圓悟佛果禪師語錄 9.17

9.17

At a New Year's Eve informal gathering: "Trees wither and leaves fall; tiles disintegrate and ice melts. The year is at its close, the calendar exhausted, the family ruined, and the household broken. Viewed from conventional truth, this is an unsatisfactory realm; viewed with the eye of the Way, it is indeed good news. Have you not seen what Xiangyan said: 'Poverty last year was not yet poverty; poverty this year is truly poverty. Last year's poverty still had a spot of ground to stand an awl; this year's poverty has not even an awl to stand.' Another ancient worthy said: 'Wealth and honor are easy; poverty and hardship are difficult.' A person of the fundamental lot penetrates thoroughly, has full faith, and sees completely through; every single thing is a wondrous function, every single dust mote and land is the true vehicle. If you simply rest like this, I dare guarantee that you, elder brother, have not penetrated yet! How could you bear further speaking of gradual and sudden, speaking of the mysterious and wondrous, speaking of principle and phenomena? You must instead cast away the mysterious and wondrous, cast away principle and nature, smash through the transcendent and the descending, and cut off the Buddha-seal and Patriarchal function, directly arriving at not discerning east from west, not distinguishing south from north, utterly muddled and bewildered: meeting rice, eating rice without knowing it is rice; meeting tea, drinking tea without knowing it is tea. Arriving here, one only attains the pure, white, bare, and clean within the gate of a patch-robed monk. Therefore Dongshan said: 'Only when you see Buddhas and Patriarchs as born mortal enemies will you begin to have a share in study.' Just at such a time, the whole body is fully manifest, not gathered in by the realm of Buddhas, not governed by the realm of Māras. Tell me, toward what place do you walk? If you can recognise it, then the calendar exhausted and the year at its close continue without interruption; continuing without interruption, the year is at its close and the calendar exhausted. Just at such a time, how do you say a phrase? This year, this night, comes to an end; the coming year, the coming day, is renewed."