大慧普覺禪師語錄 22.11

22.11

The Buddha said: 'If anyone wishes to know the realm of the Buddha, he should purify his mind to be like empty space, leaving far behind delusive thoughts and all grasping, making the direction of his mind entirely unobstructed.' The realm of the Buddha is precisely the immediate perception of one's own mind, the unchanging, immovable essence. The single word 'Buddha' also has no place to alight upon the essence of one's own mind; this word is merely borrowed to awaken to it. How is this known? 'Buddha' has the meaning of awakening. Because from beginningless time sentient beings do not believe that their own mind's immediate perception is originally complete in itself, and instead follow after adventitious defilements, wandering through the three realms and suffering various pains, when the marks of suffering appear, the essence of their own mind's immediate perception drifts along with suffering. Therefore, all buddhas, pitying sentient beings' drifting, borrow the word 'Buddha' to awaken them. Once awakened, the single word 'Buddha' also has no use. The Buddha is medicine for sentient beings; once the sentient beings' disease is removed, the Buddha-medicine is of no use. Whenever looking at scriptural teachings and the causal conditions of the ancient worthies, one should learn in this manner.