大慧普覺禪師語錄 30.3

30.3

承留心欲究竟此一段大事因緣，既辦此心，第一不要急，急則轉遲矣。又不得緩，緩則怠墮矣。如調琴之法，緊緩要得中，方成曲調，但向日用應緣處，時時覷捕，我這箇能與人決斷是非曲直底，承誰恩力？畢竟從甚麼處流出？覷捕來覷捕去，平昔生處路頭自熟。生處既熟，則熟處却生矣。那箇是熟處？五陰六入，十二處十八界，二十五有，無明業識思量計較心識，晝夜熠熠如野馬，無暫停息底是。這一絡索，使得人流浪生死，使得人做不好事。這一絡索既生，則菩提涅槃，真如佛性便現前矣。當現前時，亦無現前之量，故古德契證了便解道，應眼時若千日，萬象不能逃影質，應耳時若幽谷，大小音聲無不足。如此等事，不假他求，不借他力，自然向應緣處活鱍鱍地。未得如此，且將這思量世間塵勞底心，回在思量不及處，試思量看，那箇是思量不及處？僧問趙州：「狗子還有佛性也無？」州云：「無。」只這一字，儘爾有甚麼伎倆？請安排看，請計較看。思量計較安排，無處可以頓放，只覺得肚裏悶心頭煩惱時，正是好底時節，第八識相次不行矣。覺得如此時，莫要放却，只就這無字上提撕，提撕來提撕去，生處自熱，熱處自生矣。近年以來，叢林中有一種唱邪說為宗師者，謂學者曰：「但只管守靜，不知守者是何物，靜者是何人？却言靜底是基本，却不信有悟底，謂悟底是枝葉。」更引僧問仰山曰：「今時人還假悟也無？」仰山曰：「悟則不無，爭奈落在第二頭。」癡人面前不得說夢，便作實法會，謂悟是落第二頭。殊不知，溈山自有警覺學者之言，直是痛切，曰「研窮至理，以悟為則。」此語又向甚處著？不可溈山疑誤後人，要教落在第二頭也。曹閣使亦留心此事，恐其被邪師輩所誤，比亦如此書，忉忉怛怛寫，與此公聰明識見有大過人處，決不到錯認方便語作實法會。但某未得與之目擊，私憂過計耳。聞老居士亦與之是道友，因筆不覺葛藤，無事相見時，試問渠取書一看，方知妙喜相期，不在眼底，彼此氣義相投，又非勢利之交，寫了一紙，紙盡又添一紙，不暇更事形迹。此書亦如是，前書託是箇中人，故曰：「切不可道老老大大著甚來由，若如此則好事在面前，定放過矣。」寫時雖似率易，然亦機感相投，亦不覺書在紙上。荷公信得妙喜及，便把做事日用應緣處，便恢張此箇法門，以報聖主求賢安天下之意，真不負其所知也。願種種堪忍，始終只如今日做將去，佛法世法打作一片，且耕且戰，久久純熟，一舉而兩得之，豈非腰纏十萬貫，騎鶴上揚州乎？

