大慧普覺禪師語錄 17.6

17.6

The assembled officials of Xingan County requested a general sermon. A monk asked: "Having already received the imperial grace, your monastic appearance is once more complete. As I step forward, I beg the Master to point out the renewed Buddhadharma." The Master said: "The rain has passed, the river's light is tranquil; the clouds have cleared, the mountain's hue is fresh." The monk continued: "In that case, the imperial design will grow ever firmer, and the sun of the Buddha will shine with renewed brilliance." The Master said: "Along the single old road walked before, high and low are naturally distinct." The monk continued: "Just as when Dadian chattered his teeth, Master Han Wen directly knew his refuge; and when Huangbo gave a name, Prime Minister Pei immediately knew the point of rest. I wonder, as the Monk meets today with the Prefectural Gentleman, the County Magistrate, what instruction do you have?" The Master said: "Two eyes face two eyes." The monk continued: "Could that be the instruction?" The Master said: "Leave it completely to divining by tortoise shell and cracking tiles." The monk bowed, and the Master said: "Asking is good, but not asking is even more intimate. Why? The single path prior to sound is not transmitted by the thousand sages; students weary their bodies like monkeys catching at reflections. If among you there is an exceptional fellow who, whether it is so or not so, hearing it briefly brought up, perks up his ears and walks on—he is still within the tangled thicket of vines. Even if he attains a state where internally there is nothing to realize and externally nothing to cultivate, like the earth holding up mountains, like a rock enclosing jade, this is still not the place where a patch-robed monk casts away body and life. If you know it, every speck of dust and every thought is without empty lack; bending and stretching, looking down and looking up are completely within it. Right at such a time, whose wind and moon is it after all? Do you understand? 'The thousand sages do not know where he has gone; a long sword leaning against heaven chills people with awe.'" He continued: "This is the very intent with which the Prefectural Gentleman, the County Magistrate, today led his fellow officials as well as the resident worthy literati to come together to rejoice in Zonggao's tonsure and request the preaching of the Dharma. This causal condition has its cause inquired of the Buddha; moreover, since Zonggao lived in Hengyang and Meizhou for seventeen years from beginning to end, today, without realizing or knowing it, I have come all at once to Xingan to join this dharma assembly. How could this not be because in a previous lifetime we were listeners of the Dharma together at the assembly on Vulture Peak? Originally, preaching the Dharma naturally has its time and place; if the conditions of the time have not met, preaching the Dharma cannot be accomplished. Therefore Old Man Śākya preached the Dharma in over three hundred and sixty assemblies, all establishing a time and place. What is meant by time and place? Have you not seen that at the beginning of the Sutra of Complete Enlightenment it says: 'Thus have I heard: At one time, the Bhagavān entered the samādhi absorption of the great light treasury of supernatural powers.' This alone is the time for preaching the Dharma today. Therefore it is said: 'If you wish to know the meaning of the buddha-nature, you must observe the conditions of the time. When the time arrives, the principle naturally becomes manifest.' Have you not seen that Master Zhizhe of Tiantai, because of reading the Lotus Sutra up to where Bodhisattva Bhaiṣajyarāja burned his body, which says, 'This is true vigor; this is called the true offering of Dharma to the Tathāgata,' at this point broke through cleanly, cutting off the boundaries of before and after, and immediately realized the Lotus Samādhi? In that samādhi he saw Old Man Śākya on Vulture Peak with the million-strong great assembly, solemn and not yet dispersed. If one speaks of this to people nowadays, if they have not entered such a realm, they flatly disbelieve it. Why? Zhizhe was a man of the Chen and Sui dynasties, separated from Old Man Śākya by two thousand years; how could it be that on account of 'This is true vigor; this is called the true offering of Dharma to the Tathāgata' he immediately saw the assembly on Vulture Peak in the Lotus Samādhi, solemn and not yet dispersed? Was he deceiving people? Or was it a fabricated tale? This matter is known only through realization; it is difficult to fathom. You must know that Miaoxi's preaching of the Dharma today is no different from Old Man Śākya's preaching of the Dharma in the assembly on Vulture Peak, nor is it different from Great Master Zhizhe's realization on Mount Nanyue that 'This is true vigor; this is called the true offering of Dharma to the Tathāgata.' Those who