大慧普覺禪師語錄 21

English (machine translation) 21

Language: English

21.1

Presented by your subject Yunwen, Chan Master Huiri, Abbot of Nengren Chan Monastery on Mount Jing under the Song, heir to the Dharma.

21.2

Instruction to Governor Xiong of Ezhou, Department Director (Shuya)

In recent times, many literati wish to study this Way, but their minds are not pure and focused. Their ailment lies in mixed poison entering their minds. Once the mixed poison has entered their minds, they meet with obstruction at every turn. When they meet with obstruction at every turn, views of self grow. When views of self grow, their eyes and ears see only the faults of others, and they are utterly unable to take a step back and examine themselves a little to see, having gotten out of bed each day, what benefit to others or benefit to themselves there has been. Those who can examine themselves in this way are called people of wisdom. Zhaozhou said: “Apart from the two meals of gruel and rice each day, where this old monk uses his mind in a mixed way, there is no other place where I use my mind in a mixed way.” Now tell me: where did this old fellow apply his effort? If you can recognize his countenance right here, only then can it be said that walking is Chan, sitting is Chan, whether speaking or silent, moving or still, the essence is at peace. If you cannot yet be like this, you should constantly take a step back and examine minutely under your own feet: is that which can know the good and bad, strengths and shortcomings of others mundane or sacred? Is it existent or non-existent? Examine back and forth until you reach the place where there is nothing left to examine—like a rat entering a bull’s horn, when suddenly the calculating mind is severed—then that is precisely where one collapses flat to the ground, returning home to sit securely. Out of necessity, Miaoxi utters these harsh words. Seen from the standpoint of one who has completed the matter, this is simply not knowing good from bad, spilling shit and pissing; if he suddenly bumped into someone with blood beneath the skin, who beat him into mush, he would have no right to blame him. Now, since there is no such person, it does no harm to let this fellow speak at random as he pleases; already not knowing good from bad, he cannot help but wash mud with dirt, speaking some flavorless words. However, above all, you must not understand according to where I speak; this is the primary principle of literati playing clever. In mundane and supramundane dharmas, one cannot say “one” and cannot say “two”; one cannot say “existent” and cannot say “non-existent.” “One,” “two,” “existent,” and “non-existent” within the treasury of radiance are also called poison, and also called ghee. Ghee and poison fundamentally have no intrinsic nature; to form views of one, two, existence, or non-existence is merely prescribing medicine according to the illness. The treasury of radiance is compared to great empty space; one, two, existence, and non-existence are compared to the sun, moon, day, and night. When it is dark at night, great empty space has never been dark; when it is bright by day, great empty space has never been bright. Sun, moon, day, and night displace each other, just as views of one, two, existence, and non-existence displace each other, yet with respect to the treasury of radiance, there is no difference. If among them there were a spirited fellow who did not accept having such foul water splashed on him, in a single thought where conditioned arising is unborn, just these things that displace each other would all be the everyday household affairs for the person’s daily use—what was referred to above as ghee and poison. When literati study this Way, they mostly seek quick results; before the ancestral teacher has opened his mouth, they have already grasped it with mind, intellect, and consciousness. When slowly pressed on one point, they are like crabs dropped into boiling water, hands flailing and feet scrambling, with nowhere to get their bearings. Little do they know that the one who receives the iron club and swallows the molten iron balls before Old Man Yama is precisely this one who grasps and seeks quick results, and no one else! This is what is called hoping to gain but turning out to lose, striving for subtlety but becoming ever coarser; the Tathāgata called them people to be pitied. Among modern literati, if you seek one or half a person among thousands and tens of thousands without this illness, you will never find one. In the autumn of the bingzi year of Shaoxing, passing through Ezhu, I happened to meet Governor Xiong, Shuya. Upon meeting him, I was thoroughly captivated, and we immediately accorded with each other in this Way. He is able to take a step back and apply his effort to the genuine ground, practicing as it is taught, unlike those who are superficial, forcing knowledge, forcing understanding, and forcing appreciation. He directly strives to reach the place where the ancients stood on solid ground, neither doubting the Buddha, nor doubting Confucius, nor doubting Laozi, and thereafter borrowing the nostrils of Laozi, Confucius, and the Buddha to breathe for himself. This is truly the deed of a valiant, vigorously energetic, superior man. I hope you will rouse your spirits with vigor and strive forward. What you say and where you act are already not mistaken; you only lack that sudden burst. If you only advance and do not retreat, and in your daily use during the twelve hours of the day there is no interruption in meeting conditions, then that sudden burst will also not be difficult. However, above all, you must not set your mind on that sudden burst; if you have such a mind, you will be blocked on your path by this very mind. Simply do not be benighted in meeting conditions in your daily use, and as the days and months deepen, it will naturally form a single piece. Why is that? Because the places where you meet conditions—when joyful, when angry, when judging public affairs, when socializing with guests, when gathering with wife and children, when thinking of good and evil, and when contacting objects and encountering conditions—are all times for that sudden burst to erupt. By all means remember this, by all means remember this! When mundane emotional thoughts arise, there is no need to make an effort to dispel them; as I previously informed you, simply raise the monk’s question: “Does a dog have buddha-nature or not?” Zhaozhou said: “No (Wu).” As soon as you raise this single word, mundane emotional thoughts will naturally become docile. Many words and much talk have always led people astray instead; a thousand explanations and ten thousand explanations are merely this bit of truth. If suddenly upon the word “Wu” you sever your life-root, even this bit of truth will be like flowers in the eyes.

