西方合論 1.15

1.15

「石頭居士，少志參禪，根性猛利，十年之內，洞有所入，機鋒迅利，語言圓轉，尋常與人論及此事，下筆千言，不踏祖師語句，直從胸臆流出，活虎生龍，無一死語，遂亦自謂了悟無所事事。雖世情減少，不入塵勞，然嘲風弄月，登山玩水，流連文酒之場，沈酣騷雅之業；嬾慢踈狂，未免縱意，如前之病，未能全脫。所幸生死心切，不長陷溺；痛念見境生心，觸途成滯，浮解實情，未能相勝，悟不修行，必墮魔境，佛魔之分只在頃刻。始約其偏空之見，涉入普賢之海；又思行門端的，莫如念佛。而權引中下之疑，未之盡破；及後博觀經論，始知此門，原攝一乘，悟與未悟，皆宜修習。於是採金口之所宣揚，菩薩之所闡明，諸大善知識之所發揮，附以已意，千波競起，萬派橫流，詰其匯歸，皆同一源。其論以不思議第一義為宗、以悟為導；以十二時中持佛名號，一心不亂，念念相續為行持；以六度萬行為助因；以深信因果為入門。此論甫成，而同參發心持戒念佛者，遂得五人，共欲流通，以解宗教之惑。

"Upāsaka Shitou from his youth set his aspiration on inquiring into Chan. His capacity was sharp and vigorous: within ten years he had penetrated into an entry point. His razor-sharp responsiveness was swift and keen, and his speech was fully adaptable. Ordinarily, when discussing this matter with others, his brush produced a thousand words without treading upon the ancestral masters' phrases; they flowed forth straight from his breast, like living tigers and vibrant dragons, without a single dead word. Consequently, he also considered himself to have attained awakening, with nothing further to do. Although worldly sentiments had lessened and he did not engage in worldly dust and toil, he nevertheless mocked the wind and trifled with the moon, climbing mountains and delighting in waters, lingering in literary and drinking gatherings, and becoming thoroughly intoxicated in elegant poetic pursuits. Idle, arrogant, lax, and wild, he could not avoid giving rein to his whims; thus, he had not fully shed the aforementioned ills. Fortunately, his earnestness regarding saṃsāra was urgent, so he did not remain submerged for long. Pained by the thought that encountering objects generates mind, that meeting circumstances turns into obstruction, and that superficial understanding cannot overcome actual conditions—that awakening without practice inevitably precipitates one into the demonic realm, the boundary between Buddha and Māra hanging only on an instant—he began by restricting his one-sided view of emptiness and wading into the ocean of Samantabhadra. He also considered that, as a true gate of practice, nothing surpasses buddhānusmṛti. Yet the doubt that this was merely an expedient to attract those of middling and lower capacities had not been completely dispelled. Later, after broadly examining the sūtras and treatises, he first realized that this gate originally subsumes the One Vehicle, and that both the awakened and the unawakened ought to cultivate it. Thereupon, collecting what was proclaimed by the golden mouth [of the Buddha], elucidated by the bodhisattvas, and expounded by the great spiritual friends, he appended his own thoughts. Though a thousand waves vied in rising and ten thousand streams flowed abreast, when examining their convergence, they all share a single source. His treatise takes the inconceivable ultimate truth as its core theme and awakening as its guide; it takes holding the Buddha's name at all twelve hours of the day, with one mind unconfused and moment-to-moment succession, as its actual practice; it takes the six perfections and myriad practices as auxiliary causes; and it takes deep faith in cause and effect as its gate of entry. As soon as this treatise was completed, five fellow practitioners were inspired to uphold the precepts and practice buddhānusmṛti; together they wished to circulate it in order to dispel the perplexities between Chan and the doctrinal schools."