圓悟佛果禪師語錄 16.12

16.12

"The Buddha's words take mind as the source." Bodhidharma transmitted this. But Master Ma drew legs on a snake, and out of compassion descended into the weeds, saying: "Do you all wish to know the Buddha's words and mind?" This was already giving it away. He further said: "Just what is spoken now is the Buddha's words; this speech coming from one's own mind is the Buddha's mind." If one expounds the orthodox school and understands speech like this, how could eighty-four adepts have emerged? For this reason, those who have carried out the correct command from antiquity look upon this as pouring filthy water over someone—what sort of appearance is that! You should know that this old man was exceedingly roundabout out of sheer necessity. Yet today's students still cannot see through him; they merely fall into language, cling to conceptual understanding, and recognize light and shadow to make a nest—how impatient that makes one! If among them there were someone cast of raw iron, who could crush a stubborn stone to powder in his hand, without blinking or deliberating, penetrating through in a single glance, what further need would there be to talk about the Buddha's words and mind, or how it is? Even if a thousand Buddhas and ten thousand ancestors were personally to shake the earth and emit light like clouds and rain, applying the stick and applying the shout like rushing thunder and flashing lightning, he would not need to pay them the slightest heed; the mundane does not contain him, the sagely does not govern him, and what further would be called life-and-death, bodhi, nirvāṇa, or affliction? Better to eat when hungry and sleep when tired—this slightly resembles the seedlings of his house. Therefore Dizang said: "The Buddha-Dharma in you southern parts is vast and bustling; how can it compare to my farming fields to earn rice to eat?" Completely taking this as one's affair, reaching the point of having no affairs, is like cutting a skein of silk: a single cut cuts everything off, blocking the world without leaking a hairsbreadth, no views arising, completely free of leaks; unmoved and unregressing through long years, by relying on this it naturally accomplishes itself. Xianglin took forty years before blending into a single piece; Guishan spent thirty years herding a water buffalo. Having this aspiration, it should be deep and lasting; only then can one repay the kindness that cannot be repaid, and be a truly renounced patch-robed monk of great liberation.