大慧普覺禪師語錄 26.17

26.17

I have fully noted each item of your instruction. The Buddha said: 'All who have a mind can attain Buddhahood.' This mind is not the worldly mind of defilements and deluded thoughts; it refers to bringing forth the supreme, great bodhicitta—if one has this mind, there are none who do not attain Buddhahood. When scholar-officials study the Way, they mostly create obstacles and difficulties for themselves because they lack determinate faith. The Buddha also said: 'Faith is the origin of the Way and the mother of merits, nurturing all good dharmas, severing the net of doubts to emerge from the torrent of craving, and disclosing the supreme path of nirvāṇa.' He also said: 'Faith can increase the merits of wisdom; faith can surely reach the Tathāgata's stage.' Your instruction says: 'With dull faculties I have not yet awakened thoroughly, and so for now I plant the buddha-seed in the field of the mind.' Although these words are simple and close at hand, they are also profound and far-reaching; if only you manage a willing mind, you will certainly not be deceived. Nowadays, people who study the Way often rush where things are relaxed and relax where things are urgent. Layman Pang said: 'One day a snake enters the crotch of your cloth trousers; let me ask the ancestral teacher, what season is it then?' Of yesterday's events, there are still things you cannot recall today; how much less will the events of past lives be free of forgetting? If you are determined to penetrate thoroughly in this life, doubting neither the buddhas nor the patriarchs, doubting neither birth nor death, you must have determinate faith and possess determinate resolve, thought after thought as if saving your head from fire. Proceeding in this manner, if you have not yet penetrated thoroughly, only then can you be spoken of as having dull faculties. If on the spot you say to yourself, 'My faculties are dull, and I cannot penetrate thoroughly in this life; I will just plant the buddha-seed to form a karmic affinity,' this is wishing to arrive without walking—it cannot possibly be. I always tell those who have faith in this Way that as you gradually feel an effortless place in your daily activities throughout the twelve periods of the day, that is where you gain strength in studying the Buddha. The place where you yourself gain strength cannot be known by others, nor can it be brought out for others to see. Practitioner Lu said to Senior Monk Daoming: 'If you reflect back upon your own original face, the secret meaning is entirely with you'—this is it. The 'secret meaning' is precisely the place where you gain strength in daily activities, and the place of gaining strength is precisely the effortless place. The worldly affairs of defilement—taking up one and dropping another—are endless and inexhaustible, never leaving you throughout the four deportments, because from beginningless time you have formed deep affinities with them; whereas with prajñā wisdom, from beginningless time you have formed shallow affinities. Hearing a spiritual friend speak of it for the first time, you feel as though it is hard to understand; but for one who from beginningless time has had shallow affinities with defilements and deep affinities with prajñā, what is there that is hard to understand? Just make what is deep shallow, make what is shallow deep; make what is unfamiliar familiar, and make what is familiar unfamiliar. As soon as you realize you are deliberating on defiling affairs, do not use effort to dispel them; right at the point of deliberation gently turn the huatou, which saves limitless effort and also gains limitless strength. I ask you, sir, just to press on in this way, without keeping in mind the expectation of awakening; then suddenly you will awaken of yourself. I imagine you meet daily with the Vice Director of the Right; besides playing weiqi, have you ever spoken with him about such matters? If you only play weiqi and have never spoken about such matters, right where black and white are not yet distinguished, overturn the board and scatter the pieces, and then ask him for that one move. If he cannot produce it, he is a truly dull-rooted fellow; for now let the matter rest.