大慧普覺禪師語錄 24

English (machine translation) 24

Language: English

24.1

Presented by his minister, the monk Yunwen, Abbot of Jingshan Nengren Chan Monastery, Dharma Heir, Chan Master Huiri of the Song

24.2

Instructions to Policy Advisor Cheng (Jigong)

The Buddha said: 'If anyone wishes to know the realm of the Buddha, they should purify their mind like empty space, leave far behind delusions and all graspings, and make wherever the mind turns completely unobstructed.' If you definitely have this resolution to study unsurpassed bodhi, constantly keep the square inch of your heart completely open and clear: do not attach to speech, do not fall into empty quiescence; with neither speech nor words, rely on neither extreme; with the two matters of good and evil, neither grasp nor abandon; throughout the twelve periods of the day, sit and cut off the mind of calculating and deliberating, yet do not abide in empty quiescence; let nothing out from within, let nothing in from outside—like clouds in the sky, like bubbles upon water, suddenly arising, abruptly vanishing. Turn around right here, cast yourself forward, and sweep across the great void. At such a time, one cannot arrange it, nor can one artificially embellish it. Why is this? The great Dharma is originally like this; it is not made by force. Have you not seen what old Shakyamuni said? 'Not taking up what sentient beings say, or all conditioned and false things, although not relying on the path of words, yet also not clinging to the absence of words.'

Nowadays, scholar-officials who study this Path have habitually been driven by cleverness and quick-wittedness; mostly they construct doctrines out of the words of the ancients, wanting to explain them with clarity. Little do they know that upon dry bones there is certainly no juice to be found. Even if some hear the admonitions and approvals of good spiritual friends, leave behind the characteristics of speech and words, they then sit in a place of no-words and no-speech, unmoved inside the ghosts' cave under the black mountain. If they wish wherever the mind turns to be unobstructed and unhindered, is it not difficult?

Since impermanence is swift and the matter of birth and death is great, if you are definitely determined to directly attain unsurpassed bodhi, write off all the various false and insubstantial matters of the world in one stroke! Then, toward the place where nothing can be grasped and nothing can be abandoned, quietly take a look and see: is it existent, or is it nonexistent? Go straight to the point where there is no place to apply your mind and no place to open your mouth, when within the square inch of your heart it is like a ball of hot iron—at that moment, do not let go! Right here, just look at this huatou: A monk asked Yunmen, 'If one kills father and kills mother, one repents before the Buddha; when one kills Buddha and kills Patriarch, where does one repent?' Yunmen said, 'Exposed (Lu).' If you have definite resolution, just look at this word 'Exposed.' Take the mind that calculates and discriminates the worldly dust of affairs and shift it onto the word 'Exposed.' Whether walking or sitting, raise and reflect on this word 'Exposed.' In your daily response to conditions—whether joy or anger, whether good or evil, in serving your elders, in social exchanges with friends, in reading the classics and histories of the sages—all are times to raise and reflect on it. Suddenly, without being aware, all news will be cut off on the word 'Exposed.' The teachings expounded by the sages of the Three Teachings need not be asked of others one by one: naturally on each and every thing they will be bright, and in each and every object they will be evident.

Did the Buddha not say: 'A bodhisattva-mahāsattva, with unimpeded and unobstructed wisdom, believes that all realms of the worldly are the realm of the Tathāgata'? An ancient worthy said: 'If you can enter the worldly, transcending the world leaves no residue.' It is just this principle! One only fears the absence of resolute faith and resolute aspiration. Without resolute faith, there is a mind of falling back; without resolute aspiration, one will not study through to the bottom. Now who has had resolute faith without a mind of falling back, and had resolute aspiration and studied through to the bottom? In the past, the second patriarch of Mount Niutou, Chan Master Zhiyan, was a native of Qu'e, surnamed Hua. In his youth, his wisdom and courage surpassed others; he stood seven feet six inches tall. During the Daye era of the Sui, he served as a court general. He always hung a water-filtration bag from his bow, drawing water for use wherever he went. Accompanying great generals on expeditions, he repeatedly achieved military distinctions. During the Wude era of the Tang, when he was just forty years of age, he begged to leave home, entering Mount Wangong in Shuzhou, and became a disciple under Chan Master Baoyue. Later, sitting in quietude one day, he saw an extraordinary monk over ten feet tall, with a refreshed and outstanding demeanor and clear, resonant speech, who said to Zhiyan: 'Sir, you have left home for eighty lifetimes; you should increase your vigor.' Having spoken, he disappeared. Once, while he was in samādhi in a ravine, the mountain waters suddenly swelled into a torrent; Zhiyan remained pleasantly unmoved, and the water receded of its own accord. A hunter passed by and, moved by this, repented and cultivated good. Furthermore, two former fellow soldiers, hearing that Zhiyan had gone into seclusion, went into the mountains together to seek him. Seeing him, they said to Zhiyan: 'General, are you mad? Why do you dwell here?' Zhiyan said: 'My madness is about to awaken; your madness is just breaking out. Craving sensual beauty, lusting after sounds, coveting glory, and risking all for favor, drifting through birth and death—how can you get out on your own?' The two were awakened, sighed, and departed. During the Zhenguan era, he returned to Jianye and entered Mount Niutou to call upon Chan Master Lanrong, thoroughly illuminating the great matter. Lanrong said to Zhiyan: 'I received the true secret from the Great Master [Daoxin], and everything attained was lost; even if there were a dharma surpassing nirvāṇa, I would say it is also like a dream or phantom. When a single speck of dust flies, it obscures the sky; when a single mustard seed falls, it covers the earth. You have now surpassed this view; what more can I say? The teaching and guidance of this mountain gate should be entrusted to you.' He then became the second patriarch of Niutou. This is a model of one who had resolute faith without a mind of falling back, and who had resolute aspiration and studied through to the bottom.

