靈瑞禪師嵒花集敘
Preface to the Collection of Cliff Flowers by Chan Master Lingrui
臨濟之道迥出嘗情，諸佛玅理非關文字，若但向筆峰墨海間浮沉上下，豈止湮沒法身，即名身、句身亦胥淪喪。《首稜嚴經》中佛語阿難：「汝等若以緣心聽法，此法亦緣如來無礙境界；若用有思惟心領攬，如人以手撮摩虛空，秪益疲勞，終無得也。」況我祖師門下，言如雷火，搓之而一點隨游；事比蟾輝，唱之而孤輪不墜。直須以心中眼觀身外相，觀之又觀，乃辨真偽，徒以名位楷模、形言區別，豈真具擇法眼、善知知識者哉？讀靈瑞大師語，足可隳情城、裂見網，龍種飛騰原出牝牡驪黃之外，若執常經以相皮毛，是知駑駘而不識騏驥，未可與語鞭風策電之機也。師少警敏，具大根性，得記靈嵒開法玅湛，其上堂錄已板行于世。茲集蓋居靈瑞日，與從上諸老眉毛廝結，激揚酬對，代別徵拈，彙聚成編，命名《嵒華》，取雪竇顯和尚畣諸佛本源語也。眾生迷其源，法身流轉五道，若病眼之見空花；諸佛窮其源，惑業皆成智光，同淨水之含寶月。達磨骨髓、神光臂血，打下曹溪，混成滴水。至滹沱，其源益濬、其流益長，嚙雲噬空、滔天沃日，譬諸百川至海臻極，孰能窺其涯涘？曷可辨其端倪？除是金翅鳥王力量，擘開洪浪直取龍吞，餘皆望洋難與語大。若僅缽盂鐼子盛貯少許，充然止足，謂我得也得也，自是器量有限，又爭怪得？不聞古人有言：「汝若一悟便了，只將自己所見亞在胸臆，動即傷鋒犯手，出世為人不得。且道病在於何？只為大法未明、從上綱宗未透，雖有衲僧巴鼻、未具金剛眼睛，安能辨驗龍蛇、決擇倒正？」我靈瑞大師口門濤涌、舌底瀾翻，有時將全海攝入一滴，盡乾坤乾爆爆，棒打石人秪貴實論；有時將一滴散成全海，亙古今屙漉漉，不圖入水要見長人。果然出海自高，請看甚生標格？因他家曾向一手指天、一手指地，識得源頭起處，所以把住放行不離掌握。今人未達其源，只管隨波逐浪，那知總持一見不再見，猶在擊石火閃電光裏立生涯。末山路口接灌谿，也是山門外荒草堆頭行活計。無著油餈邊啖咂，至今綴齒粘牙；智通浴室裏商量，反覺添塵益垢。爭如此老一切不為應用，臨時得大自在，磨礱理窟、搜抉玄根，樹尼部之紀綱、剔禪宗之骨髓，如爇牛頭之香、如探驪頷之寶、如食甘露之味、如采靈瑞之華，真可謂出格全提、窮源玅指。且道憑個甚麼到此地位？大圓舌頭不在口裏，聊借古人一片與你說破：滔滔心地中流出，低處低平高處高，坎止流行皆未是，終歸大海作波濤。
The Way of Linji transcends ordinary feelings; the wondrous principles of all Buddhas are not bound by words. If one merely drifts up and down in the sea of brushstrokes and ink, not only will the Dharma-body be obscured, but even the names and phrases themselves will be lost. In the *Śūraṅgama Sūtra*, the Buddha tells Ānanda: "If you listen to the Dharma with a conditioned mind, this Dharma too becomes conditioned, contrary to the unimpeded realm of the Tathāgata. If you try to grasp it with a thinking mind, it is like a person trying to grasp empty space with their hand—it only increases fatigue and in the end gains nothing." How much more so in our ancestral gate, where words are like thunder and fire, and when rubbed, a single spark follows its course; where matters are like the radiance of the moon, and when sung, the solitary wheel does not fall. One must directly use the eye within the mind to observe the forms outside the body, observing and observing again, to discern truth from falsehood. To merely rely on fame, position, models, or distinctions of form and speech—how can that truly be the eye that selects the Dharma, the one who knows good teachers? Reading the words of Master Lingrui is enough to shatter the fortress of emotions and tear the net of views. The dragon's seed soars, originally beyond distinctions of male and female, black and yellow. If one clings to conventional standards to judge the surface, it is like knowing a nag but not recognizing a fine steed—such a person cannot be spoken to about the opportunity to whip the wind and spur the lightning.