21.4

Instructing Judicial Commissioner Xu (Dunji)

21.5

This matter is like the blue sky and the bright sun, radiantly clear and pure, unchanging and unmoving, neither decreasing nor increasing. In the places where each individual responds to conditions in daily activities, it is luminous on every tip and apparent on every object. Grasping it, one cannot obtain it; abandoning it, it constantly persists. Vast and unobstructed, clearly and distinctly empty and open, like releasing a gourd on the water—one cannot tether it, nor can one entangle it. When people of the Way from ancient times attained it, turning within the ocean of birth and death, their heads popping out and submerging, their whole being enjoyed its use without lack or surplus, not seeing any appearance of birth, death, or affliction. It is like cutting sandalwood—chip by chip, every piece is it. What would you take to be birth, death, and affliction? From where do birth, death, and affliction arise? When collecting causes and concluding with results, where do they reside? Since there is no place to reside, the Buddha is an illusion, the Dharma is an illusion; the three realms, the twenty-five states of existence, the twelve sense bases, and the eighteen realms are all completely empty. Reaching such a stage, even the single word 'Buddha' has no place to reside. If even the single word 'Buddha' has no place to reside, where could True Suchness, buddha-nature, bodhi, and nirvāṇa exist? Thus Mahāsattva Fu said: 'Fearing that people will give rise to annihilationist views, provisional false names are set up. Those who study the Way should understand, but not cling solely to them.' When the ancients entered the Way through conditions, seeking the profound, seeking the wondrous, seeking the extraordinary, and looking for understanding above, they were unable to forget the finger upon seeing the moon and cut things in two with a single downward blow. As Yongjia said: 'On an empty fist and pointing finger, they generate real understanding; amid sense bases, sense objects, and dharmas, they fabricate monstrosities.' Vainly imprisoning and attaching themselves within the five aggregates, twelve sense bases, eighteen realms, and twenty-five states of existence, the Tathāgata described them as pitiable. Have you not seen that Reverend Yantou said: 'If you are simply without desire and without dependence, you are the Able Benevolent One (Śākyamuni).' All there is in total is merely this lump of flesh born of father and mother; the moment a breath does not come, it belongs to another's jurisdiction. Outside this lump of flesh, what else is there? What do you take to be extraordinary, profound, and wondrous? What do you take to be bodhi and nirvāṇa? What do you take to be True Suchness and buddha-nature? When scholar-officials wish to thoroughly investigate this matter, initially they do not base themselves on its reality; they insist on seeking knowledge and understanding in the ancient masters' gong'ans. Even if you understand and comprehend the entire canon of teachings, on the thirtieth day of the twelfth month when birth and death arrive, you will not be able to use a single bit of it. There is yet another kind: as soon as they hear a good friend speak of such a matter, they again use their mental consciousness to calculate and conjecture, saying: 'If it is like this, won't one fall into emptiness?' Five pairs out of ten among scholar-officials hold this kind of view. Miaoxi has no choice but to say to them: 'You have not yet attained emptiness; what fear is there?' It is like jumping into the water before the boat has even capsized. Seeing that they do not comprehend, not sparing karmic consequences of speech, I again tie up creepers for them, saying: 'This very one who fears falling into emptiness—can it be empty or not? If your eyes were not empty, with what would you observe forms? If your ears were not empty, with what would you hear sounds? If your nose were not empty, with what would you know fragrances and stenches? If your tongue were not empty, with what would you taste flavors? If your body were not empty, with what would you sense touch? If your intellect were not empty, with what would you differentiate the myriad dharmas? Did the Buddha not say: "There are no eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or intellect; no forms, sounds, fragrances, tastes, touchables, or dharmas; up to the twelve sense bases, eighteen realms, twenty-five states of existence; up to voice-hearers, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas, and buddhas, as well as the Dharma spoken by the buddhas, bodhi, nirvāṇa, True Suchness, and buddha-nature, along with those who preach this Dharma, those who hear this Dharma, those who make such statements, and those who receive such statements—all are entirely nonexistent." Having attained such a state, do you call it empty? Do you call it not empty? Do you call it buddha? Do you call it bodhisattva? Do you call it voice-hearer? Do you call it pratyekabuddha? Do you call it bodhi and nirvāṇa? Do you call it True Suchness and buddha-nature?' You say you are clever, sharp, and not to be deceived by others; try making a determination right here! If you can make the determination, your lodging in a grass hut is still outside the gate; if you cannot make the determination, take absolute care not to open your big mouth and speak excessive words. If a great fellow decisively wishes to thoroughly investigate this great matter of the single cause, he must thoroughly shatter his face and show fierce resolve, erect his spine, and not follow human sentiment. Stick the doubts you have harbored throughout your life right onto your forehead, at all times just as if you owed someone tens of thousands of strings of cash, pursued by collectors without anything to repay them, dreading being shamed by others. Without getting agitated, be agitated; without being rushed, be rushed; without being great, be great—only with such a matter will you have a chance at heading in the right direction. If you say, 'As for worldly writings, up to the Nine Classics, the Seventeen Histories, the various philosophers, and the hundred schools of thought, the rise and fall, order and chaos