大慧普覺禪師語錄 25.6

25.6

You dwell in wealth and honor yet are not troubled or trapped by wealth and honor; were it not for prajñā-seed-wisdom planted from long ago, how could you be like this? However, I fear that along the way you will forget this intention, obstructed by your sharp faculties and cleverness, putting an expectation of attainment out in front [of you] beforehand, and thus fail to cut cleanly through in one slash right where the ancients were most direct and shortcut, resting immediately. This ailment is not confined to worthy scholar-officials; patch-robed monks of long practice are also like this: most are unwilling to take a step back and apply effort where it saves labor, but only calculate and deliberate with their clever conceptual consciousness, chasing outward. As soon as they hear a good friend point out to them the native fodder beyond the deliberations and calculations of clever conceptual consciousness, most miss it right to their faces, supposing that the ancient worthies of the past had some real dharma to give people—such as Zhaozhou's 'put it down' and Yunmen's 'Mount Sumeru.' Yantou said: 'To reject things is superior; to pursue things is inferior.' He also said: 'In the great guiding principle of our lineage, one must understand the phrase.' What is the phrase? The time when not a single thought arises is called the correct phrase; it is also called 'dwelling at the peak,' 'obtaining the abiding,' 'clear and distinct,' 'bright and alert,' and 'such a time.' Using 'such a time' and so forth, smash through all rights and wrongs. The moment it is so, it is not so; the 'is' phrase is cleared away, and the 'is-not' phrase is also cleared away—resembling a ball of fire: if you touch it, it burns immediately; where is there room to approach it from the side? Contemporary scholar-officials mostly make a den out of deliberation and calculation; hearing speech like this, they immediately say: 'Might this not fall into emptiness?' This is like leaping into the water of one's own accord before the boat has capsized—deeply pitiable! Recently when I went to Jiangxi, I saw Lü Juren. Juren has set his mind on this great matter for a very long time, yet he also suffers deeply from this ailment. Is he not clever? Zonggao once asked him: 'You fear falling into emptiness; can the one who knows fear be empty, or not empty? Try and speak!' He hesitated and thought, wanting to calculate an answer; right then I gave him a shout, and to this day he remains bewildered, unable to find a handle. This is simply because a mind seeking awakening and realization was placed out in front, creating obstacles for itself, having nothing to do with anything else. If you try to apply effort like this, in the course of days and months you will naturally bump into it and knock against it. If you wish to use the mind to wait for awakening and use the mind to wait for resting, even if you investigate from where you stand until Maitreya descends to be born, you will still not be able to obtain awakening or obtain resting, but will only turn increasingly bewildered and stifled. Venerable Pingtian said: 'The divine light is not dimmed; an excellent exemplar for ten thousand ages. Having entered this gate, do not harbor intellectual understanding.' An ancient worthy also said: 'This matter cannot be sought with mind, cannot be obtained without mind, cannot be reached through language, and cannot be penetrated through quiet silence.' This is the first class of getting into the mud and water, grandmotherly talk. Often Chan practitioners merely chant it through like that, never examining closely what principle this is. If one is a fellow with sinews and bones, upon merely hearing it brought up, one immediately wields the vajra-king precious sword and cuts through these four paths of entanglements in a single stroke; then the path of birth and death is also cut off, the path of ordinary and holy is also cut off, calculation and deliberation are also cut off, and gain, loss, right, and wrong are also cut off. Under one's very feet, stark naked and completely bare, with nothing to grasp—how exhilarating! How delightful! Have you not seen how formerly, when Venerable Guanxi first visited Linji, Linji saw him coming, stepped down from his rope seat, and grabbed him by the chest; Guanxi immediately said: 'Understood, understood!' Knowing that he had already penetrated thoroughly, Linji pushed him away at once, without a single phrase of discussion with him. At such a time, how could Guanxi calculate, deliberate, and answer? In antiquity, fortunately, there were such models, but people today do not take them seriously at all, merely on account of their coarse minds. Had Guanxi initially harbored a bit of mind waiting for awakening, waiting for realization, and waiting for resting out in front of him, do not say he would awaken upon being seized—even if his hands and feet were bound and he was dragged once around the four continents, he would still not be able to awaken, nor would he be able to rest. What usually calculates and arranges is the conscious faculty; what drifts along with birth and death is also the conscious faculty; what is fearful and alarmed is also the conscious faculty. Yet practitioners today do not know this is an illness, but simply bob up and down within it; as said in the teachings, 'acting in accord with consciousness rather than wisdom'—hence they obscure their native landscape and original face. If you can let go for a moment, not deliberating or calculating in the slightest, suddenly stumbling and treading upon your own nostrils, then this very conscious faculty is itself the wondrous wisdom of true emptiness; there is no other wisdom to be found. If there were something else to attain, something else to realize, then it would be wrong again. It is like a person who, when lost, calls east west; when he awakens, west itself is east—there is no other east. This wondrous wisdom of true emptiness has the same lifespan as great empty space; within this great empty space, is there a single thing that can obstruct it? Although it does not admit the obstruction of a single thing, it does not hinder all things from coming and going within space. This wondrous wisdom of true emptiness is also like this: the defilements of birth, death, ordinary, and holy cannot attach even a speck to it; yet although they cannot attach, they do not hinder birth, death, ordinary, and holy from coming and going within it. When one can trust this fully and see this thoroughly, only then is one a fellow who enters birth and death with great sovereignty; only then does one have a small share of accord with Zhaozhou's 'put it down' and Yunmen's 'Mount Sumeru.' If you cannot trust fully and cannot let go, then please carry a Mount Sumeru and go traveling everywhere, clearly presenting it to anyone with clear eyes. A laugh.