圓悟佛果禪師語錄 15

English (machine translation) 15

Language: English

15.1

Compiled by his disciple Shaolong and others of Mount Huqiu, Pingjiang Prefecture, Song Dynasty

Perfect clarity, empty and congealed, is the substance of the Way; expanding and contracting, killing and bringing to life, is the wondrous function. Skilled in wielding the blade, able to hold fast, like a pearl rolling in a basin, like a basin rolling with a pearl, not falling into emptiness for an instant, nor distinguishing worldly dharma from Buddha-Dharma, directly fused into one piece: this is the so-called 'encountering Him at every turn,' appearing and disappearing freely, originally without external objects, stark naked and turning smoothly, sealed by the fundamental lot, bright upon every matter, clear upon every object—where else could gain and loss, right and wrong, good and bad, long and short come from? One only fears that one's own correct eye has not yet been thoroughly clarified, thereby causing one to fall into the two extremes, in which case there is no connection. Have you not seen Yongjia say: 'A superior person resolves it once and for all; the middling and inferior hear much and mostly disbelieve'?

15.5

The spoken teachings of the Buddhas and patriarchs are merely fish traps and rabbit snares, relied upon as the gate to enter the principle. Once one is openly and clearly awakened and undertakes it, then upon the correct substance everything is perfectly complete; viewing the spoken teachings of the Buddhas and patriarchs, all are matters on the periphery of shadows and echoes, never to be carried atop the crown of one's head. Contemporary students of Chan mostly do not take their lineage principle as the root, but only strive to hold onto and select words and phrases, discussing closeness and distance, debating gain and loss, taking floating bubbles as real understanding, boasting of how many gong'ans they have skillfully refined, and knowing how to ask the phrases of the five houses' lineage traditions across the regions—wholly drowned in emotional consciousness and deluded about the correct substance, which is truly lamentable. There are genuine lineage masters who, begrudging not their eyebrows, urge them to leave behind such evil knowledge and evil views; yet they turn around and call this the stirring, shaking, and forging of mental activities, turning around only to enter a briar patch. This is what is meant by: 'If at the very outset one does not encounter an adept, into old age one only becomes a curio dealer.'

15.6

At the crucial point, it does not take a single prick; if there is blood beneath the skin, one naturally knows the landing place. If you hesitate, you lose your nostrils. It was already like this prior to the seven Buddhas. You must firmly pull yourself together, brace your scalp, and clearly and distinctly realize this patch of land. Only through steady concealment over a long time will you naturally know how to take a step back, never saying: 'I have a view, I have a wondrous understanding.' Why is this? If within this there is established even the slightest thorn of subject-and-object views, it will be heavier than mountains and peaks; from of old, this has never been permitted. Therefore, Śākyamuni received prediction from Dīpaṃkara Buddha because of no Dharma; Old Lu had the robe and bowl intimately entrusted to him at Huangmei because originally not a thing exists. As for the juncture of life and death, as soon as you shoulder it yourself, it is like a sacred turtle shedding its shell; you must rely on neither the clean nor the defiled extremes. Having mind and having no mind, having views and having no views, are like a flake of snow touching a red-hot stove. Throughout the twenty-four hours of the day, penetrating from top to bottom, unconstrained and untrammeled, roaming where the thousand sages do not travel in the same way, straightaway bring it to ripeness and natural accomplishment, obtaining the state of having finished study and being without contrivance, being a true person whom thousands or myriads cannot entangle.

15.7

Sending Off Chief Monk Yuan Returning West

15.8

For a person who has attained the Way, the place where he stands is already solitary, precarious, and steep, not making an opponent of a single dharma; when he acts, not a speck of dust is stirred—how could it merely be entering a forest without stirring the grass, or entering water without stirring a ripple? This is because internally he is already empty and tranquil, and externally he cuts off illuminating exertion, carefree and self-content, thoroughly realizing no-mind. Though ten thousand machinations arrive at once, how could they disturb his spirit? Though a thousand difficulties uniquely confront him, they do not bother his thoughts. Normally he only maintains a leisurely state, like an idiot or a stump; but when facing matters and acting for beings, he initially makes no craft, yet his handling cuts through like whirling wind and turning lightning, unfailingly meeting the dynamic—how could this not be what he customarily maintains? Therefore an ancient worthy said: 'Like a person learning archery, only after a long time does he hit the mark.' Awakening is an instantaneous practice, yet the effort must rely on the long term; like a newly born turtle dove, bare and featherless, nurtured and fed over days and months, once its feathers are complete, it knows how to fly high and soar far. Therefore, when awakening is clear and penetrates to the bottom, the crucial thing is precisely regulation and taming. Just like the realms of the various dusts, ordinary people are obstructed among them; but for those who have reached the bottom, there is nothing that is not empty and open, completely their own great gate of liberation. Acting all day long without having ever acted, completely free of preference or aversion, and also free of weariness, ferrying everyone across without subject or object—how much less could revulsion or laxity arise? If one's disposition is one-sided and withered, one must all the more increase what one cannot do, letting it become thoroughly unimpeded, gathering and transforming through the power of upāya, opening the provisional, looking up and down to respond and meet, ensuring that high and low, far and near are without the slightest error, practicing the conduct of Never-Disparaging, learning from the ascetic of forbearance, abiding by the precedents and models of past Buddhas, accomplishing the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment, consolidating the four methods of gathering, and reaching the point where great function manifests before one, where noise and quietude are equal—like a boat going downstream requiring no pole or oar, blending and embracing, fully realizing the practices and vows of Samantabhadra: this is a great kalyāṇamitra of the mundane and supramundane worlds. An ancient worthy said: 'In a village of three families, one must have one's own monastic grove.' For where there is no monastic grove, even a person of resolve likes to follow his own convenience. Having reached such a state, one should all the more firmly hold fast, solely persisting with untiring effort, so that in the end it is also like this with noise and quietude: in noisy places, moving about and adapting to changes while remaining empty and tranquil within; in quiet places, able not to be bound by quietude—then wherever one goes, it is all one's own livelihood. Only one who is empty within, yielding without, and possesses a root can do so.