The teachings expounded by the sages of the Three Teachings are none other than encouraging good, warning against evil, and rectifying people's mental ways. If one's mental ways are not upright, then treacherous evil pursues only profit; if one's mental ways are upright, then loyalty and righteousness follow only principle. 'Principle' is the principle of rectitude and righteousness, not the principle of pedantic theory. Like your respected uncle, the Military Commissioner, who acts as soon as he sees what is right, displaying extraordinary true courage—this is this principle. Chan Master Guifeng said: 'Performing righteous deeds is the awakened mind; performing unrighteous deeds is the mad and chaotic mind. Madness and chaos stem from emotional thoughts, and at the end of life one is dragged by karma; awakening does not stem from emotions, and at the end of life one can transform karma.' This is also this principle. The Buddha said: 'Principle is suddenly awakened, and along with awakening all is dissolved; phenomena are gradually eliminated, coming to an end in due sequence.' This is also this principle. Elder Li said: 'Perfect fusion does not obstruct sequential steps: the one is precisely the many; sequential steps do not obstruct perfect fusion: the many are precisely the one.' This is also this principle. Yongjia said: 'One stage completely contains all stages, one dharma pervades and includes all dharmas, one moon universally appears in all waters, all waters' moons are gathered in the one moon.' This is also this principle. The *Avataṃsaka* says: 'The Buddha's teachings and worldly teachings—if one sees their reality, all are without difference.' This is also this principle. The difference lies in the person, not in the teaching.

Loyalty, righteousness, treachery, and evil are born together with one's life. When a loyal and righteous person is among the treacherous and evil, it is like a pure maṇi jewel placed in mud: even for hundreds of thousands of years, it cannot be defiled. Why is this? Because its original nature is pure. When a treacherous and evil person is among the loyal and righteous, it is like mixed poison placed in a pure vessel: even for hundreds of thousands of years, it cannot be changed. Why is this? Because its original nature is turbid and foul. What was said earlier—that the difference lies in the person, not in the teaching—is just this principle. For instance, when a treacherous person and a loyal person both read the books of the sages: the books of the sages are the teaching, originally without difference; yet when the treacherous and the loyal read them, they understand according to their kind, and thus there is difference. The *Vimalakīrti* says: 'The Buddha expounds the Dharma with a single voice, and sentient beings each understand according to their kind.' This is it. When a gentleman of loyalty and righteousness sees righteousness, his original nature comes forth; when a person of treachery and evil sees profit, his original nature comes forth. It is like a lodestone meeting iron, or fire meeting dry firewood: even if one wished to restrain it, one could not. Like your respected uncle, the Military Commissioner, whose heroic strength surpasses others: declaring great righteousness before myriad people, he stirred the hearing of the times. This too was his original nature of loyalty and righteousness, which comes forth upon seeing righteousness; it is not artificial, not calculated. As the teaching says: For example, when a mighty warrior like a mahānāga rouses fierce wrath, a boil will inevitably grow upon his forehead; as long as the boil is not closed, no one among all the people of Jambudvīpa can subdue him. The Buddha used this as an analogy for one who gives rise to the bodhi-mind. The bodhi-mind is none other than the mind of loyalty and righteousness: the names differ, but the substance is the same. Once this mind meets with righteousness, the worldly and the supramundane are captured in a single net, with nothing missing and nothing left over.

