大慧普覺禪師語錄 30.13

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.