15.9

Generally speaking, as a kalyāṇamitra, one should be compassionate, gentle, and compliant, dealing with beings equitably and abiding without dispute. If another approaches me with evil demands, evil reputations, or forms, interfering unreasonably with slander and humiliation, just step back and reflect on yourself; if within yourself there is no dissatisfaction, do not contest anything at all, nor stir thoughts of resentment, but directly cut it off, as if initially neither hearing nor seeing it, and after a long time the demonic obstacles will naturally dissolve. If you contend with them, evil voices will return to each other; how could there ever be an end? Moreover, it would not manifest your own power—how would you differ from the ordinary run? Strive earnestly to practice this, and naturally none will think of disobeying. Awakening humans and devas beneath the gavel and whisk, causing them to break through life and death—how could this be a small cause and condition? You should use serene words and countenance, meeting and testing according to the dynamic, discerning their origins, examining their stances, attacking their biases, stripping away their attachments, and pointing directly to let them see the Buddha-nature and reach the realm of great rest, cessation, peace, and joy. This is what is called pulling out nails, drawing out pegs, releasing stickiness, and removing bindings. You must never bind people with real dharmas, causing them to dwell like this or cling like this; do not let yourself be shifted or toppled by others. This is poison: if you let them consume it, they will carry a board and be misled their whole life—how could there be any benefit?

15.10

When Buddhas and patriarchs appeared in the world, they specifically advocated this little cause and condition, calling it the single transmission of the mind-seal, not establishing words and phrases, receiving the highest capacity, valuing only hearing once and awakening to a thousand, directly undertaking it and completing cultivation, not seeking fame or gain, solely striving to break through life and death. Now that we are their descendants, we must preserve their seeds. Look at those people of the Way from ancient times: at every turn they subdued dragons and tamed tigers, conferred precepts on spirits, embraced hardship and ate bland food, largely forgot the human world, permanently departed from the dusts, cooked food in broken-legged pots for twenty or thirty years, hid their traces and buried their names, often dying while sitting or passing away while standing. Among them, only one or two were pushed forward by all the sages to establish the lineage style. All followed high conduct, striving to repay the Buddha's kindness and circulate the great Dharma; only then did they utter a word or half a phrase, doing so only because they had no alternative, fully aware that it was a gate for guiding people into principle, a tile for knocking on a door. Yet its structure, power, and function may well serve as a model for later descendants, who should take it as their standard. Encourage one another, regain the ancient style, and strictly avoid seeking fame and angling for profit. This is my deep wish.

15.11

Instructing Chan Practitioner Shu

15.12

Understanding speech does not depend on the tongue; being able to speak does not lie in words. Clearly knowing that words on the tongue are not a place to rely on, then the ancient masters' one word or half a phrase had no other intention than wanting people to directly match and verify the fundamental great matter of cause and condition. Therefore the sūtra teachings are like a finger pointing at the moon; knowing it is such a matter, one then desists. When the place of practice is close-knit, the time of enjoyment is broad and open; over days and years without shifting, handling, taking up, and letting go proficiently, small realms can all be illuminated and broken through, cut off without leaving a trace. When it comes to the juncture of life and death, knots and mesh will not be mixed up; clear and unmoving, one carefree departs. This is the Chan of the Nirvana Hall on the thirtieth day of the twelfth month.

15.13

Instructing Scribe Yu

15.14

Treading on solid ground and reaching a place of peace, within all times there is no wasted effort, continuous without leaking a single thread, clear, tranquil, and congealed, which Buddhas and patriarchs cannot fathom and demons or non-Buddhists have no way to grasp: this is the great liberation of abiding naturally without anywhere to abide. Even though passing through limitless kalpas, it is still just suchness—how much more so for the various conditions? Abiding peacefully within this, only then can one establish [teachings] and pull out nails and draw out pegs for others, merely causing them to go on without any attachments. This is called the great matter of cause and condition.

15.15

"The Tathāgata has an esoteric word; Kāśyapa does not conceal it." Kāśyapa's not concealing it is precisely the Tathāgata's true esoteric word. When it is not concealed, it is esoteric; when it is esoteric, it is not concealed. How could this ever be brought up to those who are bound by emotional calculations, establish gain and loss, abide in dens, and form intellectual understandings? Only when one has broken through to the stage of actual realization, and grasped it atop the crown of the head that goes beyond the ordinary and transcends the lineage, will one succeed. Having grasped it, one must protect and maintain it; only upon meeting someone of superior capacity and great caliber may one seal and transmit it.

