大慧普覺禪師語錄 28

English (machine translation) 28

Language: English

28.1

Presented by your subject, the heir to the Dharma, Chan Master Huiri Yunwen, Abbot of Nengren Chan Monastery on Mount Jing during the Song dynasty.

A thousand doubts or ten thousand doubts are just a single doubt. If you break through the doubt on the huatou, then the thousand doubts and ten thousand doubts are broken through all at once. If the huatou is not broken through, then just keep grappling with it right there. If you discard the huatou and instead give rise to doubt over other words, give rise to doubt over the scriptural teachings, give rise to doubt over the gong'ans of the ancients, or give rise to doubt amid the dust and toil of daily affairs, these are all the retinue of evil māras. Above all, you must not accept it where it is brought up, nor may you engage in thinking and calculating. Just apply your mind to contemplate where it cannot be contemplated; when the mind has nowhere to go, like a rat entering a bull's horn, you will immediately see a decisive resolution. Furthermore, if your mind is perturbed, just bring up the phrase 'a dog has no buddha-nature'. The words of the buddhas, the words of the patriarchs, and the words of the venerable elders in all quarters have a thousand differences and ten thousand distinctions. If you can penetrate this word 'wu' (not), you will penetrate them all at once, without needing to ask others. If you persistently ask others, 'What about the words of the buddhas?', 'What about the words of the patriarchs?', 'What about the words of the venerable elders in all quarters?', then for eternal kalpas there will never be a time of awakening.

28.4

In Reply to Bureau Director Lü (Longli)

