圓悟佛果禪師語錄 15.43

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.