大慧普覺禪師語錄 22.5

22.5

決欲究竟此事，應是從前作聰明說道理，文字語言上記持，於心意識內計較摶量得底，颺在他方世界，都不得有絲毫頭許頓在胸中。掃除得淨盡也，然後向心思意想不及處，試進一步看。若進得這一步，便如善財童子於普賢毛孔剎中，行一步過不可說不可說佛剎微塵數世界。如是而行，盡未來劫猶不能知，一毛孔中剎海次第，剎海藏，剎海差別，剎海普入，剎海成，剎海壞，剎海莊嚴所有邊際，亦不能知；佛海次第，佛海藏，佛海差別，佛海普入，佛海生，佛海滅，所有邊際，亦不能知；菩薩眾海次第，菩薩眾海藏，菩薩眾海差別，菩薩眾海普入，菩薩眾海集，菩薩眾海散，所有邊際，亦不能知。入眾生鬼界眾生根，教化調伏諸眾生智，菩薩所住甚深自在，菩薩所入諸地諸道，如是等海所有邊際，信知無念無作，有如是功德。這一步雖曰難進，若夙曾種得善根種子，只向信得及處看，看來看去，內無所住外無所緣，不覺不知打失布袋。當恁麼時，方知龐居士道：「無念清涼寺，蘊空真五臺，對境心無垢，當情心死灰，妙理於中現，優曇空裏開，無求真法眼，離相即如來，若能如是學，不動出三災。」是真語實語，不誑不妄。然雖如是，莫見恁麼道，便向無作無為處，閉眉合眼做死模樣，謂之默而常照，硬捉住箇猢猻繩子，怕他勃跳，古德喚作落空亡外道，魂不散死人。真實要絕心生死，浣心垢濁，伐心稠林，須是把這猢猻子一棒打殺始得。若一向緊緊地，把定繩頭，將心調伏，我說是人執之失度，真可憐愍。正眼觀之，盡是天魔外道，魍魎妖精，非吾眷屬。此事要得渾鋼打就、生鐵鑄成底擔荷，若有心擔荷，則又蹉過也。古人不得已，見爾迷却路，為爾作箇指路頭主人而已，亦無禪道佛法可以傳授。纔說有傳有授，便是邪法。何以故？不見《金剛經》中道：「若言如來有所說法，即為謗佛，是人不解我所說義。」又云：「法尚應捨，何況非法？」著實而論，說真如佛性，說菩提涅槃，說理說事，說邪說正，盡是非法，那堪更說有玄有妙可以傳、可以授乎？不見先德有言：「說箇學道，早是接引之辭耳，又何曾教爾起模畫樣，特地馳求來？」所以云：「擬將心意，學玄宗。狀似西行却向東。」臨濟云：「爾但歇得念念馳求心，則與釋迦老子不別，七地菩薩求佛智心未歇，謂之法塵煩惱。既有決定志，必有決定得入手時。」且那箇是得入手時？噴地一發心，意識滅絕氣息時是。佛言：「理則頓悟，乘悟併銷，事非頓除，因次第盡。」要識這些道理，便是善財聞彌勒彈指之聲，樓閣門開，善財心喜，入已還閉；香嚴聞擊竹作聲，忽然契悟，便解道：「一擊亡所知，更不假修治，動容揚古路，不墮悄然機。」之類是也。自家悟處、自家安樂處、自家得力處、他人不知，拈出呈似人不得，除已悟、已安樂、已得力者，一見便默默相契矣。疑情未破，但只看箇古人入道底話頭，移逐日許多作妄想底心來，話頭上則一切不行矣。僧問趙州：「狗子還有佛性也無？」州云：「無。」只這一字，便是斷生死路頭底刀子也。妄念起時，但舉箇無字，舉來舉去，驀地絕消息，便是歸家穩坐處也。此外別無奇特，前所云難進底一步，不覺驀然過矣。

