圓悟佛果禪師語錄 14.32

14.32

Zhaozhou said: 'For thirty years in the south, except for the two times of gruel and rice, I never used my mind on miscellaneous matters.' You should know that the ancients did not take this matter lightly; they were thoroughly earnest. Thus in their cultivation and investigation they reached complete and thorough clarity. In every dynamic encounter, every environment, every phrase, and every word, not one fell into vain emptiness; thus worldly phenomena and the Buddhadharma were forged into a single whole. Nowadays, if you wish to tally [with reality] and be grounded, you must be fierce, sharp, and resolute, turning your intestines inside out and changing your stomach. Do not adopt perverse knowledge and perverse views; do not mix in poisoned food. Be of a single, pure flavor—true, immaculate, and wondrously bright—stepping directly upon your fundamental landscape, reaching the ground of secure, great liberation. Cut off the crowns of the reward and transformation Buddhas, stern, towering, and solitary, where the wind cannot enter and water cannot wet, the true body present before you, endowed with power in daily functioning. Hearing sounds and seeing forms, you give rise to neither taking nor leaving, and in every step there is a path to emerge. Do you not see: A monk asked Jiufeng, 'I hear that the Venerable directly met Yanshou; is that so?' Feng said, 'Has the wheat before the mountain ripened yet?' If you recognize his intimate function, you will see the monk's nose. This is the so-called sword that kills people and blade that revives people. Just continuously observe it yourself; when you reach the point beyond conventions, you will naturally know where it settles.