of ancient and modern times—there is nothing I do not know, nothing I do not understand; only Chan is the one thing that I also want to know and also want to understand,' yet you lack the eye to distinguish the heterodox from the orthodox, and suddenly run into a fabricated Chan monk and are bewitched by his fox-like charms, like passing passwords around in a three-family hamlet through ear-to-mouth transmission—this is called excessive-talk Chan, and is also called mouth-drum Chan. Taking the ancients' dregs, they mutually seal and authenticate each other; one sentence comes and one sentence goes, and when I finally get one more sentence, I call it having won at Chan. They are utterly unwilling to step back and keep the matter of birth and death in mind; unwilling to doubt themselves, they love doubting others. As soon as they hear of a scholar-official wishing to attend to this matter, they first give rise to boundless doubts, saying, 'He wants to be a fine official and has a fondness for sights and sounds; how could he manage such a matter?' People like this are everywhere. Not a single person truly treats it as an unsettled matter, working diligently day and night, during tea and during meals, when joyful and when angry, in pure places and in foul places, where wife and children gather, when entertaining guests, when managing official duties for the public, when arranging marriages in private family affairs—all of these are prime times for applying effort, bringing it up, and calling it to mind. Formerly, Military Commissioner Li Wenhe, amid wealth and nobility, investigated Chan and attained great, thorough awakening. When Yang Wengong investigated Chan, his body resided in the Hanlin Academy. When Zhang Wujin investigated Chan, he served as the Jiangxi Fiscal Commissioner. These three elders are examples of not destroying worldly characteristics while speaking of true reality. When did they ever need to abandon their wives and children, resign from office, chew on vegetable roots, afflict their bodies, weaken their resolve, avoid noise, and seek quiet, and only then enter the ghost caves of withered Chan to produce delusions before attaining awakening to the Way? Have you not seen what Layman Pang said: 'Just be without mind toward the myriad things yourself; / What harm is there in the myriad things constantly surrounding you? / The iron ox does not fear the lion's roar; / It is just like a wooden man seeing flowers and birds. / By its original nature the wooden man is naturally devoid of emotion; / When flowers and birds encounter humans, they too are not startled. / Mind and objects in suchness—it is only this; / Why worry that the path of bodhi will not be accomplished?' Amid worldly afflictions, if one can refrain from forgetting the matter of birth and death, although one may not immediately shatter the lacquer bucket, one nevertheless plants the deep seeds of the wisdom of prajñā. When one appears in another lifetime, it will also save mental effort, and one will not end up falling into the evil destinies—far superior to wallowing in afflictions without seeking liberation. Saying that this matter cannot be accomplished easily, they take it as a place of refuge, faith, and respect; those with views like this are beyond count. Scholar-officials studying the Way are greatly different from our sons of the home-leaving life. For those who have left home, parents do not provide delicacies, and the six relatives are already abandoned; with a single bowl and a single bottle responding to conditions in daily life, they do not have so many obstacle-causing foes to the Way, and only investigate this matter single-mindedly. For scholar-officials, wherever they open or close their eyes, there is nothing that is not an obstacle-causing ghost to the Way. If one is a person of wisdom, one simply makes effort right within them. As the *Vimalakīrti* says, 'The crowd of afflictions is the lineage of the Tathāgata.' Fearing that people might destroy worldly characteristics while seeking true reality, it also speaks a metaphor, saying: 'Just as lotus flowers do not grow on high plateaus and dry land, but grow in low, wet, muddy silt.' If within this, like the three elders Yang Wengong, Li Wenhe, and Zhang Wujin, one can break through, the strength exceeds that of our sons of the home-leaving life by twenty times. Why? We who have left home break in from the outside; scholar-officials break out from the inside. Breaking in from the outside has weak strength; breaking out from the inside has great strength. 'Great' means that what is gone against is heavy, so the pivot is powerful; 'weak' means that what is gone against is light, so the pivot has less power. Although there is strength and weakness in the power, what is gone against is the same. My friend of the Way outside the realm, Xu Dunji, is an old friend of Miaoxi from thirty years ago in Yimen. As soon as we met, we engaged with each other over this Way. Together with your younger brother Dunli, you frequently came to the late master Yuanwu to stimulate this matter, determined to have an outcome for this one move on the thirtieth day of the twelfth month when the four elements scatter, unlike others who only wish to supply material for conversation. In the early Shaoxing era when I resided at Jingshan, because of carrying my alms bowl to Wumen, I was able to meet you once again; after another twenty years, we have met again in Ezhou. For this reason, you requested instruction with this scroll. Freely following my brush, I have written up to this point, unaware of what was said before; now the scroll has come to an end. Among thousands and tens of thousands of explanations, spoken directly or spoken crookedly, it is simply because the root of Xu Dunji's doubts about birth and death has not yet been pulled up. I only bid you look at a huatou right where it has not been pulled up: A monk asked Zhaozhou, 'Does a dog have buddha-nature or not?' Zhou said, 'No (wu).' Walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, just bring it up at all times. Suddenly, popping like a sneeze, it will erupt, and only then will you know that the nostrils born of father and mother are right on your face. Strive on! Strive on!