If you are determined to thoroughly investigate this matter, you must fling away to another world all your former cleverness in speaking of principles, what you have memorized in words and language, and what you have calculated and measured within the mind, intent, and consciousness—you must not let a single hair's tip remain placed within your chest. Once it is swept away completely clean, only then, toward the place that thoughts and deliberations do not reach, try to take a step forward and see. If you can take this step, you will be just like the Youth Sudhana in Samantabhadra's pore-lands, where with one step he traversed worlds as numerous as the dust motes of ineffably ineffable buddha-lands. Walking thus, even to the exhaustion of future kalpas, he still could not know the limits of the sequence of land-oceans, the storehouses of land-oceans, the distinctions of land-oceans, the universal entrance into land-oceans, the formation of land-oceans, the destruction of land-oceans, and the adornment of land-oceans within a single pore; nor could he know the limits of the sequence of buddha-oceans, the storehouses of buddha-oceans, the distinctions of buddha-oceans, the universal entrance into buddha-oceans, the appearance of buddha-oceans, and the cessation of buddha-oceans; nor could he know the limits of the sequence of bodhisattva-assembly oceans, the storehouses of bodhisattva-assembly oceans, the distinctions of bodhisattva-assembly oceans, the universal entrance into bodhisattva-assembly oceans, the gathering of bodhisattva-assembly oceans, and the dispersing of bodhisattva-assembly oceans. Knowing the roots of sentient beings entering the realms of ghosts, the wisdom to teach and tame sentient beings, the profound self-mastery in which bodhisattvas abide, the stages and paths that bodhisattvas enter—the limits of all such oceans—one truly knows that being free of thoughts and free of contrivance possesses such merit. Although this step is said to be difficult to take, if you have planted the seed of wholesome roots in the past, just look toward the place where you have firm faith; looking and looking, inwardly having nowhere to abide and outwardly having no conditioning objects, unconsciously and unwittingly you drop the cloth bag. At such a time, only then will you know that what Layman Pang said—'No-thought is the Qingliang Monastery, / The emptiness of the aggregates is the true Mount Wutai. / Facing objects, the mind is free of defilement; / Confronting circumstances, the mind is dead ashes. / The wondrous principle manifests within it, / The udumbara blooms in empty space. / Seeking nothing is the true dharma eye; / Leaving behind characteristics, one is the Tathāgata. / If one can study like this, / Unmoving, one transcends the three disasters'—are true words, real words, not deceiving and not false. Nevertheless, do not, upon seeing such talk, go to the place of non-contrivance and inaction, close your eyebrows and shut your eyes, adopting a dead posture, calling it 'silent and constantly illuminating,' holding tight to the monkey's leash for fear that it will jump around. Ancient worthies called this an 'outsider falling into empty annihilation' and a 'corpse whose soul has not dispersed.' If you truly wish to cut off the birth and death of the mind, wash away the defilements of the mind, and fell the dense forest of the mind, you must take a stick and beat this monkey to death before you can succeed. If you persistently hold fast to the end of the leash and tame the mind, I say this person's grasping lacks proper measure, and is truly pitiable. Viewing it with the correct eye, they are all heavenly demons, outsiders, and mountain goblins and specters, not of our household. This matter requires someone forged of solid steel and cast of pig iron to shoulder it; if you have the intention to shoulder it, you miss it once again. Out of necessity, seeing that you have lost the path, the ancients merely acted as guides pointing out the road for you, but there is no Chan path or Buddhadharma that can be transmitted or conferred. As soon as one says there is transmission and reception, that is an incorrect teaching. Why so? Do you not see that the Vajracchedikā Sūtra says: 'If someone says that the Tathāgata has expounded any Dharma, that is slandering the Buddha, and this person does not understand the meaning of what I have expounded'? It also says: 'Even the Dharma should be relinquished, how much more so what is non-Dharma?' Truly speaking, to speak of suchness and buddha-nature, to speak of bodhi and nirvāṇa, to speak of principle and phenomena, to speak of the incorrect and the correct—all of this is non-Dharma. How could one further speak of having something profound and wondrous that can be transmitted and conferred? Do you not see that a former worthy had a saying: 'Speaking of studying the Way is already words of expedient guidance; when did it ever teach you to set up models and draw likenesses, running and seeking outside on purpose?' Therefore it is said: 'Attempting to use the mind and intention to study the profound school / Is just like heading west but turning toward the east.' Linji said: 'If you only cease your mind of running and seeking from thought to thought, you will not be different from old Śākyamuni. The mind of seventh-stage bodhisattvas seeking the Buddha's wisdom has not yet ceased, and is called the affliction of dharma-dust. Since you have a determined resolve, there will certainly be a time when you obtain an entryway.' And what is the time when one obtains an entryway? It is the moment when with an abrupt outburst the breath of consciousness is extinguished. The Buddha said: 'The principle is suddenly awakened to, / And upon awakening, all is simultaneously dissolved; / Phenomena are not suddenly removed, / But are exhausted according to sequence.' If you wish to recognize these principles, it is just like Sudhana hearing Maitreya's snap of the fingers, whereupon the doors of the pavilion opened; Sudhana's mind was filled with joy, and having entered, they closed again; or Xiangyan hearing the sound of striking the bamboo and suddenly awakening, whereupon he was able to say: 'With a single strike, what was known is forgotten, / No longer relying on cultivation and cure. / Moving the countenance to propagate the ancient road, / Not falling into silent mechanisms'—and things of this kind. One's own place of awakening, one's own place of peace and joy, one's own place of gaining strength are unknown to others and cannot be brought out and shown to people; except for those who have already awakened, already attained peace and joy, and already gained strength, upon a single meeting they silently tally with each other. If the feeling of doubt is not yet broken, merely look at an ancient's huatou for entering the Way; shift all the mind that generates deluded thoughts day after day onto the huatou, and then nothing else will function. A monk asked Zhaozhou, 'Does even a dog have buddha-nature or not?' Zhaozhou said, 'No (wu).' This single word is the knife that severs the road of birth and death. When deluded thoughts arise, merely raise the word wu; raising it again and again, when news is abruptly cut off, that is the place where you return home and sit securely. Other than this there is nothing extraordinary, and the previously mentioned step that is difficult to take will unwittingly and abruptly be crossed.