15.16

Holding the whisk and occupying the seat, one is called an ancestral master; yet without the methods of an adept of the fundamental lot, one inevitably leads others astray, drawing those who newly arrive into thickets of grass to engage in hodgepodge. If one possesses the diamond true eye, one must be completely detached and receive them solely with the matter of the fundamental lot. Even if one's view is equal to a Buddha's, there is still the obstruction of the Buddha-stage. For this reason, the wielding of the staff and shout from antiquity onward—a single dynamic act, a single realm, a single word, a single phrase—aims at the barb of the hook, valuing only solitary liberation and never letting people cling to grass or attach to trees. This is what is meant by 'driving away the plowman's ox, snatching away the starving man's food.' If it is not like this, all are just fellows playing with mud balls.

15.17

Among newly arriving patch-robed monks, there are those with past roots who apply effort and suddenly gain entry; yet without meeting a true ancestral master, they are instead led into wordy entanglements, falling into dynamic realms, binding themselves without ropes, half-advanced and falling behind, seeming right yet being wrong—most difficult to put in order. One must recognize the pulse of their disease, discern where they land, examine what they are biased toward and arouse them, enabling them to abandon clinging and stagnant dwelling; only then may one reveal to them the fundamental correct lineage, leaving them without doubt, clearly attaining great liberation and residing in the great jewel mansion. Naturally, even if driven away, they will not leave; they can vastly benefit the Great Dharma, continue the ancestral lamp, and be capable of repaying the debt of gratitude that cannot be repaid.

15.18

Anciently, before Chan Master Huanglong Laonan saw Shishuang, he understood a whole bellyful of Chan. Cuiyan took pity on him and urged him to visit Ciming; merely by thoroughly investigating where Xuansha's words to Lingyun were not penetrating, his notions melted like ice and shattered like tiles on the spot, whereupon he received the seal of approval. For thirty years he simply used this seal to critique [teachings] throughout all quarters, opening roads and curing diseases, without resorting to donkey-loads of medicine. At the crucial point, how could there be so many Buddha-dharmas? When a great ancestral master acts for others, though he establishes no dens or wordy entanglements, in time the students mistakenly adopt [his words], and these too become dens and wordy entanglements. Because they make having no den into a den and make having no wordy entanglements into wordy entanglements, one must pursue them to exhaustion, not letting them wait by the tree trunk for a hare or mistake the finger for the moon. Discernment precedes the dynamic moment; even the stirring of grass in wind and dust is illumined at its first sign, not to mention amidst bustling interactions. If one's chest is not empty and quiet, without a single phenomenon confronting the mind, how could one respond fully without error and illumine things ahead of the dynamic moment? These are all the efficacy of the nāga residing in absorption.

15.19

Linji's Vajra King jewel sword, Deshan's final word, Yaoshan's single phrase, Bimo's pitchfork, Juti's finger, Xuefeng's rolling ball, Heshan's beating drum, Zhaozhou's drinking tea, and Yangqi's chestnut burr and diamond cage—all are of one accord. When one accords with and verifies it, directly one saves effort; none of the verbal teachings of all the ancestral masters are not penetrated. It only depends on the person themselves skillfully guarding and maintaining it.

15.20

Venerable Fozhi Yu has practiced long and traveled widely; matching in a single word, his former realizations and understandings were stripped away all at once, and he stood out surpassing the rest. Thereupon he shared the seat to instruct disciples, transmitting, upholding, and circulating this great Dharma seal. Therefore, I write these Dharma words to present to him.

15.21

Shown to Chan Practitioner Can

15.22

When Venerable Zhaozhou saw a monk, he called out, 'Come forward.' The monk came forward. Zhaozhou said, 'Go.' How effort-saving! If you can comprehend this, it is entirely complete; if you wonder what and how, then views will arise.

15.23

During the Tang dynasty, the ancient worthy Chan Master Ying, when in his humble beginnings, worked in the fields striking clods of earth with a mallet. Seeing a large clod, he playfully struck it hard with the mallet; on the spot it shattered to powder, and suddenly he had a great awakening. From then on, he was unconstrained and unpredictable, manifesting quite a few spiritual wonders. An elder critiqued this, saying, 'The mountains, rivers, and the great earth were smashed to a hundred pieces by this monk's single strike.' Offering to the Buddha does not depend on an abundance of incense—truly, these words are accurate.

15.24

Shown to Chan Practitioner Quan

15.25

Investigating Chan requires seeing one's nature and awakening to the principle, directly forgetting emotion and cutting off illumination, the chest wide open like an idiot or a stump, not calculating gain and loss, not contending over superiority and inferiority; whatever conforms or opposes is completely severed so that it does not continue. In the long run, one naturally arrives at the place of non-action and non-affair. The moment a hair's breadth of desire to have no affair arises, an affair has already been born. When one wave stirs, ten thousand waves follow—how could there ever be an end? When life and death arrive in the future, your hands and feet will be flustered, simply because you were not free and detached. Only if you take this as solid and real will you naturally be as pure as water even in a bustling marketplace. How could your own matter fail to be settled?

15.26

The moment right and wrong arise, the mind is lost in confusion. This single phrase alone—how many people has it startled into making calculations? If you can take it up and cut it off, you will penetrate through to the other side of King of Majestic Voice; if you turn in pursuit of these words, you will become exceedingly confused, and only reversing the light to illumine inward will do. How could there be two kinds of Tathāgata Chan and Patriarchal Chan? [Yet people] inevitably harbor reservations; each distinguishes black from white, becoming exceedingly discordant. When phenomena, principle, and dynamic sharpness are cut off all at once, that is playing a clean ball. Do you know the accurate and solid place? Put it down and look.