28.5

I have twice received letters from your elder brother Juren. He is extremely busy over this matter, and indeed he should be busy about it—he is already sixty years of age, and his official career is also finished; what more is he waiting for? If he is not busy about it soon, how will he settle matters on the thirtieth day of the twelfth month? I hear that you, sir, have also been busy of late; precisely this one who is busy is news of the thirtieth day of the twelfth month. What is the Buddha? A dry shit-stick. If you do not penetrate this, how does it differ from the thirtieth day of the twelfth month? Poor scholars spend their whole lives boring into old paper, wishing to know every single matter, browsing extensively through crowds of books and discoursing brilliantly: What about Confucius? What about Mencius? What about Zhuangzi? What about the Book of Changes? What about order and disorder throughout the ages? Driven by these phrases until they are turned upside down, as soon as they hear someone cite a single word from the hundred schools of thought, they recite whole scrolls at once. Ashamed to be ignorant of a single thing, when asked about matters inside their own house, not one among them knows. This may be called counting others' treasures all day long without having half a coin of one's own, having made a round of coming into this world in vain. When they cast off this sack of skin, they do not know whether they will ascend to heaven or enter hell, nor do they know how they will drift into the various destinies following the force of their karma; yet if it concerns other people's households, there is nothing, great or small, they do not know. Among scholar-officials, those who have read many books have much ignorance; those who have read few books have little ignorance. Those who hold petty offices have a petty sense of self and other; those who hold high offices have a great sense of self and other. They say of themselves, 'I am clever and sharp,' yet when they face the slightest matter of benefit or harm, their cleverness is nowhere to be seen, their sharpness is nowhere to be seen, and of the books they read all their lives, not a single word can be put to use. This is because from the time they first learned the primers, they were already mistaken, only wanting to gain wealth and high rank. And among those who gain wealth and high rank, how many can there be? Are they willing to turn their heads around and investigate beneath their own feet: 'Where did this one who seeks wealth and high rank come from? Where will this one who now enjoys wealth and high rank go in the future?' Knowing neither where they come from nor where they are going, their hearts feel confused and distressed. Right when you are confused and distressed, it is nothing else—just right here look at a huatou. A monk asked Yunmen: 'What is the Buddha?' Yunmen said: 'A dry shit-stick.' Just bring up this phrase; when your contrivances are suddenly exhausted, you will awaken. By all means avoid searching through texts for proof, or carelessly speculating and making annotations. Even if you annotate it clearly and speak of it with a solid grounding, it is all the livelihood of ghosts. If the doubt is not shattered, birth and death are intertwined; if the doubt is shattered, the mind of birth and death is terminated. When the mind of birth and death is terminated, views of buddha and views of dharma disappear. When views of buddha and views of dharma have already disappeared, how much less could views of sentient beings' defilements arise again? Just take this confused and distressed mind and shift it onto the dry shit-stick, bracing against it with all your might. The mind that fears birth and death, the confused and distressed mind, the calculating and discriminating mind, the clever mind—they will naturally cease to operate. When you feel that they do not operate, do not fear falling into emptiness; if news suddenly ceases at the place where you braced, it will be the supreme joy of your life! Once news has ceased, if views of buddha, views of dharma, and views of sentient beings arise, or if you calculate and discriminate, act clever, and speak of principles, none of it will hinder you. In the four postures of daily life, just constantly let it be wide open; in quiet places and in noisy places, constantly bring up the dry shit-stick to alert yourself. As days pass and months go by, the water buffalo will naturally become tame. Above all, you must not give rise to separate doubts outwardly; when the doubt on the dry shit-stick is shattered, doubts as numerous as the sands of the Ganges will all be shattered at once. Prior to this, I also wrote in this way to Juren. Recently, when Zhao Jingming came, I received a letter in which he asked again: 'I do not know whether apart from this there is another place to apply effort or not? Furthermore, in raising a hand, moving a foot, wearing clothes, and eating meals, how should one investigate? Is it simply looking at the huatou, or is there another way to investigate? In addition, there is one great matter of doubt in my life that remains unsettled to this day: just take whether after death there is annihilation or non-annihilation—how can one see this decisively? Do not cite what is said in the sūtras and treatises, and do not point to the gong'ans of the ancients; solely based on what is right before us, directly, straightforwardly, and clearly point out and analyze the actual place of annihilation or non-annihilation.' Seeing him speak like this, he is actually not as good as a simple fellow in a hamlet of three houses, who does not have so much dung and filth and can die briskly. I explicitly told him: 'Thousands of doubts and tens of thousands of doubts are just one doubt; when the doubt on the huatou is shattered, thousands of doubts and tens of thousands of doubts are shattered all at once. If the huatou is not shattered, then just remain with it and grapple. If you discard the huatou and instead go to raise doubts over other texts, raise doubts over the scriptural teachings, raise doubts over ancient gong'ans, and raise doubts amid the worldly toil of daily life, these are all the retinue of Māra. Furthermore, you must not assume understanding at the place where it is brought up, nor may you calculate and conjecture; just attentively deliberate on that which cannot be deliberated—when the mind has nowhere to go, like a rat entering a cow's horn, you will see a decisive end.' Having written to him so clearly, he comes again asking so anxiously and fretfully, not knowing where all that cleverness and knowledge has gone. He did not believe it when told that when it comes to this point, not a single word of the books read throughout his life can be used! Now, having no alternative, I must discharge some foul air for him again; if I were to just let it drop like this, it would seem that Miaoxi, having been questioned by him, could not answer. As soon as this letter arrives, send it to him to read. Juren said himself: 'I am sixty years old, and this matter is not yet settled.' I ask him: 'Is that which is unsettled the one who raises a hand, moves a foot, wears clothes, and eats meals?' If that which is unsettled