大慧普覺禪師語錄 30

English (machine translation) 30

Language: English

30.1

Presented by your servant Yunwen, successor to the Dharma, Chan Master Huiri, abbot of Nengren Chan Monastery on Mount Jing in the Song.

I have received your letter stating your intention to thoroughly investigate this matter of the great cause. Having made up this mind, first of all, do not be anxious: if you are anxious, you will instead be delayed. Nor can you be slack: if you are slack, you will become indolent and remiss. Just like the method of tuning a lute, the tight and the slack must hit the mean, and only then will it form a melody. Simply in daily life, where you respond to conditions, observe and watch at all times: this of mine that can decide right and wrong, crooked and straight for people—by whose gracious power is it supported? In the end, from what place does it flow forth? As you observe and watch back and forth, the road of what has ordinarily been unfamiliar will naturally become familiar. When the unfamiliar becomes familiar, then what was familiar will conversely become unfamiliar. What is the familiar? The five aggregates, the six sense-entrances, the twelve sense-fields, the eighteen elements, the twenty-five realms of existence, the avidya-karmic consciousness, the deliberating and calculating mind and consciousness, flashing day and night like mirages, without a moment's rest—these are it. This entanglement causes people to wander through birth and death, and causes people to do bad things. Once this entanglement becomes unfamiliar, then bodhi, nirvāṇa, suchness, and buddha-nature will instantly manifest before you. When they manifest, there is also no measure of manifestation. Therefore, when the ancients attained realization, they were able to say: 'When responding to the eyes, it is like a thousand suns: the myriad forms cannot escape their shadows and forms; when responding to the ears, it is like a deep valley: no sound, whether great or small, is insufficient.' Such things do not depend on seeking elsewhere; they do not borrow others' power; naturally, where one responds to conditions, they are vital and lively. Before having attained this, for now take this mind that calculates worldly defilements and turn it to the place where deliberation cannot reach. Try to deliberate and see: what is the place where deliberation cannot reach? A monk asked Zhaozhou: 'Does even a dog have buddha-nature or not?' Zhou said: 'No (Wu).' Just this single word—however many tricks you may have, please try to arrange it, please try to calculate it! Deliberating, calculating, and arranging—there is no place where it can be set down. When you only feel stifled in your belly and troubled in your mind, that is precisely the good moment: the eighth consciousness is about to cease operating. When you feel like this, do not let it go; just bring it to awareness on this word 'Wu.' Bringing it to awareness back and forth, what was unfamiliar will naturally become familiar, and what was familiar will naturally become unfamiliar. In recent years, there has been a sort of person in the monasteries who sings heterodox views and acts as a master, telling students: 'Just keep watch over quietude.' They do not know what kind of thing the watcher is, or what kind of person the quiet one is. Yet they say that quietude is the foundation, and they do not believe in awakening, claiming that awakening is branches and leaves. They even cite the monk asking Yangshan: 'Do people nowadays still rely on awakening or not?' Yangshan said: 'It is not that there is no awakening, but what can be done about falling into the secondary?' In front of a fool one must not talk of dreams, for they then take it as an actual reality, saying that awakening is falling into the secondary. They completely fail to understand that Guishan himself had words to alert and awaken students that were exceedingly earnest, saying: 'Thoroughly investigate the ultimate principle, taking awakening as the rule.' Where should these words be placed? It cannot be that Guishan misled later generations and wanted to make them fall into the secondary. Pavilion Commissioner Cao is also mindful of this matter. Fearing that he might be led astray by heterodox teachers, I recently wrote to him in the same manner as this letter, setting it down with anxious care. This gentleman's intelligence and insight far surpass ordinary people; he will definitely not go so far as to mistakenly take words of expedient means as actual realities. It is only that I have not yet met him face to face, and so was privately over-worried. I hear that you, venerable lay scholar, are also his companion in the Way. Following my brush, entanglements have unconsciously arisen. When you meet in leisure, try asking him for the letter to take a look; only then will you know that Miaoxi's expectations of people do not lie before the eyes. Our spirit and sense of duty correspond to each other, and it is not a relationship based on influence or profit. Having written one sheet, when the sheet was finished I added another, with no time to attend to outward formalities. This letter is also like that. In the previous letter, I entrusted you as an insider, and so said: 'You must by no means say, "I am already old and worn out, so what is the point?" If you act like that, then when a good thing is right before you, you will definitely let it pass by.' Although it seemed casual when writing, nonetheless the stimulus and response aligned with each other, and it unconsciously was written on paper. I am grateful that you trust Miaoxi so deeply, and so right where you manage affairs and respond to conditions in daily life, you broadly expand this dharma-gate, so as to repay the sacred sovereign's intention of seeking worthy men to bring peace to the realm; you truly do not fail your understanding. May you endure all things, from beginning to end just carrying on as you do today, unifying the Buddha's Dharma and worldly affairs into a single whole, tilling while fighting. After a long time it will become thoroughly seasoned, and in one stroke you will attain both. Would that not be wrapping a hundred thousand strings of cash around one's waist and riding a crane up to Yangzhou?