Although I am a student of the Buddha, my mind of cherishing the sovereign and worrying for the state is equal to that of loyal and righteous scholar-officials; it is only that my strength is insufficient and my years have passed away. The resolution to love the upright and hate evil was born together with my life. As Yongjia said: 'Even if an iron wheel should whirl upon my head, the perfect clarity of samādhi and prajñā is never lost.' Incompetent though I am, I dare to trust myself directly without doubt. Jigong, your aspiration is extraordinary, and your years are in their prime—precisely the time of scurrying about in worldly dust. To be able to turn back at this time to study unsurpassed bodhi: unless you had planted the roots of virtue in past lives, how could you have reached such faith, held steady, and become your own master? May you strengthen this mind, consistent from beginning to end; encountering environments and meeting with conditions, remain unchanged and unmoved—only then are you called a great person of power.

Impermanence is swift and the matter of birth and death is great. If in thought after thought you consider this great cause and condition unresolved and unstated, and directly transcend and realize it, you will save yourself from much evil karma that obstructs the Path in your daily response to conditions—how much more so when a single thought corresponds, transforming the ordinary into the sagely! Only bring forth a resolute, willing mind, and you will certainly not be deceived. From ancient times, there have been models for doing good. In reading widely through the multitude of books, you need only know where the sages applied their minds. Once you know this, your own mental ways will be upright; when your mental ways are upright, various mixed poisons and various heterodox teachings cannot defile you. Jigong, in setting your mind on studying Confucianism, you must broaden and fulfill it, and then extend the remainder to reach other beings. Why is this? If study does not reach the goal, it is not study; if study reaches the goal but cannot be applied, it is not study; if study cannot transform beings, it is not study. When you study through to the bottom, civil accomplishments are within it, martial accomplishments are within it, phenomena are within it, principle is within it; loyalty, righteousness, and filial piety, down to the arts of cultivating oneself, governing others, and bringing peace to the country and state—there is nothing that is not within it. Old Shakyamuni said: 'Constantly dwelling within it, walking, sitting, and lying down.' This is just the message. There has never been one loyal to the sovereign who was not filial to his parents, nor has there ever been one filial to his parents who was not loyal to the sovereign. Just rely on and practice what the sages praised, and dare not violate what the sages admonished; then toward loyalty and filial piety, toward phenomena and principle, cultivating oneself and governing others, in all things you will adapt smoothly and understand clearly. Soon we shall see your respected uncle, the Military Commissioner, establish great merit and return in triumph, and Jigong leap above the blue clouds: in the Cheng family, there will be both martial and civil distinction—of this there is no doubt. Strive on, Jigong!

24.4

Instruction for Court Gentleman for Instruction Mo (Runfu)

24.5

Engaging in scholarship and engaging in the Way are one and the same. To engage in scholarship is to study what has not yet attained sageliness and resolve definitely to attain it. To engage in the Way is to seek one's lost mind in both external things and oneself; when things and self are one suchness, the Way and scholarship are both fully realized. When gentlemen of the scholar-official class read widely across all books, it is not merely to cultivate their persons, seek wealth and rank, and obtain pleasure; having both the Way and scholarship, they expand and fulfill them, and thereafter extend what they have attained to reach other things. Scholars of recent times mostly abandon the root to chase after the branches, turn their backs on the correct, and throw themselves into the heterodox. They merely use engaging in scholarship and engaging in the Way as a name, taking the acquisition of wealth and rank and the aggrandizement of their households as their ultimate truth. Thus their mental disposition is not upright, and they are turned by external things—as the popular proverb says: 'One sees only the sharpness of the awl's point, but does not see the squareness of the chisel's head.' Little do they know that in Confucian teaching, making the mental disposition upright is primary; once the mental disposition is upright, then even in moments of haste and times of upheaval there is nothing that does not accord with this Way. This is the meaning of what was said earlier, that scholarship and the Way are one. In our teaching, it is said: 'If one can turn things, one is identical to the Tathāgata.' In Laozi, it is said: 'I have three treasures: the first is compassion, the second is frugality, and the third is not presuming to take the lead in the world.' If one can study like this, one does not need to seek to harmonize with this Way; naturally, one will silently correspond with it. The Buddha spoke all dharmas to cross over all minds; if I have no mind whatsoever, what use have I for all dharmas? You should know that in reading sūtras, studying teachings, and reading widely across all books, forgetting the finger upon seeing the moon and forgetting the snare upon catching the fish is paramārtha. Then you will not be turned by written words and spoken language, but will be able to turn spoken language and written words. Have you not seen how long ago a monk asked Venerable Guizong: 'How can a beginner obtain an entry point?' Guizong tapped the caldron lid three times with the fire-poker and said, 'Do you still hear it?' The monk said, 'I hear it.' Guizong said, 'Why don't I hear it?' Guizong tapped it three more times and asked, 'Do you still hear it?' The monk said, 'I do not hear it.' Guizong said, 'Why do I hear it?' The monk had nothing to say. Guizong said, 'The wondrous power of Avalokiteśvara's wisdom can save from the sufferings of the world.' Fellow cultivator Runfu has long planted roots of virtue; he can believe in this great matter of cause and condition, thought after thought without interruption. It is only that in all written words and spoken language, he has not yet been able to forget the finger upon seeing the moon or forget the snare upon catching the fish. If he can grasp it where Guizong gave his instruction, only then will he know that Avalokiteśvara's awakening to complete penetration and Guizong's meaning of hearing and no sound are not two and not different. How is this known to be so? At first, within hearing, one entered the stream and forgot the object. The object entered having become tranquil, the two marks of motion and stillness clearly do not arise. When the mark of motion does not arise, worldly dharmas of arising and ceasing are extinguished. When the mark of stillness does not arise, one is not detained or bound by tranquil extinction. If between these two one does not abide in the mark of motion, nor is one trapped by the mark of stillness, then it is as Avalokiteśvara said: 'When arising and ceasing are extinguished, tranquil extinction becomes manifest.' Once one reaches this ground, only then will body and mind be one suchness, with nothing left outside the body; it is clear in every single circumstance and manifest in every single thing. This is not forced; the Dharma is inherently so. Runfu, exert yourself!

