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UPHOLDING STUDY THROUGH a billion eons and turning it into a ball is eighty-four thousand eyeballs.
When Rujing, my late master, Old Buddha Tiantong, was abbot of the Ruiyan Monastery, he ascended the teaching seat and said to the assembly:
Autumn wind clear, autumn moon bright.
Earth, mountains, and rivers reveal an eyeball.
I, Ruiyan, glance with this one eye and encounter you.
Alternating the stick and shout, I test the patch-robed monks.
Test the patch-robed monks means to examine whether they are authentic buddhas or not. The essential method is alternating the stick and shout. This is glance with this one eye. Actualizing this activity is an eyeball.
Mountains, rivers, and earth are the eyeball revealed before the emergence of the Empty Eon. It is autumn wind clear; it grows old. It is autumn moon bright; it does not grow old. Even the Four Great Oceans cannot be compared with autumn wind clear. Autumn moon bright is brighter than a thousand suns and moons. Clear and bright are mountains, rivers, and earth—an eyeball. Patch-robed monks are buddha ancestors. Regardless of great enlightenment, regardless of beyond enlightenment, regardless of before or after the first sign of the Empty Eon, being eyeballs is being buddha ancestors. Testing is an eyeball revealed, glancing actualized, vitalizing the eyeball.
Encountering is meeting. Encountering, meeting, is the tip of the eye. The eyeball is roaring thunder.
Do not think that the entire body is large and the entire eye is small. Often in the past, even those who were regarded as old and great assumed that the body is large and the eye is small. This is because they were not equipped with an eyeball.
When Dongshan, who would later become Great Master Wuben, was at the assembly of Yunyan, he saw Yunyan making straw sandals. Dongshan asked him, “Please, may I have an eyeball?”
Yunyan said, “To whom did you give away yours?”
Dongshan said, “I did not have one.”
Yunyan said, “Yes, you did. Where did you put it?”
Dongshan was silent.
Yunyan said, “You are asking for an eyeball. Isn’t your asking an eyeball?”
Dogshan said, “It’s not an eyeball.”
Yunyan clicked his tongue.
In this way, all-illuminating study is to ask for an eyeball. To engage in the endeavor of the way in the cloud hall, to get to the dharma hall, to enter the hall for sleeping, are all asking for an eyeball. To join the assembly as it arrives and to join the assembly as it leaves is no other than asking for an eyeball. It is clear that the eyeball is not self, and not other.
Thus, Dongshan said, Please, may I have an eyeball? From this we know that we should not ask someone else for what is self or what is other.
Yunyan instructed: To whom did you give away yours? This is the moment of you. This is the point of to whom.
Dongshan said, I did not have one. This is an eyeball expressing itself. Quietly investigate and pursue the meaning of such an actualized expression.
Yunyan said, Where did you put it? The eyeball of this expression is that the not of I did not have one is no other than Where did you put it? And Where did you put it? means Yes, you did. Understand that this is an expression of thusness.
Dongshan was silent. This does not mean that his mind was clouded. His statement shows that he had retreated to the edge of consciousness.
Yunyan said, You are asking for an eyeball. Isn’t your asking an eyeball? This is the knot and grain [signs] of glancing with an eyeball. It is a vital crushing of an eyeball. What Yunyan showed is that an eyeball asks for an eyeball, water draws water, and mountains flow to mountains. His statement is an expression [of compassion] for us to journey among other types of beings and to be born among the same type of beings.
Dogshan said, It’s not an eyeball. This is an eyeball expounding itself. See that a vital eyeball is expressing itself where there are body, mind, and thinking beyond an eyeball, as well as words beyond an eyeball.
Buddhas in the past, present, and future stand and listen to the eye-ball turn and expound the great dharma wheel. Inside the chamber of investigating thoroughly, buddhas leap into the eyeball and arouse aspiration, engage in practice, and realize great enlightenment. This eyeball is neither self nor other. As it has no hindrance, these great actions are without hindrance.
In this regard, a teacher of old said, “How splendid buddhas in the ten directions are! From the beginning, they are blossoms in an eye.”