30.4

Again

30.5

Your note instructs: 'Regarding the criticism that the bell has sounded and the water clock is exhausted, in being utterly sincere toward the lord above while bringing peace to the common people below, there will naturally be those who hear the string and appreciate the sound.' May you be steadfast and forbearing in all matters. When encountering adverse or favorable circumstances, it is precisely the good moment to apply effort—what is called, 'Offering this profound mind to the dust-mote lands; this is called repaying the Buddha's benevolence.' When studying the Way ordinarily, one only wants to have its function amidst adverse and favorable realms. If adverse and favorable [circumstances] manifest before you and you give rise to distress, it is very much like ordinarily never having applied the mind in this matter. An ancestral master said: 'Circumstances and conditions have no good or bad; good and bad arise from the mind. If the mind does not forcibly label them, whence could deluded feelings arise?' Since deluded feelings do not arise, the true mind is allowed to know all pervadingly. Please constantly contemplate in this way amidst adverse and favorable circumstances; then, after a long time, distress will naturally not arise. When distress does not arise, you can drive away the demon kings and become a benevolent spirit who protects the Dharma. The previous saying, 'I am already old and worn out, so what is the point?'—the words are still ringing in my ears; how could you forget them? If you wish to know the meaning of buddha-nature, you should observe the conditions of time and season. Because you had more than ten years of leisure in the past, you naturally had the time of leisure; today, with official authority in hand, you have the time of busyness. You should reflect: during the time of leisure, who was at leisure? During the time of busyness, who is busy? You must believe that during the busy time there is the principle of the leisure time, and during the leisure time there is the principle of the busy time. Right in the midst of busyness, you should realize the intention of the sovereign in employing you; you must not forget it for a moment, alerting and examining yourself on how to repay it. If you constantly form this thought, then even on caldrons of boiling water, burning coals, mountains of knives, and forests of swords, you must step forward—how much more so with the slight adverse and favorable circumstances of the present? Because I have bonded with you in this Way, I do not hold back feelings, but lay everything completely bare.

30.6

In Reply to Palace Gate Attendant Huang Jieful

30.7

I received your letter along with many verbal entanglements. I did not expect that you would be able to play with it like this—you have truly brought it into play so that it is vital and lively; you are truly one who has verified and attained it for yourself. How delightful, how delightful! Just remain like this, and let people say: 'This official does not keep to his proper place, but speaks and discourses wildly.' His family naturally has thorough people who appreciate it; only those who have personally verified and awakened to it will know. If it is the sort who just listen to echoes, let them bore into tortoise shells and strike tiles as they will, and even if they criticize Tathāgata Chan and Patriarch Chan excellently, they still fully deserve to take a taste of Miaoxi's staff! Now tell me: is this rewarding him, or punishing him? Let all places doubt it for another thirty years!

