鎮州臨濟慧照禪師語錄 1.40

1.40

"Followers of the Way, the true Buddha has no form; the true Dharma has no mark. You merely put on airs and strike poses on top of illusory transformations. Even if you obtain anything by seeking, it is all the work of wild-fox spirits and demons—it is definitely not the true Buddha, but an outsider's view. A true person who studies the Way grasps neither Buddha, nor bodhisattvas, nor arhats, nor the excellences of the three realms. Thoroughly detached and alone, he is not constrained by things. Even if heaven and earth were turned upside down, I would have no doubt; if all the Buddhas of the ten directions appeared before me, I would have not a single thought of joy; if the three wretched destinies and the hells suddenly appeared, I would have not a single thought of fear. Why is it so? I see the empty marks of all phenomena: when changed, they exist; when unchanged, they do not exist. The three realms are mind-only; the ten thousand phenomena are consciousness-only. Therefore, dreams, phantoms, and empty flowers—why toil to grasp them? Only you, followers of the Way, the person presently right before my eyes listening to the Dharma: entering fire you do not burn; entering water you do not drown; entering the three wretched destinies and the hells is like strolling through a pleasure garden; entering [the realms of] hungry ghosts and animals, you incur no retribution. Why is it so? There is no phenomenon to be loathed. If you love the sacred and despise the worldly, you will bob and sink in the ocean of birth and death. Afflictions exist because of the mind; if you are without mind, how could afflictions constrain you? Do not toil in distinguishing and grasping marks, and you will naturally attain the Way in an instant. If you intend to run about from neighbor to neighbor seeking to learn, then through three asaṃkhyeya kalpas you will ultimately revert to birth and death. You would do better to have nothing to do, sitting cross-legged at the corner of a bed in a chan grove.