廬山蓮宗寶鑑 10.48

10.48

西方文云「念佛之人於相好光明之中得見阿彌陀佛，則無明頓破煩惱永忘，法界之門忽然通達，一乘之路卓爾開明，十號俱彰三身圓顯。」比明修行人得證佛果，十號俱彰也。十號者，《菩薩戒經》云「一曰如來（無虛妄故）；二曰應供（良福田故）；三曰正遍知（知法界故）；四曰明行足（天眼智明、宿命智明、漏盡智明，具三用故）；五曰善逝（不來還故）；六曰世間解無上士（知二世間故，一國土世間、二眾生世間）；七曰調御丈夫（能調伏眾生惡故）；八曰天人師（為眾生作眼目故）；九曰佛（知善不善法聚、非善非不善法聚故）；十曰世尊（一土之中無二佛故）。」何期愚人不知佛法，妄立十號歸程，稱為達磨大師傳來生死祕法，却云鵲巢灌頂、蘆芽穿膝、玉柱麁混、蛇入裩襠、波斯獻寶、天鼓不鳴、蓮花池乾、二祖斷臂、立雪齊腰、神光不現。以此十件謂之大事因緣。往往蓮宗被此等盲師瞎漢遞相傳授，賺人性命，從冥入冥，陷於非道。何不思之甚也。達磨大師初至此土，不立文字，直指人心見性成佛，又安得有一法傳授乎？豈不聞五祖弘忍大師謂六祖曰：「佛即以心傳心，法即以心印心。佛佛惟傳本體，師師密付本心。」是也。《莊子》云「使道之可傳，人莫不傳之子孫。道之可獻，人莫不獻之君親。其不可傳獻者無他，中無主而外無其證也。」又嘗聞我佛釋迦世尊千生煉行、百劫修心，迺從兜率降跡王宮，棄萬乘榮貴，向雪山修行。飡麻食麥，苦行六年，覩見明星悟道成佛。人中聖中稱為大覺，十號具足作天人師。至於鵲巢頂上、蘆芽穿膝之類，皆當年實事，初無表法，止是端坐不動定久忘形之意。後之學者不近智達，不體我佛建立教門大不容易，纔得入他門戶，行願不習、識見俱無，便要為師傳度弟子，做大模樣逞我能會。撞入邪魔黨類中，學他許多邪法，雜毒入心，如落水鬼相似，黑地裏拕人入地獄去。苦哉苦哉！且如二祖斷臂立雪齊腰，的是當時為法忘軀猛烈之志，本傳備載分明，學者自當詳究。豈可妄為，甘受謗法之罪，永沈苦海之誅？永嘉云「非不非，是不是，差之毫釐失千里。是則龍女頓成佛，非則善星生陷墜。」信麼盡情掃蕩閑家具，鐵樹花開別有春。