21.6

Instruction to Professor Bao (Mengfu)

21.7

The appearance of the buddhas in the world and the coming of the Patriarch from the West merely responded to the appropriate times according to the capacities of sentient beings. Speaking according to reality, there is nothing taught and nothing revealed, nothing heard and nothing attained. Thus Yantou had a saying: 'If one binds people with real dharmas, not only could you not digest others' faithful offerings, you could not even digest dirt.' Viewed from this, the buddhas and patriarchs also merely serve as verifying hosts. Have you not seen Śāriputra asking Mañjuśrī: 'Do the buddhas, the Tathāgatas, not awaken to the dharmadhātu?' Mañjuśrī replied: 'Even the buddhas are unobtainable; how could there be a buddha who awakens to the dharmadhātu? Even the dharmadhātu is unobtainable; how could the dharmadhātu be awakened to by the buddhas?' If it is like this, then one also does not see that there is a teacher, nor does one see that there is a disciple; one does not see that there is an expounder of Dharma, nor does one see that there is a hearer of Dharma; one does not see that there is one who speaks such meaning, nor does one see that there is one who receives such meaning. There is also no Mañjuśrī, no Śāriputra, no buddhas, no patriarchs, no dharmadhātu awakened to by the buddhas, and no buddhas who awaken to the dharmadhātu. There has also never been a Layman Bao, this scroll also has no origin, and Miaoxi has also never wielded the brush and laid down ink. Since none of it has ever existed, where are this present chattering and fussing, this whole string of foul-mouthed words, to be placed? Bah! If there is a place to settle them, then there is. Layman Bao should simply observe like this. One who makes this contemplation is called having right contemplation; one who makes other contemplations is called having heterodox contemplation. If you still produce views of heterodox and right, you cannot blame Miaoxi.

21.8

Instruction to Layman Miaojing (Surveillance Commissioner Zhao Shireng)

21.9

Since you already know of this matter of the great cause and that it is definitely not obtained from another person, it is best to suddenly cast off external dust and at all times investigate beneath your own heels. Investigating back and forth, internally you do not see a mind capable of investigating, and externally you do not see an object that is investigated: cleanly stripped and starkly exposed, with nothing to take hold of. It is like setting a gourd upon the water: untouched by anyone, it constantly drifts freely—it cannot be tethered, it cannot be snagged; prodded, it moves at once; touched, it turns at once. Being free like this, swift like this, spiritually miraculous like this, it does not share the same path with the thousand sages, nor does it borrow from patch-robed monks; directly able to command the buddhas and patriarchs, the buddhas and patriarchs cannot command it. When someone knows such a matter, they should rouse their spirits and quickly take a step forward from the top of the hundred-foot pole. If you can take this step, you will be no different from the youth Sudhana, who within a single pore-realm of Samantabhadra, in taking a single step, traversed worlds as numerous as the dust motes of inexpressibly inexpressible buddha-realms. Walking in this way, even exhausting all future kalpas, one still cannot know the succession of the ocean of realms within a single pore, the treasury of the ocean of realms, the distinctions of the ocean of realms, the universal entry of the ocean of realms, the formation of the ocean of realms, the destruction of the ocean of realms, and all the limits of the adornments of the ocean of realms. Such a realm as this is also not obtained by raising the mind, applying the intellect, and practicing to verify from the outside; it is simply the principle fundamentally complete beneath one's own heels. Have you not seen that Reverend Deshan said: "If you simply have no affairs in the mind and no mind in affairs," then you will be vacuous yet miraculous, empty yet wondrous. If