30.8

In Reply to Magistrate Sun

30.9

I received the Vajracchedikā that you have revised and shown to me, and had the good fortune to rejoice in reading it through. Among modern literati, someone willing to pay attention to inner scriptures as you have done is indeed rare. Without grasping its purport, one cannot develop such faith; without possessing the eye to read the sutras, one cannot fathom the deep and wondrous meaning in the scriptures. Truly, this is a lotus in fire. Yet after pondering it at length, I cannot be without doubts. You impugn the holy masters of translation for failing to render the true text, confounding the original reality, adding and omitting phrases, and running contrary to the Buddha’s intent. You also say: 'Ever since I began reciting it, I realized its errors.' Wishing to seek a definitive edition to correct the errors, you found that because people had long been accustomed to spurious texts, all were identical without variance; but when you obtained the capital’s canon edition, you finally found a basis, and further examined and traced the treatises and verses of Vasubandhu and Asaṅga, finding their meanings in total accord, whereupon your doubts were dissolved. Furthermore, you consider that both Masters Changshui and Gushan followed the phrases while violating the meaning. I wonder, for you to dare make such criticisms, you must have seen the Sanskrit manuscripts translated during the Six Dynasties and thoroughly discovered the translation errors of those masters before your doubts were dissolved. But having no Sanskrit manuscript, to prune and edit the holy meaning based on subjective opinions—setting aside for now the incurring of causes and effects, slandering the holy teachings, and falling into the Avīci Hell—I fear that when people of discerning vision see it, rather than your examination of the faults of those masters, [the faults] will instead fall back upon yourself. An ancient said: 'To speak deeply to one with whom one’s acquaintance is shallow is the way to incur resentment.' I have never met you in my life. You have sought my confirmation with this sutra, wishing to circulate it for myriad generations to plant buddha-seeds in the realm of sentient beings; this is a good deed of the highest order. Moreover, taking me as an insider and anticipating news of the matter beyond physical forms, I therefore dare not refrain from speaking my mind. Long ago, when National Preceptor Qingliang composed the Huayan Commentary, he wished to correct the translators' errors, but having no Sanskrit manuscript, he merely recorded them at the end of the sutra. For instance, regarding what is said in the 'Chapter on the Inconceivable Dharmas of the Buddha': 'All buddhas have limitless bodies, their forms pure, universally entering all realms without defilement and attachment,' Qingliang merely said: '"Chapter on the Inconceivable Dharmas of the Buddha", upper fascicle, third leaf, tenth line: in "all buddhas" the older version omits the word "all".' All other omissions in the scripture editions were annotated at the end of the sutra. Qingliang was also a holy master; it was not that he could not add or delete, but that he only dared write them at the end of the sutra, because one who understands the Dharma fears it. Also, regarding the scripture's mention of 'a great lapis lazuli jewel', Qingliang said: 'I fear it should be vaidūrya; the old edition miswrote it.' Yet he did not dare alter it, and only annotated it at the end of the scripture like this. The translation masters of the Six Dynasties were none of them men of shallow understanding: the translation bureau had translators of words, translators of meaning, polishers of style, certifiers of Sanskrit, verifiers of meaning, and collators of Chinese and Sanskrit; yet you still consider them to have mistranslated the holy meaning. When you have not obtained the Sanskrit manuscript and yet rashly prune and edit, expecting later people to believe it implicitly—is that not difficult? As for your claim that Changshui followed the phrases and violated the meaning, without a Sanskrit manuscript to verify, how can you definitively declare him wrong? Although this master was an expositor, he was unlike other expositors: he once studied under Chan Master Langye Guangzhao. When asking Langye about the Śūraṅgama passage where Pūrṇa asked the Buddha: 'If it is fundamentally pure, why do mountains, rivers, and the great earth suddenly arise?', Langye raised his voice and said: 'If it is fundamentally pure, why do mountains, rivers, and the great earth suddenly arise?' Changshui experienced great awakening at those words, and only later undid his collar and called himself a lecture master. Lecture masters mostly chase lines and count ink—what you call following the phrases and not the meaning. Changshui was not without insight, nor was he one who chased lines and counted ink. 