大慧普覺禪師語錄 26.9

26.9

Your letter states: 'For a beginner, gaining a little effort in quiet sitting is also fine in itself.' It also says: 'I dare not vainly form a view of quietude.' This is what the yellow-faced old fellow called: 'Like a person plugging his own ears and shouting at the top of his voice, hoping others will not hear.' This is truly making obstructions and difficulties for oneself. If the mind of birth and death is not yet broken through, and throughout the twelve double-hours of daily life you are murky and benighted, like a dead person whose soul has not dispersed, what spare time do you seek to attend to quietude or attend to commotion? In the Nirvāṇa assembly, when the butcher Guang'e laid down his butcher's knife, he immediately became a buddha; was he making effort in quietude? Was he not a beginner? When you see this, sir, you will certainly think it is not so, and will surely assign him as an ancient buddha's manifestation, saying that people today do not have this power. If you hold such a view, you do not believe in your own extraordinary excellence, and willingly make yourself an inferior person. In this gate of ours, we do not discuss beginners or late learners, nor do we ask about long-standing practitioners or advanced masters; if you want genuine quietude, you must break through the mind of birth and death without setting out to make effort; when the mind of birth and death is broken through, it will naturally be quiet. The quiet and serene expedients spoken of by the ancient sages were precisely for this reason. It is simply that the false teachers of the degenerate age do not understand the ancient sages' words of expedient means. If you have complete faith in this mountain monk, try looking at the huatou of a dog having no buddha-nature in the midst of commotion; setting aside for now whether you awaken or not, right when your mind is disturbed and agitated, casually bring it to mind and raise it, and see: does it still feel quiet or not? Does it still feel effective or not? If you feel it is effective, then you must not cast it aside. When you want to sit quietly, just burn a stick of incense and sit quietly; when sitting, do not allow yourself to fall into dullness, nor allow yourself to fall into agitation. Dullness and agitation were rebuked by the ancient sages. When sitting quietly, as soon as you perceive these two kinds of illnesses appearing before you, just bring up the huatou of a dog having no buddha-nature; without having to exert strength to expel the two kinds of illnesses, they will immediately settle down at once. As the days and months go deep, as soon as you feel it saving effort, that is the place where you gain strength. You also do not need to make effort in quietude; just this is the effort. When Assistant Administrator Li was previously in Quannan, when we first met, he saw that this mountain monk forcefully refuted the false Chan of silent illumination which blinds people's eyes. At first he was displeased, half doubtful and half angry. Suddenly hearing this mountain monk chant a verse on the huatou of the cypress tree in the courtyard, he abruptly broke through the lacquer tub; in a single laugh, everything was settled, and only then did he believe that when this mountain monk opened his mouth, one saw his heart, without the slightest deception, and that it was not a matter of contending over self and other; thereupon he repented before this mountain monk. He is present over there now; please try asking him whether this is so or not. Senior Monk Daoqian has gone to Futang; I wonder whether he has arrived there yet? This person has suffered even more hardship in practicing Chan; he also spent over ten years in withered Chan, and only in recent years has found a place of peace and joy. When you meet him, try asking him: 'How do you do your practice?' Having once been a wanderer, he has special compassion for travelers; he will surely pour out his heart with utmost sincerity.