[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) › 23.17 # 大慧普覺禪師語錄 23.17 大慧普覺禪師語錄 23.17 - **Language:** Classical Chinese ### [23.17](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1998a.23.17) 道由心悟，不在言傳。近年以來學此道者，多棄本逐末、背正投邪，不肯向根脚下推窮，一味在宗師說處著到，縱說得盛水不漏，於本分事上了沒交涉。古人不得已，見學者迷頭認影，故設方便誘引之，令其自識本地風光，明見本來面目而已，初無實法與人。如江西馬祖初好坐禪，後被南嶽讓和尚將甎於他坐禪處磨，馬祖從禪定起問：「磨甎何為？」讓曰：「欲其成鏡耳。」馬祖笑曰：「磨甎豈得成鏡耶？」讓曰：「磨甎既不成鏡，坐禪豈得成佛？」蓋讓和尚嘗問馬祖：「坐禪何圖？」馬祖以求成佛答之，教中所謂先以定動，後以智拔。馬祖聞坐禪豈得成佛之語，方始著忙，遂起作禮致敬曰：「如何即是？」讓知其時節因緣已到，始謂之曰：「譬牛駕車，車若不行，打牛即是？打車即是？」又曰：「汝學坐禪？為學坐佛？若學坐禪，禪非坐臥；若學坐佛，佛非定相。於無住法，不應取捨，汝若坐佛，即是殺佛。若執坐相，非達其理。」馬祖於言下忽然領旨，遂問：「如何用心即合無相三昧？」讓曰：「汝學心地法門如下種子，我說法要譬彼天澤，汝緣合故當見其道。」又問：「道非色相，云何能見？」讓曰：「心地法眼能見乎道，無相三昧亦復然矣。」曰：「有成壞否？」讓曰：「若以成壞聚散而見道者，非也。」前所云方便誘引，此是從上宗乘中第一箇樣子，妙明居士請依此參。 > The Way is awakened to by the mind; it does not lie in verbal transmission. In recent years, those who study this Way mostly abandon the root to pursue the branches, turn their backs on the correct and throw themselves into the heterodox. Unwilling to investigate thoroughly at the base of their own feet, they focus entirely on the places where ancestral masters have spoken. Even if they speak so well that not a drop of water leaks, they have no connection whatsoever with their fundamental affair. The ancients, having no other choice when seeing students bewildered by heads and mistaking shadows, established skillful means to guide them, simply causing them to recognise their own original scenery and clearly see their original face; fundamentally they had no real Dharma to give people. For instance, when Mazu of Jiangxi first took pleasure in seated meditation, Master Rang of Nanyue later ground a brick where he was meditating. Mazu rose from his meditative concentration and asked, 'What are you doing grinding a brick?' Rang said, 'I wish to make a mirror.' Mazu laughed and said, 'How can grinding a brick make a mirror?' Rang said, 'If grinding a brick cannot make a mirror, how can seated meditation make a buddha?' For Master Rang had once asked Mazu, 'What do you seek by seated meditation?' Mazu had replied that he sought to become a buddha; this is what the teachings call first shaking with concentration and then uprooting with wisdom. Hearing the words, 'How can seated meditation make a buddha?', Mazu only then became flustered. He then rose, bowed with reverence, and asked, 'How then should it be?' Rang knew that the time and conditions had arrived, and only then said to him, 'Take the analogy of an ox yoked to a cart: if the cart does not move, is hitting the ox right, or is hitting the cart right?' He also said, 'Are you learning seated meditation, or are you learning to be a seated buddha? If you are learning seated meditation, meditation is neither sitting nor lying down. If you are learning to be a seated buddha, the Buddha has no fixed form. Toward the Dharma of non-abiding, you should not give rise to grasping or rejection. If you sit as a buddha, this is killing the buddha. If you cling to the form of sitting, you do not penetrate its principle.' At these words, Mazu suddenly grasped the purport, and then asked, 'How should one apply the mind to accord with the formless samādhi?' Rang said, 'Your learning the Dharma gate of the mind ground is like sowing seeds; my expounding the essentials of the Dharma is like rain from heaven. Because your conditions join together, you shall see its Way.' He further asked, 'The Way is without physical form; how can it be seen?' Rang said, 'The Dharma eye of the mind ground can see the Way; the formless samādhi is also like this.' He asked, 'Is there creation and destruction?' Rang said, 'If one sees the Way through creation and destruction, aggregation and dispersal, that is not it.' The aforementioned skillful guidance is the first model from the ancestral vehicle of old. May Layman Miaoming please investigate according to this. > — English (machine translation) (machine translation) - [Previous: 23.16](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1998a.23.16) - [Next: 23.18](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1998a.23.18) - [Up: 23](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1998a.23) ## Translations (1) - [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1998a~en-mt.23.17) — English, machine translation --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1998a.23.17](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.1998a.23.17) · Pramāṇa