24.6

Instruction to Chan Practitioner Zunpu

24.7

The thirteenth patriarch, Kapimala, visited the fourteenth patriarch, Nāgārjuna, in a mountain cave. Nāgārjuna knew in advance that he was coming and went out to welcome him. As soon as he saw him, he said, 'The deep mountains are lonely and tranquil, where dragons and pythons dwell; O Most Venerable Great Virtue, why have you diverted your holy feet?' Mālā said, 'I am not the Most Venerable; I have come to visit a worthy one.' Nāgārjuna silently thought, 'Has this master attained the determinate nature and clarified the eye of the Way? Is he a great sage continuing the true vehicle?' Mālā said, 'Although you speak in your mind, I already know it with my mind. Just apply yourself to leaving home; why worry that I am not a sage?' Hearing his instruction, Nāgārjuna at once took refuge and left home. When venerable elders of antiquity sought people with the Dharma, the master was superior and the student strong; they distinguished the tune as soon as the string moved. A single phrase or line, a single word or silence, was never expended in vain; it could be described as minds and eyes reflecting each other, sticking together like glue and lacquer. Today it is not like this. Those acting as teachers entangle themselves in vines with students through the passing of years, ultimately never knowing whether they have arrived or not, whether they are clear or not; nor do students discern whether their master is heterodox or orthodox. This is because the mind of the beginning student is coarse and the master's instruction is reckless; consequently, the orthodox lineage grows faint, and heterodox teachings arise on all sides. For such people, wishing to repay the immense kindness of former virtuous ones—what is called clarifying the eye of the Way and continuing the true vehicle—is that not difficult? In investigating Chan and studying the Way, there is no other matter than this: on the thirtieth day of the twelfth month when the light of the eyes falls to the ground, the boundaries of all four sides of this plot of land must be genuinely distinct, not like using material for conversation to engage in frivolous play. In recent times this Way has become desolate, and master and disciple do not trust each other; they must rely on putting some vicious poison on a scrap of old paper, transmitting what is unworthy and impure to students, calling it a 'Chan bill of exchange.' How bitter! How bitter! Our Way is ruined. Have you not seen how long ago Venerable Linji took leave of Huangbo? Huangbo asked, 'Where are you going?' Linji said, 'If not Henan, then Hebei.' Huangbo struck him; Linji caught the staff and gave him a slap. Huangbo burst into loud laughter, 'Ha, ha!' and called his attendant: 'Bring the meditation board of the late Master Baizhang.' Linji also called the attendant: 'Bring fire!' Huangbo said, 'Just take it with you; later on you will sit upon the tongues of everyone under heaven.' Later, Guishan cited this dialogue to ask Yangshan: 'Did Linji not fail Huangbo?' Yangshan said, 'He did not.' Guishan said, 'How do you understand it?' Yangshan said, 'Only one who knows kindness knows how to repay kindness. Look at an extraordinary person: when casually revealing a bit of horns among an alien species, he is at once different from ordinary people.' Later, Linji indeed caused the Jiangxi ancestral lineage to flourish in Hebei; this is what is called 'a tread of nāga-elephants that donkeys cannot endure.'

