圓悟佛果禪師語錄 12.9

12.9

The Master said: "The ready-made gong'an does not need any further asking of 'what and how'; directly cutting off everything is still somewhat better. The Buddha-Dharma fundamentally does not have so much. If with no-mind, no-thought, no-affairs, non-action, no calculation, and no discrimination, you wear clothes to the very end and eat rice to the very end, how could you ever have stirred a single thread? Then you can cut off the heads of the reward and transformation buddhas and not give rise to the slightest Buddha-Dharma view. Therefore, as soon as the ancients saw a monk coming, they would say: 'A ready-made gong'an—I release you thirty blows of the staff, spreading a net covering the sky to catch the great surf-breaking fish, holding a ten-thousand-mile hook, and driving a thousand-mile black steed.' This too was done out of having no other choice. Therefore Venerable Shishi, as soon as he saw someone coming, would raise his staff and say: 'The past buddhas were like this, the present buddhas are like this, the future buddhas are also like this; I only reveal a little bit of the sharp point to you.' If it is someone [of capacity], as soon as they see him speaking like this, picking up [their robes] and walking away is still somewhat better; if one immediately enters into deliberation, one has already been covered by the sky-spanning net. For thirty years like this, only Venerable Changsha knew where he landed, and then said: 'Venerable, put down your staff and convey another message.' Only then did it tally with his intention. Nowadays, brothers studying and practicing must directly have arrowheads meeting and needle and mustard seed hitting each other, with internal and external messages cut off, before getting it. If you merely search for seeing and hearing, seeking knowledge and seeking understanding, it only becomes the root of birth and death. Why not experience non-arising and understand that fundamentally there is no swiftness? If everyone can see like this, the road of birth and death is cut off in an instant, without stirring a single hair's tip at all. Therefore it is said: 'Dwelling among thousands and tens of thousands of people, it is as though there is not a single person; merely resting body and mind, completely without understanding, just like being useless.' If you follow words and pursue sentences to make principles, with a belly full of Chan, when will you ever escape? Hence Chan Master Nanquan said: 'This mountain monk appeared in the world solely to remove the disease of buddhas and the disease of patriarchs for everyone.' I usually say to the brothers: 'Before your parents gave birth to you, did you have a form and appearance or not?' In other teachings it is said: 'The four elements and five aggregates form the body merely because of a single thought of defiled mind in the sexual union of parents, thereby forming this body.' Let me ask you: when you were a babbling infant, why did you not quarrel with others? When you grew up a little, then there was contending over others and self; once the four elements disperse, you return to your original form and appearance as before. Therefore it is said: 'Bodhi fundamentally has no tree, / Nor is the bright mirror a stand; / Fundamentally there is not a single thing— / Where could dust alight?' Each of you should make effort, taking awakening as your aim; do not pass time in vain, for time waits for no one."