大慧普覺禪師語錄 22.9

22.9

Where all the buddhas and patriarchs from of old have truly acted on behalf of others, they first instructed them to establish a determined resolve. What is called a determined resolve means being determined to have the mind-ground opened up in this very life, directly reaching the unobstructed realm of great rest and great liberation of all buddhas and patriarchs. Without a determined resolve, there is no resolute faith. Did the Buddha not say: 'Faith is the source of the Way and the mother of merit, nurturing all wholesome dharmas'? He also said: 'Faith can increase the merit of wisdom; faith can surely lead to the Tathāgata-ground.' The Tathāgata-ground is precisely the realm of great rest and great liberation. In former times, when a monk asked Chan Master Guizong Shiyan, 'What is the Buddha?', Guizong said, 'If I tell you, will you believe?' The monk said, 'The Venerable's sincere words—how dare I not believe?' Guizong said, 'It is just you yourself.' Hearing Guizong's words, the monk reflected and examined them carefully, and after a long pause said, 'If it is just I myself who am Buddha, then how should I preserve and maintain it?' Guizong said, 'When a single cataract is in the eye, flowers in the sky fall in confusion.' Upon these words, that monk suddenly had a breakthrough and awakened. This monk initially lacked resolute faith; upon hearing Guizong's words of direct pointing, he still harboured doubts and sought preservation and maintenance before he could trust himself. Guizong's grandmotherly heart was earnest: right where the monk was contrary and clinging, he wielded the vajra-king precious sword and struck straight across his face; only then, while standing on one foot atop a ten-thousand-fathom cliff, did that monk, struck by Guizong, become willing to let go of his body and relinquish his life. Furthermore, Master Luoshan Fabao once posed a question to Shishuang Puhui: 'What about when arising and ceasing do not stop?' Shishuang said, 'You must simply be cold ashes and withered wood; you must let a single thought span ten thousand years; you must let box and lid fit together; you must be completely pure without a speck.' Luoshan did not accord with this, and taking these words, he questioned Yantou. Before the sound of his question had ended, Yantou shook with majestic power, gave a shout, and said, 'Who is it that arises and ceases?' Upon these words, Luoshan was greatly enlightened. Furthermore, the teachings state that when a bodhisattva practices, advancing from the first ground into the eighth, the Immovable Ground, he is an advanced practitioner, hard to comprehend, without differentiation. Free from all marks, all thoughts, and all attachments, he is beyond what all the immeasurable and boundless śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas can reach. Free from all disputes, quiescence becomes manifest before him, up to entering the samādhi of cessation, where all movements of mind, recollections, and conceptual discriminations completely cease. This means that from the first ground up to the eighth, the Immovable Ground, a bodhisattva relinquishes all purposeful practice and attains the unconditioned dharma; bodily, vocal, and mental actions and all thought-tasks completely cease, meaning that a second thought does not arise. Fearing that people would not understand, the text further draws an analogy: 'Suppose a person in a dream sees his own body falling into a great river. In order to cross over, he summons great courage and applies great expedients. Because of summoning great courage and applying expedients, he immediately awakens. Once awakened, all his strivings cease.' The bodhisattva is also like this: seeing that sentient beings are amidst the four floods, in order to rescue and cross them over, he summons great courage and gives rise to great vigor. Through courageous vigor, he reaches the Immovable Ground; having arrived here, all purposeful effort ceases without exception. Just as when born into the Brahmā world, the afflictions of the desire realm do not appear, so too when abiding in the Immovable Ground, all activities of mind, intellect, and consciousness do not appear. For an eighth-ground bodhisattva, even the buddha-mind, bodhisattva-mind, bodhi-mind, and nirvāṇa-mind do not arise and appear, so how much less could worldly thoughts arise? When the worldly mind is extinguished, the quiescent mind becomes manifest before him; when the quiescent mind becomes manifest, the dharma gates taught by buddhas as numerous as grains of sand instantly appear before him. Once the dharma gates appear before him, this is the true realm of quiescence. Only upon reaching this realm