[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Taishō Tripiṭaka (Chinese Buddhist canon)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho) › [大慧普覺禪師語錄](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1998a) › 20.27 # 大慧普覺禪師語錄 20.27 大慧普覺禪師語錄 20.27 - **Language:** Classical Chinese ### [20.27](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1998a.20.27) 聰明利智之士，往往多於脚根下蹉過此事。蓋聰明利智者，理路通，纔聞人舉著箇中事，便將心意識領覽了，及乎根著實頭處，黑漫漫地不知下落，却將平昔心意識學得底引證，要口頭說得，到心裏思量計較得底，彊差排，要教分曉。殊不知，家親作祟，決定不從外來。故永嘉有言：「損法財、滅功德，莫不由茲心意識。」以是觀之，心意識之障道，甚於毒蛇猛虎。何以故？毒蛇猛虎尚可回避，聰明利智之士，以心意識為窟宅，行住坐臥未甞頃刻不與之相酬酢，日久月深，不知不覺，與之打作一塊，亦不是要作一塊，為無始時來行得這一路子熟，雖乍識得破，欲相遠離亦不可得，故曰：「毒蛇猛虎尚可回避，而心意識真是無爾回避處。」除是夙有靈骨，於日用現行處，把得住，作得主，識得破，直下一刀兩段，便從脚跟下做將去，不必將心等悟，亦不須計較得在何時。但將先聖所訶者，如避毒蛇猛虎，如經蠱毒之鄉，滴水莫教入口，然後却以三教聖人所讚者，茶裏飯裏，喜時怒時，與朋友相酬酢時，侍奉尊長時，與妻兒聚會時，行時，住時，坐時，臥時，觸境遇緣，或好或惡時，獨居暗室時，不得須臾間斷。若如此做工夫，道業不成辦，三教聖人皆是妄語人矣。士大夫平昔在九經十七史內娛嬉，興亡治亂，或逆或順，或正或邪，無有一事不知，無有一事不會，或古或今，知盡會盡，有一事一知，一事不會，便被人喚作寡聞無見識漢。他人屋裏事，盡知得、盡見得、盡識得，下筆做文章時，如缾注水，引古牽今，不妨錦心繡口，心裏也思量得到，口頭亦說得分曉，他人行履處，他人逆順處，他人邪正處，一一知得下落，一一指摘得，無纖毫透漏。及乎緩緩地問他：「爾未託生張黃李鄧家作兒子時，在甚麼處安身立命？」即今作聰明說道理，爭人爭我，縱無明使業識檢點他人，不是能分別邪正好惡底，百年後却向甚麼處去？既不知來處，即是生大，既不知去處，即是死大，無常迅速生死事大，便是這些道理也。儒者亦云：「死生亦大矣。」棒打石人頭，嚗嚗論實事，臘月三十日，無常殺鬼到來，不取爾口頭辦，不遷怒，不貳過，孔子獨稱顏回，謂聖人無怒，無怒則不為血氣所遷；謂聖人無過，無過則正念獨脫，正念獨脫則成一片，成一片則不二矣。邪非之念纔干正，則打作兩橛，作兩撅則其過豈止二而已？不遷怒，不貳過之義，如是而已，不必作玄妙奇特商量。士大夫學先王之道，止是正心術而已，心術既正則邪非自不相干，邪非既不相干，則日用應緣處，自然頭頭上明、物物上顯。心術是本，文章學問是末，近代學者，多棄本逐末，尋章摘句，學華言巧語以相勝，而以聖人經術為無用之言，可不悲夫。孟子所謂不揣其本，而欲齊其末，方寸之木，可使高於岑樓是也。孟弼正是春秋鼎盛之時，瞥地得早，能回作塵勞惡業底心，要學出生死法，非夙植德本，則不能如是信得及，把得住，作得主宰，時時以生死在念，真火中蓮華也。既以生死事在念，則心術已正，心術既正，則日用應緣時，不著用力排遣，既不著排遣，則無邪非，無邪非則正念獨脫，正念獨脫則理隨事變，理隨事變則事得理融，事得理融則省力，纔覺省力時便是學此道得力處也。得力處省無限力，省力處得無限力，得如此時，心意識不須按捺，自然怗怗地矣。雖然如是，切忌墮在無言無說處，此病不除，與心意識未寧時無異。所以黃面老子云：「不取眾生所言說，一切有為虛妄事，雖復不依言語道，亦復不著無言說。」纔住在無言說處，則被默照邪禪幻惑矣。前所云毒蛇猛虎尚可回避，心意識難防，便是這箇道理也。日用隨緣時，撥置了得靜處便靜，雜念起時但舉話頭，蓋話頭如大火聚，不容蚊蚋螻蟻所泊，舉來舉去，日月浸久，忽然心無所之，不覺噴地一發。當恁麼時，生也不著問人，死也不著問人，不生不死底也不著問人，作如是說者也不著問人，受如是說者也不著問人，如人喫飯喫到飽足處，自不生思食想矣。千說萬說，曲說直說，只為羅孟弼疑情不破，他時後日驀然失脚蹋著鼻孔，妙喜忉忉怛怛，寫許多惡口，却向甚處安著？妙喜自云：「因地而倒，因地而起，起倒在人，畢竟不干這一片田地事。」寫至此，一軸紙已盡，且截斷葛藤。 > Men of cleverness and sharp intelligence often slip past this matter right beneath their feet. Because the clever and sharp-witted have an open flow of intellectual reasoning, as soon as they hear someone bring up matters of this realm, they immediately comprehend and survey them with their mind, intellect, and consciousness. Yet when it comes to the real, substantial root, all is pitch black, and they do not know where to turn. Then they take what they usually learned with mind, intellect, and consciousness as verification; wanting to speak it with their mouths and having pondered and deliberated it in their minds, they forcefully arrange it, wishing to make it distinct and clear. Little do they realize that the household ghosts are working havoc, and that it definitely does not come from outside. Thus Yongjia said: 'Damaging the wealth of Dharma and extinguishing merit is all due to this mind, intellect, and consciousness.' Looked at in this way, the hindrance to the Path caused by mind, intellect, and consciousness is worse than venomous snakes and fierce tigers. Why is this? Venomous snakes and fierce tigers can still be avoided; but men of cleverness and sharp intelligence make their den of mind, intellect, and consciousness, and in walking, standing, sitting, and lying down they never cease for an instant to interact with them. As days grow long and months deep, unknowingly and imperceptibly, they form a single mass with them. It is not that they intend to form a single mass, but because from beginningless time they have grown practiced in walking this path; even if they momentarily see through it, they still cannot distance themselves from it. Hence it is said: 'Venomous snakes and fierce tigers can still be avoided, but from mind, intellect, and consciousness you truly have nowhere to flee.' Unless one has innate spiritual bones, so that in the midst of everyday actual practice one can hold fast, be the master, see through it, cut it directly in two with a single blade, and work on it straight from beneath one's feet, one need not set one's mind on waiting for awakening, nor is there any need to calculate when it will be