大慧普覺禪師宗門武庫 1.37

1.37

Chan Master Zhaojue moved from Letan to Huxi, accepting the invitation of Drafter Prince Zichun. After the opening of the hall, all neglected tasks were revived; ascending the hall, informal gatherings, and entering the room occurred without an empty day. He once said, "The elders of the same gate, such as Huitang and Zhenjing, only investigated our late master's Chan, but did not attain our late master's Way." The Master said: "This is because Zhaojue regarded ordinary non-action, not establishing knowledge or understanding, as the Way; he no longer sought wondrous awakening, but instead took the true and sudden awakening and seeing-nature dharma gates of the buddhas, ancestors, Deshan, Linji, Caodong, and Yunmen to be conceptual setups; he regarded what is taught in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra—that the mountains, rivers, and the great earth are all things appearing within the wondrous, luminous true mind—as superficial words and conceptual setups as well; he took the ancients' discussions of the mystery and wondrousness as Chan, slandering the former sages and blinding subsequent generations. Those fellows with no sinews in their eyes and no blood under their skin followed along upside down, placid and unaware, truly pitiful! The Perfect Enlightenment Sūtra says: 'If living beings of the degenerate age wish to accomplish the Way, do not let them seek awakening, for this will only increase much learning and augment self-view.' It also says: 'Although living beings of the degenerate age seek good spiritual friends, if they encounter those with heterodox views and do not attain right awakening, this is termed the lineage of non-Buddhists; the fault lies with the heterodox teachers, not the fault of living beings.' How could these be empty words? Therefore, Master Zhenjing said in an informal gathering: 'Nowadays there is a sort of fellow who clings to "ordinary mind is the Way" as the ultimate standard. Heaven is heaven, earth is earth, mountains are mountains, waters are waters, monks are monks, laypeople are laypeople; large months have thirty days, small months have twenty-nine days—these are all clinging to grass and attaching to trees, drifting along in complete delusion without awareness. If someone suddenly asks them, "How does my hand resemble a buddha's hand?", they immediately say, "It is the master's hand." "How does my foot resemble a donkey's foot?", they immediately say, "It is the master's foot." "Everyone has a place of birth; which is your place of birth, Venerable?", they immediately say, "I am a person of such-and-such prefecture." What kind of words are these? Do not misunderstand! In all their actions, they only seek the ordinary single path as safe; they solidify it and conform to it, not daring to take another step for fear of falling into a pit or trench, always like a person blind from birth walking the road, unable to cast aside their staff for a single step, gripping it tightly and leaning upon it. Master Huitang said to students: "Go sit in the armor of doing nothing on Mount Lu." Today their descendants are like dead ashes; it is truly lamentable!'"