大慧普覺禪師語錄 13.3.2

13.3.2

初聞擊竹作聲，忽然大悟，所悟底心便絕消息。 如彌勒彈指樓閣門開，命善財入，善財心喜，入已還閉，便是這箇道理。 香嚴悟處既絕消息，父母未生時事頓爾現前，纔作箇頌子，便有為人底方便，下面註曰：『更不假修治，動容揚古路，不墮悄然機，處處無蹤跡，聲色外威儀，諸方達道者，咸言上上機。 』多見禪和子，愛去到處問長老，長老家無著口處，便為他解說，爾怕他香嚴說得未分曉在，更要註解。 又有一般人也道：『因擊物作聲，有箇悟處。 』或問他：『爾試說看。 』便擊物作聲曰：『多少分明，有甚麼交涉。 』大似隔鞾使拳頭爬痒，如何得快活去？ 又不見，昔日俱胝和尚住菴時，因一尼戴箇笠子，直來遶他繩床一匝云：『道得即放下笠子。 』俱胝當時道不得，尼拂袖便行，俱胝云：『何不且住？ 』尼云：『道得即住。 』俱胝又無語。 尼去後，俱胝自歎云：『我雖是箇丈夫漢，却不如箇婦人。 』便要燒菴下山。 忽夜夢神人曰：『和尚不須下山，且候，當有肉身大士來為和尚說法也。 』過數日果見天龍和尚到來，俱胝遂舉前話似之，天龍曰：『爾問我，我與爾道。 』俱胝曰：『道得即放下笠子。 』天龍遂豎起一指，俱胝忽然大悟，後凡有所問，只豎一指，每曰：『我得天龍一指頭禪，一生受用不盡。 』瑯瑘覺和尚嘗有頌曰：『俱胝一指教君知，朝生鷂子摶天飛，若無舉鼎拔山力，千里烏騅不易騎。 』爾看這一頌，便是會得這一指頭禪分曉也。 這箇如何學得？ 俱胝身畔有一供過童子，每見人問他事，也學豎指祇對。 有人謂俱胝曰：『和尚這童子也不可得，亦會佛法，凡有人問他，皆如和尚豎指。 』俱胝聞得，一日潛將一柄刀在袖中，喚童子近前來：『聞爾也會佛法，是否？ 』云：『是。 』俱胝曰：『如何是佛？ 』童子便豎起指頭，被俱胝捉住，以刀斫斷，童子叫喚走出，俱胝遂喚童子，童子回頭，俱胝曰：『如何是佛？ 』童子不覺將手起，不見指頭，忽然大悟。 奇哉！ 信知佛法不可傳、不可學，俱胝得處不在指頭上，香嚴悟處不在擊竹邊，且道：在甚麼處？ 一時說了也，諸人還會麼？ 此事非難非易，差之毫釐失之千里。 奉勸諸人，退步自看，一切現成，便請直下承當，不用費力。 爾擬動一毫毛地，便是千里萬里，沒交涉也。 諸人既在這裏，須生慚愧，不得容易過時，若不存誠，般若中將甚麼銷他信施？ 不見汾陽無業禪師曰：『看他古德道人，得意之後，茅茨石室，向折脚鐺中煮飯喫過三二十年。 名利不干懷、財寶不為念，大忘人世、隱跡巖叢，君王命而不來、諸侯請而不赴。 豈同我輩貪名愛利汩沒世塗，如短販人有少希求而忘大果。 』灼然！ 兄弟那時早有如此說話也，更教他見我輩如今做處，也好慚惶殺人。 兄弟！ 光陰可惜，時不待人，各自打辦精神打教徹去，亦不虛受佛廕，亦不辜負平生學道之志。 近日道上座自雪峯來，再三求入室云：『直為無常迅速生死事大，己事未明欲乞開示。 』因舉馬祖不是心，不是佛，不是物，教渠看，更與他註解一遍，不得作道理會，不得作無事會，不得作擊石火閃電光會，不得向意根下卜度，不得向舉起處承當，不是心，不是佛，不是物，合作麼生？ 渠遂疑著，更不敢開口，今日却來燒香禮拜曰：『妙道學般若，多有魔障，欲請今晚為對人天眾前，舉揚般若以憑懺悔，願法界一切有情皆得頓悟甚深般若，同報佛恩。 』雲門曰：『古聖有言：「怖心難生，善心難發，自未得度，先度人者，菩薩發心。 既知怖罪，回心向道，此亦希有。 」』遂從其請，為渠懺悔。 且罪性不在內外中間，將甚麼懺？ 然無有有罪底聖人，亦無無罪底凡夫。 凡夫造罪，皆自妄想心起，都無實體。 雖無實體，受報時亦須妄受，如影隨形，不可逃避。

At first, upon hearing the striking of the bamboo make a sound, he suddenly had a great awakening, and within the awakened mind news was completely cut off. It was just like Maitreya snapping his fingers and the tower's gates swinging open, bidding Sudhana to enter; Sudhana's mind rejoiced, and having entered, they closed again—it is precisely this principle. Once news was cut off at the place of Xiangyan's awakening, the matter before his parents were born abruptly appeared before him. As soon as he composed a verse, there was already an expedient means for helping others; the commentary noted below: 'No longer relying on cultivation or practice, / In every movement upholding the ancient way, / Not falling into silent mechanisms, / Everywhere leaving no traces. / Comportment beyond sound and form— / Those of reached realization throughout the directions / All call it the supreme capacity.' One often sees Chan fellows who love to go everywhere asking the elders questions; where the elders have nowhere to put their mouths, they then explain it for them—as if afraid Xiangyan had not spoken clearly enough, they must add further commentary. There is also another sort of person who says, 'Because of striking an object and making a sound, there is an awakening.' If someone asks him, 'Just try to speak of it,' he then strikes an object to make a sound, saying, 'How utterly distinct! What connection is there?' This is greatly like trying to scratch an itch by pounding one's boot with a fist—how could one ever find joy in that? Furthermore, do you not see: in former days, when Reverend Juzhi was residing in a hermitage, a certain nun wearing a conical bamboo hat came directly around his