'Not by virtue of complete marks is anuttarasamyaksaṃbodhi attained'—this scriptural text is exceedingly clear. This passage is most shallow and plain; it is simply that you seek novelty to excess, wishing to establish a divergent interpretation and get others to follow you. You quote Asaṅga's commentary: 'One should see the Tathāgata through the dharmakāya, not because of the completeness of marks. If so, although the Tathāgata should not be seen through the completeness of marks, the completeness of marks should serve as the cause to attain anuttarasamyaksaṃbodhi.' To abandon this attachment, the sutra says: 'Subhūti, what do you think? Can the Tathāgata attain anuttarasamyaksaṃbodhi by the perfection of marks? Subhūti, do not form such a thought,' and so on. This meaning clarifies that the substance of complete marks is not bodhi, nor does one take complete marks as the cause, because marks are the intrinsic nature of form. This commentary is exceedingly clear; it is simply your own mistaken view and mistaken interpretation. Form is the dependent origination of marks, and marks are the dependent origination of the dharmadhātu. Crown Prince Zhaoming of Liang said: 'Do not form such a thought that the Tathāgata, not by virtue of complete marks, attains anuttarasamyaksaṃbodhi.' Among the thirty-two sections, he took this section as the section on neither annihilation nor cessation, fearing that if Subhūti thought it is not by complete marks, then dependent origination would be annihilated. For when Subhūti was originally in his mother's womb, he already knew empty tranquility and mostly did not dwell on the marks of dependent origination. Later, citing the end of Bodhisattva Guṇaprabha's commentary: 'If the perfection of marks is truly existent, when these marks perish it is called annihilation. Why? Because having been born, there is annihilation.' And fearing people would not understand, it further says: 'Why? All dharmas are of an unborn nature, and therefore far transcend the two extremes of annihilation and permanence.' Transcending the two extremes is the mark of the dharmadhātu; it speaks not of nature but of mark because the dharmadhātu is the dependent origination of the nature. Because marks are the dependent origination of the dharmadhātu, it speaks not of nature but of mark; this is what Zhaoming of Liang called neither annihilation nor cessation. This section is even clearer; again it is simply that you seek novelty to excess and forcibly create complications. If the Vajracchedikā could be pruned and edited, then anyone reading the entire Great Canon could prune and edit it according to their own subjective understanding. Just as Han Tuizhi pointed out that the character 'hua' (畫) in the Analects should be 'hua' (劃), saying the old edition was mistaken. With Tuizhi’s discernment, he could have altered it, yet he only discussed it in his writing like that. Why? It is also because one who understands the Dharma fears it. Chan Master Guifeng Zongmi composed the Commentary and Sub-commentary on the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment; only when he had verification and awakening regarding the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment did he dare set brush to paper. Because the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment says 'all sentient beings all realize perfect enlightenment', Guifeng changed 'realize' to 'possess', saying it was an error by the translator; yet not having seen the Sanskrit manuscript, he only discussed it in his commentary and did not dare alter the scripture itself. Later, Venerable Letan Zhenjing composed the Treatise on 'All Realize', fiercely berating Guifeng in the treatise, calling him a stinking fellow who broke into ordinary worldliness: 'If all sentient beings all possess perfect enlightenment without realizing it, beasts would forever be beasts, hungry ghosts would forever be hungry ghosts, and the entire worlds of the ten directions would completely be an iron hammer without a hole, with no one ever bringing forth truth and returning to the source, nor would ordinary beings need to seek liberation. Why? Because all sentient beings would already possess perfect enlightenment and would not need to seek realization.' You consider the capital's canon edition to be correct, and so rely on the capital's edition. But the capital's canon editions were sent in from outer prefectures; just like the two canons at Jingshan, both bestowed by the imperial court in its heyday, which were also written by scribes in outer prefectures. If by chance there is an error, how would you correct it? If you have no notions of self and other, you will certainly take Miaoxi’s words as utmost sincerity, and not cling stubbornly to a single great error of past and present. If you cling to your own view as correct, determined to alter and prune it, inviting everyone’s spittle and curses, and let it be carved onto printing blocks and published, Miaoxi can only rejoice and praise it. Since you took the trouble to send a person with the sutra seeking confirmation, although we are unacquainted, being intimate through the Dharma I have unwittingly spoken on and on, offending you; seeing your utmost sincerity, I have held nothing back. If you are determined to fathom the doctrinal vehicles and penetrate their profound meanings, you should seek a lecturer of renowned practice, wholeheartedly study and consult with him, and understand it thoroughly from head to tail—this is equally a way to pay attention to the net of the teachings. If, because impermanence is swift and birth and death are of great consequence, your own affair is not yet illuminated, you should wholeheartedly seek an authentic adept who can shatter the nest of birth and death, engage in dead-earnest effort with him to grind away, and suddenly break the lacquer bucket—that is the place of thorough breakthrough. If you merely want to provide talk for conversation, saying 'I have extensively studied all books and comprehend everything, I understand Chan and I understand the teachings, and I can also inspect where former translation masters and lecturers fell short, flaunting my own ability and my own understanding'—then the sages of the Three Teachings can all be scrutinized, and there is no need to ask another for confirmation before proceeding. What do you think? What do you think?