I have received your letter stating your intention to thoroughly investigate this matter of the great cause. Having made up this mind, first of all, do not be anxious: if you are anxious, you will instead be delayed. Nor can you be slack: if you are slack, you will become indolent and remiss. Just like the method of tuning a lute, the tight and the slack must hit the mean, and only then will it form a melody. Simply in daily life, where you respond to conditions, observe and watch at all times: this of mine that can decide right and wrong, crooked and straight for people—by whose gracious power is it supported? In the end, from what place does it flow forth? As you observe and watch back and forth, the road of what has ordinarily been unfamiliar will naturally become familiar. When the unfamiliar becomes familiar, then what was familiar will conversely become unfamiliar. What is the familiar? The five aggregates, the six sense-entrances, the twelve sense-fields, the eighteen elements, the twenty-five realms of existence, the avidya-karmic consciousness, the deliberating and calculating mind and consciousness, flashing day and night like mirages, without a moment's rest—these are it. This entanglement causes people to wander through birth and death, and causes people to do bad things. Once this entanglement becomes unfamiliar, then bodhi, nirvāṇa, suchness, and buddha-nature will instantly manifest before you. When they manifest, there is also no measure of manifestation. Therefore, when the ancients attained realization, they were able to say: 'When responding to the eyes, it is like a thousand suns: the myriad forms cannot escape their shadows and forms; when responding to the ears, it is like a deep valley: no sound, whether great or small, is insufficient.' Such things do not depend on seeking elsewhere; they do not borrow others' power; naturally, where one responds to conditions, they are vital and lively. Before having attained this, for now take this mind that calculates worldly defilements and turn it to the place where deliberation cannot reach. Try to deliberate and see: what is the place where deliberation cannot reach? A monk asked Zhaozhou: 'Does even a dog have buddha-nature or not?' Zhou said: 'No (Wu).' Just this single word—however many tricks you may have, please try to arrange it, please try to calculate it! Deliberating, calculating, and arranging—there is no place where it can be set down. When you only feel stifled in your belly and troubled in your mind, that is precisely the good moment: the eighth consciousness is about to cease operating. When you feel like this, do not let it go; just bring it to awareness on this word 'Wu.' Bringing it to awareness back and forth, what was unfamiliar will naturally become familiar, and what was familiar will naturally become unfamiliar. In recent years, there has been a sort of person in the monasteries who sings heterodox views and acts as a master, telling students: 'Just keep watch over quietude.' They do not know what kind of thing the watcher is, or what kind of person the quiet one is. Yet they say that quietude is the foundation, and they do not believe in awakening, claiming that awakening is branches and leaves. They even cite the monk asking Yangshan: 'Do people nowadays still rely on awakening or not?' Yangshan said: 'It is not that there is no awakening, but what can be done about falling into the secondary?' In front of a fool one must not talk of dreams, for they then take it as an actual reality, saying that awakening is falling into the secondary. They completely fail to understand that Guishan himself had words to alert and awaken students that were exceedingly earnest, saying: 'Thoroughly investigate the ultimate principle, taking awakening as the rule.' Where should these words be placed? It cannot be that Guishan misled later generations and wanted to make them fall into the secondary. Pavilion Commissioner Cao is also mindful of this matter. Fearing that he might be led astray by heterodox teachers, I recently wrote to him in the same manner as this letter, setting it down with anxious care. This gentleman's intelligence and insight far surpass ordinary people; he will definitely not go so far as to mistakenly take words of expedient means as actual realities. It is only that I have not yet met him face to face, and so was privately over-worried. I hear that you, venerable lay scholar, are also his companion in the Way. Following my brush, entanglements have unconsciously arisen. When you meet in leisure, try asking him for the letter to take a look; only then will you know that Miaoxi's expectations of people do not lie before the eyes. Our spirit and sense of duty correspond to each other, and it is not a relationship based on influence or profit. Having written one sheet, when the sheet was finished I added another, with no time to attend to outward formalities. This letter is also like that. In the previous letter, I entrusted you as an insider, and so said: 'You must by no means say, "I am already old and worn out, so what is the point?" If you act like that, then when a good thing is right before you, you will definitely let it pass by.' Although it seemed casual when writing, nonetheless the stimulus and response aligned with each other, and it unconsciously was written on paper. I am grateful that you trust Miaoxi so deeply, and so right where you manage affairs and respond to conditions in daily life, you broadly expand this dharma-gate, so as to repay the sacred sovereign's intention of seeking worthy men to bring peace to the realm; you truly do not fail your understanding. May you endure all things, from beginning to end just carrying on as you do today, unifying the Buddha's Dharma and worldly affairs into a single whole, tilling while fighting. After a long time it will become thoroughly seasoned, and in one stroke you will attain both. Would that not be wrapping a hundred thousand strings of cash around one's waist and riding a crane up to Yangzhou?