15.27

Shown to Chan Practitioner Jie

15.28

Traveling on foot to study and inquire, you have already relied on kalyāṇamitras in great monastic groves and accompanied the pure and lofty crowd for a long time; suddenly, owing to family ties, you must return. This movement means a journey of a thousand li; you must not forget practice through your own strength, and must directly raise no dust where you walk. Moreover, as for this matter, one does not say it exists when with a kalyāṇamitra and ceases to exist when dwelling in one's home village. What is called 'being absent for a moment is like being a dead person' does not mean forming models and drawing patterns right when it is present. Although ordinary, a drop of water freezes into a drop of ice, towering and cutting off discrimination, forming an undertaking of non-action, non-affair, and no-mind. Inside and outside are clearly boundless, not partnering with the ten thousand phenomena, not traveling the same path as the thousand sages; with deep roots and a firm base, simply guard the place of leisure, nurturing it on and on without worrying about not penetrating. Just exhaust ordinary feelings and work on your own effort; do not mind external conditions, and do not pursue fame and gain to give rise to self-views and contend for victory. Therefore the ancient worthy said: 'Operating along with conditions like a dull-witted person, among others there is naturally an adept who loves it.' Jie, the farm administrator, suddenly came to bid farewell and ask for an admonition; therefore I wrote these words to give to him.

15.29

Shown to Cheng the Construction Supervisor

15.30

Under the gates of Mount Jiang, there is no Chan to speak of and no Way to transmit. Although half a thousand patch-robed monks are gathered, there are only the diamond cage and chestnut burr: those who jump, jump with effort; those who swallow, swallow with intent—do not blame them for having no flavor or being too steep. If you suddenly realize it, it will be like returning home in embroidered robes by day; thousands of people will only look up in admiration, yet searching for where it came from, they cannot find it. This is what is called everyone's fundamental lot; the moment you give rise to thoughts to take it up and shoulder it, it is already no longer the fundamental lot. Even if ten thousand workings cease and the thousand sages do not guide you, there is still something to rely on. You must quickly shake it off and break through to the other side; therefore it is said: 'If there is a fine hair, that is already dust; the moment an intention is raised, one is disturbed by demons.' To accomplish everything is entirely up to it; to destroy everything is also entirely up to it. Rare and wonderful conditions, treasuries of merits like sands of the Ganges, immeasurable wondrous adornments, and rare matters transcending the world are all accomplished by it; stinginess, greed, hatred, jealousy, emotional consciousness, clinging, the conditioned, the defiled, the impure and confused, paths of intellectual understanding, names and marks, views and deluded thoughts are all destroyed by it. Only it can turn all things, and all things cannot turn it; though it has no form or face, it encompasses the ten directions of emptiness and contains the ordinary and nourishes the sage. If one grasps it, one immediately falls into the thorn of views, ultimately unable to grope for it.

15.31

The Buddhas' instructions and the ancestral masters' direct pointing are the wondrous nature of Mind-only; directly taking it up without giving rise to a single thought, penetrating the top and penetrating the bottom, everything is already complete. In the realm of being already complete, not laboring mental effort, wandering freely at ease without any taking or leaving—this is the true esoteric seal.

15.32

Shown to Scribe Gao

15.33

In the orthodox lineage of Linji, ever since Mazu and Huangbo expounded the great potential and great function, breaking free from cages and escaping dens, tigers surged and dragons galloped, stars flew and lightning flashed; rolling up, unfurling, capturing, and releasing all rested on the fundamental lot, continuously and distinctly. Coming to Xinghua and Fengxue, the song grew ever higher and the dynamic mechanism ever steeper; Xishe played with the lion, and Shuanghua exerted the Vajra King. Unless one deeply entered the inner sanctum and personally received the seal of transmission, none could know its first sign, and vainly giving names to it only increased idle talk. Generally, possessing an air that pierces the heavens, holding it up beyond the norm, subduing the enemy's soldiers without battle, killing people without batting an eye—even this does not yet resemble its purport; how much less shifting the stars, altering the dipper, revolving the wheel of heaven, and turning the axis of earth! Therefore, showing the three mysteries and three essentials, the four dispositions and four relations of host and guest, the Vajra King jewel sword, the crouching lion, a single shout not acting as a single shout, the sounding pole and shadow grass, a single shout distinguishing host and guest, illumination and function acting simultaneously—so many entanglements! How many scholars estimate and annotate them? Little do they know that in our King's treasury there is no such sword. Those who bring it out to play with it can only blink their eyes; it must be one of the highest class. According with realization and verifying it, pressing straight or raising obliquely, one must return to the seed of the fundamental lot—how could it rely on ladders or intermediaries? Just as when Baoshou opened his hall, Sansheng pushed forward a monk; Baoshou immediately struck him, and Sansheng said, 'Acting for others like this, you have not only blinded this monk's eyes, but have blinded the eyes of everyone in the whole city of Zhenzhou!' Baoshou threw down his staff and returned directly to the abbot's quarters. When Xinghua saw a fellow practitioner arrive, he shouted; the monk also shouted; Xinghua shouted again, and the monk shouted once more; Xinghua said, 'Look at this blind fellow.' As the monk hesitated, he beat him right out of the Dharma hall. The attendant asked, 'What was the offense?' Xinghua said, 'He had both the provisional and the real; I waved my hands across before him twice, yet he did not understand. If I do not beat such a blind fellow, what am I waiting for?' Look at his authentic lineage style, exceptionally distinct! It values not tactics, but solely admires his eye being true. To uphold the orthodox lineage and hold up the lineage eye, one must penetrate the top and penetrate the bottom, be thorough to the bone and marrow, not touching the slightest entanglement, soaring and uniquely liberated; only then, succeeding distinctly, can one raise this great Dharma banner, light this great Dharma torch, and succeed Mazu, Baizhang, Shoushan, and Yangqi without being an impostor.

