圓悟佛果禪師語錄 16.14

16.14

曹山辭，悟本問：「向甚處去？」云：「不變易處去。」復徵：「不變異處豈有去耶？」答云：「去亦不變異。」自非踏著實地，安能透徹如此，豈以語言機思所可測量哉？葢履踐深極到無滲漏之致，然後羅籠不住。學道之士立志，外形骸、一死生，混古今、絕去來，要須攀上流造詣，至真諦實淵奧閫域，打辦自己脫白露淨，無絲毫意想墮在塵緣，直下心如枯木朽株，如大死人無些氣息，心心無知、念念無住，千聖出來移換不得，乃可以向枯木上生華，發大機、起大用，興慈運悲乃無功之功、無作之作，豈落得失是非哉？纔留一毫毛，則抵捂於生死界，自己未能度，安可度人？維摩大士不住金粟，住入酒肆婬坊，作大解脫佛事。龐老子補處應身，不住兜率陀，棄却珍寶，漢江織笊籬，與大宗師擊揚與奪。此段從上體裁，莫不皆爾，要須滴水滴凍不拘朝野，陶冶煆煉如曹山、摩詰、老龐，乃可以不廢悲願，不亦宜乎！自餘人間世紛紜塵坌，何足致胸次哉。

When Caoshan took his leave, Wuben asked, "Where are you going?" He said, "To the place that does not change." [Wuben] questioned further, "Can there be any going to the place that does not change?" He answered, "Going is also without change." If one has not stepped upon solid ground, how could one be thorough like this? How could it be fathomed by language and dynamic thinking? Only when one's practice is profoundly deep and reaches the state of no leakage can one not be trapped. When a person studying the Way resolves his mind, he puts outside his bodily form, unifies life and death, blends past and present, and cuts off going and coming. He must aspire to the attainments of the highest stream, reach the realm of the truly real and profound mystery, prepare himself cleanly and expose it purely, without a hairsbreadth of thought falling into worldly conditions; directly beneath, his mind is like dried wood and rotten stumps, like a dead person with no breath at all, mind after mind without knowing, thought after thought without abiding. Even if the thousand sages appear, they cannot alter him. Only then can flowers bloom on dried wood, great potential burst forth, and great function arise; giving rise to loving-kindness and exercising compassion is then the merit of non-merit and the making of non-making. How could he fall into gain, loss, right, or wrong? If even a single hair is retained, it will clash with the realm of birth and death; if one cannot save oneself, how can one save others? The great being Vimalakīrti did not abide in Jinshu, but entered wine shops and brothels to perform the Buddha-work of great liberation. Old Pang, a transformation body in the place of succession, did not abide in Tuṣita; casting aside rare treasures, he wove bamboo strainers by the Han River, engaging in exchanges, giving and taking with great ancestral masters. In this matter, the styles from antiquity have all been like this. One must freeze drop by drop regardless of court or countryside, being smelted and refined like Caoshan, Vimalakīrti, and Old Pang; only then can one not abandon compassionate vows. Is this not fitting! As for the rest of the bustling dust of the human world, how is it worthy of being held in one's breast?