大慧普覺禪師語錄 27.3

27.3

Presently the weather is steamy and humid. I wonder whether you are residing at ease and undisturbed, unfettered and free, without harassment from any demons? In your daily activities within the four postures, are you at one with the phrase "a dog has no buddha-nature"? In the two aspects of motion and stillness, are you able not to discriminate? Do dream and waking state merge? Do principle and phenomena unite? Are mind and objects both thus? Old Pang said, "Mind is thus, objects are also thus; there is neither reality nor unreality. Being is disregarded, non-being is unconfined; not a sage or worthy, just an ordinary person who has finished the business." If you can truly be an ordinary person who has finished the business, what lumps of clay and dirt are Śākya and Bodhidharma? What clinking noises of hot bowls are the teachings of the three vehicles and twelve divisions? Since you already have unwavering self-confidence in this gate, it is no small matter. You must make the unfamiliar familiar and let the familiar become unfamiliar; only then will you begin to accord slightly with this matter. Often literati mostly catch a glimpse unexpectedly, yet lose it amidst favorable circumstances; I cannot fail to make you aware of this. Amidst favorable circumstances, you must constantly keep in mind the seasons of adversity; under no circumstances should you forget it even for a moment. Just attain the root, do not worry about the branches; just know how to be a buddha, do not worry that the buddha cannot speak. This move is easy to obtain but difficult to maintain; you must never neglect it. You must ensure that both head and tail are upright, expand and fulfill it, and then extend your surplus to other things. Since what you have attained is not stuck in a single corner, I imagine that in your daily activities you do not deliberately make an effort to maintain it or dry up your mind and forget all thoughts. In recent years the Chan Path and the Buddha Dharma have declined and decayed severely. There are a sort of fabricated elders who originally had no awakening themselves; their karmic consciousness is vast and unfathomable with no foundation to rely on, lacking any genuine skill, yet they take in students and teach everyone to be just like them—shutting their eyes tightly in pitch darkness, calling it "silent yet constantly illuminating." Yanchong has been ruined by these people—what misery! What misery! If you had not awakened to "a dog has no buddha-nature," Jingshan would have no way to speak of this topic. By all means, pull down your face, apply stern methods, and rescue this man. This is my earnest prayer and wish. However, there is one matter that you must also know: this gentleman has dwelt in purity and detachment from worldly flavors for many years, and he certainly clings to this as something extraordinary. If you wish to rescue him, you should engage in the same activities with him, causing him to feel joyful and not produce doubt, so that he may come to have faith in it and be willing to turn his head. This is what Vimalakīrti meant by "first lead them with desire, then cause them to enter the Buddha's wisdom." The Yellow-Faced Old Man said: "Observe phenomena, prior and subsequent, discriminating them with wisdom; critically ascertain right and wrong without violating the dharma seal; establish boundless gates of practice in due sequence, and cause all sentient beings to sever all doubts." This is setting a standard for living beings and serving as a model for ten thousand generations. Furthermore, this gentleman's capacity is completely different from yours: he is one who will certainly be reborn in heaven before Lingyun, but will certainly achieve buddhahood after Lingyun. This gentleman definitely cannot be gathered in through wisdom; he should be gathered in according to his inclinations, wearing him down over days and months. Perhaps he will realize his mistake on his own and suddenly be willing to let go—this cannot be predetermined. If he is willing to turn his head, he will indeed be a fellow of strength. You must also take a step back and let him stick his head out first before you can succeed. Recently, when Chan monk Wei returned, he transcribed the letter that Yanchong wrote in reply to Old Man Ziyan. I rejoiced and read it through, praising and delighting in it for several days. It is truly a fine piece of writing, resembling a great philosophical treatise; at the very end he appended a respectful reply to it. I wonder what you think of it? In the past, Bodhidharma said to the Second Patriarch: "If you just externally put an end to all conditions, have no panting within the mind, and let your mind be like a wall, you can enter the Path." The Second Patriarch spoke of mind and nature in various ways, but none accorded. One day he suddenly realized the essential gate shown by Bodhidharma, and immediately told Bodhidharma: "This time, your disciple has finally put an end to all conditions." Bodhidharma knew he had already awakened and did not press him further, merely saying: "Does it not end up as annihilation?" The Patriarch replied: "No." Bodhidharma said: "How do you see it?" He replied: "Because it is clearly and constantly known, words cannot reach it." Bodhidharma said: "This is the mind-substance transmitted by the buddhas and patriarchs from of old; now that you have attained it, doubt it no more." Yanchong said: "Dreaming by night and thinking by day for ten years, I was unable to completely master it; occasionally I sat upright in silence and emptied my mind completely, so that thoughts had nothing to condition upon and affairs had nothing to rest on, feeling quite light and at ease." Reading up to this point, I could not help bursting into laughter. Why? Since thoughts have nothing to condition upon, is this not what Bodhidharma called "having no panting within the mind"? If