meditation cord-seat once, saying, 'If you can speak, I will take off my bamboo hat.' Juzhi could not speak at that moment. The nun flicked her sleeves and walked away. Juzhi said, 'Why not stay a while?' The nun said, 'If you can speak, I will stay.' Juzhi was speechless again. After the nun left, Juzhi sighed to himself: 'Though I am a fellow with a manly body, I am still not equal to a woman.' He then wanted to burn the hermitage and go down the mountain. Suddenly, that night, he dreamed of a spirit who said, 'The Reverend need not go down the mountain; just wait, for an embodied Mahāsattva will come to expound the Dharma for the Reverend.' After a few days, Reverend Tianlong indeed arrived. Juzhi thereupon related the previous incident to him. Tianlong said, 'Ask me, and I will speak for you.' Juzhi said, 'If you can speak, I will take off my bamboo hat.' Tianlong then raised one finger; Juzhi suddenly had a great awakening. Later, whenever he was asked a question, he only raised one finger, often saying, 'I attained Tianlong's one-finger Chan, and have not exhausted its use in an entire lifetime.' Reverend Langye Jiao once composed a verse: 'Juzhi's one finger makes it known to you: / The fledgling hawk born in the morning soars to clutch the sky. / Without the strength to lift a tripod cauldron and uproot mountains, / The thousand-mile black steed cannot easily be ridden.' Look at this verse: it precisely understands this one-finger Chan with clarity. How could this be learned? At Juzhi's side was an attendant boy who, whenever he saw someone ask about matters, also learned to raise a finger in response. Someone said to Juzhi, 'The Reverend's boy is also extraordinary; he too understands the Buddha Dharma. Whenever someone asks him, he raises a finger just like the Reverend.' Juzhi heard of this, and one day secretly placed a knife in his sleeve, called the boy near, and said, 'I hear that you also understand the Buddha Dharma; is that so?' The boy said, 'It is.' Juzhi said, 'What is the Buddha?' The boy immediately raised his finger; Juzhi seized him and severed it with the knife. The boy cried out and ran out; Juzhi then called after the boy. The boy turned his head, and Juzhi said, 'What is the Buddha?' The boy unwittingly raised his hand, saw no finger, and suddenly had a great awakening. Remarkable! Indeed one knows that the Buddha Dharma cannot be transmitted and cannot be learned: Juzhi's realization was not on the finger, and Xiangyan's awakening was not beside the striking of the bamboo. Tell me: where is it? I have spoken it all at once; do you still understand? This matter is neither difficult nor easy: miss it by a hair's breadth and you are off by a thousand miles. I advise all of you to take a step back and examine yourselves; everything is fully present as it is—just take responsibility for it directly, without wasting effort. If you intend to stir even a single hair, you will immediately be thousands and tens of thousands of miles away, completely disconnected. Since all of you are here, you must give rise to a sense of shame; you cannot let time pass lightly. If you do not preserve sincerity, with what in prajñā will you consume