大慧普覺禪師語錄 15.4

15.4

Vice Minister Liu personally copied out the Avataṃsaka Sūtra and presented it to the Master, further requesting a general discourse. A monk asked, "To toss the great chiliocosm beyond the directions and take Sumeru into a mustard seed—whose sphere of affairs is this?" The Master said, "It is the sphere of affairs of an immeasurable great person." [The monk] advanced and said, "Why is it trampled under this student's feet?" The Master said, "What principle have you seen that makes you open such a big mouth?" The monk then shouted. The Master said, "A fine shout, yet it has no host." [The monk] advanced and said, "You should know that even the fifty-three spiritual friends, arriving here, cannot grope it out." The Master said, "How is it within your own sphere of affairs?" [The monk] advanced and said, "Today, meeting the strong, I turn weak." The Master said, "Why don't you bow?" The monk then bowed. The Master then said: "The place where the fifty-three spiritual friends cannot grope it out is precisely all of your daily-activity news. The place where all of you cannot grope it out is precisely the fifty-three spiritual friends' daily-activity news. In all of your daily-activity news, the fifty-three spiritual friends definitely cannot grope it out; in the fifty-three spiritual friends' daily-activity news, all of you definitely cannot grope it out. Therefore it is said: 'All phenomena have no functional activity, / nor do they possess intrinsic nature. / Hence all of them / do not know one another. / Just as in a great mass of fire, / fierce flames erupt at the same time, / and each does not know the other— / all phenomena are also like this.' If you go on in just this way, tossing the great chiliocosm beyond the directions and taking Sumeru into a mustard seed—how could that be outside your sphere? Even though it is like this, above all you must not pass before the Ancestral Teachers' gate; if you pass before the Ancestral Teachers' gate, they will certainly break your donkey's back." Striking the meditation seat once with his fly-whisk, he spoke again: "Layman Zhushan, Lord Liu, personally hand-wrote one set of the Mahāvaipulya-buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra, presenting it to the Daoist Miaoxi to receive and uphold, and also disbursed gold to prepare offerings in order to extend celebration and repentance. Today Miaoxi ascends the curved-wood [chair] to elucidate it for the Layman, simply wanting everyone to know it exists. The Buddha said: 'Among all living beings in all worlds, / few are those who wish to seek the Śrāvaka Vehicle; / those who seek the Pratyekabuddha are fewer still; / those who head toward the Mahāyāna are extremely hard to meet. / Yet heading toward the Mahāyāna is still easy; / being able to believe in this Dharma is doubly more difficult.' Now there is one who believes in this Dharma, hand-writing this sūtra: what is black is ink, what is white is paper. What do you call 'this Dharma'? How is this Dharma proclaimed? Right now, is there still anyone who can believe in this Dharma? Come forth and bear witness for Layman Zhushan! If you can bear witness to it, the Layman's merit will not have been in vain; if you cannot bear witness to it, Miaoxi will take the opportunity to roll down the slope and speak of a mere shadow for you all. When the yellow-faced Gautama first accomplished true awakening, in the Magadha country at the araṇya-dharma site of awakening, within a single dust mote he broke open this dust mote and expounded the Tathāgata's vast and immense realm, his wonderful voice resounding far and wide, with nowhere it did not reach—how could this not be this Dharma? Without departing from under all the bodhi trees, he ascended Mount Sumeru, and on the lion seat of the Treasury of Universal Radiance in Śakra's Hall of Wonderful Victory, spoke the 'Chapter on the Ten Abodes'—how could this not be this Dharma? Without departing from under all the bodhi trees and the summit of Mount Sumeru, he proceeded to the lion seat of the Treasury of Precious Lotuses in the Hall of Jewel Adornments in the Yāma Deva Palace, entered the Bodhisattva Samādhi of Good Contemplation, and spoke the 'Chapter on the Ten Practices'—how could this not be this Dharma? Without departing from under this bodhi tree, the summit of Sumeru, and the Yāma Deva Palace, he went to the lion seat of the Treasury of Mani-Jewels in the Hall Adorned with All Wonderful Jewels in the Tuṣita Heaven, and spoke the 'Chapter on the Ten Dedications'—how could this not be this Dharma? Without departing from the Tuṣita Heaven, he went to the Hall of the Treasury of Mani-Jewels in the Paranirmitavaśavartin Deva Palace, abided in the realm abided in by the wisdom of all bodhisattvas, entered the place entered by the wisdom of all Tathāgatas, and spoke the 'Chapter on the Ten Grounds'—how could this not be this Dharma? Without departing from the Paranirmitavaśavartin Deva Palace, he returned to the Hall of Universal Radiance in the Magadha country, entered the Buddha-Flower Adornment Samādhi, and spoke the 'Chapter on Transcending the World'—how could this not be this Dharma? Without departing from the Magadha country, he proceeded to the Great Adornment Multi-storied Pavilion in the Jeta Grove of Anāthapiṇḍada's park in Śrāvastī, entered an ocean of