圓悟佛果禪師語錄 13.7

13.7

師云：「欲得親切，第一莫將來，將來不相似，向爾道『壁立萬仞』，依前却來，撞牆撞壁，有什麼近傍處？雖然如是，已是落草了也。不免將錯就錯，於第二頭說葛藤去也。還知麼？直下如當門按一口劍相似，凜凜威風，纔跨門來，誰敢近傍，若近著則喪身失命；若望涯而退，不是大丈夫漢；須是不顧死生，從他手中奪去始得。所以道：『不入虎穴，不得虎子。』須是當前不顧性命。若奪劍在自己手中，任是佛來也不放過。直饒恁麼，已是第二頭也。不見資福道：『爾隔江見資福剎竿便回去，脚跟下好與三十棒。』睦州纔見僧來便云：『見成公案。』隨後云：『放爾三十棒。』似此等有什麼近傍處？然子細推窮來，不妨勦絕，免他說玄說妙、說理說事、說向上向下穢污心田。須知人人分上有一段事，輝騰今古，逈絕見知，淨裸裸赤灑灑，先沒許多般，只為爾諸人從無始時來妄想濃厚，背却自己只從他覓，若能回光返照，無第二人，終不隨他起滅。若一處得脫，則千處百處一時透脫。莫只向人舌頭聽他處分，聊聞舉著，剔起便行，已是三千里外沒交涉；若得箇中受用，便乃毛羽相似，作他屋裏人。雖有恁麼人，也須向山僧手裏飲氣吞聲始得。直須按下雲頭，將自己平生所知所解，掇在善知識面前，若是則與爾證據，不是則與爾剗除。豈不見，藥山參石頭時，置箇問端云：『三乘十二分教某粗知，誠聞南方直指人心見性成佛，某甲實未明了，乞師指示。』石頭云：『恁麼也不得，不恁麼也不得，恁麼不恁麼總不得。』山不契，直至江西馬大師處，又如前問，馬師云：『有時教伊揚眉瞬目，有時教伊不揚眉瞬目，有時教伊揚眉瞬目是，有時教伊揚眉瞬目不是。』藥山於是有省，馬云：『爾見什麼道理？』山云：『我在石頭時，如蚊子上鐵牛相似。』今時眾中兄弟便道：『石頭一向壁立萬仞，所以他不會；馬祖放開一線，他乃悟去。』殊不知，石頭恁麼道，已是漏逗了也；馬祖道處，這一著尤更毒害，因甚麼藥山得悟去？且道：因什麼如此？到此須是生鐵鑄就底漢始得。所以云：『此事不在語言上，不在文字上。』看他置箇問頭，問石頭了，及至馬祖處，亦如是問，此人是箇鐵石身心。如今若有如是心底人，何憂不徹？爾若只覓言、覓句、覓玄、覓妙，何時得了？千人萬人各說不同，爾用那箇句則是？若見道了，更用言句作麼？若不用言句，爾作麼生見？到這裏，參須實參、悟須實悟，令教透頂透底、亘古亘今，打開自己庫藏，運出自己家財拯濟，莫只向外邊尋覓。爾若拶得一路透去，便與爾同參；爾若只守箇昭昭靈靈、下咄下喝揚眉瞬目，不如這箇更是大病。所以云：『此事隱在四大六根裏，六根四大只是箇閑家具。』故云：『生如著衫，死如脫袴，六根四大，只是箇衫袴。』且道：著底是什麼人？且道：是誰著？」乃喝云：「莫便是這箇麼？」復云：「錯了也。所以古人云：『身心一如，身外無餘，盡乾坤大地，只是箇本來心，盡山河大地，只是箇一末撒子也不要。』既不要，且道：向什麼處安身立命？到此須是有生機一路始得；若不如是，爾若道佛則著佛，爾若道祖則著祖，直須紅鑪一點雪相似始得。且去巾單下，放教如寒灰死火，世法佛法都不用思量，莫怕他落空，莫怕如土木瓦石。爾若怕落空，只如憂落空底心，是什麼？何曾落空來？若是果歇得到真實休歇之處，佛祖也不立，千聖萬聖法門一時透了，豈不徑截也。」

