圓悟佛果禪師語錄 13.9

13.9

The Master said: "Everyone is fully endowed; each and every one is complete and perfected. Only seek within yourself; do not search outside. Why? What is sought outside belongs to another's house; casting aside oneself to follow others takes one far from the Way. You must know that within your own lot there is an affair that radiates brilliantly through past and present, like ten suns shining together. Yet, because from beginningless kalpas your delusive thoughts have been thick and dense, screening and obscuring your own mind, the moment you look back, all is utter darkness; but when it comes to worldly knowledge and views, all kinds of sounds and forms, the moment they appear before you, you understand everything clearly. Is this not turning your back on awakening and uniting with dust, seeking from others, and being unable to reflect back the light? Moreover, what affair is made clear by the Buddhas and patriarchs from antiquity who used countless hundreds of thousands of verbal expressions and expedient means? It is simply because you give rise to views, give rise to thoughts, give rise to conceptual deliberations, display cleverness, and calculate, thereby confusing your original self, and bringing about the establishment of subject and object, manifestation and wisdom, right and wrong, in tangled confusion unable to attain liberation. Therefore, when the Buddhas and patriarchs appear in the world, they merely wish to have you bring knowledge and views to rest, sweeping them away until not a single speck of thread remains. And tell me: how are they to be brought to rest? Directly like letting go your hands over a sheer cliff, casting down your body and surrendering your life—cast aside seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing; cast aside bodhi, nirvāṇa, tathatā, and liberation; whether pure or defiled, cast them aside all at once, letting yourself be stark naked and unburdened. Naturally, upon hearing one thing you will awaken to a thousand, directly taking charge of it from this point onward. Then turning back to look at the functioning of the Buddhas and patriarchs, it is not two and not different from your own; even in the bustling marketplace, where the four classes of people are clamorously trading and doing business, right down to the wind whistling and the birds calling—all are not different from yourself. Only then are Buddha and sentient beings one, afflictions and bodhi one, mind and objects one, light and darkness one, right and wrong one, and even the thousands of differences and myriads of distinctions are all one. Only then can you churn the great river into ghee and transform the great earth into yellow gold, blending everything entirely into a single whole, and even 'one' is not established. Then, walking is walking, sitting is sitting, putting on robes is putting on robes, and eating food is eating food. Like a bright mirror set upon its stand, when a barbarian comes a barbarian appears, and when a Chinese comes a Chinese appears: originally making no calculations, yet ready-made everywhere. Therefore, though ten thousand dynamic opportunities suddenly arrive, they do not perturb one's spirit; though a thousand varied difficulties confront one, they do not disturb one's concerns. How could this be measured by the crude and shallow views of the worldly? This is the most wondrous cause and condition: students of the Way, who for ten or twenty years concentrate their minds with single-minded focus, still fail to penetrate it; yet some understand upon barely hearing it, while others awaken on their own without a master. Since you cannot awaken immediately on your own, you cannot hinder others either. Among them, it is especially difficult for literati officials, because they are engaged in worldly affairs and toil for family and state, so their awakening and entry are somewhat difficult. Yet those who attain it are originally no different in their own lot; if one has not yet resolved it, one must have sharp natural faculties, looking down at the base of one's own heels to resolve it upon hearing a single word. For example, Prince Consort Li paid attention to the ancestral Way, befriended Yang Wengong, and polished his understanding day and night. Later, he met Chan Master Shimen Cizhao, who brought up for him: 'Tang Prime Minister Fang Ru asked Chan Master Guoyi of Jingshan: "Ultimately, what is the intended meaning of the ancestral master's Great Way?" Jingshan said: "This is the affair of a great hero, not something generals and prime ministers can accomplish."' Li had a great awakening upon hearing this and then composed a verse: 'To study the Way one must be an iron fellow; / Taking action, the mind instantly decides. / Heading directly toward unsurpassed bodhi, / Pay no heed to all rights and wrongs.' What he said is indeed quite extraordinary. Moreover, going out as a general and entering as a prime minister, pacifying the state and establishing its dynastic enterprise, cutting down violence and chaos—is that not a great hero? Why then did Jingshan say instead: 'This is the affair of a great hero, not something generals and prime ministers can accomplish'? You must know that the transcendent path does not allow a single hair. Therefore Dongshan said: 'Only when you see the Buddhas and patriarchs as mortal enemies will you have a share in study and inquiry.' But the Buddhas and patriarchs are teachers of all people and the refuge for all people—why then say 'as mortal enemies'? Tell me, what is the affair of a great hero? One must directly refrain from taking instructions from others, avoid being caged by others, refuse to be bound by others, cast off all tracks and ruts, be solitary and companionless, towering and imposing, striding alone through the three realms, luminous and thoroughly penetrated, without desire and without