24.8

Chan practitioner Zunpu previously served our late teacher Yuanwu at Mount Jiang, and was a companion in the Way with Elder Tanyi of Xiangyun. Both of them were with our late teacher, but became satisfied with small attainment, tapping their chests in self-approval and holding their nostrils high in the air, thinking that no one in the world could surpass them. In the spring of the jia-yin year, I came from Jiangzuo to Min. Tanyi had already begun teaching at Puzhong, expounding Chan with great clamor, with patch-robed monks converging like spokes on an axle; Pu also followed him, the two acting as inside and outside. Knowing that they were not yet on secure ground and fearing they would mislead students, I sent a letter to Tanyi instructing him to ask for leave and come over for a while. Tanyi, fearing gain and loss, delayed his departure. Therefore, taking occasion of an informal gathering, I severely rebuked his faults and posted a notice on the gate to inform the fourfold assembly. Hearing of this, Tanyi had no choice but to break his summer retreat and come. When I questioned him on his realization, it was just as it had been of old, without the slightest difference. Speaking to him in utmost sincerity, I said, 'With such an understanding, how dare you succeed the venerable old Yuanwu? If you truly wish to resolve this matter thoroughly, resign from your monastery and come here.' Tanyi said, 'Yes. At the end of the summer I will return to the hermitage.' Tanyi indeed did not break his word, and arrived together with Pu. Both came into my room, but for a long time neither penetrated its reality. One day I asked Pu: 'Regarding Sansheng and Xinghua's dialogue on

24.9

Instruction to Chan Practitioner Miaodao

24.10

Master Dingguang Miaodao asked Yunmen, "How are delusion and awakening, conformity and opposition, regarding this mind and this nature? I beg for an instruction pointing out the essential shortcut." Yunmen remained silent for a long time. Miaodao asked again, and Yunmen smiled and said, "If we speak of the essential shortcut, it cannot be pointed out to others; if it could be pointed out, it would not be the essential shortcut." Miaodao said, "Is there no skillful means to cause students to tend toward it?" Yunmen said, "If we speak of skillful means, mind has no delusion or awakening, and nature has no conformity or opposition. It is only that people establish views of delusion and awakening and cling to understandings of conformity and opposition, wishing to clarify this mind and see this nature; and so this mind and this nature follow along with human inverted confusion and flow into deviant paths. Because of this, buddhas and demons are not distinguished, and the deviant and the correct are not divided. This is because they do not understand that this mind and this nature are a dream and an illusion, falsely setting up two kinds of names and words, taking conformity and opposition, delusion and awakening, as real, and mistaking this mind and this nature as true. They do not know at all that whether real or not real, whether false or not false, worldly or world-transcending, they are merely provisional words and statements." Therefore Vimalakīrti said, "The Dharma cannot be seen, heard, sensed, or known. If one practices seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing, that is seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing, not seeking the Dharma." Also an ancient worthy said, "If you take yourself and your own mind as ultimate, there will inevitably be other objects and other persons as antidotes." Furthermore, the Buddha said to Pūrṇa, "You, with matter and emptiness conflicting and usurping each other within the tathāgatagarbha, cause the tathāgatagarbha to pervade the dharmadhātu accordingly as matter and emptiness; I, with wondrous clarity unceasing and unborn, unite with the tathāgatagarbha, and the tathāgatagarbha only as wondrous awakened clarity completely illuminates the dharmadhātu." The tathāgatagarbha is just this mind and this nature. Yet the Buddha expediently pointed to the mutual conflict and usurpation of matter and emptiness as wrong, and took wondrous clarity unceasing and unborn as right. These two passages are medicinal words to cure the two sicknesses of delusion and awakening; they are not the Buddha's definitive meaning, but words uttered to break the clinging of those who grasp mind, nature, conformity, and opposition in delusion and awakening as real dharmas. Have you not seen Bodhisattva Vajragarbha say, "All the three times are merely words and speech; all dharmas have no resting place within words and speech; all words and speech also have no resting place within dharmas"? If the view of delusion and awakening is extinguished and the understanding of conformity and opposition is severed, then this mind is thoroughly clear like the bright sun, this nature is vast and open like empty space, and from beneath one's own feet light radiates, shaking the earth and illuminating the ten directions; those who behold this light all realize the forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas. When one arrives at such a time, one naturally tallies in silence with this mind and this nature. Only then does one know that originally there was no delusion in the past and originally there is no awakening in the present: awakening is delusion, delusion is awakening; conformity is opposition, opposition is conformity; nature is mind, mind is nature; buddha is demon, demon is buddha; a single path, pure and equal, without that which is equal or unequal—all this is the constant portion of our mind, not borrowing from other techniques. Having attained such a state, it is also said only out of necessity; one must not straightaway take it as real. If one takes it as real, then again one fails to recognize skillful means, clinging to dead words and further adding to vanity and falsehood, turning in confusion without an end. Arriving here, there is no place for you to apply your mind. You had better know this matter, push it aside, and then turn your head to look: Great Master Ma's 'Mind itself is Buddha', 'Neither mind nor Buddha', 'It is not mind, not Buddha, not a thing'; Zhaozhou's cypress tree in the courtyard; Yunmen's Mount Sumeru; Dayu's sawing open the steelyard weight; Venerable Yanyang's clod of earth; Fenyang's 'Do not give rise to false thoughts'; Juzhi's raising a finger—in the final analysis, what principle is this? This is Yunmen's skillful means. Miaodao, reflect upon it.