30.10

Reply to Secretariat Drafter and Zhuangyuan Zhang (Anguo)

30.11

If you are resolved to bring this matter to ultimate completion, simply keep your mind constantly open and clear, responding as things come; like someone practicing archery, after a long time they will hit the bullseye. Have you not seen that Bodhidharma said to the Second Patriarch: "You need only externally cease all conditions, inwardly have no panting of breath, and make your mind like a wall; then you can enter the Path." Nowadays, as soon as people hear this talk, they misinterpret it into a state of blunt ignorance, stiffly suppressing themselves, wishing to attain a mind like a wall. What the Patriarch called misapprehension—how can they understand expedient means? Yantou said: "The moment it is so, it is immediately not so." Affirmative phrases are cleared away, negative phrases are also cleared away—this is the very model of externally ceasing all conditions and having no panting of breath within. Even if you have not yet burst through with a sudden snap and pop, you will still not be turned around by words and phrases. When looking at the moon, cease gazing at the finger; upon returning home, stop asking about the road. When emotional consciousness is not yet broken through, the fire of the mind blazes. Just at such a moment, simply take up the huatou you doubt and keep holding to it. For example, a monk asked Zhaozhou: "Does a dog have buddha-nature or not?" Zhou said: "No (Wu)." Just keep bringing it up and calling it to awareness: it is wrong coming from the left, and it is wrong coming from the right. Moreover, you must not use your mind to wait for enlightenment; you must not take it upon yourself at the point where it is raised; you must not comprehend it as profound mystery; you must not deliberate over existence and non-existence; you must not calculate it as the "no" of true nothingness; you must not sit inside the armor of doing nothing; you must not understand it at the flash of sparks struck from stone or lightning. Keep going until there is no place to use the mind, and the mind has nowhere to go. Do not fear falling into emptiness; right here is the good spot. Suddenly, like a rat entering a bull's horn, you will see it cut off. This matter is neither difficult nor easy. Unless you have planted the seeds of prajñā-wisdom deeply in past lives, and have served true spiritual friends through vast and beginningless kalpas, perfuming right knowledge and right view into your luminous consciousness, so that when encountering situations and meeting conditions, you bump against it and stumble upon it in actual practice, like recognizing your own parents in a crowd of ten thousand people. At such a moment, without needing to ask others, naturally the seeking mind will not scatter. Yunmen said: "When it cannot be spoken, it is there; when it is not spoken, it is gone. When it cannot be deliberated, it is there; when it is not deliberated, it is gone." Then he brought it up himself, saying: "Tell me, when it is not deliberated, what is it?" Fearing again that people would not understand, he added himself: "What else could it be?" In recent years, Chan has had many paths: some take one question and one answer with an extra phrase at the end to be Chan; some gather together to deliberate over the ancients' conditions for entering the Path, saying, "Here is empty, there is solid; this phrase is profound, that phrase is wondrous," taking substitutions or alternative phrases to be Chan; some harmonize visual forms and sounds heard with the ear, taking it to be Chan based on "the three realms are mind-only, the myriad dharmas are consciousness-only"; some have no words and no speech, sitting in the ghosts' cave beneath the Black Mountain, closing their eyebrows and shutting their eyes, calling it news from the other side of King of Majestic Voice before one's parents were born, and also calling it silent illumination to be Chan. Such types do not seek wondrous awakening; they regard awakening as falling into the secondary; they regard awakening as deceiving people; they regard awakening as a contrivance. Since they themselves have never awakened, neither do they believe that there is any awakened one. Miaoxi often says to the patch-robed monks: "If one lacks awakening even in worldly crafts and arts, one still cannot attain their subtle wonder; how much less when wishing to be liberated from birth and death, yet only talking of quietude with the mouth and expecting to bring it to a close!" It is very much like putting one's head down and running east while wanting to grab things on the west: the more you seek, the further away it is; the more urgent you are, the more delayed it is. Such people are called objects of pity; in the teachings they are called those who slander great prajñā and sever the Buddha's wisdom-life; even if a thousand buddhas appear in the world, they cannot receive repentance. Though it began as a good cause, it turns around to bring an evil result. I would rather this body be pulverized like fine dust than treat the Buddhadharma as worldly sentiment. If you are resolved to confront birth and death, you must break through this lacquer tub before you can succeed. Strictly avoid having a false teacher stroke you smoothly and seal you with a winter-melon seal, whereupon you say that you are completely finished with everything. People of this sort are as numerous as stalks of rice, hemp, and bamboo. With your intelligence and insight, you will surely not swallow such foul poison; however, I also fear that through the earnestness of your application of mind and your desire for quick results, you may unknowingly and unconsciously be defiled by them. Therefore, letting my brush run on into such entanglements, if a person with clear eyes were to catch sight of this, it would be a total failure. I urge you ten thousand times to heed this: just take Zhaozhou's single word "No" (Wu) and bring it to awareness in the midst of daily response to conditions, never letting it be interrupted. An ancient worthy said: "To investigate the ultimate principle, take awakening as the criterion." If you speak so eloquently that heavenly flowers fall in confusion, yet are not awakened, it is all just the frantic running about of an insane person outside. Strive for it! Do not neglect it.