is the one who raises a hand, moves a foot, wears clothes, and eats meals, how do you intend to settle him? Little do you know that this very one who wishes to know and decisively see whether after death there is annihilation or non-annihilation is the one who will receive the iron staff before Old Man Yama! If this doubt is not shattered, you will wander in birth and death without end. I tell him: 'Thousands of doubts and tens of thousands of doubts are just one doubt; if the huatou is shattered, the doubt over annihilation or non-annihilation after death will instantly melt like ice and shatter like tiles.' To further demand a direct and clear pointing out and analyzing of annihilation or non-annihilation—how does such a view differ from that of non-Buddhists? What is the use of composing so many particles of classical prose throughout his life? Since he has discharged such foul air from afar to fumigate people, Miaoxi cannot just let it drop like this; I too must discharge some foul air to fumigate him in return. He instructed me not to cite scriptural teachings or ancient gong'ans, but solely based on what is right before us, directly and clearly point out the actual place of annihilation or non-annihilation. Formerly, Chan Master Zhidao asked the Sixth Patriarch: 'Since leaving home, this student has read the Nirvāṇa Sūtra for nearly ten years, but has not understood its great meaning. I pray that the master will bestow instruction.' The Patriarch said: 'Where is it that you have not settled?' He answered: '"All conditioned phenomena are impermanent, they are the dharma of arising and ceasing; when arising and ceasing have ceased, the joy of peaceful extinction appears." I have doubts regarding this.' The Patriarch said: 'How do you doubt it?' He answered: 'All sentient beings have two bodies: the physical body and the dharma body (this is of the same path as Juren). The physical body is impermanent, having arising and ceasing; the dharma body is permanent, without knowledge or perception. The sūtra says: "When arising and ceasing have ceased, the joy of peaceful extinction appears." I do not know which body undergoes peaceful extinction, and which body experiences joy? If it is the physical body, when the physical body perishes, the four elements scatter, which is entirely suffering; suffering cannot be called joy. If the dharma body undergoes peaceful extinction, it is identical to grass, trees, tiles, and stones—who would experience joy? Furthermore, the dharma-nature is the substance of arising and ceasing, and the five aggregates are the functions of arising and ceasing; with one substance and five functions, arising and ceasing are permanent. Arising is the function arising from the substance; ceasing is gathering the function back into the substance. If rebirth is allowed, then kinds of sentient beings are neither severed nor annihilated; if rebirth is not allowed, then they return permanently to peaceful extinction, identical to insentient things. If so, all dharmas would be confined and suppressed by nirvāṇa and could not even arise—what joy could there be? (He could share the same indictment with Juren.)' The Patriarch, coming to this point, could not employ the methods of Linji and Deshan, so he discharged some air back to him, saying: 'You are a son of Śākya; why do you practice the non-Buddhist heterodox views of annihilation and permanence to discuss the supreme vehicle's Dharma? According to your understanding, apart from the physical body there is a separate dharma body, and apart from arising and ceasing you seek peaceful extinction. Furthermore, deducing that nirvāṇa is permanent joy, you say that there is a body that experiences it; this is clinging greedily to birth and death and indulging in worldly pleasures. You should now know that because all confused people identify the combination of the five aggregates as the mark of their self-substance and discriminate all dharmas as marks of external dust, loving life and hating death, their thoughts shifting from moment to moment, not knowing that these are dreamlike, illusory, and false, they vainly undergo cyclic existence; taking the permanent joy of nirvāṇa, they turn it into a mark of suffering and chase after it all day long. The Buddha pitied this and therefore revealed the true joy of nirvāṇa: in an instant there is no mark of arising, in an instant there is no mark of ceasing, and there is no longer any arising and ceasing to be ceased (at this point, please open your eyes); this is peaceful extinction manifesting before you. Right when it manifests, there is also no measure of manifestation; this is called permanent joy. This joy has no one who experiences it, nor is there anyone who does not experience it (this is somewhat closer); how could there be designations of one substance and five functions? How much less could one say that nirvāṇa confines and suppresses all dharmas so that they never arise—this is slandering the Buddha and defaming the Dharma (Juren also has a share of this). Listen to my verse (he cannot explain it away): / "The unsurpassed great nirvāṇa / Is perfectly bright, constantly quiescent and shining. / Ordinary fools call it death; / Non-Buddhists grasp it as annihilation. / Those who seek the two vehicles / Regard it as non-action. / These all belong to conceptual reckonings, / The root of the sixty-two views. / Falsely establishing illusory names, / What is the true meaning? (If Juren wants to see the actual place, just look at this single sentence!) / Only an extraordinary person (I have not yet seen such a person) / Thoroughly penetrates without grasping or rejecting (let Juren doubt for another thirty years). / Because he knows the dharma of the five aggregates / And the self within the aggregates, (Juren is inside here seeking an exit with no way out) / Outwardly manifesting various forms (do not let your vision blur) / And every single sound, (misleading people to death) / Equal, like dreams and illusions, (saved halfway) / He gives rise to neither views of ordinary nor sacred, / Nor does he make an interpretation of nirvāṇa; (nor have I seen such a person) / The two extremes and the three times are severed. / Constantly responding to the functions of the sense faculties, / Yet not giving rise to the thought of functioning; / Discriminating all dharmas, / Yet not giving rise to the thought of discrimination. / The kalpa-fire burns the ocean floor; / The wind whips the mountains together in collision. / The true, permanent joy of peaceful extinction: / Such is the mark of nirvāṇa. / I now force myself to speak / To cause you to abandon heterodox views; (it is just that Juren refuses to abandon them) / Do not interpret according to my words, (let Juren remember this) / And I will allow you to know a small portion. (Even this small portion is not needed.)"' Zhidao, hearing the verse, suddenly attained great awakening (quite a few entanglements!). Just this tangle of vines is precisely the finger directly and clearly pointing it out to Juren. When Juren sees this, if he says it is still what is stated in sūtras and treatises, or still points to ancient gong'ans—if he still maintains such a view, he will enter hell as swift as a shot arrow.