dependence, attaining great autonomy, entirely free of the slightest emotional understanding of the Buddhadharma, like a fool or a dullard, like wood or stone, not distinguishing south from north, not discerning cold from warmth, murky and silent, resembling someone completely incompetent and entirely devoid of understanding. And yet inside, one is truly sharp and upright; the moment one is touched, the eyes gleam brightly, with nothing left unclear, right down to instantly penetrating the myriad distinctions of the ancient masters' verbal expressions. If one has not yet reached this stage, one must reach into the bag of curiosities to lower the high and raise the low for their sake. For instance, in the past Prime Minister Yu Di went out to garrison Xiangyang; his punishments were cruel and vicious, and all who crossed him were executed. Because he had a doubt while reading the Avalokiteśvara Sūtra, one day he visited Chan Master Daotong of Mount Ziyu and asked: 'What does it mean: "If a black wind blows its ship and vessel, causing it to drift and fall into the land of the rākṣasa demons"?' Ziyu raised his voice and said: 'Yu Di, you hired labourer! Why do you ask about such things?' Hearing this, Yu was enraged. Ziyu then said: 'Just this is the black wind blowing its ship and vessel, causing it to drift and fall into the land of the rākṣasa demons.' Yu Di had an awakening. Tell me, when he asked Ziyu like that, why did Ziyu answer him in that way? This was to trigger his fundamental ignorance to appear before him, directly pointing it out on the spot—truly the work of an expert hand! Yet, it would not have been as good as saying nothing afterward at that moment, letting him be hacked in two, which would have had some of the flavor of a patch-robed monk. As for breaking it down and clarifying it for him, that was merely stroking him down following his lead. In general, there are three modes of potential in guiding people: If one guides someone with the first mode of potential, one need only say to him: 'Yu Di, you hired labourer! Why do you ask about such things?' There are no further expedients; it is simply devoid of conceptual meaning and difficult to discuss. If one takes charge of it directly right here without entertaining any deliberations, then it is no different from the cypress tree, the three pounds of flax, or swallowing all the waters of the West River in a single gulp. Therefore it is said: 'When it is brought up, if you do not look directly, you go astray; if you calculate and deliberate, in what kalpa will you awaken?' It only wants you to grasp and understand it head-on. If one guides someone with the second mode of potential, that is easy: it is merely opening up the question, as in saying: 'Yu Di, you hired labourer! Why do you ask about such things?' This triggers his fundamental ignorance, causing his ignorance to manifest before him, and then points it out on the spot. If one guides someone with the third mode of potential, one cannot avoid entering the mud and water to append further commentary, as in saying: 'Calling Yu Di a hired labourer is letting loose the black wind blowing the ship. Yu Di's becoming angry is the rākṣasas appearing. Ziyu saying: "This is precisely the black wind blowing the ship"—is this not the manifestation of Avalokiteśvara?' This is commentary fallen into the grass, blinding people's eyes and destroying the seed of the Barbarian. If one is a true patch-robed monk, one must sweep it away completely. Have you not heard it said: 'He studies the living phrase, not the dead phrase. If you understand on the living phrase, you become the teacher of Buddhas and patriarchs.' For instance, when Li Wanjuan asked Venerable Guizong: 'Leaving aside Mount Sumeru containing a mustard seed, what is a mustard seed containing Mount Sumeru?' Guizong said: 'Your body is the size of a coconut; where are the ten thousand volumes of books placed?' That old fellow Guizong usually struck Buddhas and patriarchs with a plain staff, but when Li Wanjuan asked him, he could not help but accommodate human feelings and open up a crack. Yet his functioning was also merely to make you cut it off head-on. Later, those without understanding among the assembly said: 'The mustard seed is the mind, and Sumeru is the ten thousand volumes; what could be wrong with containing them within the mind?' If the Buddhadharma were merely like this, how could it have survived to this day? Furthermore, when Layman Pang asked Great Master Mazu: 'What kind of person is it who does not take the ten thousand dharmas as companion?' Great Master Mazu said: 'Wait until you swallow all the waters of the West River in a single gulp, then I will tell you.' The layman attained great awakening and composed a verse: 'From the ten directions we gather together, / Each and every one studying non-action. / This is the arena for selecting Buddhas; / The mind emptied, passing the examination, one returns.' Did this verse ever match the topic of swallowing all the waters of the West River in a single gulp? He mentioned neither mouth nor water, only saying 'the mind emptied, passing the examination, one returns.' And tell me: what is an emptied mind? It only wants you to integrate right and wrong, gain and loss, light and darkness, form and emptiness, and the myriad phenomena all at once into a single principle, and then empty out even that principle along with it; only then will there be some true direction. Tonight the mountain monk has not spared his eyebrows to vomit it all out for you at once. I shall speak another small gāthā for everyone: 'The Buddhas and patriarchs individually transmit the transcendent dynamic, / Which cannot be caught in a spark of flint or a flash of lightning. / It is granted only to those whose faculties are sharp and unbound: / With the diamond jewel sword, they cut it off head-on.'"