15.34

Shown to Court Gentleman for Consultation Han

15.35

The Buddhas and Patriarchs directly point to this Great Dharma, which shines completely beneath the feet of everyone, like a thousand suns rising together. Yet having long run after external pursuits, people cannot have faith in themselves that they possess such great majestic virtue and light. They only occupy themselves with being clever and setting up views and understandings; amidst their karmic delusions, they think they have surpassed their peers, showing off and feeling self-satisfied before the mundane world. Extensively investigating and broadly perusing what has been learned from ancient times to the present, they claim to have penetrated to the utmost depths, entirely unaware that the light of a firefly can hardly compare to the sun. Therefore, extraordinary and heroic figures of old who possessed outstanding dispositions—to speak of recent ones, those of the company of Prime Minister Pei and Yang Danian—sincerely laid everything down, sought out ancestral masters for discernment and determination, swept away floating dust and views, and attained great awakening and great realization. Only then were they able to transcend, walking shoulder to shoulder in practice with seasoned Chan elders and great virtues. When coming to the final decisive moment, they knew of themselves how to let go of their hands and were able to realize great liberation. How could this be a minor matter! Now your brilliance and acuity are in no way inferior to your predecessors; your scholarship and talent have long surged through the ways of the world. Although you knew that this matter existed in the ancestral school, you considered it not to go beyond what you already honored, and you paid no real heed to it. Meeting through a great affinity from the past, spending years together at Oufeng, the moment you heard it expounded, you gave rise to deep faith and reversed the light to illumine inward. Looking upon the human world as a dream and an illusion, changing and extinguishing along with the great transformation, it is mere vanity. Only this [nature] does not decay or shift throughout a thousand kalpas; it is the root of all sages and worthies, the fountainhead of creation. Confirming it in oneself, if it is once illuminated, it is thoroughly unimpeded in all directions—wherever one goes, how could one not be self-possessed? From this we know that in past lives you were indeed perfumed by it; encountering the conditions, it has become manifest in your conduct. Is this not one's own nature? However, if you can examine yourself, to study the Buddha Dharma throughout the twelve periods of the day is already to employ the mind in a scattered way; if you do away with the Buddha Dharma, then you will be walking in the truly pure realm. Just please rely on this and keep completely unadulterated; then it will be unified and brightly clear, free of love and hate, apart from taking up and letting go, not distinguishing self and other, not making gain and loss. All phenomena are level and calm—all are the wondrous, round, clear, enjoyable possessions of our own home's inconceivable place. You must make this mind manifest at all times, neither falling into dull torpor nor giving rise to clever wisdom, entering an equal, tranquil, and quiet realm. How could bad actions, karmic conditions, and conscious emotions disturb this fundamentally wondrous brightness? One only fears that when facing circumstances, everything will be completely forgotten right before you, becoming as chaotic as before—that will not do. The cultivation of the ancients was also merely using what they had realized and entered, illuminating and cutting through worldly toils at all times, making it briskly alive. Through twenty or thirty years of thorough ripening, going beyond birth and death was not difficult. The effort lies in the place of practice, not merely in vain, lofty talk. The ancients said: 'Speaking a chang is not as good as practicing a chi.' Because the power of samādhi and wisdom turns around karmic conditions, what is truly needed is to be clear, brave, and resolute; then you will enjoy its use throughout hundreds and thousands of lifetimes. As for the rest of the ancient masters' encounters and verbal expressions, it is not necessary to understand all of them. Once one move is clear, then every move is like this; how could ten thousand changes and transformations alter its power and function? When the inner mind is empty and external conditions are also quiet, wearing clothes and eating food are fundamentally authentic and require no carving and polishing. If you should set up superior views or pride yourself on your ability, that would be a disaster. You must take great care and not adopt such an attitude. From this you can enter the selfless, real, equal, such-like, immovable, unchanging, purely wondrous, cool, and securely hidden ground. Master Baozhi said: 'Not giving rise to the slightest mind of cultivation and study, / Constantly at ease within the formless light.'

15.36

Instructions to Hanlin Academician Ceng

15.37

Chan is not conceptual thought; the Way is beyond merit and achievement. If one investigates Chan with conceptual thought, it is like drilling ice to seek fire or digging the earth to find the sky—it only wearies the spirit. If one studies the Way through merit and achievement, it is like adding mud onto soil or throwing sand into the eyes—one will only become increasingly exhausted. If one halts consciousness and quiets妄想 (deluded thoughts), then the waves of the Chan river will cease and the waters of samādhi will become clear; if one does away with effort and ceases all striving, then the Great Way will be level and open, penetrating in all directions. Therefore, a monk asked Shitou: 'What is Chan?' Shitou said: 'A brick.' The monk asked: 'What is the Way?' Shitou said: 'A block of wood.' How could this be distinguished by conceptual thought or merit and achievement? Unless you directly comprehend it頓 (at once) and penetrate it by cutting off the flow, Chan and the Way will be distinct and evident; the moment you attempt to construct an understanding, you are a thousand or ten thousand miles away. You must頓 (at once) abandon and entirely dispel all previous worldly knowledge and clever disputation. Then naturally, on this most real ground, you will realize and awaken for yourself without leaving behind any trace of realization or awakening. It is good only when you are leisurely, mysteriously empty, and thoroughly unimpeded.

