撫州曹山本寂禪師語錄 1.80

1.80

Addressing the assembly, [the Master] said: "We monastics, under this patched robe, fundamentally must understand and penetrate the matter of transcendence; do not take it lightly. If your taking charge of it is distinct and clear, then you turn all the sages and put them behind your own back, only then attaining freedom. If you cannot turn them, even if you study to complete perfection, you will still have to fold your hands behind their backs—what big talk could you give then? If you can turn yourself, then when all coarse and heavy circumstances arrive, you can act as their master in every case; even if you fall flat into the mud, you still act as master. For instance, a monk asked Yaoshan: 'In the teachings of the Three Vehicles, is there still the ancestral intention or not?' [Yaoshan] replied: 'There is.' The monk said: 'Since there is, what did Bodhidharma come for?' Yaoshan said: 'Precisely because there is, therefore he came.' Is this not acting as master and turning [it] back to oneself? As the sūtra says: 'Mahābhijñājñānābhibhū Buddha sat at the place of awakening for ten kalpas, yet the Buddhadharma did not appear before him, and he could not achieve the Buddha Way.' Speaking of 'kalpas' means stagnation; calling it 'ten completions' also refers to cutting off leakage, which is merely severing the ten paths. Without forgetting the great fruit, it is therefore said: 'Keeping still and clinging is called haphazard; taking charge does not distinguish noble and base.' I often see in the monasteries a fond debate over this kind or that kind—can they actually establish the matter? These are merely spreading verbal tracks toward what lies ahead. Have you not seen that Nanquan said: 'Even granted that you reach ten completions, you are still separated from Teacher Wang by a thread of a path'? It is extremely difficult. When the matter comes to this point, one must examine it minutely before achieving clarity and ease. Without distinguishing heaven, hell, hungry ghosts, or animals, as long as one is unmoving everywhere, fundamentally one is the person of old, simply not walking the old path. If there is a fond mind, it still turns into stagnation and attachment; if one can break free, what choice is there? An ancient worthy said: 'One only fears not attaining samsāra.' What do you say? People today only speak of a pure and clean place and love to speak of things lying ahead; this sickness is the hardest to cure. If it is worldly coarse and heavy matters, they are actually light; the sickness of purity and cleanliness is heavy. Just as with the flavour of the Buddhas and the flavour of the patriarchs, all are stagnation and attachment. My late master said: 'Deliberating in mind is breaking the precepts; if one obtains the flavour, it is breaking the fast.' And what is called flavour? It is merely the flavour of the Buddhas and the flavour of the patriarchs; as soon as there is a fond mind, that is breaking the precepts. If we speak of breaking the fast and breaking the precepts nowadays, then right at the time of the three karmavācanās, they were already broken. If it is coarse and heavy greed, anger, and delusion, though hard to sever, they are actually light; but if it is non-action, non-affair, and purity and cleanliness, this is heavy beyond compare. The Ancestral Master's coming into the world was only for this; it was not solely for you either. Nowadays do not take it lightly. The cultivation of tawny cats and white oxen is actually swift; it is not that they possess Chan or possess the Way. With your various sorts of chasing and seeking, looking for Buddha, looking for patriarchs, even up to bodhi and nirvāṇa—when will you ever rest and accomplish it? These are all minds of arising and ceasing. Therefore you are not as good as tawny cats and white oxen, inert and unknowing, knowing neither Buddha nor patriarchs, nor even bodhi, nirvāṇa, good and evil, cause and effect—merely eating grass when hungry and drinking water when thirsty. If you can be like this, have no fear of not accomplishing it. Have you not seen it said: 'Calculation fails, thereby one knows existence'? Only then can one wear fur and bear horns, pulling the plough and dragging the harrow; having gained this advantage, one begins to compare a little. Have you not seen that Maitreya, Akṣobhya, and worlds like Abhirati are called by those above them 'bodhisattvas without shame and indolent', also called 'inconceivable transformation death and birth'? Still it is feared to be a minor indolence; in the fundamental affair, what should one do? One must be extremely careful to get it right. Everyone has the ground of a sitting mat; a Buddha appearing in the world cannot usurp it. When comprehending and cultivating like this, do not rush for quick benefit. If you wish to know this matter: even if you become a Buddha and become a patriarch, it is just this; even if you fall into the three paths, the hells, and the six destinies, it is just this. Although it is of no use, you still cannot be parted from it; you must act as its master to get it right. If you can act as master, then that is being unalterable; if you cannot act as master, then it is transformation. Have you not seen Yongjia say: 'Brashly and recklessly incurring disasters'?