圓悟佛果禪師語錄 14.14

14.14

有祖已來，唯務單傳直指，不喜帶水拕泥打露布列窠窟鈍置人。蓋釋迦老子，三百餘會對機設教，立世垂範太段周遮，是故最後徑截省要接最上機。雖自迦葉二十八世，少示機關、多顯理致，至於付受之際，靡不直面提持，如倒剎竿、盌水投針、示圓光相，執赤旛、把明鑑，說如鐵橛子傳法偈，達磨破六宗，與外道立義，天下太平，翻轉我天爾狗，皆神機迅捷，非擬議思惟所測。洎到梁遊魏，尤復顯言，教外別行單傳心印，六代傳衣所指顯著，逮曹溪大鑑，詳示說通宗通。歷涉既久，具正眼大解脫宗師，變革通塗，俾不滯名相，不墮理性言說，放出活卓卓地，脫灑自由，妙機遂見，行棒行喝，以言遣言，以機奪機，以毒攻毒，以用破用，所以流傳七百來年，枝分派別各擅家風，浩浩轟轟莫知紀極；然鞠其歸著，無出直指人心。心地既明，無絲毫隔礙，脫去勝負彼我是非知見解會，透到大休大歇安穩之場，豈有二致哉？所謂百川異流同歸于海，要須是箇向上根器，具高識遠見，有紹隆佛祖志氣，然後能深入閫奧，徹底信得及，直下把得住，始可印證堪為種草。捨此，切宜寶祕慎詞，勿作容易放行也。

Ever since the patriarchs, they have solely aimed at the single transmission and direct pointing, disliking muddiness and water-dragging, issuing public notices, or setting up nests and burrows to dull and hinder people. Old Śākyamuni, in more than three hundred assemblies, established teachings according to people's capacities, setting worldly models that were excessively circuitous; therefore, at the very end, he directly and concisely received those of the supreme capacity. Although from Kāśyapa through twenty-eight generations, few dynamic traps were shown and much principle was revealed, when it came to the transmission, none failed to uphold it directly face-to-face: like knocking down the banner pole, dropping a needle into a bowl of water, displaying the circular light mark, holding the red banner, gripping the bright mirror, speaking the transmission gāthā like an iron stake, Bodhidharma refuting the six sects, establishing propositions with non-Buddhists, the world being at peace, or turning around 'I am heaven and you are a dog'—all were swift spiritual dynamics, not to be measured by hesitation or deliberate thought. By the time he reached Liang and travelled to Wei, he further made it explicit: a special transmission outside the teachings, singly transmitting the mind seal. What the six generations of transmitting the robe indicated was conspicuous; and when it reached Dajian of Caoxi, he demonstrated in detail the mastery of both teaching and lineage. After a long passage of time, lineage masters possessing the correct eye and great liberation transformed the general path, ensuring that students did not stagnate in names and characteristics, nor fall into intellectual discourse on principle. Releasing them with lively vitality, untrammelled and free, wondrous dynamic functions then appeared: applying the staff, delivering shouts, using words to dismiss words, using dynamics to seize dynamics, using poison to attack poison, and using function to shatter function. Therefore, transmitted for some seven hundred years, branches divided and schools split, each excelling in its own lineage style, bustling and thundering without measure. Yet when one examines their ultimate source, it does not go beyond directly pointing to the human mind. Once the mind ground is luminous, without a thread of obstruction, one casts off victory and defeat, self and other, right and wrong, intellectual views and conceptual understanding, penetrating through to the site of great rest and great peace; how could there be two different paths? As the saying goes, 'A hundred rivers flow differently, but all return to the sea.' One must be a vessel of transcendent capacity, endowed with high understanding and farsightedness, possessing the aspiration to inherit and exalt the buddhas and patriarchs; only then can one deeply enter the inner sanctum, have thorough faith, and hold fast directly under one's feet, before one can be certified and become fit to be seed grass. Other than this, one should strictly keep it treasured and secret, be cautious with words, and never grant easy passage.