鎮州臨濟慧照禪師語錄 1.36

1.36

師示眾云：「如今學道人且要自信，莫向外覓，總上他閑塵境，都不辨邪正。秖如有祖、有佛，皆是教迹中事。有人拈起一句子語，或隱顯中出，便即疑生，照天、照地，傍家尋問，也大忙然。大丈夫兒莫秖麼論主、論賊，論是、論非，論色、論財，論說閑話過日。山僧此間不論僧俗，但有來者盡識得伊，任伊向甚處出來，但有聲名文句，皆是夢幻。却見乘境底人是諸佛之玄旨，佛境不能自稱我是佛境，還是這箇無依道人乘境出來。若有人出來問我求佛，我即應清淨境出；有人問我菩薩，我即應慈悲境出；有人問我菩提，我即應淨妙境出；有人問我涅槃，我即應寂靜境出。境即萬般差別，人即不別，所以應物現形，如水中月。道流！爾若欲得如法，直須是大丈夫兒始得。若萎萎隨隨地，則不得也。夫如㽄嗄（上音西，下所嫁切）之器不堪貯醍醐。如大器者，直要不受人惑，隨處作主，立處皆真，但有來者皆不得受。爾一念疑即魔入心，如菩薩疑時，生死魔得便。但能息念，更莫外求，物來則照。爾但信現今用底，一箇事也無。爾一念心生三界，隨緣被境分為六塵。儞如今應用處欠少什麼？一剎那間便入淨、入穢，入彌勒樓閣、入三眼國土，處處遊履，唯見空名。」

The Master instructed the assembly, saying: "Nowadays, students of the Way must first have confidence in themselves; do not seek outside. You merely fall into extraneous dusty environments, not discerning between the heterodox and the correct at all. Even having patriarchs and having buddhas are all matters within the traces of the teachings. If someone brings up a phrase, emerging either from the hidden or the apparent, you immediately give rise to doubt, looking up to heaven and down to earth, asking around at every house—you are greatly bewildered! Great fellows, do not simply discuss host and thief, discuss right and wrong, discuss form and wealth, and pass the day making idle talk. Here with this mountain monk, without distinction between monastic and lay, whenever anyone comes, I know them completely. Wherever they may emerge from, if they have only names, words, and phrases, all are dreams and illusions. Instead, seeing the person who rides the environment is the profound purport of all buddhas. The buddha-environment cannot say of itself, 'I am the buddha-environment'; it is still this person of the Way who relies on nothing that rides the environment and comes forth. If someone comes forth and asks me seeking the Buddha, I respond by emerging from a pure environment; if someone asks me about a bodhisattva, I respond by emerging from a compassionate environment; if someone asks me about bodhi, I respond by emerging from an exquisitely pure environment; if someone asks me about nirvāṇa, I respond by emerging from a tranquil environment. Environments have myriad differences, but the person is not different; therefore, responding to things, shapes appear, like the moon in water. Followers of the Way! If you wish to accord with the Dharma, you must be a great fellow before you can succeed. If you are weak and subservient, you will not succeed. A cracked vessel is not fit to hold clarified butter. Like a great vessel, you must firmly refuse to be deluded by others; wherever you are, be the master; where you stand, all is true; whatever comes, do not accept it. If you have a single thought of doubt, māras will enter your mind; just as when a bodhisattva doubts, the māra of birth and death finds an advantage. Merely be able to quiet your thoughts and seek nothing externally; when things come, then illuminate them. You need only have confidence in that which is functioning right now—there is not a single thing! A single thought of your mind gives rise to the three realms; according with conditions and driven by environments, it divides into the six dusts. What are you lacking right now in your functioning? In a single kṣaṇa you enter the pure, enter the defiled, enter Maitreya's tower, enter the land of the three eyes; roaming everywhere, you see only empty names."