divine transformations numbering as dust motes of ineffable buddha-lands and various samādhi doors, and spoke the 'Chapter on Entering the Dharmadhātu'—how could this not be this Dharma? Vairocana and all the great bodhisattvas gathered at those places across seven locations and nine assemblies, mutually acting as host and companion, each interpenetrating, displaying great divine transformations, culminating in Sudhana, without departing from his own dwelling place, entering into the land within Samantabhadra's pore, taking a single step that traversed worlds numbering as dust motes of ineffable, ineffable buddha-lands; walking in this way, even exhausting future kalpas, he still could not know the bounds of the ocean of lands within a single pore—the sequential oceans of lands, the treasury oceans of lands, the differentiated oceans of lands, the universally entering oceans of lands, the formed oceans of lands, the destroyed oceans of lands, and all their adornments—even throughout thought-moment after thought-moment pervading boundless oceans of lands, teaching and transforming living beings to lead them toward anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi. At that very time, the youth Sudhana sequentially attained Bodhisattva Samantabhadra's ocean of all practices and vows, equal to Samantabhadra, equal to all buddhas, his single body filling all worlds, equal in lands, equal in practices, equal in true awakening, equal in divine transformations, equal in wheels of Dharma, equal in eloquence, equal in verbal expression, and entirely identical in inconceivable liberation and mastery—how could this not be this Dharma? If so, you must know that before Layman Zhushan moved his hair-brush and before paper and ink took shape, he had already, with Vairocana Tathāgata and the vast realms of the buddhas and bodhisattvas of lands numbering as ineffable dust motes, become one by one equal, one by one without difference, down to the circular completion and step-by-step layout across eighty-one fascicles, also with Sudhana before he saw Mañjuśrī and before he aroused the aspiration for anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi, as well as since arousing the aspiration traversing all cities, serving all spiritual friends, and sequentially fulfilling Samantabhadra's ocean of all practices and vows—without any difference. As spoken above, how could this not be this Dharma? Layman Zhushan being thus, old man Miaoxi is also thus; old man Miaoxi being thus, the present great assembly is also thus; the present great assembly being thus, the myriad forms and dense array of phenomena, the great earth, mountains, and rivers are also thus—the so-called dust-mote after dust-mote is thus, thought-moment after thought-moment is thus, phenomenon after phenomenon is thus. One phenomenon being thus, all phenomena are likewise; one dust mote being thus, all dust motes are likewise. All dust motes being so, then without exceeding this single thought, without breaking this single dust mote, an inhalation does not abide in the skandhas and dhātus, an exhalation does not involve myriad conditions—ever turning such a sūtra of hundreds, thousands, myriads of kotis of fascicles. What need then for Layman Zhushan by bright window and clean table to guide the brush and move the ink, going out of his way with tedious elaborations; or for old man Miaoxi to transmit the empty and echo the sound, wagging his tongue and moving his lips, raising waves where there is no wind? Even though it is like this, after all one has only understood matters on the side of this Dharma's shadow, having nothing whatsoever to do with this Dharma's authentic text. Do you all wish to know the authentic text? Listen attentively, listen attentively! Drawing water and lighting incense, heavenly maidens attend the Elder's composition of treatises; stripping skin and splitting bones, bodhisattvas praise Vairocana's initial aspiration. Wishing seeing and hearing to become wholesome causes, they use brush and ink to perform buddha-work, joining a single bowl from the Myriad Fragrances, to feast Miaoxi in the East. I humbly pray that your spiritual friends be as numerous as Sudhana's, your practices and vows as superior as Samantabhadra's, possessing the ten dedications to realize the three bodhis, self, others, and sentient beings being equal and without distinction, and the Three Jewels of Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha jointly bearing witness. The explanation and praise spoken above are boundless superior causes, because the purity of all-knowledge is non-dual and undivided, without distinction and without interruption. Last night the stone lion in front of the prefecture jumped up for no reason, crashed into Fourth Lord Chen's tavern, and bit through Ancestral Teacher Xiangshan's nostrils. Venerable Dushun could not bear the pain and came out, saying: 'The cow in Huaizhou eats grain, the horse in Yizhou gets a bloated belly; searching all under heaven for a doctor, he cauterizes the left shoulder of a pig.' No sooner had he said this than each was restored as before. Do all of you still know the definitive meaning or not?" After a good while, he said, "Have you not heard it said: 'Being able to believe in this Dharma is doubly more difficult'?" Giving a shout, he stepped down from the seat.