Monday, April 8, 2024

The Eight Winds cannot move One fart blows across the river! 八风吹不动,一屁过江来

Saw this interesting explanation on the above verse on the Eight Winds article here. This is a story of how one of my favourite Chinese poets, Su Dongpo was upset by his friend's reaction to his poem. This story reminds me that we should be calm and not react impulsively. 

苏东坡在黄州时,有一天,诗兴来了,做了一首赞佛的诗:

稽首天中天,毫光照大千;

八风吹不动,端坐紫金莲。

这是一首意境很高的诗,不是对佛法有相当的造诣,绝对写不出这样的好诗。苏东坡写好了这首诗,自己反覆吟哦,觉得非常满意!诗中在赞佛的同时又暗含着作者自己有“八风吹不动”的超然境界。

他便把诗用信封封好,叫人送去对岸给佛印禅师看。他自以为佛印一定会大大的赞赏一番。然而,佛印禅师读到苏东坡的诗时,并不如苏东坡所预料的那样,而是在那首诗的下端,批上“放屁”两个大字,交给来人带回黄州。

苏东坡在看到“放屁”两个大字时,第一反应就是火冒三丈,连喊:“岂有此理?”

气呼呼地要找佛印禅师算帐,那知禅师早已吩咐下来:“今天不见客。”

苏东坡听了,更加火大,不管三七二十一,直奔佛印处,正要推门进去时,忽然发现门扉上贴着一张字条,端正地写着:

八风吹不动,一屁过江来。

聪明的苏东坡看到这两句,幡然醒悟,心里暗道:“我错了!竟为了那区区‘放屁’两个字而大动肝火,更何来‘八风吹不动’?”这就是佛印禅师给他的启示,让他不得不自叹修行不如佛印远矣!

Felt very tired after work. No time to translate. But found a good website from here and here with good introduction and translation.

Su Dongpo was a Song Dynasty poet and government official in Guazhou. Though the Yangzi River separated Guazhou from Jinshan Temple, Su Dongpo crossed it regularly to converse with the temple’s abbot, Chan Master Foyin, about Chan and the Way. One day, when Su Dongpo felt that his cultivation had reached full maturity, he composed the following poem and dispatched his young attendant to deliver it to Master Foyin for his approval: Bowing, Heaven within Heaven, I am the light that illuminates the boundless universe. The eight winds cannot move me, who am seated mindfully upon the purple golden lotus.

Upon reading it, the master dashed off a one-word comment for the young attendant to carry back. As soon as Su Dongpo read “fart” an uncontrollable anger began to rise. So he embarked for the other shore to debate the master. As his boat approached Jinshan Temple, Master Foyin was already waiting. Su Dongpo said, “We are the closest of Dharma friends. My poem, my cultivation — if you don’t praise it, that’s fine. But how could you insult me?” Acting as if nothing had happened, the Chan master asked, “How did I insult you?” When Su Dongpo showed him his comment, the master roared with laughter, saying, “Didn’t you say ‘the eight winds cannot move me?’ So how come a fart has blown you across the river?”

Cultivation is achieved, not by talk, but by action.

The “Eight Winds” in the poem referred to praise, ridicule, honor, disgrace, gain, loss, pleasure and misery - interpersonal forces of the material world that drove and influenced the hearts of men.

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