The master was alert and intelligent from a young age, possessing great roots. He received the transmission at Lingyan and expounded the Dharma at Miaozhan. His records of ascending the hall have already been printed and circulated in the world. This collection comes from his time at Lingrui, where he engaged intimately with the elders of the past, stirring and responding, questioning and pointing, all gathered into a volume named *Yanhua* (Cliff Blossoms), taken from Master Xuedou Xian's reply about the source of all Buddhas. Sentient beings, deluded about their source, cause the Dharma-body to flow through the five paths, like a diseased eye seeing flowers in the sky. All Buddhas, penetrating their source, transform afflictions and karma into the light of wisdom, like pure water containing the precious moon. The marrow of Bodhidharma and the arm-blood of Shenguang were passed down to Caoxi, merging into a single drop of water. Reaching Hutuo, its source deepened and its flow lengthened, swallowing clouds and biting the sky, flooding the heavens and soaking the sun. It is like all rivers reaching the sea at their ultimate—who can glimpse its shores? How can one discern its beginning? Unless one has the power of the golden-winged bird king, splitting the great waves to seize and swallow the dragon, all others merely gaze at the ocean and cannot speak of its vastness. If one merely stores a little in a bowl or vessel, content and satisfied, saying, "I have attained, I have attained," this is naturally due to limited capacity—who else can be blamed? Have you not heard the ancients say: "If you awaken once and think it's done, merely holding your own view in your chest, moving then wounds the edge and offends the hand—you cannot guide others in the world. Tell me, where does the sickness lie? It is only because the great Dharma is not yet clear, the ancestral principles not yet penetrated. Though you may have the nose of a monk, you lack the diamond eye—how can you distinguish dragon from snake, decide what is upside-down or right-side-up?"
Our Master Lingrui—his mouth gate surges like waves, his tongue's depths churn with billows. Sometimes he gathers the entire ocean into a single drop, the whole universe dry and parched, beating a stone man—valuing only true discussion. Sometimes he scatters a single drop into the whole ocean, throughout past and present, dripping and oozing, not seeking to enter the water but to see the tall one. Truly, going out to sea, one naturally rises high. Please look—what manner of style is this? Because he once pointed one finger to heaven and one to earth, recognizing the source's place of arising, therefore holding and releasing never leave his grasp. People today, not yet reaching the source, just follow the waves and drift with the current—how would they know that the total grasp, once seen, is not seen again, still standing in the spark struck from stone, the flash of lightning, making a living. At the foot of Moshan's road, meeting Guanki, it's also doing daily tasks on the heap of wild grass outside the mountain gate. Wuzhuo, nibbling on oily rice cakes, to this day has them stuck between his teeth; Zhitong, discussing in the bathhouse, only adds more dust and grime. How can they compare to this elder, who does nothing yet applies it all, attaining great freedom in the moment? Grinding the cave of principle, searching out the mysterious root, establishing the discipline of the bhikṣuṇī order, clarifying the marrow of the Chan school—it is like burning ox-head incense, like probing for the treasure under the dragon's chin, like tasting the flavor of sweet dew, like picking the blossoms of Lingrui. Truly it can be called an extraordinary total lift, a wondrous finger pointing to the source. And tell me, relying on what does one reach this state? The great round tongue is not in the mouth. Let me borrow a piece from the ancients to explain it for you:
From the滔滔 heart-ground it flows out, Low places are low and flat, high places high. Stopping at the pit or flowing onward—both are not it. In the end, returning to the great sea, it becomes waves and billows.
歲在重光赤奮涂月佛成道日，大圓居士張有譽書於靈嵒之無垢室。
In the year of Xinchou, during the twelfth month, on the day of the Buddha's Enlightenment, the lay practitioner Dayuan Zhang Youyu wrote this in the Pure Room of Lingyan.
靈瑞禪師嵒華集卷第一
Collection of Zen Master Lingrui's Cliff Blossoms, Volume 1
學人振澂等記
Recorded by Disciples Zhencheng and Others