you speak of roots and branches to the extent of a hair's tip, all of it is self-deception. Why so? A hairsbreadth of clinging thought is the karmic cause for the three evil destinies; a flash of emotional attachment becomes the shackles of ten thousand kalpas. Holy titles and mundane names are all empty sounds; extraordinary marks and inferior forms are all illusory shapes. If you wish to seek them, how could you be free of entanglement? And when it comes to being averse to them, that again becomes a great affliction. Speaking in such a manner is striking a stone person's head with a staff—clanging soundly, discussing real affairs! What was said earlier—internally not seeing a mind capable of investigating and externally not seeing an object investigated—is precisely this principle. If you look into this principle on the basis of affairs, it is quick; if you deliberate and speculate from beneath the intellect, you will drift further and further away. Therefore, old Śākya in the Lotus assembly only delivered an eight-year-old girl; in the Avataṃsaka assembly, he only delivered a boy; in the Nirvāṇa assembly, he only delivered a butcher. Look at the ways these three became buddhas: did they ever seek verification externally or study with arduous practice? The Buddha merely said: "I now preserve this matter for you; it will never be in vain." He only spoke of preserving it for them, and never said that there is a Dharma to be transmitted, making you chase outside and only then become a buddha. Fortunately having such an archetype, why do you not believe? If you can directly have complete faith, neither chasing externally nor seeking verification within the mind, then during the twelve periods of the day you will be liberated everywhere. Why so? Since you do not chase externally, the mind within is calm and quiet; since you do not seek verification within the mind, external objects are tranquil and serene. Therefore an ancestral master said: "External conditions have neither good nor ugly; good and ugly arise from the mind. If the mind does not force names, from where could delusional sentiment arise? When delusional sentiment no longer arises, the true mind is free to know everywhere." You should know that the inner mind and external objects are just one matter; under no circumstances view them as two kinds of things. Remember that Guishan asked Yangshan: "The wondrous, pure, bright mind—how do you understand it?" Yangshan said: "Mountains, rivers, and the great earth; the sun, moon, stars, and constellations." Guishan said: "You only attain its phenomena." Yangshan said: "What did the Venerable Monk ask just now?" Guishan said: "The wondrous, pure, bright mind." Yangshan said: "Can it be called phenomena?" Guishan said: "So it is, so it is." Surveillance Commissioner Shizhong, born into an illustrious and noble family, has not been imprisoned by wealth and rank; having planted roots of virtue long ago, you naturally know that there is this inconceivable matter, which can serve as a boat and raft, as support and reliance, at the edge of the shore of birth and death. Therefore, you frequently take a step back and are willing to investigate beneath your heels. Hence I have established the style name Layman Miaojing for you. Shizhong, exert yourself! In walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, in moments of haste and upheaval, do not forget the meaning of the wondrous, pure, bright mind. When stray thoughts arise, there is no need to forcefully dispel them; simply bring up the monk asking Zhaozhou: "Does a dog have buddha-nature or not?" and Zhou saying: "No." Bringing it up back and forth, even the one who brings up the words is not seen to exist. Even this knowing that does not see anything as existing is also not seen to exist. Thereafter, these words too have nowhere to be received. Suddenly, in the place of having nowhere to be received, you will unwittingly burst into loud laughter; at that very instant, it is the place of returning home and sitting securely. Many words and much talk, on the contrary, only dull and impede you; let us cut off the vines.