24.11

Instruction to Chan Practitioner Zhiyan

24.12

The Way cannot be learned; if it is attained through learning, it is not true attainment. The Way also cannot not be learned; if one does not learn, there will be no time of attainment. Learning and not learning, attaining and not attaining, have no connection whatsoever with this Way. Please quickly gather your spirit, turn around and cast yourself into the place where there is no connection; then the learning mind and the non-learning mind, the attaining mind and the non-attaining mind, will be like boiling water poured on snow. Only then will you know that what caused haunting in the past was all your own family members, having nothing to do with idle spirits or wild ghosts. Therefore, as soon as Muzhou saw a monk enter the gate, he would say, "A ready-made gong'an; I spare you thirty blows." As soon as Zhaozhou saw a monk enter the gate, he would say, "You let down this old monk." These two old masters were like garuḍas cleaving the sea, directly seizing and swallowing dragons. How can the muddle-headed deliberate? How can they draw near? Is there any principle for guiding people here? Having heard this said, you must not simply rest and desist like that. Have you rested yet? The ancients rebuked this as the soul of a non-Buddhist fallen into the void, or an unscattered corpse. If you wish to be direct and without contrivance, just take a step forward at the place that cannot be learned and look. If you can take this step, what ringing sound of a hot bowl do the three vehicles and twelve divisions of the teachings, and the old venerable monks of the world speaking horizontally and vertically, speaking directly and crookedly, speaking in praise and censure, speaking according with conventions and speaking explicitly, amount to? Chan practitioner Yan, can you believe this thoroughly? Do not memorize my words.

24.13

Instruction to Chan Practitioner Zhili

24.14

In the past, Master Lingyun suddenly awakened to the Way upon seeing peach blossoms, and had a verse: / 'For thirty years a sword-seeking guest, / How many times leaves fell and branches sprouted again! / Ever since seeing the peach blossoms once, / Right up to now I have doubted no more.' / Master Guishan questioned what he had awakened to, and it tallied with his own realization, so he gave his seal of approval, saying, 'Awakened and penetrated through conditions, one never regresses.' Also, Master Xuefeng composed the inscription for his own stūpa, the preface of which states: 'What exists through conditions is produced and destroyed from beginning to end; what is not attained through conditions remains forever solid throughout the kalpas.' As for what these two venerable elders saw, tell me: is it one and the same, or is it two different things? If you say it is one and the same, one considered attainment through conditions to be right, while the other considered attainment through conditions to be wrong. If you say they are two different things, the two great elders could not have each established their own sectarian gates to confuse later people. (Bah!) The goose king sorting milk from water is fundamentally not of the duck's kind. Chan practitioner Zhili, do you know the resting place of these two great elders? If not, Yunmen will directly lay it bare for you: / 'The two arise from the one, / But do not cling to the one either; / When not a single mind arises, / The myriad dharmas are without fault.' / The two passages above are not the same; subsume them under the previous heading. [He draws a circle] (Phat!)

