanting to give it up but unable to." Yuan Wu said, "You've described it very well---this is the unbreakable trap, the thicket of thorns."
One day Ta Hui said, "I hear that when you were at Wu Tsu's you asked about this saying. I wonder what Wu Tsu said." Yuan Wu laughed but did not answer. Ta Hui said, "At the time you must have asked in front of the assembly: what's stopping you from saying it now?" Yuan Wu said, "I asked the meaning of 'Having words or wordlessness, both are like clinging vines on the tree.' Wu Tsu said, 'Describe it and it can't be described completely, depict it and it can't be depicted accurately.' I also asked, 'How is it when the tree falls and the vines wither?' Wu Tsu said, 'It comes along with it.' " At these words, Ta Hui was released, saying, "I understand." So then Yuan Wu brought up several particularly difficult cases in order to question Ta Hui, who replied to them all without getting stuck. Yuan Wu said, "At last I know I haven't been deceiving you." After Yuan Wu accepted him as the heir to the true school of Lin Chi.
After his great penetration, Ta Hui went back to several figure in Ch'an he had doubts about and asked Yuan Wu about them. Yuan Wu said, "My Ch'an here is like a great ocean: to get it right, you have to take a great ocean and pour it in. If you just take a bowl, fill it with a little, and stop there, it's that your capacity is only like this---what would you have me do about it? Only a few can reach your level. There was one equal to you (among my students), but he has already died."
Before long Yuan Wu had divided the teaching duties with Ta Hui (showing that Yuan Wu considered his attainment full enough for Ta Hui to be fit to guide others). Soon Ta Hui was widely esteemed throughout the Ch'an communities. He came to the notice of a high minister and was given a purple robe and the name "Buddha Sun" as sign of imperial honor.
When the Chin forces took the Sung capital in 1126, Ta Hui was well enough known to be on their list; he had to flee south to avoid being part of the booty. The new emperor Kao Tsung "invited" Yuan Wu to take up residence at Yun Chu Monastery (just west of Nan Ch'ang City in Kiangsi). Ta Hui himself went there, and Yuan Wu invited him to be the head monk. Once a Ch'an Master came forth from the assembly and asked, "How is it when the sword is hanging (right over you pointed) right between your eyes?" Ta Hui said, "The blood squirts up to heaven." From below the (teacher's) seat, Yuan Wu held him back with his hand saying, "Stop! stop! Well asked, even more amazingly answered."
Whenever Ta Hui entered Yuan Wu's teaching room, Yuan Wu would always listen to his words. Afterwards one day, as they were going to their private quarters, Yuan Wu said, "If there were a Ch'an man like me, how would you deal with him?" Ta Hui said, "What unexpected good fortune if there were! As Tung P'o said, having been an executioner all my life, when I meet a fat fellow, I slice." Yuan Wu laughed loudly and said, "Rather it's you who should enter the room with me (and be my teacher)---you've pinned me to the wall." (By tradition in Ch'an only those who surpassed their teachers were really worthy heirs.)
Yuan Wu also asked Ta Hui how he'd transmit Bodhidharma's coming from the West. Ta Hui said, "I shouldn't always be making up wild fox spirit views." (A "wild fox spirit" is a metaphor for someone with unrestrained freedom of action, but it also carries a negative sense of one who indulges in cleverness.)

Yuan Wu also asked, "Sitting on the tiger's head, gathering in the tiger's tail, understanding the source meaning at the first phrase---what is the first (highest, supreme) phrase?" Ta Hui said, "This is the second phrase."
Yuan Wu often said that in recent times Ch'an had become just a cliche, a nest, for most of the people in the various communities of seekers. But Ta Hui he deeply approved, and considered him the lone worthy successor to the lineage coming through Yuan Wu's teacher, Wu Tsu Fa Yen.
When Yuan Wu returned to his native Szechuan, Ta Hui stayed on, building himself a hut behind Yun Chu Mountain. Students flocked to him. Later he transferred his teaching activities to the southeast, to Fukien. In 1137 he received an imperial summons to dwell in a Ch'an temple on Ching Shan Mountain, near the new imperial capital Lin An (Hangchou). Within a year over a thousand disciples had gathered, and Ta Hui was becoming known as the great reviver of Lin Chi Ch'an. Another year, and the congregation surpassed seventeen hundred.
High circles in the government were rent with dissension over whether to go on the offensive against the Chin and try to reconquer northern China, or to be content with consolidating their southern domain. Repercussions of this political struggle reached Ta Hui when a high courtier with whom he was acquainted ran afoul of the prime minister for opposing his capitulationist policies, so that he and all his supposed supporters were sent into exile. T