大慧普覺禪師語錄 28.5

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.