圓悟佛果禪師語錄 16.14

16.14

When Caoshan took his leave, Wuben asked, "Where are you going?" He said, "To the place that does not change." [Wuben] questioned further, "Can there be any going to the place that does not change?" He answered, "Going is also without change." If one has not stepped upon solid ground, how could one be thorough like this? How could it be fathomed by language and dynamic thinking? Only when one's practice is profoundly deep and reaches the state of no leakage can one not be trapped. When a person studying the Way resolves his mind, he puts outside his bodily form, unifies life and death, blends past and present, and cuts off going and coming. He must aspire to the attainments of the highest stream, reach the realm of the truly real and profound mystery, prepare himself cleanly and expose it purely, without a hairsbreadth of thought falling into worldly conditions; directly beneath, his mind is like dried wood and rotten stumps, like a dead person with no breath at all, mind after mind without knowing, thought after thought without abiding. Even if the thousand sages appear, they cannot alter him. Only then can flowers bloom on dried wood, great potential burst forth, and great function arise; giving rise to loving-kindness and exercising compassion is then the merit of non-merit and the making of non-making. How could he fall into gain, loss, right, or wrong? If even a single hair is retained, it will clash with the realm of birth and death; if one cannot save oneself, how can one save others? The great being Vimalakīrti did not abide in Jinshu, but entered wine shops and brothels to perform the Buddha-work of great liberation. Old Pang, a transformation body in the place of succession, did not abide in Tuṣita; casting aside rare treasures, he wove bamboo strainers by the Han River, engaging in exchanges, giving and taking with great ancestral masters. In this matter, the styles from antiquity have all been like this. One must freeze drop by drop regardless of court or countryside, being smelted and refined like Caoshan, Vimalakīrti, and Old Pang; only then can one not abandon compassionate vows. Is this not fitting! As for the rest of the bustling dust of the human world, how is it worthy of being held in one's breast?