無門關 1.30

1.30

無門曰。參禪須透祖師關。妙悟要窮心路絕。祖關不透。心路不絕。盡是依草附木精靈。且道。如何是祖師關。只者一箇無字。乃宗門一關也。遂目之曰禪宗無門關。透得過者。非但親見趙州。便可與歷代祖師。把手共行。眉毛廝結。同一眼見。同一耳聞。豈不慶快。莫有要透關底。麼將三百六十骨節八萬四千毫竅。通身起箇疑團。參箇無字。晝夜提撕。莫作虛無會。莫作有無會。如吞了箇熱鐵丸。相似吐又吐不出。蕩盡從前惡知惡覺。久久純熟。自然內外打成。一片如啞子得夢。只許自知。驀然打發。驚天動地。如奪得關將軍大刀入手。逢佛殺佛。逢祖殺祖。於生死岸頭得大自在。向六道四生中。遊戲三昧。且作麼生提撕。盡平生氣力。舉箇無字。若不間斷好。似法燭一點便著。

Wumen said: To investigate Chan, you must pass through the barrier of the patriarchs. For sublime awakening, you must exhaust the road of the mind until it comes to an end. If you do not pass through the barrier of the patriarchs, and if the road of the mind does not come to an end, you are altogether a ghost clinging to grass and trees. Tell me: what is the barrier of the patriarchs? Just this single word "wu" is the one barrier of the school. Thereupon it is named the Gateless Barrier of the Chan School. Those who can pass through will not only see Zhaozhou in person, but can also walk hand in hand with the successive generations of patriarchs, their eyebrows tangled together, seeing with the same eyes and hearing with the same ears. How could that not be joyous and invigorating! Is there anyone who wishes to pass through the barrier? Bring your three hundred and sixty bones and joints and your eighty-four thousand pore-openings to raise a single mass of doubt throughout your whole body, and investigate this word "wu". Rouse it day and night! Do not understand it as nothingness; do not understand it in terms of being and non-being. It is like having swallowed a hot iron ball: you try to spit it out, but cannot spit it out. Purge away all your past faulty knowledge and faulty perceptions. When it is thoroughly seasoned over a long time, naturally inside and outside will become one piece. Like a mute person having a dream, it is only known to oneself. Suddenly it bursts open, shaking heaven and earth—like seizing General Guan's broadsword into your hands: meet a Buddha, kill the Buddha; meet a patriarch, kill the patriarch! At the brink of birth and death, you attain great freedom; amidst the six destinies and four modes of birth, you sport in samādhi. And how do you rouse it? Exhaust the strength of your whole life to raise this word "wu". If there is no interruption, it will be fine—like a Dharma candle that catches fire at a single touch.