大慧普覺禪師語錄 19.30

19.30

欲學此道，當於自己脚跟下理會，纔涉秋毫知見，即蹉過脚跟下消息。脚跟下消息通了，種種知見無非盡是脚跟下事。故祖師云：「正說知見時，知見即是心，當心即知見，知見即如今。」若如今不越一念，向脚跟下頓亡知見，便與祖師把手共行；未能如是，切忌向知見上著到。士大夫學道，利根者蹉過，鈍根者難入，難入則自生退屈，蹉過則起謗無疑。若要著中，但將蹉過底移在難入處，却將難入底移在蹉過處，自然怗怗地，不作難入蹉過之解矣。得如此了，却好向遮裏全身放下，放下時亦不得作放下道理，古德所謂「放蕩長如癡兀人，他家自有通人愛。」又清涼云：「放曠任其去住，靜鑑覺其源流，語證則不可示人，說理則非證不了。」而今人纔聞恁麼說話，將為實有恁麼事，便道我證我悟，將出呈似人不得，一向說高禪，七縱八橫，胡說亂道，謾神諕鬼，將謂祖師門下事只如此。殊不知，親證親悟底，唯親證親悟底人，不假言詞，自然與之默默相契矣。相契處亦不著作意和會，如水入水，似金博金，舉一明三，目機銖兩，到這箇田地，方可說離言說相，離文字相，離心緣相，不是彊為，法如是故。近世叢林，邪法橫生，瞎眾生眼者，不可勝數。若不以古人公案舉覺提撕，便如盲人放却手中杖子，一步也行不得。將古德入道因緣，各分門類云：「這幾則是道眼因緣，這幾則是透聲色因緣，這幾則是亡情因緣。」從頭依次第逐則摶量卜度，下語商量。縱有識得此病者，將謂佛法禪道，不在文字語言上，即一切撥置，噇却現成粥飯了，堆堆地坐在黑山下鬼窟裏，喚作默而常照，又喚作如大死底人，又喚作父母未生時事，又喚作空劫已前事，又喚作威音那畔消息，坐來坐去，坐得骨臀生胝，都不敢轉動，喚作工夫相次純熟，却將許多閑言長語，從頭作道理商量，傳授一遍，謂之宗旨，方寸中依舊黑漫漫地，本要除人我，人我愈高，本要滅無明，無明愈大。殊不知，此事唯親證親悟，始是究竟，纔有一言半句作奇特解，玄妙解，祕密解，可傳可授，便不是正法。正法無傳無授，唯我證爾證，眼眼相對，以心傳心，令佛祖慧命相續不斷，然後推己之餘，為物作則。故達磨云：「吾本來茲土，傳法救迷情，一華開五葉，結果自然成。」是也。所謂傳法者，乃心法也，心法無形段，所傳者，前所云我證爾證底是也。若彼此不證，向心外取證，則有宗旨玄妙奇特可傳可授，便有我會爾不會，生輕薄想，增長我見，如來說為可憐愍者。妙喜禪無難參易參之異，只要參禪人向未痾已前，坐斷生死路頭，直下不疑佛，不疑祖，不疑生，不疑死，難參易參差別在人，不干禪事。往往聰明靈利漢，多是求速效，要口裏有可得說，面前有可得憑仗。殊不知，此事得者，如生師子返擲，在當人日用二六時中。如水銀落地，大底大圓、小底小圓，不用安排、不假造作，自然活鱍鱍地，常露現前。正當恁麼時，方始契得一宿覺，所謂「不見一法即如來，方得名為觀自在。」苟未能如是，且暫將這作聰明說道理底置在一邊，却向沒撈摸處、沒滋味處，試撈摸咬嚼看。撈摸來撈摸去，咬嚼來咬嚼去，忽然向沒滋味處咬著舌頭，沒撈摸處打失鼻孔，方知趙州老人道：「未出家時被菩提使，出家後使得菩提。有時拈一莖草作丈六金身，有時將丈六金身却作一莖草用。建立亦在我，掃蕩亦在我，說道理亦在我，不說道理亦在我，我為法王，於法自在，說即有若干，不說即無若干。」得如是自在了，何適而不自得？梵語般若，此云智慧，未有明般若而有貪欲瞋恚癡者，未有明般若而毒害眾生者，作如此等事底與般若背馳，焉得謂之有智慧？妙喜尋常為箇中人說：「纔覺日用應緣處省力時，便是當人得力處，得力處省無限力，省力處得無限力。」往往見說得多了，却似泗州人見大聖。殊不知，妙喜恁麼說，正是平昔行履處，恐有信不及者，不免再四提撕舉覺拕泥帶水，蓋曾為浪子偏憐客爾。

If you wish to study this Way, you must comprehend it directly beneath your own feet. The moment you are involved with even a fine hair of views and understanding, you miss the news beneath your feet. Once the news beneath your feet is penetrated, all kinds of views and understanding are nothing other than the affairs beneath your feet. Therefore the Patriarch said: "Right when speaking of views and understanding, views and understanding are just the mind; present mind is just views and understanding, views and understanding are just the present." If right now, without exceeding a single thought, you abruptly forget views and understanding beneath your feet, then you will walk hand in hand with the Patriarchs. If you have not yet been able to do so, by all means avoid fixing upon views and understanding. When scholar-officials study the Way, those of sharp faculties miss it, and those of dull faculties find it difficult to enter. Finding it difficult to enter, they naturally give rise to retreat and discouragement; missing it, they give rise to slander without doubt. If you want to hit the mark, just shift that which missed it to the place that is difficult to enter, and shift that which is difficult to enter to the place that missed it; naturally, all will be tranquil and at peace, and you will not make interpretations of "difficult to enter" or "missing it." Having attained this, it is fitting right here to lay down your whole body. When laying it down, you must also not make an understanding of laying it down. As an ancient worthy said: "Footloose and idle, always like an utter fool, yet in another's house there will naturally be a person of penetration to appreciate him." Moreover, Qingliang said: "Give free rein to its going and staying, quietly mirror and perceive its source and flow; to speak of realization cannot be demonstrated to others, to discuss principle cannot be understood without realization." Yet people nowadays, as soon as they hear such words, assume there really is such a thing, and thereupon say, "I have realized it, I have awakened to it, but I cannot bring it out to show to people." They exclusively