28.6

Reply to Secretariat Drafter Lü (Juren)

28.7

I understand that in your daily activities you do not cease applying effort. When your effort matures, it will strike and trigger the crucial mechanism. What is called 'effort' is turning the mind that calculates worldly defilements back onto the dried shit-stick, making cognitive consciousness inoperative, just like a wooden or clay puppet. When you feel dazed and darkened, with nothing to take hold of and nothing to grasp, precisely that is the good news. Do not fear falling into emptiness, and do not calculate backward and forward about when you will attain enlightenment. If you harbor this mind, you will immediately fall into heterodox ways. The Buddha said: 'This Dharma is not something that conceptual thinking and discrimination can understand.' To cling to it immediately gives birth to disaster. Who is it that knows that conceptual thinking and discrimination cannot understand? It is merely this Lü Juren—you must not turn your head and brain around any further! Previously, in my reply to Longli's letter, I thoroughly exposed the sicknesses of Chan. The buddhas and patriarchs have not a single dharma to give to people; they only require that the person themselves believe in themselves, approve of themselves, see for themselves, and awaken for themselves. If one only takes what others say from their mouths, I fear it will lead one astray. This matter definitely transcends the marks of speech, transcends the marks of mental conditioning, and transcends the marks of written words. The one who can know transcendence of all marks is also merely Lü Juren. The one who doubts whether after death there is annihilation or no annihilation is also merely Lü Juren. The one who seeks a direct and immediate instruction is also merely Lü Juren. Throughout the twelve periods of the day in daily activities, whether angry or delighted, thinking or discriminating, sluggish or restless, all are merely Lü Juren. Only this Lü Juren can perform all kinds of extraordinary transformations, can roam together with the buddhas and patriarchs in the radiant ocean of quiescent and great liberation, and accomplish worldly and supramundane matters—it is only that Lü Juren does not have sufficient faith in it. If your faith reaches it, please rely on this footnote to enter this samādhi. Suddenly rising from samādhi, losing the nostrils given by your mother, this precisely will be penetrating through to the very end.

28.8

Another [letter]

28.9

Your disciple [Seng]yu came passing through and presented the teachings you bestowed; reading them brought me great joy and comfort. One can know that impermanence is swift: a hundred years of time is like a flash of lightning, which means the time for harvesting the fruits of your causes has arrived. How does one feel the dried shit-stick? When you have nothing to take hold of, no flavor, and are suffocated inside your chest, that precisely is the good news. Above all, you must not assume responsibility at the place where it is brought up, nor may you throw it into the armor of nothing-to-do; it must not be that when brought up it exists, and when not brought up it does not exist. Simply turn the mind that calculates worldly defilements back onto the dried shit-stick; calculating back and calculating forth until there is nothing you can do, your tricks suddenly exhausted, you will naturally awaken on your own. You must not use the mind to wait for enlightenment; if you use the mind to wait for enlightenment, throughout eternal eons you will never be able to attain enlightenment. Previously, in my reply to Longli's letter, I thoroughly exposed the ailments of scholar-officials. I understand that you keep it by your seat; if you apply effort according to this, even if you have not thoroughly awakened, you will still be able to distinguish between the heterodox and the orthodox and will not be obstructed by demonic obstacles. You will also have planted the seeds of prajñā deeply: even if you do not finish it in this life, when you emerge in a future life you will enjoy it ready-made without expending effort, nor will you be seized by evil karma, and when approaching the end of life you will also be able to transform karma—how much more so if there is a single moment of accord! Every day, by all means do not think of other matters; only think of the dried shit-stick, and do not ask when you will awaken—this is my earnest prayer. When you awaken, there is also no particular time, nor will you startle the crowd or move the multitude; right in that instant, completely settled and tranquil, naturally you will not doubt the buddhas, will not doubt the patriarchs, will not doubt birth, will not doubt death. Reaching the ground of no doubt, this is precisely the Buddha-ground. On the Buddha-ground there is originally no doubt, no awakening and no delusion, no birth and no death, no existence and no non-existence, no nirvāṇa and no prajñā, no buddhas and no sentient beings, and also no one who speaks thus; this speech is also not accepted, nor is there anyone who does not accept it, nor is there anyone who knows non-acceptance, nor is there anyone who speaks thus of non-acceptance. If Juren has faith that reaches this, the buddhas are also just like this, the patriarchs are also just like this, awakening is also just like this, delusion is also just like this, doubt is also just like this, birth is also just like this, death is also just like this, daily defilements are also just like this, annihilation or non-annihilation after death is also just like this, serving as an attendant official in the imperial court is also just like this, being at a Daoist temple in a quiet place is also just like this, residing at Jingshan surrounded by a assembly of seventeen hundred is also just like this, being placed under surveillance in Hengzhou is also just like this. Can Juren still have faith that reaches this? If faith reaches it, it is also just like this; if faith does not reach it, it is also just like this. Ultimately, how is it? Like this, like this; 'like this' is also just like this.