24.15

Instruction to Chan Practitioner Miaoquan

24.16

When patch-robed monks practice Chan, they must clarify the mind-ground; when scholars study books, they must pass the examinations. If one reads five cartloads of books and yet does not pass the examinations, for his whole life he is merely a scholar—to call him an official is a mistake. If a Chan-practicing patch-robed monk does not clarify the mind-ground, he cannot resolve the great matter of birth and death; for his whole life he is merely a wretched worldling—to call him a buddha is a mistake. Regarding these two mistakes, is there really such a thing, or is there really no such thing? If one says there really is, one often sees scholars who pass the examinations and become officials; if one says there really is not, one has never witnessed with one's own eyes a Chan practitioner becoming a buddha. Trading this for that is just eight ounces against half a pound. This talk is extremely shallow and close at hand, yet extremely deep and far-reaching. Students often, with a mind of having attainment, practice toward the place of no attainment, falling into pits and dropping into trenches in great numbers. These words of Yunmen thus become a vain contrivance, truly what is called the finest flavor of ghee prized by the world turning into poison when encountering such people. In the past, Chan Master Zhichang went to Caoxi to see the Patriarch, and cited the essentials of mind shown by Master Datong. Based on his doubts, the Patriarch spoke a verse for him: / 'Not seeing a single dharma, yet preserving a view of nothingness, / Is much like floating clouds veiling the face of the sun. / Not knowing a single dharma, yet keeping a knowledge of emptiness, / Is still like lightning flashing in great space. / When this knowledge and view suddenly arise, / Mistakenly recognizing them, how could one understand skillful means? / If in a single thought you yourself know you are wrong, / Your own spiritual light will constantly manifest.' / Hearing the verse, Chang immediately dispelled his lingering doubt on the spot and greatly awakened to the Patriarch's skillful means. He then composed a verse and presented it to the Patriarch, which ended: 'Without entering the Patriarch's room, / Vainly I tended toward the two extremes.' / Chan practitioner Miaoquan, do you wish to know the resting place of whether there really is such a thing or really no such thing? Pay no attention to worldling and buddha, scholar and official; just recognize Yunmen's skillful means. If you can recognize it, Chaoyang is not far from Caoxi; but if not yet so, under your feet just look after Master Dadian.

24.17

Instruction to Chan Practitioner Chongmi

24.18

The eye that distinguishes dragons from snakes and the dynamic capacity to capture tigers and rhinos—unless one is a person who transcends all measures and is unattached to worldly dusts, one will take such speech as playful discourse. Therefore, the ancestral style of Linji has found successors difficult to come by. In recent times, the crowd who study phrases mostly vie with sharp tongues and boast of fluency, gladly taking talking nonsense and babbling as unrestrained freedom, and wild shouting as the fundamental principle. A push and a shove, like sparks from flint or flashes of lightning; unable to deliberate, they burst into hearty laughter, calling it quick-witted dynamism that does not fall into the sense-faculty of intellect. Little do they know that it is precisely karmic consciousness playing ghost-tricks with its eyes—is this not deceiving others while deceiving oneself, misleading others while misleading oneself? Have you not seen: when Linji was attending Deshan, Deshan turned around and said, 'May I ask you something?' Linji said, 'What is this old fellow talking in his sleep for?' Deshan made to take up his staff, whereupon Linji overturned the meditation couch; Deshan then desisted. Tell me, when the two old fellows engaged in such dynamic promotion, was there any room for deliberation? Truly we know that the trampling of nāga-elephants is not what donkeys can bear. Unless one genuinely possesses such an eye and attains such application, one cannot avoid calculating and guessing within gain and loss. Furthermore, when Linji was together with Puhua in Zhenzhou attending a meal at a patron's house, Linji asked, 'A hair swallowing the great ocean, a mustard seed containing Mount Sumeru—is this wondrous spiritual power, or is it fundamentally so?' Puhua kicked over the dining table. Linji said, 'Too coarse!' Puhua said, 'What place is this to speak of coarse or fine?' Linji desisted. The next day, they again attended a patron's meal together. Linji asked again, 'How does today's offering compare to yesterday's?' Puhua again kicked over the dining table. Linji said, 'Granted, but it is too coarse!' Puhua said, 'Blind fellow! In the Buddha-Dharma, what coarse or fine is spoken of?' Linji again desisted. Tell me: when Linji desisted twice, was there any room for deliberation? If there was, how would you deliberate? Chan practitioner Chongmi has been in the monasteries the longest; he was often able to deliberate, expound, and critique everything, considering himself entirely sorted out in every way. Later he finally realized his error, immediately brushed it all aside, and applied his effort at the place where there is no deliberation. Only now has he caught sight of it and gained full trust in it, realizing for the first time that this matter cannot be transmitted, cannot be learned, cannot be calculated, and cannot be deliberated. Attending me as I came south, accompanying me on the lonely shore for four years, upon my bringing up the late master's presenting to the practitioner Jishou the phrase 'Not mind, not Buddha, not a thing', he suddenly picked up a roasted bean by the fire brazier and ate it. From then on, he had no mind to pursue even the wondrous offerings of Xiangji, though he still could not do without a meal of steamed cakes and noodles. Because he came to take leave of me to return temporarily to Zhejiang, bringing this scroll to request instruction, I further presented him with two verses, which say:

24.19

"That single move that covers heaven and covers earth,
Transcending past and present, is utterly beyond undertaking.
I casually entrust it to Chan practitioner Mi;
Let all directions measure it in confusion as they will.
When the blind donkey extinguished the treasury of the true dharma eye,
The Linji house style only then broadly unfurled.
How pitiable are those who peddle the Tathāgata,
Covering it all over in mistaken deliberation!"

