圓悟佛果禪師語錄 15.41

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.