河裏失錢,河裏摝。 (A coin lost in the river is found in the river.)

河裏失錢,河裏摝。

“A coin lost in the river is found in the river.” A quote from the recorded sayings of Master Yunmen.

https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/JB138_001

河 river
裏 inside
失 lost
錢 money

河 river
裏 inside
摝 found

Full quote:

問:「如何是端坐念實相?」師云:「河裏失錢,河裏摝。」

問:question

「如何  how, what, in what way

是  is

端坐念實相?to sit erect and reflect on reality?

」師云:the master said

「河裏失錢,a coin lost in the river

河裏摝。」 is found in the river.

Question: “What is the meaning of sitting upright and reflecting on reality?”

The master said: “A coin lost in the river is found in the river.”

The phrase “端坐念實相” (sitting erect and reflecting on reality) is found in th Outline of the Tiantai Fourfold Teachings  (天台四教儀), compiled by the Goryeo Śramaṇa Chegwan 高麗沙門諦觀, and translated by A. Charles Muller: http://www.acmuller.net/kor-bud/sagyoui.html.

The following is from the above link to Charles Muller’s website:

Chegwan 諦觀 (?-970) was a monk of the early Goryeo period who received Buddhist instruction in China and was central to the revival of the Chinese Tiantai sect. Little is known of his early life. It is said that he first went to China at the invitation of the king of Wuyue 呉越王 (a devout student of Buddhism) who was concerned about replacing texts that had been lost from the Chinese Buddhist corpus because of war and other disasters. In 960 Wuyue sent an envoy to Goryeo with various treasures along with a request for copies of various missing canonical texts. Chegwan was sent to China in response with copies of a commentary on the Zhilun, a commentary on the Sūtra for Humane Kings, and many other texts. In China he met Uijeok, the fifteenth successor of Tiantai, and helped him with the restoration of Tiantai for ten years. Chegwan wrote the two-fascicle Cheontae sagyo ui (currently only the first volume exists), which become a popular guidebook for Tiantai studies throughout East Asia.

The Cheontae sagyo ui 2 is a comprehensive yet concise outline of Tiantai teachings that discusses the five periods and eight teachings 五時八教, the twenty-five expedient preparations 二十五方便 for the meditative method of cessation and clear observation 止觀法門, and the ten methods of contemplation 十乘觀法, thus providing full coverage of the main aspects of Tiantai doctrine and practice. According to the accounts given in the biographies of Zhongyi Wang 忠懿王 (929–988) and Chegwan in the Complete Chronicle of the Buddha and Patriarchs 佛祖統紀 (T 2035), the composition of the Sagyo ui originated when the king of Wuyue, puzzled over a line in the Yongjia ji 永嘉集 (T 2013) that said “one simultaneously removes the four entrenchments” 同除四住, sought an explanation from the Chan master Deshao 德韶 (891–972). Since this was a doctrinal matter that was beyond his own range of expertise, Deshao recommended that he consult a Tiantai doctrinal master such as Luoxi Yiji 螺溪義寂 (919–987). The king consulted with Yiji, who identified the phrase as being the work of the great Tiantai master Zhiyi 智顗 (538–597)—part of his explanation of the stages of subtlety 位妙 in his Fahua xuanyi 法華玄義 (T 1716). However, because of the unstable conditions of China at the end of the Tang (such as the An-Shi 安史 rebellion and the Huichang 會昌 suppression of Buddhism), major segments of the Buddhist—especially, important Tiantai texts—had been lost and destroyed, including the Fahua xuanyi.

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