廬山蓮宗寶鑑 3.2

3.2

明教大師曰：「能仁之垂教也，必以禪為宗而佛為祖。祖者乃其教之大範，宗者乃其教之大統。大統不明則天下不得一其所詣，大範不正則天下不得質其所證。夫古今之學佛輩競以其所學相勝者，蓋由宗不明、祖不正而為患。然非其祖宗素不明不正也，後世學者不能盡考經論而校正之，乃有束教者不知佛之微旨妙在乎言外，諸禪者不諒佛之所詮概見乎教內，紛然自相是非古今，何嘗稍息。予嘗探大藏或經或傳校驗，其所謂禪宗者佛祖之心也。佛說一大藏教，未嘗不以心為宗也。嗟乎眾生之根器異也，又安得以一法而明之？我佛平等設化，於是對其病而投其藥耳。且夫淨土一宗念佛之法，有實有權、有頓有漸，皆以顯如來所證之實理、廓眾生自性之本源，以念佛三昧攝一切人，明心見性入於佛慧。或問之曰：念佛其可明心見性入佛慧乎？予謂之曰：心為萬法之宗，操之在我則何道不成？大勢至菩薩以念佛證無生忍，究其因地純於念佛上用功，念念無間打成一片，所以道『都攝六根，淨念相繼，得三摩地，斯為第一。』蓋佛者心也，念佛念心心心不二，心既不二佛佛皆然，一念貫通無前後際，三際俱斷是真道場。塵塵顯示、剎剎全彰，是謂入於如來正遍知海，具足如來一切種智。念佛之旨大略如斯。遠公祖師得是三昧，而以此三昧示一百二十三人同修同證，思專想寂以至究竟。吾祖於是深存遠圖大援群生，且以晉地新經未來，禪法甘露國所未聞，實相宗本人有異說，乃命弟子踰越葱嶺，遠迎禪師究尋經本。故明教大師定祖圖云：秦僧智嚴於罽賓國，懇請跋陀羅偕來諸夏傳授禪法。初至長安，後至廬山，遂出禪經，與遠公同譯。譯成，遠公為之序，跋陀羅甞謂遠公曰：『西土傳法祖師，自大迦葉直下相承凡有二十七人。其二十六祖近世滅度，名不如蜜多者。所以繼世弟子曰般若多羅，方在南天竺國行化。以此慧燈次第相傳，達磨多羅後為二十八祖，我今如其所聞而說是義。』遠公聞跋陀羅言，故序云『達磨多羅西域之雋、禪訓之宗。』《寶林傳》所謂跋陀羅甞與遠公言其傳法諸祖世數，固驗於禪經矣。故張野序遠公塔銘云『心禪諸經出自廬山。師每謂禪法精微非才莫授，功高易進者惟念佛一門。導之以止觀、專之以淨業，此假修以凝神、積習以移性，入於如來無盡法門，實由斯矣。』故此淨土之教至于天台智者大師，乃示三觀證乎一心，總綰三乘之要行、普收五性之機宜，直付觀行之真財、悟入如來之知見。故知念佛之要者，由觀經為標指也。斯經以佛國淨境為宗、以觀智妙行為趣、以實相彌陀為體、以滅惡生善為用，是知無量功德共莊嚴之、種種勝行而歸趣之、言說問答而詮辨之，誓眾星之拱北辰、如萬流之朝東海也。是故韋提不經地位頓證無生，五逆十念稱名便登極樂，即圓頓教之所攝也。此之念佛三昧法門，權實頓漸折攝悟迷，圓攝一切會歸真宗，猶車之有輪、如鳥之有翼，入道之由可謂至矣、可謂盡矣。是以集夫正受之方、示彼修行宗要，開明心目直指根源，庶使念佛進修之士明其宗而不昧其祖也。若夫一句當機，淨土唯心顯矣。」