Buddhas in the ten directions spoken of here are an eyeball. Blossoms in an eye are buddhas in the ten directions. It is, therefore, an eyeball inheriting the entirety of an eyeball while stepping forward and backward, while sitting and sleeping. This is grasping and letting go within an eyeball.
Rujing, my late master, Old Buddha, said,” Pluck out Bodhidharma’s eyeball, turn it into a mud ball, and strike a person.”
Then, raising his voice, he said, “Look. The ocean is dry below its bottom. The high waves strike the sky.”
This is an instruction given to the ocean of monks at the abbot’s quarters of the Qingliang Monastery. Turn it into a mud ball, and strike a person means to make a person. Because of turning, each person reveals the original face. With Bodhidharma’s eyeball, true persons are made, and we make true persons. This is what he meant by saying turn it into a mud ball, and strike a person.
Because true persons are made of the eyeball, the fist that strikes a person in the cloud hall, the stick that makes a person in the dharma hall, the bamboo stick and whisk that strike a person in the abbot’s quarters, are all Bodhidharma’s eyeball.
Pluck out Bodhidharma’s eyeball, turn it into a mud ball, and strike means what people nowadays call a meeting with the master, asking questions, engaging in early morning practice, or endeavor in sitting. What kind of person is struck? That is: The ocean is dry below its bottom. The high waves strike the sky.
Rujing ascended the teaching seat and said in admiration of the Tathagata’s attaining enlightenment:
A wild fox spirit hides in grass for six years,
leaps—its entire body is twining vines.
Smashing the eyeball, there is nothing to seek.
Deceived, people call it enlightenment at the morning star.
That the Tathagata was enlightened upon seeing the morning star is how outsiders talk about the moment of smashing the eyeball right now. This is, however, its entire body is twining vines. Thus, it leaps effortlessly.
There is nothing to seek means that there is nothing to seek in actualizing and not yet actualizing.
Rujing ascended the teaching seat and said:
When Gautama’s eyeball is smashed,
plum blossoms in snow, just one branch,
become thorn twigs, here, right now.
Laughing, spring wind blows madly.
Let me say: Gautama’s eyeball is not merely one, two, or three. Which eyeball is smashed now? Is there an eyeball that is called smashed? In this very thusness, there is an eyeball that is plum blossoms in snow, just one branch. This eyeball comes before spring and overflows the heart of spring.
Rujing ascended the teaching seat and said:
Great rain keeps pouring.
The great clear sky is wide open.
A toad sings and an earthworm murmurs.
An ancient buddha has not left,
raising a diamond eyeball.
Damn! Twining vines, twining vines.
A diamond eyeball is Great rain keeps pouring, the great clear sky is wide open. It is A toad sings and an earthworm murmurs. Because of not having left, it is an ancient buddha. Even if an ancient buddha has left, it is not the same as the “having left” of one who is not an ancient buddha.
Rujing ascended the teaching seat and said:
The sun is in the south, the day is longest.
Within the eyeball there is illumination.
Within the nostrils there is exhalation.
Being continuous right now, from winter solstice to the New Year, daytime becomes longer, yet continuity drops away. This is Within the eyeball there is illumination. It is to see a mountain inside the sun. The awesome activity of practice is thus.
Rujing ascended the teaching seat at the Jingci Monastery, Linan Prefecture, and said:
This morning marks the first day of the second month.
The whisk pulls out the eyeball.
This is as clear as a mirror,
as black as lacquer.
It rushes to leap and
swallows the universe—one color.
Yet my disciples hit the fence and hit the wall.
What is it?
Exhaust your thinking and burst out laughing.
Ha, ha! Leave everything to the spring wind till nothing is left.
Hit the fence and hit the wall is hitting the entire fence and hitting the entire wall. Here is an eyeball. This is an eyeball that is this morning, the first day, and the second month. It is a whisk that is an eyeball. Because it rushes to leap, it is this morning. Because it swallows the universe one thousand or ten thousand times, it is the second month. At the time when your thinking is exhausted, it is the first day.
Actualizing an eyeball’s vital activity is just like this.
Presented to the assembly at Yamashi Peak, Echizen Province, on the seventeenth day, the twelfth month, the first year of the Kangen Era [1243].