15.38

Great Master Ma once quoted: 'The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra takes the words of the Buddha as its source, with gatelessness as the Dharma gate.' Then he said: 'Do you people want to know the mind spoken of by the Buddha? Just your speaking right now is the mind, and the mind is the Buddha. Therefore it says that the mind spoken of by the Buddha is the source, and that this source is gateless is the Dharma gate.' The ancients were exceedingly grandmotherly, wading through mud and water. If you penetrate at a single mention, that is somewhat better; but if you thoroughly investigate doctrines and principles, in the end you will never grope your way to it.

15.39

Instructions to Chan Worthy Zhizu

15.40

When the World-Honored One held up a flower, Kāśyapa smiled; when the Second Patriarch bowed, Bodhidharma transmitted the mind. How could there be anything else? The arrowheads met each other. When their spirits converged and they mastered the principle, it was beyond the reckoning of words and thoughts. Only those who know of the transcendent lineage style can realize it; though ten million kalpas may pass, it is still like morning and evening. Therefore, the Buddhas and Patriarchs were never careless in seeking people; they required those forged of pure steel, of sharp faculties and superior wisdom. Only then would they bring up the essentials and strike the key moments—like glue adhering to lacquer, understanding three upon the presentation of one, turning freely like a wheel, without a nest or burrow and cut off from all leakage—only such a person could be approved. Furthermore, they had to be refined to the point where difficulties intertwined and people could not interrogate or distinguish them, moving their blades with ease and room to spare. When in practical use, showing their skill in full flow, transcending the lineage and surpassing conventions, not leaning on the master's teachings but emerging solely from their own chests, standing like a wall a thousand fathoms high, startling the crowd and overcoming opponents—only then were they worthy of being entrusted. As the Dharma is not taken lightly, the Way is also revered and dignified; this is what is called 'when the source is deep, the stream flows long.'

15.41

Ancient worthies from the past spent their entire lives, or twenty to thirty years, relying on an entry point, hoping to penetrate it through and through. Since their resolve was powerful and their application of mind was firm and solid, what they accomplished rang like gold dropped on the ground. A great fellow who looks up to and aspires toward the heights cannot do otherwise. Since they could do so, how could I not? Moreover, once you penetrate birth and death and exhaust the bounds of the future, what is once attained is eternally attained. You must firmly consolidate the root; once the root is firm, the branches and leaves cannot help but flourish. Just make it ever-present at all times without letting it run astray—clear and still, swallowing and outshining all phenomena. The four elements and six sense faculties are merely furniture in the house; how much more so knowledge, views, language, and conceptual understanding? Lay everything down completely to the very bottom, reaching the most real, ordinary, and greatly secure place, where not a single speck is to be found; just being at ease everywhere in this way, you are truly a person of the Way with no-mind. Maintaining this no-mind, in the end even the Buddha does not remain—what would you call sentient beings? Bodhi is also not established—what would you call afflictions? Leisurely and eternally free, accepting blessings as they come, drinking tea when meeting tea and eating rice when meeting rice; even if dwelling in the marketplace, it is like being in the mountain forests, without the slightest dualistic view. Even if placed on a lotus throne, one feels no delight; even if suppressed into the nine springs, one gives rise to no aversion. Establishing things everywhere is merely an incidental matter—what does it have to do with me? Mahākāśyapa said: 'Phenomena are fundamentally phenomena; / There is no phenomenon, nor is there non-phenomenon. / How could there be within a single phenomenon / That which is phenomenon and that which is not phenomenon?' After the ancients attained the purport, most of them hid deeply and did not want people to know, fearing that trouble would arise. If, unable to avoid it, they were dragged out by others, they also did not stubbornly decline, for they had no-mind. As for bestowing compassion and displaying expedient means, they merely adapted to what the household had, whether rich or lean: like Juzhi's one finger; Dadi's merely striking the ground; Mimo holding up a pitchfork; Wuye's 'Do not entertain deluded thoughts'; facing the wall to subdue demons; dancing with a tablet and hacking bones—from the first they were not bound by conventional tracks, victory or defeat. They only sought to have each person know to return home and rest, not raising the thorns of views or manipulating spirits in a ghost cave. Urging them directly and earnestly to the ground of utter security—this is the wondrous purport. Clever fellows must have their heels firmly planted on the ground and their backbones as hard as iron. Wandering in the mundane world, viewing the ten thousand conditions as illusions, taking hold to be the master and not yielding to human sentiments, cutting off self and other and casting off intellectual understanding, they directly take seeing nature and becoming a Buddha and directly pointing to the wondrous mind as their stepping stones. When it comes to functioning and responding to conditions, not falling into worn ruts, sustaining perseverance, maintaining a serene and plain body and mind, and penetrating through amidst worldly toils—this is the best of the best.

