大慧普覺禪師語錄 23.5

23.5

Gentlemen of the literati often use a mind of attainment to seek the dharma of non-attainment. What is meant by a mind of attainment? It is cleverness, sharpness, thinking, and reckoning. What is meant by the dharma of non-attainment? It is where thinking cannot go, reckoning cannot reach, and cleverness and sharpness have nowhere to settle. Have you not seen: in the assembly of the Lotus Sūtra, when Śāriputra earnestly made three requests of old Śākyamuni, [the Buddha] had nowhere to open his mouth, and only then with all his might could say, "This dharma cannot be understood by thought or discrimination"? This was old Śākyamuni's first breakthrough into this matter, the rudimentary beginning of opening the gate of expedients to reveal the true aspect. Formerly, Chan Master Xuefeng Zhenjue was so urgent for this matter that he went three times to Touzi and climbed up Dongshan nine times, but his conditions did not mesh. Later, hearing of Deshan, Master Zhou of the Vajra[-prajñāpāramitā], transforming beings, he went straight to his room. One day he asked Deshan, "With what dharma have the ancestral masters from of old demonstrated this to people?" Deshan said, "Our school has no words, nor is there a single dharma to give to people." Later he asked again, "In the matter of the ancestral vehicle from of old, does this student still have a share?" Deshan raised his staff and struck him, saying, "What are you saying?" Under the blow, Xuefeng finally smashed the lacquer bucket. Viewed in this light, thinking, reckoning, cleverness, and sharpness are of no use whatsoever in this gate. An ancient worthy said: "Prajñā is like a great mass of fire; approach it, and it scorches your face. The moment you hesitate and search in thought, you fall into the conscious mind." Yongjia said: "Damaging the wealth of the Dharma and destroying merit—none of it does not stem from this mind, intellect, and consciousness." Thus we know that the mind, intellect, and consciousness not only obstruct the Way, but also throw people into confusion and cause them to commit all kinds of unwholesome deeds. Since you have the mind to fathom this Way to the end, you must have determined resolve; until you reach the place of the great rest, the great cessation, and the great liberation, vow that to the end of this life you will not regress or fall. The Buddha-dharma does not consist of much, but long-lasting perseverance is hard to come by. Affairs within the defilements of the human world are endless and inexhaustible: set aside one layer, and yet another layer comes, continuous and unbroken like interlocking rings and links of a chain. Those of inferior resolve often willingly make themselves their companions, pulled along by them without realizing or knowing it. Only if a person has the power of past vows will they be willing to step back and contemplate. Yongjia also said: "The true nature of ignorance is itself the buddha-nature; the illusory and empty body is itself the dharmakāya. When the dharmakāya is awakened to, there is not a single thing; the original source, one's self-nature, is the naturally genuine Buddha." If you contemplate like this, and suddenly, in a place beyond the reach of thought, see the dharmakāya that has not a single thing, that is where one steps out of birth and death. As was said earlier, the dharma of non-attainment cannot be sought with a mind of attainment—this is precisely the principle. The literati spend their whole lives making a living in thinking and reckoning. The moment they hear a good friend in the Dharma speak of the dharma of non-attainment, doubt arises in their minds, and they fear falling into emptiness. Whenever Miaoxi sees such people talking like this, he asks them: "This one who fears falling into emptiness—is it empty or not?" In ten cases out of ten, they cannot explain it away. Because they usually take thinking and conjecturing as their lair, when they suddenly hear talk where thinking cannot be applied, they are at a loss, having nowhere to lay hold of a handle. Little do they know that this very place where no handle can be found is precisely the time to lay down one's body and life. When I met with you, fellow cultivator Dunli, in Yimen during the Jingkang era, you were in the prime of life and already knew that there is this great matter by which one can transcend birth and death. Together with your elder brother Dunji, you frequently came to question my late teacher Yuanwu. But in your youth, body and mind could not yet be unified to focus solely on comprehending this matter. Since we parted, over thirty years have suddenly passed. In the autumn of the jimao year of Shaoxing, as I was going to Ayuwang and passing through Yuetang, Dunli had just taken charge of the censorial regulations, and we were finally able to meet again. Grasping hands and conversing deeply, in our sitting we spoke only of this one matter as still unfinished, touching not at all on worldly defilements. Were it not that through hundreds of kalpas and thousands of lives you had served true good friends in the Dharma and planted the seeds of prajñā in the storehouse consciousness, you could not hold firm like this, be your own master, have such genuine faith, and not regress from your initial resolve—truly a lotus in the fire! Yet because you have widely read all the books, penetrated too deeply into the Nine Classics and the Seventeen Histories, have an excess of cleverness, too many intellectual tracks, and too little samādhi power, you are dragged away by day-to-day encounters. Therefore, beneath your feet, you have not been able to snap it cleanly and break it off completely. If right mindfulness is present at all times and the mind that fears birth and death does not change, then as the days and months soak in, what is raw will naturally become cooked, and what is cooked will naturally become raw. And what is the cooked place? It is cleverness, sharpness, thinking, and reckoning. What is the raw place? It is bodhi, nirvāṇa, suchness, and buddha-nature—severed from thinking and discrimination, unreachable by estimation and conjecture, where there is no place for you to apply your mind and arrange things. Suddenly, when the time comes, whether upon an ancient's occasion for entering the Way, or while reading the scriptures and teachings, or in day-to-day encounters—whether wholesome or unwholesome, whether body and mind are scattered, whether adverse or favorable circumstances appear before you, or when you temporarily attain tranquility of the mind, intellect, and consciousness—you suddenly overturn the mechanism; this is no mistaken affair.