21.10

Instruction to Policy Advisor Lü (Shunyuan)

21.11

Even if this person understands the principle that worldly conditioned things are false and untrue, when they confront objects and encounter conditions, suddenly coming upon them face to face, if they do not follow along with them, their nostrils are definitely pierced by them. This is because from time without beginning, the familiar has become too familiar, and the unfamiliar has become too unfamiliar. Although one may temporarily see through them, in the end the power of the Way cannot overcome the power of karma. And which is the familiar place of karma's power? Which is the unfamiliar place of the Way's power? Yet the power of the Way and the power of karma inherently have no fixed measure; one need only observe where they are actively manifested in daily application: there is only whether one is deluded or not deluded. If one is deluded regarding the power of the Way, one is overcome by the power of karma; when the power of karma overcomes, wherever one turns becomes an obstruction; when wherever one turns becomes an obstruction, one is tainted and attached at every turn; when one is tainted and attached at every turn, one takes suffering as joy. Thus old Śākya said to Pūrṇamaitrāyaṇīputra: "You let form and emptiness vie with and dispossess each other in the tathāgatagarbha, and the tathāgatagarbha accordingly manifests as form and emptiness, pervading the dharmadhātu." Therefore, within it, the wind stirs, space clears, the sun shines, and clouds darken; sentient beings are confused and stifled, turning their backs on enlightenment to unite with worldly dust, so that defiling afflictions arise and worldly appearances exist. This is being deluded about the power of the Way and overcome by the power of karma. Old Śākya also said: "Through the wondrous clarity of non-extinction and non-arising, I unite with the tathāgatagarbha, and the tathāgatagarbha solely with wondrous enlightened clarity completely illuminates the dharmadhātu." Therefore, within it, the one becomes the immeasurable, the immeasurable becomes the one; the great appears within the small, the small appears within the great; without moving from the place of enlightenment, one pervades the realms of the ten directions; the body encompasses the infinite space of the ten directions; on the tip of a single hair, one manifests the lands of the precious kings; sitting within a speck of dust, one turns the great wheel of the Dharma. This is where it actively manifests: not being deluded about the power of the Way and overcoming the power of karma. Yet both of these return to falsehood. If one renounces the power of karma and clings to the power of the Way, then I say this person does not understand the expedients of the buddhas in teaching according to suitability. Why so? Have you not seen old Śākya say: "If one grasps the characteristic of Dharma, one clings to a self, a person, a sentient being, and a life span; if one grasps the characteristic of non-Dharma, one clings to a self, a person, a sentient being, and a life span"? Therefore, one should neither grasp Dharma nor grasp non-Dharma; this is what was said earlier about the power of the Way and the power of karma inherently having no fixed measure. If one is a resolute man of wisdom, one borrows the power of the Way as an instrument and weapon to clear away the power of karma. Once the power of karma is cleared away, the Way is also false. Thus it is said: "Merely with provisional names does one guide sentient beings; before one sees through it, it is a thousandfold difficult, ten-thousandfold difficult; once one has seen through it, what difficulty or ease can there be?" Layman Pang said: / "Ordinary beings' wisdom is narrow, / Falsely speaking of difficult and easy. / Leaving behind marks is like empty space, / Wholly tallying with the wisdom of all buddhas. / The marks of the precepts are also like space; / Deluded people keep them by their own contrivance. / If the root of the disease is not plucked out, / One is merely playing with flowering branches." / Do you wish to know the root of the disease? It is not another thing: it is merely the one who clings to difficulty and clings to ease, falsely giving rise to taking and discarding. If this root of the