28.10

Reply to First-Degree Graduate Wang (Shengxi)

28.11

In your youth you established yourself on your own and stood atop the heads of all people, not entrapped by wealth and rank. Were it not sustained by the power of vows over hundreds of eons and thousands of lives, how could this be achieved? Furthermore, you are able to apply yourself earnestly to this one great matter, unregressing from thought to thought, possessing decisive faith and endowed with decisive resolve. How could an ordinary fellow achieve this? Old Gautama said: 'Only this one matter is real; the other two are not true.' Please apply the whip and do not neglect it; worldly matters are just this. Did not the ancient sage say: 'If in the morning one hears the Way, in the evening one may die without regret'? I wonder what Way it was that was heard? Arriving here, how can blinking an eye be permitted? You must not go on quoting 'My way is bound together by a single thread.' You must believe in yourself and awaken for yourself; what can be spoken of is ultimately without proof. If you have seen it for yourself, awakened to it for yourself, and had faith in it reach to the end, then if it cannot be spoken of and cannot be described, that does not hinder anything. What is to be feared is only those who can speak semblances and describe semblances, yet do not see and do not awaken; Old Gautama pointed them out as persons of overweening pride, also called them slanderers of prajñā, also called them great liars, and also called them destroyers of the Buddha's wisdom-life—even if a thousand buddhas appear in the world, they cannot be granted repentance. If you penetrate the huatou 'a dog has no buddha-nature', this kind of talk will turn out to be false speech. For now, you must not immediately understand it as false speech. Recently I received two letters in succession from Lü Juren, in both of which he said: 'The letter in reply to Longli from mid-summer I always keep by my seat, taking attainment as my deadline.' I also heard: 'He once copied and presented it to you; noble sons of recent times like him are like the uḍumbara flower appearing once in a long time.' When previously on the mountain, whenever I spoke this kind of talk with you, seeing your eyes steady and motionless, you grasped ninety-nine percent of it, lacking only a sudden cracking sound. If you obtain that sudden cracking sound, then Confucianism is Buddhism, Buddhism is Confucianism; monk is lay, lay is monk; ordinary is sage, sage is ordinary; I am you, you am I; heaven is earth, earth is heaven; waves are water, water is waves. Clotted cream, butter, and ghee are stirred into a single flavor; bottles, plates, hairpins, and bracelets are melted into a single gold. It depends on me, not on others. Reaching this realm, it is commanded by me: as it is said, 'I am the Dharma King, sovereign in the Dharma.' How could gains and losses, right and wrong, be an obstruction? This is not forced; the Dharma is just so. This realm—except for the old fellow Wugou, how could other people have faith that reaches it? Even if their faith reached it, how could they gain entry? You have already had faith reach it, already caught sight of it, and already been able to distinguish what is heterodox and what is orthodox; it is only that you have not yet gained entry. When you gain entry, without distinguishing old from young, without depending on wise or foolish, it is like directly conferring the station of Brahmā upon an ordinary person, with no gradations or stages whatsoever. It is just as Yongjia said: 'In one leap, directly entering the Tathāgata-ground.' Just listen to me; I will certainly not mislead you.

28.12

Another [letter]

