Gabyō

Since all buddhas are realization, all things are realization. However, this is not one nature, nor is it one mind. Although it is not one nature nor one mind, at the moment of realization, realization does not obstruct realization, and it manifests completely. At the moment of manifestation, manifestation manifests without manifestation encountering manifestation. This is the authentic essence of the ancestral masters. Do not take up the measurement of oneness and difference and consider it the capacity of one's training.

Therefore, it is said, "When one dharma is fully penetrated, ten thousand dharmas are penetrated." The penetration of one dharma spoken of here is not the wresting away of the original face of the one dharma, nor is it making the one dharma relative, nor is it making the one dharma non-relative. To make it non-relative is itself an obstruction. By allowing penetration to be penetration without obstruction, one penetration is this, ten thousand penetrations are this. One penetration is one dharma; the penetration of one dharma is the penetration of ten thousand dharmas.

An ancient buddha said, "A painted rice cake does not satisfy hunger." The cloud-robed and mist-sleeved ones who study this Way do not unify the name and rank of the bodhisattvas and śrāvakas who come from the ten directions; the skin and flesh of those spirit-heads and demon-faces coming from the ten directions are thick and thin. Although this is said to be the study of the Way of ancient and present buddhas, it is the livelihood of a grass hut under a tree.

Therefore, in the authentic transmission of the family business, some hold the view and say that because the study of sūtras and śāstras does not allow for the cultivation of true wisdom, it is spoken of thus; others, wishing to say that the teachings of the three vehicles and the one vehicle are furthermore not the path of supreme enlightenment, hold the view and speak in this manner. Generally, to hold the view that such a statement exists in order to say that provisionally established dharmas are truly unusable is a great mistake. They have not authentically transmitted the ancestral work and are blind to the statements of the buddhas and ancestors.

Who would grant permission to investigate the statements of other buddhas without clarifying this one saying? To state "a painted rice cake cannot satisfy hunger" is like stating "refrain from all evil, practice all good," like stating "what is this thing thus coming," like saying "I am always here." For a while, one should study in this way. There are none who have not seen and come through the statement "painted rice cake," and none who have not reached understanding. How does one know thus? In examining the one or two stinking skin bags from of old, one does not reach doubt, one does not reach intimate encounter.

It is merely like not listening attentively to a neighbor's talk and being unconcerned. Know that "painted rice cake": there is the face before your parents were born, there is the face before your parents were born. The proper thusness of using rice and flour to perform the method—it is not necessarily about being born or unborn, it is the time of manifest realization and Way-realization. One should not study constrained by the views and hearings of coming and going.

The cinnabar for painting a rice cake should be the same as the cinnabar for painting mountains and waters. The so-called painting of mountains and waters uses blue and cinnabar. The painting of a painted rice cake uses rice and flour. Because it is thus, their use is the same, their effort is identical. Therefore, the "painted rice cake" now being spoken of—all糊餠,菜餠,乳餠,燒餠,糍餠, and so on—all manifest from the painting. Know that painting and cakes and dharmas are equal. Therefore, all the cakes now manifesting are together painted rice cakes. Seeking a painted rice cake apart from this, one never yet meets it; it has not been brought forth.

Although it is momentarily manifest, it is momentarily not manifest. However, it is not the appearance of old and young, it is not the trace of coming and going. Right here, thus, the painted rice cake land appears and is established. "Does not satisfy hunger": hunger is not the twelve-hour messengers, yet there is no convenience in meeting the painted rice cake. In eating the painted rice cake, there is ultimately no power to end hunger. There is no cake that waits for hunger.

Because there is no cake that waits for cake, the livelihood is not transmitted, the family style is not transmitted. Hunger too is one staff, carried horizontally or vertically, a thousand changes and ten thousand transformations. The cake too is one body-mind manifest, blue, yellow, red, white, long, short, square, round. Now, in painting mountains and waters, one uses blue and cinnabar, strange cliffs and bizarre rocks, the seven treasures and the four treasures. The undertaking of painting a cake is also like this.

In painting a person, one uses the four great elements and the five aggregates; in painting a buddha, it is not only using a clay niche or a lump of earth, one uses the thirty-two marks, one uses a blade of grass, one uses the cultivation of three incalculable eons and a hundred kalpas. Because of thus painting and bringing forth one scroll of a painted buddha, all buddhas are all painted buddhas. All painted buddhas are all buddhas. One should examine painted buddha and painted rice cake. Which is the stone tortoise? Which is the iron staff? Which is form dharmas? Which is mind dharmas? One should carefully exert effort and investigate.