affairs have nothing to rest on, is this not what Bodhidharma called "externally putting an end to all conditions"? At first, the Second Patriarch did not recognize the skillful means shown by Bodhidharma, thinking that externally putting an end to all conditions and having no panting within the mind meant that one could speak of mind, speak of nature, speak of the Path, and speak of principle, citing textual evidence to seek confirmation; thus Bodhidharma rejected them one by one. Having nowhere to apply his mind, only then did he take a step back and contemplate: the words "mind like a wall" were not Bodhidharma's ultimate dharma. Suddenly, upon the wall, he abruptly put an end to all conditions; at that moment he saw the moon and forgot the pointing finger, and thus said, "Because it is clearly and constantly known, words cannot reach it." This phrase was also information pressed out of him by Bodhidharma at the moment; it was not the Second Patriarch's ultimate dharma either. As for the fabricated elders, since they have attained no realization themselves, they simply fabricate and patch things together on the fly. Although they teach others to rest, their own mental fire blazes day and night without ceasing, just like commoners who are short on their two taxes. Yanchong does not have that much fuss and turmoil, but the poison has penetrated deeply into him; he simply runs around wildly on the outside, speaking of motion, speaking of stillness, speaking of speech, speaking of silence, speaking of gain, and speaking of loss, further citing the Book of Changes and inner canonical scriptures, forcibly arranging and harmonizing them—truly producing ignorance on account of other people's trivial matters. He does not consider at all that this great gong'an of birth and death has not yet been resolved. On the thirtieth day of the twelfth month, how will he settle accounts? When the light in your eyes is about to fall, you cannot say to Old Man Yama: "Wait for me to clarify my spirit and settle my thoughts for a little while, then may we meet?" At that moment, talk of being unhindered horizontally and vertically is of no use; letting the mind be like wood and stone is also of no use. One must break through one's own mind of birth and death; only then will it do. If you break through the mind of birth and death, what further need is there to speak of clarifying the spirit and settling thoughts? What further need to speak of freedom horizontally and vertically? What further need to speak of inner and outer scriptures? When one is resolved, all are resolved; when one is awakened, all are awakened; when one realizes, all are realized—just like cutting a bundle of silk: in one stroke it is severed all at once. Realizing the boundless dharma gates is also like this; there is no sequence. Since you have awakened to the phrase "a dog has no buddha-nature," have you attained this yet? If you have not attained this, you must definitely reach such a stage. If you have already reached such a stage, you should use this dharma gate to give rise to great compassion, mixing in the mud and water amidst both adverse and favorable circumstances, sparing neither body nor life, fearing no oral karma, and rescuing all beings to repay the Buddha's kindness—only then is it the conduct of a great man. If it is not like this, there is no truth in it. Yanchong cited Confucius saying that the Way of the Changes shifts repeatedly, harmonizing this into a single thread with the Buddhist scripture's "one should give rise to that mind which abides nowhere," and further cited "quiescent and unmoving" as being no different from earth and wood; this is especially laughable. Tell him: "If you wish not to incur the karma of the Avīci hell, do not slander the Tathāgata's wheel of the true dharma." Therefore the sūtra says: "One should not give rise to a mind that abides in form; one should not give rise to a mind that abides in sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharmas." This means that this vast, quiescent, wondrous mind cannot be seen through form or sought through sound. "Should abide nowhere" means this mind has no real substance; "and give rise to that mind" means this mind is not established apart from the true—the place where it is established is itself the true. When Confucius praised the Way of the Changes as shifting repeatedly, he did not mean this. "Repeatedly" means successively; "shifts" means transforms; auspiciousness, inauspiciousness, regret, and humiliation arise from movement. The purport of shifting repeatedly is returning to the constant to accord with the Dao. How can it be merged into one lump with "one should give rise to that mind which abides nowhere"? Yanchong not only fails to understand the Buddha's meaning, but also fails to understand Confucius's meaning. You move in and out of Confucius's teaching as if strolling in a garden, and have also deeply entered the inner sanctum of our teaching; is this rustic monk fabricating like this correct or not? Therefore Guifeng said: "Originating, penetrating, advantageous, and correct are the virtues of Qian, beginning from the one qi; permanence, bliss, self, and purity are the virtues of the Buddha, rooted in the one mind. Focus the one qi to attain softness; cultivate the one mind to accomplish the Path." Only when this elder harmonized them in this way was there no partiality or regret between the two teachings of Confucianism and Buddhism. Yanchong takes "one should give rise to that mind which abides nowhere" to run through the same great purport as the Changes shifting repeatedly; I dare not agree with him. If we follow Yanchong's arrangement, then Confucius and Old Man Śākya would have to kill each other to buy straw sandals. Why? One repeatedly shifts, while the other abides nowhere. I imagine that when you read up to this point, you will surely collapse with laughter.