speak lofty Chan, crisscrossing in every direction, talking nonsense and uttering falsehoods, deceiving gods and terrifying ghosts, supposing that the affair under the Patriarchs' gate is merely like this. Little do they know that genuine realization and genuine awakening—only people of genuine realization and genuine awakening, without relying on words and expressions, naturally tally in silence with one another. In tallying with one another, they also do not intentionally attempt to harmonize; it is like water entering water, or gold trading for gold, pointing to one and understanding three, weighing the occasion by grains and drachms. Having reached this stage, only then can one speak of transcending the characteristic of speech, transcending the characteristic of words, and transcending the characteristic of mental conditioning. It is not forced; the Dharma is just so. In the monasteries of recent times, false teachings have sprung up on every side, blinding the eyes of sentient beings beyond count. If one does not use the gong'ans of the ancients to bring up, awaken, and prompt them, it is just like a blind person letting go of the staff in his hand—unable to take even a single step. They take the causal conditions of the ancient worthies' entry into the Way and divide them into categories, saying: "These few cases are the causal conditions of the eye of the Way; these few cases are the causal conditions of penetrating sound and form; these few cases are the causal conditions of forgetting emotional attachments." From the beginning, one by one according to order, they calculate, estimate, formulate replies, and deliberate. Even if there are those who recognize this sickness, they assume that the Buddhadharma and the Way of Chan do not lie in words and language, and so set everything aside, gulping down the ready-made gruel and rice, and sitting clumped together in the ghost cave beneath the Black Mountain, calling it "silent yet constantly shining," calling it "like a person who has died the great death," calling it "the affair before father and mother were born," calling it "the news before the empty kalpa," and calling it "the news on that side of Powerful Sound." Sitting on and on until their buttocks grow calluses, they do not dare make a move, calling it "the effort gradually maturing." Then they take many idle and rambling words, deliberate on them from the beginning as doctrinal principles, and transmit them through instruction, calling it "the lineage doctrine." Inside their chest it remains pitch-black as before; originally intending to eradicate self and other, self and other become even loftier; originally intending to extinguish ignorance, ignorance becomes even greater. Little do they know that in this matter, only genuine realization and genuine awakening can be the ultimate. The moment there is a word or half-phrase made into an interpretation of the extraordinary, the profound and wondrous, or the secret, something that can be transmitted and conferred, then it is not the true Dharma. The true Dharma has no transmission and no conferral; only I realize and you realize, eye meeting eye, transmitting mind with mind, causing the wisdom-life of the buddhas and patriarchs to continue without interruption; only afterward does one extend what is left over in oneself to serve as a model for beings. Therefore Bodhidharma said: "I originally came to this land / To transmit the Dharma and save deluded beings. / A single flower opens into five petals; / The fruit forms naturally." That is it. That which is called transmitting the Dharma is the mind-dharma; the mind-dharma has no form or dimension. What is