大慧普覺禪師語錄 8.11

8.11

Entering the hermitage, he instructed the assembly by citing: "King Prasenajit asked the World-Honoured One: 'Within the ultimate truth, is there still conventional truth? If you say it exists, knowledge should not be one; if you say it does not exist, knowledge should not be two. As for the meaning of one and two, what is its meaning?' The World-Honoured One replied: 'In the past, under the Buddha Dragon Light, you once asked about this meaning. I now have nothing to say, and you also have nothing to hear. With nothing said and nothing heard, is this called one meaning or two meanings?'"

The Master said: "Great or small, Old Man Śākya was casually grabbed by the nostrils by a layman and turned around, quite unable to explain it away. Today, if someone asks Yunmen: 'Within the ultimate truth, is there still conventional truth? If you say it exists, knowledge should not be one; if you say it does not exist, knowledge should not be two. As for the meaning of one and two, what is its meaning?' How would you deal with it?"

After a long pause, he said: "Planting a single stalk of grass, one builds a pure monastery; breaking open a dust mote of delusion, the sutra scrolls emerge—greatly benefiting all sentient beings and accomplishing boundless, extraordinary matters." He suddenly took up his staff, struck it once, and said: "The pure monastery is already built, the dust mote of delusion is already broken, and the great sutra scrolls have already emerged. Sudden and gradual, biased and round, provisional and real, half and full are each distinct and clear. The diverse dharma-doors, diverse expedient means, diverse wisdoms, diverse causes and effects, diverse excellences, diverse practices and vows, and diverse adornments are all right on a single tip of hair of the donor, the Court Attendant, sealed and established with a single seal of the wondrous, luminous mind-seal.

Do you still have full faith in this? If you can have full faith, then right now you attain buddhahood without relying on cultivation and regulation. Not only is it like this for the donor, the Court Attendant, but from the dust-mote buddhas of the past, present, and future and the ancestral teachers of every generation, down to all spiritual mentors and the tongues of the old venerable monks throughout the realm from ancient times to the present—all are likewise sealed and established by this seal. Neither different nor identical, each wondrously luminous, each fully endowed: cultivating such practices, accomplishing such matters, fulfilling such vows, obtaining such blessings; without ancient or modern, without end or beginning, without creation or destruction, without enlightenment or delusion; such complete understanding, such realization, such ultimate attainment—these too are solely upon a single tip of hair of the donor, the Court Attendant.

This is no different from Sudhana entering Maitreya's pavilion: the sand-grain-like dharma-doors are simultaneously and suddenly realized, and immeasurable merits are universally adorned, like the interlocking radiance of Indra's net blending together, mutually absorbing, mutually playing host and guest, each circumscribing and each unbiased, universally causing countless beings—both of good mind and ungood mind—to witness all excellences, bring forth the mind of unsurpassed, complete enlightenment, and conceive an extraordinary thought.

Not only is the donor, the Court Attendant, like this, but Yunmen today is also like this. Not only are Yunmen and the Court Attendant like this, but the present great assembly of monks and laypeople—each equal, each without distinction—are all like this. Right at such a time, tell me: is it the ultimate truth, or is it the conventional truth? Does it exist, or does it not exist? Is it one meaning, or is it two meanings? Is it spoken, or is it unspoken? Is it knowledge, or is it absence of knowledge? Is it heard, or is it unheard? Try to judge it! If you can judge it, then the donor, the Court Attendant, by building the great treasure monastery and performing great Buddhist works, will not have labored in vain; if you cannot judge it, Yunmen will be drawing legs on a snake." Throwing down his staff, he patted the meditation bed and said: "Passing right through the Iron Enclosing Mountains, look south at the Northern Dipper."