disease is not thoroughly uprooted, in floating and sinking in the sea of birth and death, there will simply never be a time of emergence. Long ago, when the Scholar Zhang Zhuo had the source of the disease pointed out by an elder venerable, he was able to say: / "Cutting off afflictions only adds to the illness; / Tending toward True Suchness is also an error. / Following worldly conditions without hindrance, / Nirvāṇa and birth-and-death are flowers in the sky." / If you wish to be direct and without doubt regarding the buddhas and patriarchs, and without doubt regarding life and death, simply keep your mind constantly open and vast; when matters come, dispose of them according to the occasion, like the stillness of water, like the clarity of a mirror. When good and bad, beautiful and ugly arrive, not the slightest bit can escape; know with certainty that the natural realm of no-mind is inconceivable. In recent times within the monastic groves there is a type of heterodox Chan that clings to the disease as medicine. Having never personally had an awakening, they take awakening to be a mere contrivance, take awakening to be introductory words, take awakening to be falling into the secondary level, and take awakening to be a matter of branches and leaves. Since they have never personally had a place of awakening, neither do they believe that others have awakened. Invariably taking empty quietude and dull insensibility, they call it the matter beyond the King of Majestic Voice and before the empty kalpa. Daily they gorge on two meals, not attending to a single thing, purely sitting with pouted lips, calling it "letting go and resting." As soon as language is involved, they call it "falling into the present day," and also call it "a matter of descendants"; taking this ghost cave under the black mountain as the ultimate standard, they also say "the grandfather has never left the house." Taking their own foolishness, they in turn fool others. This is what old Śākya called: "Like a man who stops his own ears and shouts loudly, seeking for others not to hear; such people are called pitiable." There is a type of scholar-official who, having once had this kind of miscellaneous poison enter their minds, even if they meet a true good spiritual friend who speaks to them of their original lot, will on the contrary take it to be wrong. Such people are just like what the world calls "ghosts of tiger victims": not only have their own lives been ruined by it, they in turn serve it, entirely without awareness. Unless you have past vows, constantly keep these two matters—not knowing where you came from in birth, and not knowing where you will go in death—pasted onto the tip of your nostrils. In your tea and in your rice, in quiet places and in noisy places, thought after thought, earnestly and constantly as though owing someone a debt of hundreds of thousands of strings of cash with no source from which to pay it back; your heart distressed and vexed with no door of escape, unable to live and unable to die. When it is just so, the road of good and evil will be cut off one after another. When you feel it to be like this, it is just the time to apply effort: right here, investigate this huatou: a monk asked Zhaozhou, "Does a dog have buddha-nature or not?" Zhou said, "No." When investigating, do not figure it out; do not make commentaries; do not demand clear understanding; do not take it up where the mouth opens; do not make reasonings where it is raised; do not fall into empty quietude; do not wait with your mind for awakening; do not comprehend it where the lineage masters speak of it; do not drop it into the armor of nothing-to-do. Merely in walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, constantly bring it to attention: "Does a dog have buddha-nature or not?" "No." When you bring it to attention until it is familiar, when speech and thought cannot reach it, and inside your chest it is tossed up and down, as when gnawing on an unyielding iron spike without any flavor—do not retreat in your resolve. When you reach such a time, it is in fact a good sign. Have you not seen what an ancient worthy said: "The Buddha spoke all dharmas to save all minds; I have no mind at all, of what use are any dharmas?" Not only is it thus in the Patriarch's gate, but