30.12

Reply to Grand Councillor Tang (Jinzhi)

30.13

Since you, Grand Councillor, have set your mind on this great matter, in this defective realm all things—false, unreal, adverse, or favorable—are each and every one an occasion to activate the trigger. Simply keep your mind constantly open and clear; in daily life, deal with and dispatch whatever matters must be done according to your lot; when touching situations and encountering conditions, constantly bring up the huatou to awareness, not seeking quick results; investigate the ultimate principle, taking awakening as the criterion. However, first of all, you must not harbor the intention of waiting for awakening. If you harbor the intention of waiting for awakening, you will be blocked in the eye of the Path by that waiting mind: the more urgent you are, the more delayed it is. Just bring up the huatou to awareness; suddenly, right at the point where it is brought to awareness, the mind of birth and death is severed, and that is the place to sit stably after returning home. Having reached such a place, you will naturally penetrate the ancients' various expedient means, and various deviant understandings will spontaneously not arise. In the teachings it is said: "Sever the mind's birth and death; cut down the mind's dense forest; wash away the mind's defilements; untie the mind's attachments; and where attachment lies, make the mind shift and turn." When it shifts and turns, there is also no principle of shifting and turning; naturally everything is clear on every point, manifest in every object; in daily life when responding to conditions, whether pure or defiled, joy or anger, favorable or adverse, it is like a pearl rolling in a bowl, turning by itself without being pushed. When reaching this occasion, you cannot pick it out and show it to others; like a person drinking water, you know for yourself whether it is cold or warm. National Master Zhong of Nanyang said: "To speak the Dharma having an attainment is the howling of a jackal." This matter is like the blue sky and the bright sun: once seen, it is immediately seen. For one who truly sees it for himself, a false teacher cannot lead him astray. The other day I also said to you face-to-face: "This matter has no secret transmission." The moment someone speaks of extraordinary mysteries, or talk of 'six ears cannot conspire together,' that is deception; you should simply grab him and spit right in his face. For a scholar to reach the rank of Grand Councillor is the most exalted and noble position in worldly dharmas. If you do not settle this matter here, you have come to South Jambudvīpa in vain; when reaping the harvest of causes and effects, you will take along a whole body of bad karma. In the teachings it is said: "Making foolish merit is the enmity of the third lifetime." What is called the enmity of the third lifetime? In the first lifetime, one creates foolish merit without seeing one's nature. In the second lifetime, one enjoys the foolish merit without shame, doing no good deeds and persistently creating karma. In the third lifetime, the foolish merit having been exhausted by not doing good deeds, when one sheds the physical shell, one enters hell like an arrow shot from a bow. A human body is difficult to obtain; the Buddhadharma is difficult to encounter. If you do not deliver this body in this lifetime, in what lifetime will you deliver this body? To study this Path, one must have a resolute determination. If one lacks a resolute determination, one is like a diviner listening to sounds: seeing people speak of the east, one follows them east; speaking of the west, one follows them west. If you have a resolute determination, you can hold fast and be the master. As Niutou Farong said: "Even if there were a dharma surpassing nirvāṇa, I would say it is also like a dream and an illusion." How much less for the false, unreal dharmas of the world—what inclination would one still have to become entangled with them? May you firm up this resolve, taking the attainment of entry as the definitive meaning; then even if all sentient beings in the great earth were to become demon kings wishing to harass and disturb you, they would find no opportunity. In prajñā, there is no wasted effort; if you keep your mind on it, even if you do not complete it in this lifetime, you will have planted the seeds deeply, so that at the end of life you will not be dragged by karmic consciousness into the bad destinies; when you switch shells and turn your head around, you will also not be ignorant of your own [true nature]. Examine this.

