大慧普覺禪師語錄 25.4

25.4

I received your narrative tracing from your youth up to your official career, how you visited great masters, and in between were burdened by the civil examinations, marriage, and office, and overcome by bad perceptions and bad habits, unable to apply effort purely and single-mindedly, regarding this as a great transgression. You are also able to grieve over impermanence and the worldly realm's manifold illusions without a single joy, single-mindedly desiring to investigate this one great matter of cause and condition, which is very gratifying to this ailing monk. Yet, having become a literatus who relied on a stipend to make a living, the examinations, marriage, and official career were things unavoidable in the world, and they were not your fault. To give rise to great fear over small transgressions—unless from beginningless vast eons you had served true spiritual friends and deeply cultivated the seeds of prajñā and omniscient wisdom, how could you be like this? What you call a great transgression is something even sages and worthies cannot avoid; as long as you know that illusions are not the ultimate dharma, are able to turn your mind to this gate, cleanse the filth of defilement with the water of prajñā wisdom, abide in purity, and cut it in two with a single blade from beneath your feet, no longer giving rise to thoughts of continuation, that is enough; you do not need to ponder the past or worry about the future. Since it is called illusion, then the time of committing it is also an illusion, the time of experiencing the retribution is also an illusion, the time of conscious awareness is also an illusion, the time of delusion is also an illusion, and past, present, and future are all illusions. Today, knowing your fault, use the medicine of illusion to cure the illness of illusion; when the illness is cured and the medicine removed, you will still be the original person as before. If there were another person or another dharma, that would be the view of māras and non-Buddhists. Consider this deeply. Just press on like this, and constantly in quietude, you must never forget the two sayings of 'Mount Sumeru' and 'put it down'; just apply effort solidly from beneath your feet. For past faults there is no need to fear, nor is there any need to deliberate; deliberating and fearing are obstacles to the Way. Just make a great vow before the Buddhas: vow that this mind be steadfast, never regressing; relying on the empowerment of the Buddhas, meet a spiritual friend, and under a single word instantly forget birth and death, awaken to and realize unsurpassed, complete, and perfect enlightenment, continue the Buddha's life of wisdom, and repay the boundless grace of the Buddhas. If you do so, in the long run there is no reason not to awaken. Do you not see that the youth Sudhana, having resolved his mind under Mañjuśrī, gradually traveled south past one hundred and ten cities, visiting fifty-three spiritual friends, and at the end, in a snap of Maitreya's fingers, instantly forgot the dharma gates he had attained from all the previous spiritual friends? Relying again on Maitreya's instruction, he wished to see Mañjuśrī, whereupon Mañjuśrī reached out his right hand across one hundred and ten yojanas, patted Sudhana on the crown of his head, and said: 'Excellent, excellent! Good son, if one is separated from the faculty of faith, has a low mind, worries and regrets, has incomplete cultivation and practices, regresses in vigor, attaches to a single root of goodness, is satisfied with meager merit, is unable to skillfully give rise to practices and vows, and is not embraced and protected by spiritual friends, then one cannot fully understand such dharma-nature, such purport, such dharma gates, such practices, and such realms—whether knowing them comprehensively, knowing them in various ways, exhausting their source and depth, comprehending them, entering them, explaining them, distinguishing them, realizing them, or attaining them—none of these can one do.' Mañjuśrī proclaimed this to Sudhana, and under these words Sudhana accomplished asaṃkhyeya dharma gates, became fully endowed with immeasurable light of great wisdom, entered the gate of Samantabhadra, and in a single thought-moment saw spiritual friends as numerous as dust motes in the trichiliocosm, drew close to all of them, served them respectfully, practiced their teachings, attained the wisdom of non-forgetfulness and the liberation of the adornment treasury, and even entered the pores and lands of Samantabhadra, taking a single step in a single pore, passing across worlds as numerous as the dust motes of ineffable, ineffable Buddha lands, becoming equal to Samantabhadra, equal to all Buddhas, with lands equal, practices equal, and liberation and sovereignty all equal, without duality or distinction. At that very time, one is first able to turn the three poisons into the three groups of pure precepts, turn the six consciousnesses into the six supernatural powers, turn defilements into bodhi, and turn ignorance into great wisdom. The whole entanglement above rests solely on the final, genuine thought of the person right now. If Sudhana, in the snap of Maitreya's fingers, could instantly forget the samādhis realized from all those spiritual friends, how much more so with beginningless false and evil karmic habits? If past transgressions were taken as real, then the current present realms would all be real, and even official rank, wealth, and affection would all be real. If they were real, then hell and heaven would also be real, defilement and ignorance would also be real, the creator of karma would also be real, the receiver of retribution would also be real, and the realized dharma gates would also be real. If one held such views, then to the end of the future, no one would ever aspire to the Buddha Vehicle. The various skillful means of the Buddhas of the three times and the ancestral teachers of successive generations would turn out to be false speech. You noted that when sending the letter, you burned incense facing the sages and bowed from afar toward my hermitage before dispatching it; your sincere mind was so earnest like this. Although we are not far apart, we have not been able to speak face-to-face; letting my thoughts and hand flow, without realizing it I have been as garrulous as this. Although it seems verbose, it also springs from a sincere heart; I dare not deceive you with a single word or character. If I were to deceive you, I would be deceiving myself. Furthermore, I remember that when Sudhana met the Brahmin Jāyōṣmīya, he attained the liberation of truthful speech; for the Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the past, present, and future, regarding anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi, none have regressed, none are regressing, and none will regress; whatever they seek is without exception fulfilled, all attained through utmost sincerity. Since you keep company with the bamboo chair and the rush mat, you are no different from Sudhana meeting the Brahmin Jāyōṣmīya. Furthermore, in sending this letter to Yunmen, bowing from afar facing the sages before dispatching it, simply wishing for Yunmen's trust and affirmation, this is the height of sincerity. Just listen: simply apply effort like this, and in the future your fulfillment of anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi will be beyond doubt.