have truly realized it will certainly not deceive one another; to those who have not realized it, it is just like talking of dreams. Therefore it is said: 'All the kalpas of the past / Are placed into the future and present; / The kalpas of the future and present / Are returned and placed into past ages.' Sealed firmly with the single seal of the ocean-reflection samādhi, there are no further leaks, no coming and no going, no before and no after. Not only is Miaoxi alone like this, but the Prefectural Gentleman, the Court Gentleman, is also like this; not only is the Prefectural Gentleman, the Court Gentleman, like this, but the County Magistrate, the Prefectural Gentleman, together with his fellow officials and the resident worthy literati are also like this; not only are the County Magistrate, the Prefectural Gentleman, his fellow officials, and the resident worthy literati like this, but even those present before me, whether monk or lay, whether noble or base, are also like this. Such a dharma is identical with heaven when in heaven, and identical with humanity when among humans: to those who should be saved by a buddha's body, it immediately manifests a buddha's body and preaches the Dharma for them; to those who should be saved by the body of a minister, or even that of a Brahmin or a woman, it manifests all these bodies and preaches the Dharma for them. This is the single-flavor, pure, and impartial dharma-gate. If you clearly understand each person's native ground and original face right here, only then will you know that every phrase of the five thousand forty-eight fascicles of the entire great Canon teaches nothing else. Impermanence is swift; do not treat it lightly. Therefore it is said: 'Strive to finish it in this life; / Do not cause yourself to suffer lingering misfortune for eternal kalpas.' A human body is hard to obtain, and to be an eminent person is harder still. Have you not seen that Old Man Śākya spoke the Sutra of Forty-two Sections, in which there are twenty difficulties: namely, it is difficult for the poor to practice generosity, difficult for the wealthy and noble to learn the Way, difficult to refrain from asserting power when possessing authority; among them is 'it is difficult to risk one's life and not die.' Do you people understand? If one risks one's life, there is no one who does not die; how can one speak of the principle of not dying? If you can understand this, only then can you turn the twenty difficulties completely upside down, and all become easy matters: risking one's life and not dying is easy, the poor practicing generosity is easy, the wealthy and noble learning the Way is easy, and refraining from asserting power when possessing authority is easy. If you are enlightened, it is easy; if you are not enlightened, it is difficult. Yet the two words 'difficult' and 'easy' also have nothing to do with one's native ground and original face. Why? This dharma-gate is fundamentally without difficulty and without ease. If you can quickly fix your eyes on the place that is neither difficult nor easy, externally resting from all conditions and internally having no panting in the mind, only then will you know the dharma that is fundamentally without difficulty or ease. Nowadays, clever and sharp people cannot immediately awaken; where does the sickness lie? It is precisely because the mind, intellect, and consciousness take the lead, and being obstructed by the mind, intellect, and consciousness, their own radiance is hindered, their pathway blocked, so that they cannot take a step forward. Therefore, here cleverness and sharpness cannot be used; you must allow nothing to exit from within and nothing to enter from without. When nothing exits from within, the inner mind has no panting; when nothing enters from without, you externally rest from all conditions. When the inner mind is stilled, all conditions are likewise stilled; hence it is said: 'The nāga is always in absorption; there is no time when it is not in absorption.' This one great matter of causal condition is roughly like this. If you can believe like this, understand like this, cultivate like this, and realize like this, then the buddhas of the three periods are you people, and you people are the buddhas of the three periods, with no past and no present, sharing the identical liberation. In the world there is such an extraordinary matter; what a pity that ordinary people use it daily without knowing it. Yet today's single gathering is no small condition either; we are also favored by the presence of Chan masters from various mountains and faithful good men and women who have joined together to hear the Dharma. I prostratingly pray that upon hearing once, you attain a thousand awakenings and obtain the great dhāraṇī, and once it passes through the ear-faculty, it becomes an eternal seed of the Way. You have been standing long; I respectfully bid you take care."