28.13

All conditions having ceased for me, my daily life is simply like this; there is no need for you to be anxious on my account. On your own part, what is lacking? In the world, you can be called completely fulfilled in ten thousand ways. If only you can turn yourself over and make a single leap within this gate, how would it merely be like having a hundred thousand strings of cash wrapped around your waist and riding a crane up to Yangzhou? Formerly, Lord Yang Danian, at the age of thirty, met Venerable Guanghui Lian and removed the thing obstructing his chest. From then on, whether at court or dwelling in the countryside, he maintained a single standard from start to finish, not moved by fame and merit, nor robbed away by wealth and rank; yet neither was it through any deliberate intention to make light of fame, merit, wealth, and rank—it was because where the Way resides, the Dharma is just so. Zhaozhou said: 'You are all driven by the twelve hours of the day; this old monk can drive the twelve hours.' This old fellow's saying was not a forced effort; it is also because the Dharma is just so. In general, pursuing learning and pursuing the Way are one and the same. Yet today's scholars often take humaneness, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness as learning, and take investigating things, loyalty and reciprocity, a single thread running through it all, and the like as the Way. They only go on as if guessing at riddles, or like the blind men touching an elephant, each asserting a different part. Did not the Buddha say? 'To measure the Tathāgata's realm of complete enlightenment with a thinking mind is like taking a firefly's glow to burn Mount Sumeru.' When confronting birth, death, calamity, and fortune, they find no strength at all; this is precisely why. Yangzi said: 'That by which the scholar cultivates is nature; nature is the Way.' The Yellow-Faced Old Fellow said: 'Nature becomes the unexcelled Way.' Guifeng said: 'Doing deeds endowed with righteousness is the alert and awake mind; doing deeds devoid of righteousness is the mad and disordered mind. Madness and disorder arise from emotional thoughts; at the end of life, one is dragged by karma. Awakening does not rely on emotion; at the end of life, one can transform karma.' What is called 'righteousness' (yi) here is the sense of proper principle, not the righteousness of humaneness and righteousness. But as I see it now, this old fellow too could not avoid cleaving empty space in two. Humaneness is the humaneness of nature; righteousness is the righteousness of nature; propriety is the propriety of nature; wisdom is the wisdom of nature; trustworthiness is the trustworthiness of nature; and the righteousness of proper principle is also nature. Doing deeds devoid of righteousness goes against this nature; doing deeds endowed with righteousness accords with this nature. However, acceding to or going against it lies with the person, not with nature. Humaneness, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness are in nature, not in the person. Persons have the worthy and the foolish; nature has none. If humaneness, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness lay in the worthy and not in the foolish, then the Way of the sages would involve selecting and discarding, like rain falling from heaven choosing ground upon which to descend. Therefore it is said: 'Humaneness, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness are in nature, not in the person.' The worthy and foolish, acceding and going against, lie with the person, not with nature. As for what Yangzi called 'cultivating nature,' nature cannot be cultivated either; it is merely acceding or going against, worthy or foolish. This is what Guifeng meant by 'awakening and madness,' and what Zhaozhou meant by 'driving the twelve hours and being driven by the twelve hours.' If you recognize the place where the nature of humaneness, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness arises, then investigating things, loyalty and reciprocity, and a single thread running through it all are already within it. Dharma Master Sengzhao said: 'How could one who can be heaven and can be human be capable of being so through heaven and human?' Therefore it is said: 'Pursuing learning and pursuing the Way are one and the same.' In general, when sages establish teachings, they do not seek fame nor boast of their achievements. It is like spring moving through flowers and trees: those endowed with this nature, when the seasonal conditions arrive, are each unaware of the other; according to the size, squareness, roundness, length, or shortness of their roots and natures, whether blue, yellow, red, or green, whether foul or fragrant, they burst forth simultaneously. It is not that spring is able to be large or small, square or round, long or short, blue or yellow, red or green, foul or fragrant; these are all inherently possessed natures, merely bursting forth upon encountering conditions. Baizhang said: 'If you wish to know the meaning of buddha-nature, you should observe seasonal conditions. When the time arrives, its principle manifests of itself.' Furthermore, Master Rang said to Master Ma: 'Your studying the mind-ground Dharma gate is like sowing seeds; my expounding the essentials of the Dharma is like heavenly moisture. Because your conditions match, you shall see its Way.' Therefore it is said: 'When sages establish teachings, they do not seek fame nor boast of their achievements; they only cause scholars to see their nature and accomplish the Way.' Old Fellow Wugou said: 'When the Way is in a mustard seed, the mustard seed is weighty; when the Way is in the world, the world is weighty—this is it.' You have once ascended Wugou's hall, yet have not entered his inner chamber; you have seen the exterior, yet have not seen the interior. A hundred years of time is just within a single kṣaṇa. If you awaken in an instant, all that was said above is not real meaning. Yet once awakened, whether taking it as real is also up to me, and taking it as unreal is also up to me. Like a gourd on the water, untouched by anyone, it constantly drifts freely; touch it and it moves, press it down and it rolls about smoothly. This is not a forced effort; it is also because the Dharma is just so. Regarding Zhaozhou's huatou 'a dog has no buddha-nature,' you are like someone hunting a thief: you already know the lair, but have just not captured him yet. Please quickly apply your energy; do not allow the slightest interruption. At all times, in walking, standing, sitting, or lying down; in reading books and histories; in cultivating humaneness, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness; in serving your elders; in instructing and admonishing scholars; in eating porridge and taking meals—grapple closely with it. Suddenly the cloth bag will burst open; then what more is there to say?