the offerings of the faithful? Do you not see what Chan Master Fenyang Wuye said: 'Look at the ancient virtuous persons of the Way: after attaining their intent, in thatched huts and stone chambers, they cooked rice in broken-legged pots and ate, passing twenty or thirty years. Fame and gain did not disturb their minds, wealth and treasures were not in their thoughts; deeply forgetting the human world, they concealed their traces among cliffs and groves, not coming when summoned by rulers, nor attending when invited by feudal lords. How could they be like us, who covet fame and crave profit, drowning in worldly paths, like petty merchants harboring modest wishes and forgetting the great fruit?' Indeed! Brothers, in those days there was already such talk; if they were made to see where we act nowadays, it would truly shame one to death. Brothers! Time is to be cherished; time waits for no one. Let each of you summon your spirits and break completely through, so that you do not receive the shelter of the Buddha in vain, nor betray your lifelong aspiration to study the Way. Recently, Senior Monk Dao came from Xuefeng, repeatedly requesting to enter the abbot's room, saying: 'Solely because impermanence is swift and the matter of birth and death is great, while my own affair is not yet clear, I beg for instruction.' Thereupon I cited Mazu's 'It is not mind, it is not Buddha, it is not a thing' to instruct him to contemplate it, and further annotated it once for him: you must not understand it as a principle; you must not understand it as having nothing to do; you must not understand it as a flint-spark or lightning-flash; you must not calculate under the root of discursive intellect; you must not take responsibility at the point where it is raised. It is not mind, it is not Buddha, it is not a thing—what should it be? He was then beset by doubt and dared not open his mouth again. Today, however, he came to burn incense and bow, saying: 'Miaodao's study of prajñā is beset by many demonic hindrances; I wish to request that this evening, before the assembly of humans and devas, you promote and expound prajñā so that I may rely on it for repentance, wishing that all sentient beings in the dharmadhātu may abruptly awaken to the profound prajñā and together repay the Buddha's benevolence.' Yunmen said: 'The ancient sages had a saying: "A fearful mind is hard to generate, and a wholesome mind is hard to arouse; to deliver others before delivering oneself is the Bodhisattva's initial aspiration. To know fear of transgressions and turn one's mind toward the Way is likewise rare."' Thereupon I complied with his request and made repentance on his behalf. Now tell me, since the nature of transgression is neither within, nor without, nor in between, with what do you repent? Yet there is no sage who has transgressions, nor is there any ordinary mortal who is free of transgressions. When ordinary mortals commit transgressions, they all arise from the deluded mind, having no true substance whatsoever. Even though they have no true substance, when receiving retribution, one must also undergo it in delusion, following like a shadow follows a form, impossible to escape.