When one exerts effort thus, birth and death, coming and going, are entirely paintings. Supreme enlightenment is precisely a painting. Generally, the dharma realm, empty space—there is none that is not a painting.

An ancient buddha said, "The Way is accomplished: a thousand scrolls of white snow depart; painting attained: several scrolls of blue mountains arrive." This is the talk of great awakening. It is the Way's very bottom actualized through the effort of discerning the Way. Therefore, at the very moment of attaining the Way, it is naming blue mountains and white snow as several scrolls; it is painting them and having them come. Every single movement and stillness, without exception, is painting. Our present effort is precisely attained from painting. The ten epithets and the three clarities—this is one scroll of painting. The faculties, powers, awakening, and the Way—this is one scroll of painting. If one says painting is not real, then all dharmas are not real. If all dharmas are not real, then the buddha-dharma is also not real. If the buddha-dharma is real, then a painted rice cake must also be real.

Master Yunmen Kuangzhen was once asked by a monk, "What is the talk that surpasses buddhas and transcends ancestors?" The master said, "A rice cake." This saying must be quietly worked on. Where the rice cake is fully present, there are ancestral teachers who expound the talk of surpassing buddhas and transcending ancestors; there are iron men who do not hear it; there must be learners who listen and attain it; there is the Way-presenting that is fully present. Now, the unfolding of the matter and the matching of the opportunity concerning the rice cake is invariably two or three pieces of a painted rice cake.

There is the talk of surpassing buddhas and transcending ancestors; there is the distinction of entering buddhahood and entering demonhood.

My late master said, "Tall bamboo and plantain enter the painting." This saying is one that transcends long and short, a saying in which both partake of the study of painting. Tall bamboo is long bamboo. Although it is said to be the working of yin and yang, for yin and yang to work, there are the years and months of the tall bamboo. Those years, months, yin, and yang cannot be measured. Although the Great Sage perceives yin and yang, the Great Sage cannot measure yin and yang. Both yin and yang are equal to the dharma, equal in measurement, equal to the Way. This is not the yin and yang that appear in the minds and eyes of non-Buddhists and the two vehicles.

This is the yin and yang of tall bamboo, the almanac of tall bamboo, the world of tall bamboo. As the retinue of tall bamboo, there are all buddhas in the ten directions. Know that heaven, earth, and the universe are the roots, stems, branches, and leaves of tall bamboo. Therefore, they cause heaven, earth, and the universe to be everlasting. They cause the great ocean, Mount Sumeru, and the entire realm of the ten directions to be solid and firm. They cause the staff and the bamboo spatula to be one old and one not old.

Because plantain makes earth, water, fire, wind, space, mind, consciousness, and wisdom into its roots, stems, branches, leaves, flowers, fruit, light, and color, it carries the autumn wind and is torn by the autumn wind. Not a single speck remains; it can be called pure and clean. There are no sinews or bones in the eye; there is no glue within form. There is liberation right there. Since it is not bound by swiftness, there is no need to discuss instants or moments. Raising this power, it makes earth, water, fire, and wind into its livelihood, and makes mind, consciousness, and wisdom into the great death.

Therefore, in this family business, spring, autumn, winter, and summer are received as provisions for training. Now, the complete activity of tall bamboo and plantain is this painting. Because of this, one who hears the sound of bamboo and attains great awakening—both dragon and snake will be the painting. Do not doubt it with the emotional calculations of ordinary beings and sages. That stalk attains such length; this stalk attains such shortness. This stalk attains such length; that stalk attains such shortness.

Because all of these are the painting, the picture of long and short necessarily corresponds. Where there is a long brushstroke, there is no absence of a short brushstroke. This principle should be clearly investigated. Precisely because the entire realm and all dharmas are the painting, persons and dharmas appear from the painting, and buddhas and ancestors are formed from the painting. Thus, if it is not a painted rice cake, there is no medicine to satisfy hunger; if it is not painted hunger, one does not encounter a person; if it is not painted satisfaction, there is no power.

In general, to satisfy hunger, to satisfy non-hunger, not to satisfy hunger, not to satisfy non-hunger—if it is not painted hunger, it cannot be attained; it is not the Way. For now, one should study that this is a painted rice cake. When one studies this principle, one thoroughly realizes in body and mind the merit of turning things and things turning. If this merit seems not yet manifest, the power of studying the Way is not yet manifest. To make this merit manifest is the verification of the painting's manifestation.