圓悟佛果禪師語錄 14.6

14.6

趙州道：「我見千百億箇，盡是覓作佛漢子，於中覓箇無心底難得。」又云：「我在南方三十年，除粥飯二時是雜用心處。」香林四十年方成一片，涌泉四十年尚自走作，南泉十八上解作活計，信知從上古人，無不皆如此密密履踐，安可計得失長短，取捨是非知解也。同學之中唯龍門智海，昔常熟與究明，但逢緣遇境莫不管帶，何止此生而已，窮未來際證無量聖身也，未是他泊頭處，但一味退步，切莫作限量也。

Zhaozhou said: 'I have seen hundreds of millions of people, all of whom were fellows seeking to become buddhas; among them, finding one who is without mind is truly rare.' He also said: 'For thirty years in the south, except for the two times of gruel and rice, nowhere did I apply my mind to mixed concerns.' Xianglin took forty years before he became of one piece; Yongquan after forty years was still making missteps; Nanquan at eighteen understood how to make his livelihood. One truly knows that among the ancients from antiquity, none failed to carry out their practice thoroughly and intimately like this. How could one calculate gain and loss, superiority and inferiority, or cling to notions of right and wrong and conceptual understanding? Among our fellow students, only Longmen Zhihai in the past thoroughly investigated and clarified this together with me; whenever he met with conditions and encountered circumstances, he never failed to sustain it. How could this be limited only to this life? Exhausting the bounds of the future, even if one realizes immeasurable holy bodies, that is still not his anchoring place. Just practice stepping back with single-minded devotion, and by all means do not set limits.