15.42

Instructions to the Chan Monks

15.43

The Way is fundamentally without words; the Dharma is fundamentally unproduced. Using wordless words to reveal the unproduced Dharma, there is no second head; the moment you attempt to pursue it, you have already missed it. Therefore, when the ancestral master came from the West, he specifically promoted this matter, valuing only realizing it beyond words and recognizing it beyond dynamic action. Unless one is of the supreme capacity, how could one suddenly shoulder it? Yet for those who have the resolve for this, how could they calculate a set period of time? You must stand in solitary danger, be able to sever it with a single stroke of the sword, have a vigorous and fierce body and mind, lay down your baggage, and rely on someone with the ruthless methods of biting pigs and dogs. Completely take all previous intellectual explanations, entangling vines, and clinging views, sweep them away in one overturning, and make your chest hollow and empty. Let no personal thoughts appear, do not make a single thing, and then you will be able to thoroughly realize and accord with it, not differing by a hair's breadth from those who have come before. Even when you have attained such a state, you must further know that there is a transcendent tactic that surpasses the masters before you are done. Thus, when an ancient was asked about what transcends the Buddha, he answered: 'Not Buddha.' Asked again, he said: 'Expediently called Buddha.' Then seeing nature and becoming a Buddha are merely fish traps and hare snares. What is there here to point east and gesture west? You must secretly accord with it and be able to protect and care for it yourself; only then will you be completely free and unimpeded. To speak further of realizing nirvāṇa or according with birth and death—these are all superfluous words. Even so, what this mountain monk has said cannot be taken as the ultimate standard; only then will you be free from the disease of Buddhas and the disease of Patriarchs. For a great fellow seeking the essential mind to investigate, how could one set limits? Just generate deep faith and go straight forward; there has never been one who did not set foot on solid ground. Renew it daily, renew it daily, renew it every day; diminish it daily, diminish it daily, diminish it every day. Stepping back to the very bottom—that is just it. In the end, not even this is established—this is precisely where to apply effort.

15.44

Instructions to Hanlin Academician Jiang

15.45

The Attendant Censor, Prince of Xiangyang Commandery, studied under Guishan Dayuan and obtained the essential purport. A monk came from Guishan, and the Attendant Censor asked, "What words or phrases does the old fellow on the mountain crest have?" The monk said, "Someone asked, 'What is the meaning of the ancestral teacher's coming from the West?' Guishan raised his whisk." The Attendant Censor asked, "How was it comprehended on the mountain?" The monk said, "On the mountain they discussed it as 'clarifying the mind in immediate connection with form, and revealing principle in accordance with things.'" The Attendant Censor said, "If one understands, one understands; what need is there for such dead-earnest haste? Go back quickly; I have a letter for the old teacher." The monk hastened back with the letter. Guishan opened it and saw drawn a circular figure, inside of which was written the character 'sun' (日). Guishan laughed heartily with a 'ha-ha!' and said, "Who knew that a thousand miles away I have one who knows my tune?" Yangshan said, "That is still not quite it." Guishan said, "How would you have it?" Yangshan drew a circular figure on the ground, wrote the character 'sun' within it, rubbed it out with his foot, and walked away. Look at how those who have attained take their steps and orient themselves—do they ever keep to an old nest? Here, if you skillfully observe their transformations, you will be able to fathom their mind. Having fathomed their mind, you will have a share of independence; having a share of independence, you will not follow after others; not following after others, wherever you go, how could you not be self-possessed?

15.46

Whenever I meet with scholar-officials, many say that worldly affairs entangle and tie them down so they have no leisure, and that when they have swept these aside a bit, only then will they apply their minds to investigate. Although these are sincere words, if they merely take worldly toils as their task, bobbing up and down in the messy rubbish of affairs until completely familiarized, they simply call them worldly affairs, still waiting to cast aside worldly conditions before they can enter. What is called 'walking all day without ever walking, functioning all day without ever functioning'—could it be that apart from worldly toils there is another, separate great matter of cause and condition? They completely fail to realize that upon the great treasure-heap the great jewel-radiance is blazing forth, illumining the heavens and dazzling the earth; instead of waking up to it and taking it upon themselves, they seek outside, only compounding their bitterness and toil—how could this be the utmost essential? If one possesses great spiritual capacity, one need not look at the words, phrases, and gong'ans of the ancients; simply, from the moment you rise in the morning, rectify your thought and quiet your mind. In all that you direct, call forth, and perform, whenever an act is completed, bring it up once more and scrutinize it closely: see where it arises from! What is this thing that can perform so much? Once you penetrate right within worldly conditions, there are no conditions of any kind that are not entirely this. Why wait to sweep them aside? Right here you can transcend the lineage and surpass all standards; right within the burning house of the triple realm, it instantly transforms into a pure, unconditioned, cool, and vast site of the Way. The Lotus Sūtra says: 'Children of the Buddha dwell in this ground; / this is the Buddha's own enjoyment. / Walking, sitting, or lying down, / they are ever within it.'

15.47

Instruction to Grand Lady Zhang

15.48

"Mind itself is Buddha" is already to lay everything wide open; "neither mind nor Buddha" is again to puncture it directly in plain daylight. Do not pursue the words; penetrate straight through, and only then will you see the piece-by-piece sincere heart of the ancients. If you hesitate, you will miss it right before your face.