the entire treasury of teachings spoken by the Buddha is all this principle. Sentient beings' evil karmic obstructions are heavy: day after day as soon as they get out of bed, their minds fly wildly, thinking of fame and profit, burdened by self and other, deluded and inverted; from morning to night, like links in a chain continuing unbroken, they do not loathe it at all. Yet when a single thought arises and they apply their thoughts to ponder within this gate, they immediately want me to understand; and when the mental consciousness cannot arrange it, they immediately give rise to vexation and soon wish to give up, with talk of "what was the point of this?" Those like this cannot be numbered. Fellow practitioner Shunyuan is not like that: having known that all kinds of things in the deficient realm are false, with one heart and one mind he investigates under his own feet: Where did birth come from? Where will death go? Since one does not know where one comes from, nor where one goes, what is this that is presently clearly and uniquely luminous, distinguishing right from wrong and discerning good from ugly with people—is it definitely existent or nonexistent? Is it real or false? Wait directly until, like a person drinking water knowing for oneself whether it is cold or warm, not receiving verdicts from the mouths of others, suddenly with a pop it erupts, and you reach the place of ultimate peace and happiness, of great rest and great cessation; only then do you approve yourself. You came with this scroll to request instruction; picking up the brush and casually brandishing it, it has turned into a tangled vine. However, events do not arise in isolation; when they arise, there must be a cause. Yet if you consistently understand it as a tangled vine, how could that be right? Have you not seen what Master Zihu said long ago: "The Patriarch's coming from the West was only this: winter is cold, summer is hot; night is dark, day is bright. It is only because you disciples set up intentions where there are no intentions, create matters where there are no matters, forcibly make an inner and outer where there is no inner or outer, and randomly speak of east and west where there is no east or west, that śamatha cannot be made clear, so that sense faculties and sense objects cannot be free." Evaluating according to this, Shunyuan has never come to Miaoxi's place to seek dharma words, and Miaoxi originally never wrote a single word: winter is cold, summer is hot; night is dark, day is bright; inner, outer, middle, east, west, south, north have never shifted, increased, or decreased by the slightest bit. Why is this? Our school has no phrases, nor is there a single dharma to give to anyone. Since there is not a single dharma to give to anyone, just what is that which is written right now? What is this that speaks of winter being cold and summer hot, of inner, outer, and middle? What is this where east, west, south, and north have not shifted by the slightest bit? (Heh!) The existent is unattainable, the nonexistent is unattainable, winter's cold and summer's heat are unattainable, the inner, outer, and middle are unattainable, the one who speaks thus is also unattainable, the one who receives such speech is also unattainable, the slightest bit is also unattainable, Shunyuan is also unattainable, Miaoxi is also unattainable, the unattainable is also unattainable, and within the unattainable, it is just attained. Shunyuan, having arrived here, how should you participate? Even this "how should you participate" has no footing, and then even these words are not accepted. Since these words are not accepted, Miaoxi definitely has no speech, and Shunyuan definitely has no hearing; the place of no speech is true speech, and the place of no hearing is true hearing. In this way, Miaoxi is Shunyuan, and Shunyuan is Miaoxi, because Miaoxi and Shunyuan are non-dual, without duality, without distinction, and without break. / The Great Statue of Jiazhou eats Chinese goldthread; / The iron ox of Shan Prefecture has a mouth full of bitterness. / Bitter or not bitter? / Clearly seen, yet nothing to behold! / (Heh!)

21.12

Dharma Words of Chan Master Dahui Pujue, Fascicle Twenty-One

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大慧普覺禪師語錄 — Classical Chinese