transmitted is what was mentioned earlier: "I realize and you realize." If both parties have not realized it and seek realization outside the mind, then there are lineage doctrines, profound, wondrous, and extraordinary things that can be transmitted and conferred, whereupon there arises, "I understand, you do not understand," generating thoughts of disdain and increasing views of self; the Tathāgata calls them pitiable. In Miaoxi's Chan, there is no difference between difficult to practice and easy to practice; it only requires the practitioner of Chan, before the bowels move, to cut off the road of birth and death, directly having no doubt about the buddhas, no doubt about the patriarchs, no doubt about birth, and no doubt about death. The difference between difficult to practice and easy to practice lies in the person, not in the affair of Chan. Often clever and alert fellows mostly seek quick results, wanting something they can speak with their mouths and something they can rely on before them. Little do they know that for one who has attained this matter, it is like a live lion wheeling around, in the person's daily life during the twelve periods of the day. It is like quicksilver dropped on the ground: the large drops are large and round, the small drops are small and round, needing no arrangement, requiring no contrivance, naturally lively and dynamic, constantly revealed manifest before you. Right at such a time, one first tallies with what the Overnight Enlightened One said: "Not seeing a single phenomenon is the Tathāgata; only then can one be called the Perceiver of Sovereignty." If you have not yet been able to be like this, for the time being set this cleverness and speaking of principles to one side, and right where there is nothing to grasp and nothing of flavor, try to grope and chew on it. Groping back and forth, chewing back and forth, suddenly right in the tasteless place you bite your tongue, and in the ungraspable place you lose your nostrils; then you will know what Old Man Zhaozhou said: "Before leaving home I was used by bodhi; after leaving home I could use bodhi. Sometimes I pick up a blade of grass and use it as the sixteen-foot golden body; sometimes I take the sixteen-foot golden body and use it as a blade of grass. Establishing also rests with me; sweeping away also rests with me. Speaking of principles also rests with me; not speaking of principles also rests with me. I am the King of Dharma, sovereign in phenomena; if I speak, there are so many; if I do not speak, there are not so many." Having attained such sovereignty, wherever you go, how could you not be at ease? The Sanskrit term prajñā is translated here as wisdom; there has never been one who illuminated prajñā yet harbored greed, anger, and delusion; there has never been one who illuminated prajñā yet poisoned and harmed sentient beings. Those who do such things run counter to prajñā; how could they be said to possess wisdom? Miaoxi usually says to those within the gate: "The very moment you feel that in your daily life, in responding to conditions, you are saving effort, that is just where you are gaining strength; where you gain strength, infinite effort is saved; where effort is saved, infinite strength is gained." Often, having heard this said many times, it becomes like a person from Sizhou seeing the Great Sage. Little do they know that when Miaoxi speaks like this, it is precisely his lifelong walk of practice. Fearing that there are those who lack sufficient faith, he cannot help but repeatedly remind, awaken, and drag through the mud and water, simply because having once been a wanderer, he has a special sympathy for travelers.