The Texts of the West state: "When a practitioner of buddhānusmṛti sees Amitābha Buddha amidst his marks of excellence and radiant light, ignorance is shattered at once and afflictions are forgotten forever; the gate of the dharmadhātu suddenly opens wide, the road of the ekayāna opens up clearly and preeminently, the ten epithets are fully manifested, and the three bodies are completely revealed." This explains that when a practitioner attains realization of the fruit of buddhahood, the ten epithets are fully manifested. Regarding the ten epithets, the Bodhisattva-śīla-sūtra states: "First, Tathāgata (because of being free from falsehood); second, Arhat (Worthy of Offerings, because of being an excellent field of merit); third, Samyaksaṃbuddha (Rightly and Fully Awakened, because of knowing the dharmadhātu); fourth, Vidyācaraṇasaṃpanna (Endowed with Knowledge and Conduct, because of possessing the three applications: knowledge of the divine eye, knowledge of past lives, and knowledge of the exhaustion of outflows); fifth, Sugata (Well Gone, because of not returning); sixth, Lokavid-anuttarapuruṣa (Knower of the World and Unsurpassed Person, because of knowing the two worlds: first, the world of lands, and second, the world of sentient beings); seventh, Puruṣadamyasārathi (Tamer of Persons, because of being able to subdue the evil of sentient beings); eighth, Śāstādevamanuṣyāṇām (Teacher of Gods and Humans, because of acting as eyes for sentient beings); ninth, Buddha (because of knowing the aggregates of wholesome and unwholesome dharmas, and the aggregates of neither wholesome nor unwholesome dharmas); tenth, Lokanātha/Bhagavān (World-Honoured One, because within a single land there are not two buddhas)." How unexpected that foolish people, ignorant of the Buddha's Dharma, would deludedly invent the ten epithets as a "path of return", calling them the secret dharma of birth and death handed down by Great Master Bodhidharma, but claiming instead: a magpie's nest atop the crown, reed shoots piercing the knees, jade pillars coarsely mingling, a snake entering the trousers, a Persian presenting jewels, the heavenly drum not sounding, the lotus pond drying up, the Second Patriarch cutting off his arm, standing in snow up to the waist, and Shenguang not appearing. They treat these ten items as the great matter of cause and condition. Often the Lotus School has blind masters and sightless fellows handing these down to one another, swindling people of their lives, passing from darkness into darkness, and plunging into wrong paths. How utterly thoughtless they are! When Great Master Bodhidharma first came to this land, he did not establish texts, but pointed directly to the human mind to see its nature and achieve buddhahood; how could there have been a single method to transmit? Have you not heard what the Fifth Patriarch, Great Master Hongren, said to the Sixth Patriarch: "The Buddha transmits mind with mind; the Dharma imprints mind with mind. Buddha after buddha transmits only the fundamental substance; patriarch after patriarch secretly confers only the fundamental mind"? This is it. Zhuangzi says: "If the Dao could be transmitted, there is no one who would not transmit it to their sons and grandsons. If the Dao could be presented, there is no one who would not present it to their ruler and parents. That it cannot be transmitted or presented is for no other reason than that inwardly there is no master, and outwardly there is no verification." Furthermore, I have heard that our Buddha, the World-Honoured One Śākyamuni, tempered his practice for a thousand lifetimes and cultivated his mind for a hundred kalpas; he then descended from Tuṣita to leave his traces in the royal palace, renounced the glorious nobility of ten thousand chariots, and went to the snowy mountains to cultivate. Eating hemp and consuming barley, undergoing austerities for six years, he beheld the morning star, awakened to the Way, and became a buddha. Among humans and sages, he is called the Great Awakened One, fully possessing the ten epithets, acting as the teacher of gods and humans. As for such things as the magpie's nest atop the head and reed shoots piercing the knees, these were all actual historical events of that time, initially having no symbolic doctrinal meaning, merely conveying that through sitting upright and unmoving in long-lasting absorption, he forgot physical form. Later students do not approach the wise and penetrating, nor do they appreciate how exceedingly difficult it was for our Buddha to establish the teachings; no sooner do they step inside someone's gate, having neither practiced vows nor acquired any understanding, than they want to act as masters transmitting to disciples, assuming an imposing posture and showing off their competence. Crashing into the ranks of demonic heterodoxies, they learn many of their heterodox methods; mixed poisons enter their minds, making them just like drowned ghosts who drag people into hell in the dark. How bitter, how bitter! Take, for instance, the Second Patriarch cutting off his arm and standing in snow up to his waist: this truly was his fierce resolution at the time to forget his own body for the sake of the Dharma, clearly and fully recorded in his primary biography; students should investigate this carefully on their own. How could one act recklessly, willingly incurring the offense of slandering the Dharma and suffering the punishment of eternal sinking into the sea of suffering? Yongjia said: "Wrong is not wrong, right is not right; an error of a hair's breadth loses by a thousand miles. If right, the dragon girl instantly becomes a buddha; if wrong, Sunakṣatra falls alive [into hell]." Believe this or not: sweep away completely these idle utensils; when the iron tree blossoms, there is another spring.