attained. Simply treat what the ancient sages rebuked as if avoiding venomous snakes and fierce tigers, or passing through a land of poison potions, not letting a single drop enter your mouth; and then, with what the sages of the Three Teachings praised, in tea and in food, in joy and in anger, when interacting with friends, when attending upon elders, when gathering with wife and children, when walking, standing, sitting, lying down, encountering circumstances and meeting conditions, whether good or bad, when sitting alone in a dark room—let there not be a moment's interruption. If you do the work like this and the business of the Path is not accomplished, then the sages of the Three Teachings are all liars. Scholars usually amuse themselves within the Nine Classics and Seventeen Histories, with rises and falls, order and disorder, adversity and prosperity, rectitude and wickedness; there is not a single thing they do not know, not a single thing they do not understand. Past and present, they know all and understand all; if there were one thing they did not know, one thing they did not understand, people would call them shallow and lacking insight. Regarding the affairs of others' households, they know all, see all, and recognize all; when they put brush to paper to compose essays, it is like water pouring from a jug, citing antiquity and invoking the present—they certainly have an exquisite mind and eloquent mouth; their minds can ponder it, and their mouths can speak it distinctly. As for others' conduct, others' adversity and prosperity, others' wickedness and rectitude, they know the bottom of each and every one, and can point them out one by one without the slightest leak. But when you calmly ask them: 'Before you were born into the Zhang, Huang, Li, or Deng families as a son, where did you settle your body and establish your life?' Right now you act cleverly and talk of principles, fighting over self and other, giving rein to ignorance, using karmic consciousness to inspect others; you are not one who can distinguish wicked from upright, good from bad—after a hundred years, where will you go? Not knowing whence you came is the greatness of birth; not knowing whither you go is the greatness of death. That impermanence is swift and the matter of birth and death is great—these are just such truths. The Confucians also say: 'Birth and death are also great.' A stick strikes the stone man's head, crack-crack, talking of real things! On the thirtieth day of the twelfth month, when the murderous ghost of impermanence arrives, it will not accept your glib tongue. 'Not shifting anger, not repeating faults'—Confucius praised Yan Hui alone, meaning that the sage has no anger, and having no anger, he is not swayed by physical temperament; it means that the sage has no faults, and having no faults, right mindfulness stands alone and emancipated; when right mindfulness stands alone and emancipated, it becomes a single whole; becoming a single whole, it is not twofold. As soon as thoughts of wickedness and error infringe upon rectitude, they break into two pieces; breaking into two pieces, how could their faults stop at two? The meaning of 'not shifting anger, not repeating faults' is just this; one need not discuss it as something mysterious or exceptional. When scholars study the Way of the ancient kings, it is only to rectify the disposition of the mind; once the disposition of the mind is rectified, wickedness and error naturally have no concern with it; since wickedness and error do not concern it, then in the midst of responding to conditions in everyday life, all is naturally clear at every turn and manifest in every thing. The disposition of the mind is the root; literary skill and scholarship are the branches. Scholars of recent times mostly abandon the root and pursue the branches, picking phrases and plucking lines, learning ornate words and clever speech to outdo each other, regarding the classic arts of the sages as useless words—is this not lamentable? This is what Mencius meant by not measuring the base and wishing to level the top, so that a piece of wood an inch square can be made taller than