24.20

Instruction to Lecturer Daoming

24.21

In the past, Mazu asked Lecturer Liang, "I hear that you are very capable of lecturing on the sūtras and treatises; is that so?" Liang said, "I dare not claim so." Mazu asked again, "With what do you lecture?" He replied, "I lecture with the mind." Mazu said, "The mind is like an acrobat, and thought is like a clown; how can they explain and lecture on the sūtras?" Liang said, "If the mind cannot lecture, can empty space lecture?" Mazu said, "Indeed, empty space can lecture." Liang would not accept this, flicked his sleeves, and started to leave. Mazu then called out, "Lecturer!" Liang turned his head, was completely enlightened, and thereupon bowed and departed. He went straight into the Western Mountains, with no further words to send tidings, and directly cut off the path of ordinary and holy. Nowadays people are neither here nor there, or they recognize from a teacher's mouth that 'there is flour in wheat and cooked rice is made of grains,' and then seek understanding and comprehension within the wheat and rice, insisting that the teacher know that they have attained this principle, terrified that the teacher will not know. People of this sort only follow at the donkey's front and the horse's rear; if they wish, like Lecturer Liang, to immediately relinquish their attainments under a single word of Mazu, wouldn't it be difficult? Liang was wrought of solid steel and cast of pig iron, which is why he could achieve complete liberation and immediately leap out of the abstruse burrow of the doctrinal teachings, with the bounds of past and future cut off at once, leaving absolutely not a single phenomenon to be treated as a principle of understanding or not understanding. Today, as soon as lecturers hear an ancestral teacher say 'Indeed, empty space can lecture,' they go rummaging around in empty space; if they do not doubt, they slander. Lecturer Daoming is also an expounder of sūtras who knows that that one matter definitely does not lie within words and letters, and that words and letters are merely fingers pointing to the moon. Wishing to seek a good spiritual friend to comprehend this one matter that is free from the characteristics of speech, free from the characteristics of written words, and free from the characteristics of mental conditioning, he has specifically come to seek Miaoxi. Miaoxi, pitying his utmost sincerity, directly wrote out this gong'an to instruct him: if one day he suddenly recognizes upon paper, ink, words, and letters the tidings of the separate transmission outside the teachings, only then will he know that there is no flour in wheat and that cooked rice is not made of grains. Once you understand in this way, then whether lecturing or not lecturing, you can bring a dead snake to life, vigorously wriggling. To say that empty space can lecture on sūtras or that empty space cannot lecture on sūtras are both matters within one's own house; within or outside the teachings, one no longer forms views of complete or incomplete. When these two views have vanished, when lecturing it is just when not lecturing; when not lecturing it is just when lecturing; speaking while silent, silent while speaking, the gate of great giving opens without obstruction: 'He speaks what is true, what is real, what is thus, without deceit, without falsehood.' (Bah!) Speaking like this is very much like recounting a dream when one had no dream, or wetting the bed with open eyes. The one who wrote like this also deserves thirty blows of the staff. Even so, merely using provisional names to guide sentient beings, it also does no harm to comprehend the ancestral teacher's tidings of the separate transmission outside the teachings right at the place of lecturing on sūtras. Daoming need only apply effort in this way; it will do no harm to lecture on sūtras and treatises in this manner. The paper is exhausted, so let us cut off this entanglement.

24.22

Instructing Chan Practitioner Miaozong

24.23

An ancient sage said: "The Way does not rely on cultivation; just do not defile it." This mountain monk says: "Speaking of mind and speaking of nature is defilement; speaking of the profound and speaking of the wondrous is defilement; sitting in meditation and practicing absorption is defilement; applying thought and deliberating is defilement." Just now, expressing it on paper and brush like this is deliberately defiling it. Aside from this, what is ultimately the place where you truly gain strength? Let the vajra precious sword sever it directly; pay no heed to the rights and wrongs of the human world. Practitioner Zong, just investigate in this way.

24.24

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

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大慧普覺禪師語錄 — Classical Chinese