can one arouse loving-kindness, exercise compassion, and perform all kinds of beneficial deeds. This also comes from a determined resolve, accomplished by relying on resolute faith. If one lacks a determined resolve, one cannot deeply enter the Tathāgata's great sea of quiescence. Without resolute faith, one cannot freely move within the words and phrases of the ancients or the texts of the doctrinal vehicles. For example, when the Sixth Patriarch explained the meaning of permanence and impermanence for Chan Master Zhiche of Jiangxi, Che asked the Patriarch: 'Your disciple has read the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, but has not understood the meaning of permanence and impermanence. I beg the Master in his compassion to explain it briefly.' The Patriarch said: 'That which is impermanent is the buddha-nature; that which is permanent is the mind that discriminates all dharmas, good and bad.' Che said: 'What the Venerable says greatly contradicts the text of the sūtra.' The Patriarch said: 'I transmit the Buddha's mind-seal; how could I dare contradict the Buddha's sūtras?' Che said: 'The sūtra says that the buddha-nature is permanent, but the Venerable says it is impermanent; all dharmas, good and bad, up to the bodhi-mind, are impermanent, yet the Venerable says they are permanent. This contradicts it, causing the student to become all the more doubtful.' The Patriarch said: 'Regarding the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, formerly I heard the nun Wujinzang recite it through once, and I immediately explained it for her, without a single word or meaning failing to accord with the text of the sūtra; even in explaining it for you, there is ultimately no divergence.' Che said: 'The student's capacity of understanding is shallow and benighted; I hope the Venerable will provide a detailed and condescending explanation.' The Patriarch said: 'Do you know? If the buddha-nature were permanent, what need would there be to speak of all dharmas, good and bad, and up to the end of kalpas not a single person would give rise to the bodhi-mind. Therefore, my saying it is impermanent is precisely the Path of true permanence spoken by the Buddha. Furthermore, if all dharmas were impermanent, then each thing would have its own self-nature, enduring birth and death, and the nature of true permanence would have places where it is not all-pervasive. Therefore, my saying it is permanent is precisely the meaning of true impermanence spoken by the Buddha. Formerly, because ordinary people and non-Buddhists clung to a false permanence, and the practitioners of the two vehicles conceptualized impermanence regarding the permanent, together forming the eight inversions, the Buddha, in the definitive teaching of the Mahāparinirvāṇa, refuted their biased views and manifestly expounded true permanence, true bliss, true self, and true purity. Now, following the words, you turn your back on the meaning, using nihilistic impermanence and fixed, dead permanence to misunderstand the Buddha's perfectly subtle final words. Even if you read it a thousand times, what benefit would there be?' This too was an instance where Chan Master Che, within his determined resolve, relied on resolute faith and elicited the Patriarch's definitive discourse. I also recall that An of the Śūraṅgama was reading the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, and coming to the passage 'Establishing knowledge upon seeing and knowing is the root of fundamental ignorance; seeing and knowing without seeing is nirvāṇa,' he unconsciously punctuated the reading, reciting: 'When seeing and knowing are established, knowing is the root of fundamental ignorance; when seeing and knowing are absent, seeing this is nirvāṇa.' He pondered for a long time and was suddenly greatly enlightened. Later, whenever he read this sūtra, he followed his enlightenment for the rest of his life, no longer adhering to the literal text of the sūtra. This also is an instance of being within a determined resolve, relying on resolute faith, and relying on the meaning rather than the words. Layman Miaozhi has a determined resolve and relies on resolute faith, working diligently and untiringly on this one great matter of causal conditions, taking thorough verification without doubt as his definitive meaning—he has only not yet had the single burst. Because he used this scroll to seek instruction, I have cited several entanglements—the Patriarch for Chan Master Zhiche, Yantou for Luoshan, and An of the Śūraṅgama's punctuating the reading of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra and awakening to the Way—simply to serve as a tally and deed for his bursting forth in the future.