大慧普覺禪師語錄 23.13

23.13

If you wish to transcend birth and death and cross the ocean of suffering, you should set up the banner of vigor and arrive directly at faith. Just this place where you arrive at faith is itself the news of transcending birth and death and crossing the ocean of suffering. Therefore the old fellow Śākya said: 'Faith is the source of the Way and mother of merits, nurturing all good dharmas.' He also said: 'Faith can distance one from the suffering of birth and death; faith can surely bring one to the Tathāgata-ground.' Do you wish to know the Tathāgata-ground? It is also just this person who has arrived at faith. Having arrived at faith, there is no need to give rise to thoughts and move the mind seeking to escape birth and death; just do not let it go from thought to thought through the twelve periods of the day, determined to get a hold of it—only then will you be a valiant person. If you are half-believing and half-doubting, it will not be continuous. This matter does not depend on male or female, noble or base, great or small; it is equally one and the same. Why is this? In the Lotus Assembly, the World-Honoured One delivered only a single female to attain buddhahood; and in the Nirvāṇa Assembly, he also delivered only a single broad-browed butcher to attain buddhahood. You should know that these two persons attaining buddhahood also had no other special effort; they also only directly reached faith without any second thought, and straightway cut off the heads of the retribution and transformation buddhas, directly transcending birth and death; there was no other principle. Although the Daoist Miaoyuan is of the female gender, her resolve is not below that of the woman who attained buddhahood; she can also know of this extraordinary cause and condition, and is determined to make it the cause for escaping birth and death, which is why she requested instruction with this paper. Picking up the brush and wiping away sweat, I wrote this to instruct her, and furthermore had her examine a huatou: A monk asked Mazu, 'What is the Buddha?' The Patriarch said, 'Mind itself is the Buddha.' Let the Daoist Miaoyuan just observe it like this in her daily life. Best wishes!