樂邦文類 4.67

4.67

問：《六祖壇經》云「凡愚不了自性，不識身中西方，東方願西，悟人在處一種。」誌公云：「智者知心是佛，愚人愛往西方。」若此道果是真正，何故二大士排遣？答：佛說法有隱顯、教有權實，人根有利鈍、宗師有抑揚。譬如受病不同，處方亦異。今有病暍發黃，方大狂亂，有善醫者必以寒藥治之，豈可却讚乳石桂附有除寒起廢之功耶？有遍見人聞寒藥有治熱之功，遂云乳石桂附永不可用。豈不謬哉？達磨單傳心印、誌公方贊大乘，當時人尚未信，豈可又却教人念佛求生淨土？圓機達士固自無疑，求法初心定生猶豫。但得意忘言、融通了解，自無矛盾他。

Question: The Platform Sūtra of the Sixth Patriarch says: 'The ordinary and foolish do not understand their self-nature and do not recognize the Western Land within their own bodies; wishing for the West when in the East, an awakened person finds it the same wherever they are.' Master Baozhi said: 'The wise know that mind is Buddha; fools love to go to the Western Land.' If this path is truly genuine, why did these two great beings reject it?
Answer: When the Buddha expounds the Dharma, there are the concealed and the revealed; his teachings have the provisional and the real; human faculties have the sharp and the dull; and ancestral masters have their censures and praises. For example, just as illnesses contracted are different, the prescriptions given are also distinct. Suppose someone is suffering from heatstroke and turning yellow, just when they are in a state of great frenzy: a good physician will surely treat them with cooling medicine. How could one instead praise mica, cassia, or aconite for having the efficacy of dispelling cold and reviving the debilitated? A person of biased views, hearing that cooling medicine has the efficacy to treat heat, then claims that mica, cassia, and aconite can never be used. Would that not be absurd? Bodhidharma transmitted solely the mind-seal; Master Baozhi had just begun to praise the Mahāyāna. People at that time did not yet have faith, so how could they have turned around and taught people buddha-mindfulness to seek rebirth in the Pure Land? Those of consummate capacity and thorough understanding are naturally free of doubt, whereas beginners seeking the Dharma will surely give rise to hesitation. If you simply grasp the meaning and forget the words, harmonizing and understanding thoroughly, there will naturally be no contradiction.