The Master said: "If you wish to attain intimacy, first of all do not bring anything forth. If you bring it forth, it will not resemble it. When I tell you, 'standing like a wall ten thousand cubits high,' you come back just as before, bumping into walls and striking barricades—how is there any approaching it? Even so, this is already falling into the weeds. I cannot help but follow error with error and speak entangled vines at the secondary level. Do you know? Directly below, it is just like drawing a single sword right in the doorway: with chilling awe and majesty, the moment one steps across the threshold, who dares approach? If you come near it, you lose your body and life; if you look at the precipice and retreat, you are no great hero. You must disregard life and death and snatch it from his hands before you can succeed. Therefore it is said: 'If you do not enter the tiger's den, you cannot get the tiger's cub.' Right before you, you must disregard life itself. If you snatch the sword into your own hands, even if a Buddha comes, you will not spare him. Even if it is like this, it is already the secondary level. Have you not seen Zifu say: 'If you see Zifu's flagpole from across the river and turn back, you deserve thirty blows under your heels'? Muzhou, as soon as he saw a monk coming, would say: 'A ready-made gong'an!' Immediately following, he would say: 'I release you from thirty blows.' With cases like these, how is there any approaching them? Yet when examined closely, they do not fail to cut clean through, sparing one from speaking of the mysterious and marvelous, of principle and phenomena, of the transcendent and descendant, which defile the mind-field. You must know that within each person's lot there is a matter that blazes across past and present, far transcending views and knowledge, stripped bare and stark naked, originally without so many varieties. It is only because you people, from time without beginning, have had thick delusions, turning your backs on yourselves and only seeking from others. If you can reverse the light to illumine inward, there is no second person, and in the end you will not follow another's rising and ceasing. If you attain liberation in one place, you instantly break through in thousands and hundreds of places. Do not merely listen to others' directions on the tips of their tongues; hearing a slight mention, you prick up your ears and walk away—already you are three thousand miles away, having no connection at all. If you attain the functioning within, then you will share the same plumage, becoming a person of his household. Even if there is such a person, he must still swallow his breath and hold his voice in this mountain monk's hands before he can succeed. You must bring down your cloud-head and take all that you have known and understood throughout your life, setting it down before a kalyāṇamitra. If it is right, he will verify it for you; if it is not, he will chop it away for you. Have you not seen: when Yaoshan visited Shitou, he posed a question, saying: 'I roughly know the three vehicles and twelve divisions of the teachings. I have truly heard that in the south they point directly to the human mind, seeing one's nature and becoming a Buddha. I have truly not clarified this; I beg the master for instruction.' Shitou said: 'Being so will not do; not being so will not do; both being so and not being so will not do at all.' Yaoshan did not connect with it, so he went straight to Great Master Ma in Jiangxi and asked as before. Master Ma said: 'Sometimes I have him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes; sometimes I do not have him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes. Sometimes having him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes is right; sometimes having him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes is not right.' Yaoshan thereupon had an awakening. Ma said: 'What principle did you see?' Yaoshan said: 'When I was at Shitou's, it was like a mosquito biting an iron ox.' Nowadays, the brothers in the assembly say: 'Shitou consistently stood like a wall ten thousand cubits high, which is why he did not understand; Mazu opened a line of leeway, so he attained awakening.' Little do they know that Shitou speaking like that was already letting things leak out; where Mazu spoke, this move was even more lethal. Why was it that Yaoshan attained awakening? Tell me: why was it so? To reach this point, one must be a fellow cast of pig iron before one can succeed. Therefore it is said: 'This matter is not in speech, not in writing.' Look at how he set up a question and asked Shitou, and when he reached Mazu, he asked in the same way—this person had a body and mind of iron and stone. Nowadays, if there were someone with such a mind, why worry that he would not penetrate through? If you only seek words, phrases, the mysterious, and the marvelous, when will there ever be an end? Thousands and myriads of people each speak differently; which phrase would you take to be right? If you have seen the Way, what further use do you have for words and phrases? If you do not use words and phrases, how do you see it? Arriving here, your inquiry must be true inquiry, your awakening must be true awakening, causing it to penetrate through top and bottom, extending through antiquity and modernity; open your own storehouse and transport out your own family treasure for relief—do not just search outside. If you can press through a single path, then you will be a fellow practitioner with me. If you merely cling to this luminous alertness, barking and shouting, raising eyebrows and blinking eyes—this is an even greater illness. Therefore it is said: 'This matter is hidden within the four elements and six sense faculties; the six sense faculties and four elements are merely idle fixtures.' Hence it is said: 'Birth is like putting on a robe; death is like taking off trousers. The six sense faculties and four elements are merely robes and trousers.' Tell me: what kind of person is the one wearing them? Tell me: who is wearing them?" He then gave a shout and said: "Could it be this?" He further said: "Mistaken! Therefore the ancients said: 'Body and mind are one suchness; outside the body there is nothing remaining. The entire cosmos and great earth are just the original mind; the entire mountain and river and great earth—not even a single pinch of dust is wanted.' Since nothing is wanted, tell me: where do you establish body and life? Arriving here, you must have a single path of vital function before you can succeed. If you are not like this, if you say Buddha, you cling to Buddha; if you say Patriarch, you cling to Patriarch. You must be like a single flake of snow on a red-hot stove before you can succeed. Just go beneath your robes and cushion, let it be like cold ashes and dead fire, with neither worldly dharmas nor Buddha Dharma needing any thought. Do not fear falling into emptiness; do not fear being like earth, wood, tile, or stone. If you fear falling into emptiness, just consider: the mind that worries about falling into emptiness—what is it? When did it ever fall into emptiness? If you truly cease to the place of genuine rest, neither Buddhas nor Patriarchs are established, and the Dharma gates of thousands and myriads of sages are all penetrated at once. How could this not be direct and swift?"