28.14

Reply to Auxiliary Academician Zong

28.15

Your letter instructs: 'In responding to conditions day by day, I tread upon differentiated realms, yet I am never not within the Buddhadharma. Moreover, in the midst of daily demeanor and movement, I use the huatou "a dog has no buddha-nature" to smash and eliminate emotional defilements.' If you practice like this, I fear you will never attain awakening and entry in the end. Please look beneath your own feet: from where do differentiated realms arise? In the midst of movement, demeanor, and social intercourse, how can you use the huatou 'a dog has no buddha-nature' to smash and eliminate emotional defilements? And who is the one able to know about smashing and eliminating emotional defilements? Did not the Buddha say: 'Sentient beings are inverted; they delude themselves and chase after objects. Objects originally have no intrinsic nature; those who delude themselves simply chase after them of their own accord.' Realms originally have no differentiation; those who delude themselves simply differentiate them on their own. Since you tread daily in differentiated realms, you are also within the Buddhadharma; since you are within the Buddhadharma, then there are no differentiated realms; since you are within differentiated realms, then it is not the Buddhadharma. Picking up one and letting go of another—when will there ever be an end? When the butcher Broad Forehead was at the Nirvāṇa assembly, he laid down his butcher's cleaver and immediately became a buddha on the spot. How could there have been so much chattering and vexation? In daily life, where you respond to conditions, the moment you feel that you are treading in differentiated realms, simply right at the point of differentiation, bring up the huatou 'a dog has no buddha-nature.' You do not need to form thoughts of smashing and eliminating, you do not need to form thoughts of emotional defilements, you do not need to form thoughts of differentiation, and you do not need to form thoughts of the Buddhadharma. Just look at the huatou 'a dog has no buddha-nature'; just bring up the single word 'No' (wu). Neither do you need to harbor a mind waiting for enlightenment. If you harbor a mind waiting for enlightenment, then the realms will also be differentiated, the Buddhadharma will also be differentiated, emotional defilements will also be differentiated, the huatou 'a dog has no buddha-nature' will also be differentiated, the places of interruption will also be differentiated, the places without interruption will also be differentiated, the places where you suffer delusion and agitation from emotional defilements and body and mind are ill at ease will also be differentiated, and that which is able to know these many differentiations will also be differentiated. If you want to eliminate this sickness, just look at the single word 'No.' Just look at the butcher Broad Forehead laying down his butcher's cleaver and saying: 'I am one among the thousand buddhas.' Is this real or empty? If you deliberate over real or empty, you fall back into differentiated realms again. It is better to cut it in two with a single blow of the sword; you must not think of after and deliberate on before. If you think of after and deliberate on before, then there is differentiation once again. Xuansha said: 'This matter cannot be circumscribed. When the path of thought is severed, without relying on adornment it is originally true and tranquil; in movement, functioning, speech, and laughter, it is luminous everywhere, lacking nothing at all.' People today do not awaken to the principle within this; they blindly tread in affairs and dust of their own accord, contaminated and attached everywhere, bound fast at every turn. Even if they awaken, the dusty realms are chaotic and names and forms are unreal, so they intend to congeal the mind and gather their thoughts, collect affairs and return to emptiness, close their eyes and conceal their vision; whenever a thought arises, they repeatedly smash and eliminate it, and as soon as a subtle thought is born, they promptly suppress it. Such a view is an outsider fallen into empty annihilation, a dead man whose soul has not dispersed, dim and murky without sensation or awareness, plugging one's ears to steal a bell—vainly deceiving oneself. What your letter says is entirely the sickness rebuked by Xuansha, the pit in which heterodox teachers of silent illumination bury people; you cannot fail to know this. When bringing up the huatou, you do not need to use so many tricks at all; just in walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, do not allow it to be interrupted. In joy, anger, grief, and pleasure, do not produce distinctions. Bringing it up again and again, looking at it again and again, when you feel there is no path of reason, no flavor, and your mind is hot and stifled—that is precisely the place for you to surrender your life. Remember this! Remember this! Do not regress upon seeing such a realm; such a realm is precisely the message of becoming a buddha and becoming a patriarch. Nowadays, the cohorts of heterodox teachers of silent illumination merely take wordlessness and speechlessness as the ultimate principle, calling it the matter beyond King of Wonderful Voice, or calling it the matter before the empty kalpa. They do not believe there is a gate of enlightenment; they take enlightenment to be deception, take enlightenment to be a second head, take enlightenment to be an expedient expression, take enlightenment to be words for guiding beginners. People of this sort deceive others and deceive themselves, mislead others and mislead themselves; this too you cannot fail to know. In the four deportments of daily life, when treading in differentiated realms, the moment you feel it is effortless is precisely the place where you gain strength. The place where you gain strength is extremely effortless; if you use a single hair's breadth of strength to prop it up, it is definitely a heterodox dharma, not the Buddhadharma. Just muster a lasting determination to grapple closely with the huatou 'a dog has no buddha-nature.' Grappling back and forth until the mind has nowhere to go, suddenly it will be like waking from a dream, like a lotus flower opening, like parting the clouds to see the sun. When you reach such a time, it will naturally become a single whole. Just in the topsy-turvy places of daily life, only look at the single word 'No'; do not care whether you awaken or do not awaken, whether you penetrate or do not penetrate. The buddhas of the three periods are simply people with nothing to do; the successive generations of patriarchs are also simply people with nothing to do. An ancient worthy said: 'Just penetrate non-affair amidst affairs; seeing forms and hearing sounds, there is no need to be deaf.' Another ancient worthy said: 'The fool eliminates objects but does not forget the mind; the wise person forgets the mind and does not eliminate objects.' Being without mind in all places, the various differentiated realms will naturally vanish of themselves. Nowadays, scholar-officials are mostly impatient and want to understand Chan right away; they make reckonings and deliberations upon the scriptural teachings and in the sayings of the patriarchs, wanting to explain them with distinct clarity. Little do they know that the place of distinct clarity is precisely the matter without distinct clarity. If you can penetrate the single word 'No,' whether it is distinctly clear or not distinctly clear, there is no need to ask others. This old fellow's teaching scholar-officials to let themselves be dull is precisely this principle. Being the top graduate on the list of dullards is not bad either; I only fear drawing a blank, ha-ha!