Master Mingjiao said: 'When the Benevolent One bequeathed his teachings, he necessarily took Chan as the lineage and the Buddha as the patriarch. The patriarch is the great exemplar of his teaching; the lineage is the great tradition of his teaching. If the great tradition is not clarified, the world cannot unify its destination; if the great exemplar is not rectified, the world cannot verify what it realizes. That Buddhist students throughout history have competed to surpass one another with what they learned has been an affliction brought about by the lineage not being clarified and the patriarchs not being rectified. Yet it is not that their patriarchs and lineages were originally unclear or unrectified; rather, later scholars failed to thoroughly examine the sūtras and treatises to collate and correct them. Thus there are those bound by the scriptures who do not understand that the Buddha's subtle intent marvelously lies outside of words, and various Chan practitioners who do not recognize that what the Buddha expounded is generally found within the scriptural teachings. Constantly arguing right and wrong amongst themselves from ancient times to the present, when have they ever paused even briefly? I have once explored the Great Canon, collating both sūtras and historical records, and what is called the Chan school is indeed the mind of the Buddha and the patriarchs. When the Buddha spoke the teachings of the entire Great Canon, he never failed to take the mind as the essential principle. Alas, the faculties and capacities of sentient beings differ, so how could one elucidate it through a single method? Our Buddha set forth his conversion impartially; thus, matching the medicine to the illness, he merely administered it accordingly. Furthermore, regarding the method of buddhānusmṛti in the Pure Land school, there are the real and the expedient, the sudden and the gradual; all serve to reveal the real principle realized by the Tathāgata and to expand the original source of sentient beings' own nature, gathering all people through the buddhānusmṛti-samādhi to clarify the mind, see the nature, and enter the Buddha's wisdom. Someone may ask: "Can buddhānusmṛti clarify the mind, see the nature, and enter the Buddha's wisdom?" I say to him: "The mind is the essential principle of the myriad dharmas; if one takes hold of it within oneself, then what path cannot be accomplished? Bodhisattva Mahāsthāmaprāpta realized the forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas through buddhānusmṛti. Investigating his causal stage, he applied his efforts purely to buddhānusmṛti, thought after thought without interruption, fusing into one whole. Therefore it is said: 'Gathering in the six sense faculties, pure mindfulness continuously succeeding, obtaining samādhi—this is foremost.' For the Buddha is the mind; recollecting the Buddha is recollecting the mind, and mind and mind are not two. Since the mind is not two, then Buddha and Buddha are all alike; one thought penetrates through without prior or subsequent limits, and when the three periods of time are entirely severed, that is the true place of practice. In every dust mote it is displayed, and throughout all lands it is fully revealed; this is called entering the ocean of the Tathāgata's correct and universal knowledge, fully endowed with all the Tathāgata's knowledge of all modes. Such is roughly the purport of buddhānusmṛti. The ancestral master, Master Yuan, attained this samādhi, and with this samādhi instructed one hundred and twenty-three people to cultivate and realize it together, their thoughts concentrated and their mental activities stilled, reaching the ultimate. Our ancestor thus harboured far-reaching plans to greatly assist the multitude of beings; moreover, as the new sūtras had not yet arrived in the land of Jin, the nectar of the Chan teachings had never been heard in the realm, and people of the True-aspect school held differing views, he ordered his disciples to cross the Congling mountains to welcome Chan masters from afar and investigate sūtra manuscripts. Therefore, Master Mingjiao's Chart Establishing the Patriarchs states: 'The Qin monk Zhiyan, in the kingdom of Kaśmīra, earnestly requested [Guṇa]bhadra to come together to the land of Huaxia to transmit the Chan teachings. He first arrived in Chang'an and later at Mount Lu, whereupon he brought forth the Chan Sūtra and translated it together with Master Yuan. When the translation was completed, Master Yuan wrote a preface for it. Bhadra once said to Master Yuan: "The ancestral masters who transmitted the Dharma in the Western Realm, descending directly from Mahākāśyapa, number twenty-seven in all. The twenty-sixth patriarch recently passed into extinction, whose name was Punyamitra. His disciple succeeding to his generation is called Prajñātāra, who is currently carrying out conversion in South India. Successively transmitting this lamp of wisdom, Dharmatrāta later became the twenty-eighth patriarch; I now explain this meaning according to what I have heard."' Hearing Bhadra's words, Master Yuan thus stated in his preface: 'Dharmatrāta was an outstanding figure of the Western Regions, the ancestral model of Chan instruction.' What the Baolin zhuan describes as Bhadra having spoken with Master Yuan about the number of generations of the various patriarchs who transmitted the Dharma is indeed corroborated in the Chan Sūtra. Therefore, Zhang Ye's preface to Master Yuan's stupa inscription states: 'The various sūtras on the mind and Chan emerged from Mount Lu. The master often said that the Chan teaching is subtle and refined, not to be transmitted unless one has the capacity, and that the single gate of buddhānusmṛti alone is supreme in merit and easy of progress. Guiding them through śamatha-vipaśyanā and focusing them through pure karma, this avails of practice to concentrate the spirit, and accumulates habit to transform the nature; entering into the Tathāgata's inexhaustible Dharma gate truly proceeds from this.' Thus, when this teaching of the Pure Land reached Great Master Zhizhe of Tiantai, he then demonstrated the three contemplations realizing the one mind, generally marshaling the essential practices of the triyāna, universally gathering the capacities of the five spiritual families, directly conferring the true wealth of contemplative practice, and causing awakening and entry into the Tathāgata's knowledge and vision. Hence we know that the essential point of buddhānusmṛti is indicated by the Guan jing. This sūtra takes the pure realm of the Buddha land as its essential principle, the wondrous practice of contemplative wisdom as its aim, the real-aspect Amitābha as its substance, and eradicating evil and generating good as its function; from this we know that immeasurable merits jointly adorn it, diverse superior practices converge upon it, and discourse, questions, and answers delineate and distinguish it, like the multitude of stars revolving around the North Star, or the myriad streams flowing eastward to the sea. Therefore, Vaidehī suddenly realized the non-arising [of dharmas] without passing through the stages, and those of the five rebellious acts ascending to Sukhāvatī upon reciting the name for ten thoughts is precisely that which is subsumed by the round and sudden teaching. This Dharma gate of the buddhānusmṛti-samādhi—expedient and real, sudden and gradual, subjugating and gathering, awakening and delusion—completely encompasses everything, converging in the true lineage, like a cart having wheels or a bird having wings; the cause for entering the path may be called ultimate, may be called exhaustive. Therefore, collecting the methods of right absorption and demonstrating those essential principles of practice, it illumines the eyes of the mind and points directly to the root source, in the hope that those practicing buddhānusmṛti will clarify their lineage without obscuring their patriarchs. If a single phrase matches the capacity, the Mind-only Pure Land is revealed!"