15.49

"What kind of person is it who is not companion to the ten thousand dharmas?" "Wait until you swallow all the waters of the West River in a single gulp, then I will tell you." How direct and shortcut! Why not take it upon yourself in just this way? If you delve further into his words and phrases, you will never break through and be emancipated. I often see students who merely make conjectures upon the words and formulate answers in search of an exact fit—how could this be wanting to penetrate birth and death? If you want to penetrate birth and death, it is possible only when the ground of the mind opens through. This gong'an is precisely the key that opens the ground of the mind; one need only be clear about it, grasp the essential purport beyond words, and only then arrive at this ground without doubt.

15.50

In ancient times, Mountain Master Xiu went to see Dizang and related of himself: "This time I have come to see the Venerable, crossing many mountains and rivers with extreme hardship." Dizang pointed and said: "The many mountains and rivers have not treated you badly either." Instantly the bottom fell out of Xiu's bucket. How could something like this require many words? Along the pathways of travel, one must also preserve it before one succeeds.

15.51

Instruction to Old Companion of the Way Fangqing

15.52

When old Bodhidharma came from India, did he ever bring a single thing? When he traveled through Liang and passed through Wei, facing the wall at Shaolin, no one recognized him. Only when the Ancestral Teacher Huike exerted himself, standing in the snow and severing his arm, did he first slightly extend compassion, and from this the mind was sealed. If you say there were no words, from where did he enter? If you say there were words, what did he say to him? One should know that one must be such a person before one fully comprehends it without any leakage. Therefore, entering this gate requires sharp and fierce spiritual capacity, able swiftly to abandon former intellectual understandings and paths of interpretation, leaving the mind wide open and empty, not retaining a hair's breadth; clearly and hollowly coalesced, where the paths of words and thought are cut off, straightaway tallying with the fundamental source, merging without boundary, spontaneously attaining the original, unattainable wondrous wisdom—only then is it called having reached full faith and thorough insight. There still remains an immeasurable and boundless, unfathomable and unquantifiable great potential and great function. If you retain the slightest subject and object, falling into conditioned dust, you will not immediately accord with it in an instant. For this reason, the virtuous ones of old urged people to rest right now and desist. This matter is like a swift hawk or a fast falcon, grazing the clouds and piercing the sun, confounding the wind and penetrating the azure, soaring and straightly cutting through without brooking deliberation; if you hesitate in the slightest, you miss it. That it is a separate transmission outside the teachings can thus be known. Since you have the resolve for this, put it down; take it upon yourself in direct presence, where everything is already complete, and then the First Patriarch never came, and you yourself have gained nothing.

15.53

Instruction to Li Jiazhong, Worthy and Good

15.54

The whole mind is Buddha; the whole Buddha is man; when man and Buddha are not different, this is beginning to be the Way. These are true and solid words. But if the mind is true, then both man and Buddha are true; therefore the ancestral teachers directly point to the human mind, causing people to see their nature and achieve Buddhahood. However, although this mind is complete in everyone, pure and undefiled from the beginningless past, never taking or grasping, calm, illumining, and stably coalesced, completely free of subject and object, fully and perfectly round—it is solely because people do not guard their own nature and a single thought delusionally stirs, that boundless views arise and they drift through the various realms of existence. Under their very heels they constantly carry this original light, which has never been dimmed; yet at their sense-faculties and dust-objects they vainly suffer entanglement. If one can harbor the fundamental root, and from the place of direct indication of all Buddhas and ancestral teachers, pull off from the very bottom the grease-soaked padded robe, remaining stark naked and completely bare, taking it upon oneself right now, neither coming from outside nor emerging from within, immediately, in open clarity, clearly realizing this nature—what more is there to say of man, Buddha, or mind? It is like a single flake of snow falling on a red-hot furnace: where could there still be so much vexing anxiety? Therefore, this lineage does not establish written words or phrases, but permits only faculties of the utmost vehicle, like a gust of wind, a sudden thunderclap, an electric flash, or a flying star, swiftly stepping out and tallying with realization, severing the root of birth and death, shattering the shell of ignorance, free of all doubt,頓然 clearly luminous right now. Throughout the twenty-four hours of the day, transforming all matters and conditions, they all become unsurpassable wondrous wisdom; how could one rely on hating clamour and seeking quiet, rejecting that and grasping this? When one is true, all are true; when one is understood, all are understood. Gathering the ten thousand existences into this mind, holding the provisional dynamic outside all conventions, responding to things and manifesting forms, there is no phenomenon that is not perfectly round—what has this to do with a 'self'? One must first determine one's own footing; when where you stand is already unyielding and firm, naturally the grass bends as the wind blows. Therefore Teacher Wang understood how to manage his livelihood at eighteen, and Xianglin took forty years before he became of a single piece. The companions of worldly toil are the seed of the Tathāgatas; it only depends on the person skillfully sailing with the wind, thought after thought continuing uninterrupted, mind after mind not dwelling, walking along this road of eternal life—then you will share the same attainment, the same body, the same activity, and the same realization with the Buddhas and ancestral teachers. How much more so when the reins of government over a hundred li are in your hands: pacifying the people and benefiting things is precisely self-pacification. Ten thousand transformations share this single dynamic; a thousand distinctions merge in this single illumination; the realms of phenomena as numerous as the sands of dust can all be harmonized and penetrated—how much more so that man and Buddha are not different!

First 54 of 58 passages. Read on

Linked texts (1)

圓悟佛果禪師語錄 — Classical Chinese