28.16

Reply to Vice Grand Councillor Li (Taifa)

28.17

Your letter states: 'The multilayered dharmadhātu of the Avataṃsaka is definitely not empty words. Since they are not empty words, there must be a point of entrustment, and there must be a point of self-affirmation. Reading to this point, I sighed in admiration for a long time.' When scholar-officials face life, death, misfortune, and fortune, eight or nine out of ten reveal their utter helplessness in what they have studied throughout their lives. Examining their conduct, they are inferior to a simple man in a three-family village whose mind cannot be agitated by wealth, rank, poverty, or lowliness. Comparing them in this way, there are many cases where the wise are inferior to the foolish, and the noble are inferior to the base. Why is this? Because when birth, death, misfortune, and fortune appear before them, that moment allows for no pretense. What you, Minister Participator, have studied throughout your life is already manifest in your actions; when facing misfortune and fortune, like refined gold entering fire, you appear all the more bright and dazzling. Moreover, you decisively know that the multilayered dharmadhātu of the Avataṃsaka is definitely not empty words; thus, you surely do not conceive it as another thing. The rest of the ups and downs, whether adverse or favorable, proper or perverse, are likewise not other things. I hope that you will constantly maintain this contemplation. Miaoxi is also within it. On another day, following one another to the shores of solitude, we shall form an affinity of incense and lamp for future lives, bringing the multilayered dharmadhātu to completion and making its reality actual—how could this be a small benefit? One must further add a footnote: this very tangle of words right now must strictly not be understood as an allegory pointing to things. A smile.

28.18

In Reply to Vice Director Zeng (Tianyin)

28.19

Your natural disposition is close to the Way; your body and mind are pure, without other conditions creating obstacles. Just this one part—who can match it? Furthermore, in walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, you constantly bring to mind and attend to the essential points shown by this old monk. Let alone a single thought corresponding where everything is settled, even if in this life you do not break through completely, if you just hold out like this until the thirtieth day of the twelfth month, old Yama will have to retreat three thousand miles! Why is this? Because thought after thought is in prajñā, without disparate thoughts and without interruption. Consider how even the Daoists, using a deluded mind to visualize and concentrate, can still achieve success through days and months, not being commanded by earth, water, fire, and wind; how much more so when one's entire thought abides in prajñā—on the thirtieth day of the twelfth month, how could it fail to turn karma? Nowadays, people mostly study the Way with a mind seeking attainment; this is true delusion within non-delusion. Just let it be free and easy; yet do not make it too tight, and do not make it too loose. Simply doing the practice like this saves boundless mental effort. For you, what was raw is already ripe, and what was ripe is already raw; throughout the twelve periods of the day, you naturally do not stick to a withered mind and forgotten thoughts, or hold on to your mind with concern. Although you have not penetrated and broken through, the various māras and outsiders are already unable to take advantage of you; you can also share one hand and one eye with the various māras and outsiders, accomplishing their affairs without falling into their categories. Except for you alone, to whom can this be spoken? Others not only cannot practice as you do, but may also not be able to believe in it fully. Just look into the huatou: as you look on and on, when you feel there is no handle, no flavor, and your mind is suffocated and frustrated, this is precisely the right time to exert effort—strictly avoid following after it! Just this place of frustration is where one becomes a buddha and an ancestor, cutting off the tongues of everyone under heaven. Do not neglect this! Do not neglect this!

28.20

Recorded Sayings of Chan Master Dahui Pujue, Fascicle 28

Linked texts (1)

大慧普覺禪師語錄 — Classical Chinese