大慧普覺禪師語錄 26.3

26.3

In a human life, over a hundred years of light and shade, how much time can there be? Arising from a humble home, you have served through pure and vital posts; you are a person of the first rank in enjoying worldly blessings. Being able to know shame, turning your mind toward the Way, and studying the supramundane Dharma for escaping birth and death, you are also a person of the first rank in seeking true advantage in the world. You must urgently apply hands and feet and cool your face, not allowing yourself to be ordered about by others; personally understand your original life and destiny, so that where you are going is distinct and clear—then you are a great hero who has finished the task both in the world and beyond the world. Hearing that you have been going day after day to discuss the Way with the Executive Policy Advisor, this is very good, very good. This gentleman has brought to rest the seeking mind, obtained the severed path of speech and the extinguished place of mental activity, eliminated diverging byways, caught sight of the ancients' methods, and is not ensnared by the ancients' expedient words. Seeing that he is like this, this mountain monk has never spoken a single word to him, fearing to compromise him. I am simply waiting until later, when he himself wants to speak with this mountain monk, and only then will our eyebrows knot together to address the matter; it does not just end like this. If a person studying the Way does not bring the seeking mind to rest, even if his eyebrows knot together with mine in discussing it, what benefit would there be? It would be nothing other than running around madly on the outside. An ancient said: 'Approaching the good is like walking in mist and dew; though it does not soak one's clothes, it constantly moistens.' Just speak frequently with the Executive Policy Advisor; this is my most earnest prayer. You must not recklessly distort the ancients' instructional teachings. For example, when Great Master Ma met the Venerable of Nanyue, he taught the Dharma, saying: 'It is like an ox hitched to a cart. If the cart does not move, is it right to hit the cart, or is it right to hit the ox?' When Master Ma heard this, he understood his return upon the words. How many people in various quarters preach the Dharma like thunder and lightning, like clouds and rain, yet cannot understand these few lines of words, mistakenly affixing names and terms and generating understanding following words! Seeing the fabricated commentary at the end of the letter to Zhoufeng, this mountain monk read it and could not help collapsing with laughter; along with those who speak of Tathāgata Chan and Patriarch Chan, they can all be indicted together and dealt with in one stroke. I have carefully examined the verse you sent; it is indeed superior to the two verses from the other day. From now on, you may stop this; writing verse after verse, when will there ever be an end? Take the Executive Policy Advisor: could it be that he does not know how to compose verses? Why is it that he has not written a single word? It is because one who recognizes the Dharma is cautious. Occasionally revealing the tip of a single hair, he naturally scratches this mountain monk's itch, like the phrase in his verse on the Image of Coming out of the Mountain: 'Everywhere meeting people, right to their face deceiving them.' This can serve as eye-clearing medicine for the monasteries; you will see it for yourself on another day, without needing this mountain monk to explain it away. Having recently seen your sudden transformation and vigorous effort for this matter, I wrote this letter, unconsciously going on at great length.