30.14

Reply to Judicial Commissioner Fan (Maoshi)

30.15

Your letter says: "One can practice Buddhist affairs without understanding Chan words; between ability and non-understanding, there is neither distinction nor identity." You should know that being able to practice is itself Chan words; to understand Chan words yet be unable to practice Buddhist affairs—how is that different from sitting under water crying of thirst, or sitting in a rice basket crying of hunger? You should know that Chan words are Buddhist affairs, and Buddhist affairs are Chan words; ability to practice and ability to understand depend on the person, not on the Dharma. If you further look for identity and distinction in this, that is giving rise to real understanding on an empty fist and a pointing finger, falsely conjuring up monstrosities among sense-faculties, sense-objects, and dharmas; it is like walking backward while seeking to go forward—the more urgent you are, the more delayed it is, and the more alienated and distant it becomes. If you want the mind ground to be directly clear and broad, just take ability and inability, understanding and non-understanding, identity and non-identity, distinction and non-distinction—the one who can deliberate and calculate in this way—and sweep it away into other worlds; then look toward the place that cannot be swept away, to see whether it exists or does not exist, whether it is identical or distinct. Suddenly thinking and conceptualizing will be severed; at such a moment, you will naturally not need to ask others.

30.16

Reply to Master Shengquan Gui

30.17

Now that you have received the thoughtful support of external protectors, you can naturally push aside mundane human affairs and frequently conduct Buddhist affairs with the patch-robed monks. In time it will naturally become extraordinary. Furthermore, I hope that in your room you will be meticulous with them: you must not accommodate human feelings, and you must not descend into the weeds with them; offer them straight away the provender of their proper portion, causing them to awaken for themselves and attain it for themselves—only this is the style of a venerable elder in helping people. If you see them hesitating and failing to recognize it, and immediately provide them with annotations and explanations, not only do you blind their eyes, but you also lose your own proper methods. If you do not find the right person, it means our karmic conditions are simply thus; but if you obtain one or a half who possesses the proper portion, you will also not fail your lifelong aspiration.