a high pavilion. Mengbi is precisely in the prime of his years; you have had an early flash of insight, can turn around the mind that engages in worldly toil and unwholesome karma, and wish to study the Dharma of release from birth and death. If you had not planted roots of virtue in past lives, you could not have such firm faith, hold fast, act as the master, and constantly keep birth and death in mind—truly a lotus in fire. Since the matter of birth and death is in your thoughts, the disposition of your mind is already rectified; once the disposition of the mind is rectified, then in responding to conditions in daily life you need not exert effort to banish things; since you need not banish things, there is no wickedness or error; with no wickedness or error, right mindfulness stands alone and emancipated; when right mindfulness stands alone and emancipated, principle transforms according to events; when principle transforms according to events, events are harmonized with principle; when events are harmonized with principle, it saves effort; and as soon as you feel it saves effort, that is the place where you gain strength in studying this Path. Where you gain strength, you save boundless effort; where you save effort, you gain boundless strength. When you reach such a time, mind, intellect, and consciousness need not be suppressed, but naturally settle peacefully. Even though this is so, you must strictly avoid falling into the place of no words and no speech; if this ailment is not eliminated, it is no different from when mind, intellect, and consciousness are not yet at peace. Therefore the Yellow-Faced Old Man said: 'Do not grasp at the speech of sentient beings, nor at all conditioned, illusory matters; although one does not rely on the path of verbal speech, neither does one cling to the absence of speech.' As soon as you abide in the place of wordlessness, you are deluded and confused by the heterodox Chan of silent illumination. What was said earlier—that venomous snakes and fierce tigers can still be avoided, but mind, intellect, and consciousness are hard to guard against—is just this principle. When according with conditions in daily life, set things aside, and when you can attain a quiet place, then be quiet; when stray thoughts arise, simply bring up the huatou. For the huatou is like a great mass of fire, not allowing mosquitoes, gnats, mole crickets, or ants to alight on it. Bringing it up over and over, as the days and months deepen, suddenly the mind has nowhere to go, and without your realizing it, there is a sudden burst. At just such a time, you do not need to ask anyone about birth, you do not need to ask anyone about death, you do not need to ask anyone about that which is unborn and undying, you do not need to ask anyone about the one who speaks like this, and you do not need to ask anyone about the one who receives such speech. Just as when a person eats food until full and satisfied, thoughts of desiring food naturally do not arise. Thousands of explanations, myriad explanations, crooked explanations, straight explanations—all are only because Luo Mengbi's doubt has not been broken. On some future day, should you suddenly slip and kick your own nostrils, where will you place all the sharp, scolding words Miaoxi has chattered on and on? Miaoxi himself says: 'Falling due to the ground, rising due to the ground; rising and falling depend on the person, and ultimately have nothing to do with this piece of ground.' Having written to this point, a scroll of paper has run out; so let us cut through the trailing vines. > — English (machine translation) (machine translation) - [Previous: 20.26](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1998a.20.26) - [Next: 20.28](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1998a.20.28) - [Up: 20](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1998a.20) ## Translations (1) - [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1998a~en-mt.20.27) — English, machine translation --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1998a.20.27](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1998a.20.27) · Pramāṇa