大慧普覺禪師語錄 26.5

26.5

Your letter states: 'In my early years I had faith in and turned toward this Path, but in my later years I have been obstructed by intellectual understanding, not yet having found a place of awakening and entry; I wish to know an expedient means for embodying the Path day and night.' Since I have received your utmost sincerity, I dare not hold myself aloof, and so, following the confession to conclude the case, I offer a few vines [of words]. Just this seeking awakening and entry is itself the intellectual understanding that obstructs the Path. What other intellectual understanding is there that acts as an obstruction to you, sir? In the end, what is called intellectual understanding? From where does intellectual understanding arrive? And who is the one being obstructed? In this single phrase alone, there are three inversions: saying yourself that you are obstructed by intellectual understanding is one; saying yourself that you are unawakened and willingly acting the part of a confused person is one; and further, remaining in confusion while keeping a mind that awaits awakening is one. Just these three inversions are the very root of birth and death. You must simply reach the point where not a single thought arises and the inverted mind is cut off; only then will you know that there is no confusion to break through, no awakening to await, and no intellectual understanding to obstruct—just like a person drinking water, who knows for himself whether it is cold or warm. After a long time it will naturally become so, and you will not form this kind of view. Just look upon the mind that can know intellectual understanding: does it still suffer obstruction or not? On the mind that can know intellectual understanding, are there still so many varieties [of things] or not? From ancient times, all masters of great wisdom have taken intellectual understanding as their companion, taken intellectual understanding as an expedient means, practiced equal compassion upon intellectual understanding, and performed all buddha-works upon intellectual understanding—like a dragon gaining water, or a tiger leaning against a mountain—never being troubled by it, simply because they recognized the place where intellectual understanding arises. Having recognized the place where it arises, this very intellectual understanding is the site of liberation, the place where birth and death are transcended. Since it is the site of liberation, the place where birth and death are transcended, then that which is known and understood is of its very essence quiescent and extinguished. When that which is known and understood is quiescent and extinguished, then that which can know and understand cannot but be quiescent and extinguished; bodhi, nirvāṇa, true thusness, and buddha-nature cannot but be quiescent and extinguished. What thing is there left to cause obstruction? In what place is there left to seek awakening and entry? Old Śākyamuni said: 'All karmas arise from the mind, therefore it is said that the mind is like an illusion; if one is free from this conceptual differentiation, then all realms of existence are extinguished.' A monk asked Master Dazhu: 'What is great nirvāṇa?' Zhu said: 'Not creating the karma of birth and death is great nirvāṇa.' The monk said: 'What is the karma of birth and death?' Zhu said: 'Seeking great nirvāṇa is the karma of birth and death.' An ancient worthy also said: 'When a practitioner of the Path in a single thought calculates birth and death, he falls into the demonic path; when in a single thought he gives rise to views, he falls into non-Buddhist paths.' Furthermore, Vimalakīrti said: 'Demons delight in birth and death, while the bodhisattva does not abandon birth and death; those of non-Buddhist paths delight in views, while the bodhisattva is unmoved among views.' This is precisely the model for taking intellectual understanding as a companion, taking intellectual understanding as an expedient means, practicing equal compassion upon intellectual understanding, and performing all buddha-works upon intellectual understanding. It is simply because they fully realized that the three asaṃkhyeya kalpas are empty, and that birth and death as well as nirvāṇa are both serene and quiescent. Since you have not yet reached this stage, you must under no circumstances be led into a ghost cave by false teachers talking nonsense, closing your eyebrows and shutting your eyes in vain imagination. Lately the ancestral path has fallen into decline, and this crowd is as numerous as hemp and millet—truly it is the blind leading the blind, dragging each other into the pit of fire, deeply pitiable. I hope that you will stiffen your backbone and not adopt this kind of attitude. Those who adopt this kind of attitude, though they temporarily restrain this stinking skin-bag and settle it down, consider it the ultimate; yet their mental consciousness flutters in confusion, just like wild horses. Even if the mental consciousness temporarily pauses, like pressing grass with a stone, it unintentionally sprouts again. To wish thereby to directly grasp unexcelled bodhi and arrive at the place of ultimate peace and joy—is that not difficult? I, Zonggao, was also once misled by this crowd; later, if I had not met a true and good spiritual friend, I would almost have spent my whole life in vain. Whenever I think of this, it is truly unbearable; therefore, not begrudging vocal karma, I exert all my strength to remedy this defect. Nowadays, if there is anyone with a slight awareness of what is wrong, if they want a direct and cutting-through understanding, they must have this single thought crack open with a pop! Only then can birth and death be resolved, and only then is it called awakening and entry. However, you must never harbor a mind that awaits the breaking open; if you harbor your mind in the place of breaking open, then for eternal kalpas there will be no time of breaking open. Just take the mind of vain imagination and inversion, the mind of thinking and differentiation, the mind that loves life and hates death, the mind of views and intellectual understanding, the mind that delights in quietude and detests commotion—press them down all at once, and right at the place where they are pressed down, look at a huatou. A monk asked Zhaozhou: 'Does a dog have buddha-nature or not?' Zhou said: 'No.' This single character is the weapon that demolishes so many evil knowledges and evil perceptions. You must not understand it in terms of existence and non-existence, you must not understand it in terms of principle, you must not think and calculate upon it at the sense-base of intellect, you must not dodge your roots where eyebrows are raised and eyes are blinked, you must not make a living on the road of words, you must not cast it into the armor of nothing-to-do, you must not undertake it where it is brought forth, and you must not cite evidence from written words. Just throughout the twelve double-hours and within the four deportments, constantly bring it to mind and constantly raise it: 'Does a dog have buddha-nature or not?' He said: 'No.' Without departing from daily life, try to do your practice like this; in a month or ten days you will see it for yourself. Matters of an entire prefecture across a thousand li will not be an obstacle at all. An ancient said: 'Here with me is the living intention of the Patriarchs; what thing can restrain it?' If you turn toward some other inclination apart from daily life, that is seeking water apart from waves, or seeking gold apart from vessels—the seeking will only take you farther away.