30.18

Reply to Elder Dai of Gushan

30.19

A special messenger arrived, and I received your letter together with incense and other tokens. I learned that you have opened your dharma hall, appeared in the world to proclaim the path at Shimen, not forgotten whence you came, offered incense for Elder Yue, and continued the Yangqi lineage. Having undertaken this affair, you must proceed vigorously from beginning to end. With that single move of true realization and true awakening that you have had all along, sit upright in the abbot's quarters, like carrying a burden of one hundred and twenty catties across a single-log bridge: if your foot slips or your hand falls, your very life cannot be preserved, so how could you pull out nails and extract wedges to save others? An ancient virtuous one said: 'This matter is like an eighty-year-old grandfather entering the examination hall—how could it be child's play?' Another ancient virtuous one said: 'If I were exclusively to expound the ancestral teachings, the grass before the dharma hall would grow ten feet deep, and I would have to hire someone to watch over the monastery.' Yantou always said: 'Cast a glance before defecation, and your eyes will be wide open.' Master of the Nation Yan's phrase 'not stepping over the stone gate'; Muzhou's 'This is an established gong'an, so I let you off with thirty blows'; Fenyang's 'Wuye, do not indulge in false thoughts!'; and whenever Luzu saw a monk enter the gate, he would turn his body, face the wall, and sit. In guiding people, you should not be blind to this style, and only then will you not lose the essential message handed down from the past. Long ago, Guishan said to Yangshan: 'To erect the dharma banner and establish the lineage, you can only succeed when the five kinds of conditions are complete in a region. The five kinds of conditions are the condition of external protectors, the condition of dānapatis, the condition of patch-robed monks, the condition of local deities, and the condition of the Way.' I hear that Lord Zhao of the Censorate is your invitation patron, and Lord Zheng, retired Director of Studies, escorted you into the monastery. Both lords are gentlemen of the realm. Viewed from this, the five conditions are somewhat prepared for you. Whenever patch-robed monks come from Min, there is none who does not praise the magnificence of your dharma assembly: patrons turn to you, scholar-officials provide external protection, the abbotship is free from demonic obstacles, and patch-robed monks gather like clouds. While your physical strength has not yet declined, you should frequently stimulate and encourage patch-robed monks regarding this matter. When extending your hands, you must be sharp and brilliant; you must not be crude or careless. In recent years, there has been a sort of merchant-like bunch who go everywhere picking up a heap and a load of counterfeit Chan; patriarchs and teachers often let them pass heedlessly, with the result that they receive emptiness and chase echoes, certifying one another in turn and misleading later generations, causing the orthodox lineage to grow faint and the wind of separate transmission directly pointing to be nearly swept from the earth. You cannot fail to be meticulous. When Grandmaster Wuzu resided at Baiyun, he once replied in a letter to Master Lingyuan: 'This summer, not a single grain was harvested from our manors, yet I do not consider it a worry. What is truly worrisome is that among several hundred patch-robed monks in the hall, not a single one has penetrated the huatou that "a dog has no buddha-nature" throughout the summer, so I fear the buddhadharma is about to perish.' Look at that! Did the intention of the masters who presided over the dharma ever treat the amount of property and money or the size of the monastery as heavy or light, or treat the trivial tasks of rice and salt as urgent? Now that you have stepped forward and accepted the name of a good spiritual friend, you should purely receive those who come from all directions with the fundamental matter. As for all the property and grain of the storehouse, hand them over to administrators who know cause and understand effect, dividing the offices and assigning duties so they may manage them, while you constantly keep hold of the general outline. It is not necessary to settle a great number of monks; for the daily gruel and meals, always arrange so there is a surplus left over, and naturally it will cost no effort. When a patch-robed monk enters the room, striking with the blade must be incisive; you must not drag through mud and water. Take, for example, Chan Master Kong of Xuefeng: when we were together at Yunju and Yunmen a while ago, this old fellow knew he did not deceive himself and was a person within the buddhadharma, so I dealt with him purely with the tongs and hammer of the fundamental matter. Later, he was naturally able to break through elsewhere. Once the great dharma was illuminated, all the tongs and hammer he had previously undergone became of immediate use to him, and only then did he know that Miaoxi does not treat the buddhadharma as personal sentiment. Last year he sent a volume of his recorded sayings, which in moments of haste or turmoil never lost the Linji lineage. I have now placed it in the communal quarters for the patch-robed monks to read. I picked up my brush and wrote an afterword to it, specifically to promote it so that genuine patch-robed monks might take it as a model for preaching the dharma in the future. If I had dragged through mud and water at the start and spoken grandmotherly Chan to him, once his eyes opened, he would certainly have cursed me without doubt. Therefore, an ancient said: 'I do not value my late master's virtue and conduct; I only value that my late master did not explain it thoroughly for me. Had he explained it thoroughly for me, how could there be today?' This is precisely that principle. Zhaozhou said: 'If you have this old monk receive people according to their capacities, the Three Vehicles and the twelve divisions of teachings are already there to receive them. Here, this old monk receives people only with the fundamental matter; if they cannot be received, it is naturally because the student's capacity is dull, and it is none of this old monk's business.' Reflect on this, reflect on this!

30.20

Letters of Chan Master Dahui Pujue, Fascicle Thirty.

30.21

Memorial of Gratitude for Bestowing the Entry of Chan Master Dahui's Recorded Sayings into the Canon.

30.22

Your servant-monk Yunwen, previously in the third month of the seventh year of Qiandao, not fearing heavenly punishment, presented the recorded sayings of his late master, Your servant Chan Master Dahui Zonggao, and further requested a special imperial decree to send them to Fuzhou for entry into the Canon. Respectfully complying with the imperial decree of the nineteenth day of the fifth month, they have already been sent to Dongchan Monastery in Fuzhou and entered into the Canon. Having ventured to submit this petition, I was just fearing culpability, when the radiant grace descended and graciously granted approval. The teachings of the Brahmā and Śākya shine brightly again, and the mountains and marshes gain vitality; all who dwell within earshot and sight are overjoyed without exception. Respectfully I consider: Your Imperial Majesty, like heaven surveying and observing, has attained the Buddha's mind-dharma; mindful that subtle words are easily extinguished, you collated the secret treasury so that it may be transmitted side by side. My late master, Your servant Zonggao, planted superior causes through a hundred kalpas and met with an auspicious convergence of a thousand years; humble and insignificant as I am, having the good fortune to partake in this extraordinary honour, what merit do my incensing and chanting possess to hope to repay the Great Creator? Your servant is exceedingly overwhelmed with reverently looking up to Heaven and the Sage, stirred with intense agitation and trembling awe. On a day of the first month of the eighth year of Qiandao, memorialized by Your servant Yunwen, Chan Master Huiri, abbot of Nengren Chan Monastery on Jingshan.

Linked texts (1)

大慧普覺禪師語錄 — Classical Chinese