六祖大師法寶壇經 1.15

1.15

聖人既隱，天下百世雖以書傳，而莫得其明驗，故《壇經》之宗舉，乃直示其心，而天下方知即正乎性命也。若排雲霧而頓見太清，若登泰山而所視廓如也。王氏以方乎世書曰：「齊一變至於魯，魯一變至於道。」斯言近之矣。《涅槃》曰：「始從鹿野苑，終至跋提河，中間五十年，未曾說一字。」者，示法非文字也。防以文字而求其所謂也。曰：「依法不依人」者，以法真而人假也；曰：「依義不依語」者，以義實而語假也；曰：「依智而不依識」者，以智至而識妄也；曰：「依了義經不依不了義經」者，以了義經盡理也。而菩薩所謂即是宣說大涅槃者，謂自說與經同也。聖人所謂四人出世（即四依也）護持正法應當證知者，應當證知故，至人推本以正其末也。自說與經同故，至人說經如經也。依義、依了義經故，至人顯說而合義也、合經也；依法、依智故，至人密說變之、通之而不苟滯也。示法非文字故，至人之宗尚乎默傳也。聖人如春陶陶而發之也，至人如秋濯濯而成之也。聖人命之而至人效之也，至人固聖人之門之奇德殊勳者也。

tivation and no enlightenment, no cause and no result,” boring away at trivia and vying to offer their own explanations; [such people are] mistaken as to the teachings of the Perfected Man. Ah, they abandon the precepts, meditation, and wisdom and hence necessarily drift off into murky space, and there is nothing I can do about them!

How utterly unfortunate, those sentient beings who inundate their minds and float along with their consciousness, consciousness and action driving each other, following the various directions (i.e., modes of existence) with no stop from the [very] beginning. They become phenomena, they become forms, they are born along with humans and [the myriad] things, rampant throughout heaven and earth, so numerous they could never be counted. Those who attain human form are truly only one in a hundred million, and those who as humans are able to become enlightened are virtually nil. The Sage [Śākyamuni] pondered this and generated a great variety [of teachings], but there are still those under heaven who have not attained wisdom. The Sage, in order to save such as these, used many methods to heal them, but there are still those under heaven who have not awoken. The clever have disrupted themselves with wisdom, the fools have hung themselves with stupidity, and the average people have beclouded themselves in blankness. They are moved to respond to things, becoming happy at them and angry at them, sad about them and pleased about them, and their impediments increase by the myriad. Like [those] walking in the dark of night, they know not where they go. Hearing the words of the Sage, they speculate upon them and become aggrieved by them, as if they are trying to look afar through a fog. They talk about being and talk about nonbeing, they talk about not being and talk about not nonbeing, [and then] they talk about being again and talk about nonbeing again. But they only become more obscured by their improper views, and until the end of their days they never understand. The ocean is what it is because there is water, and the fish and dragons who live and die in the ocean do not see the water. The Way is what it is because of the mind, and such persons speak of the Way all the time but never see the mind. How sad!

The mind is fundamentally subtle and wondrous, abstruse and remote, difficult to illuminate and difficult to reach. Thus it is [not easy to understand].31 The Sage [Śākyamuni] has secreted himself [in nirvana], and for a hundred generations, even though there were written transmissions, [the people of this

world] under heaven were not able to understand and experience [the enlight-

enment of which they speak]. Therefore the central doctrine of the Platform

Sutra specified and straightforwardly described the mind, so that all under

heaven were for the first time able to render correct their [fundamental]

natures and [karmically endowed] life forces. It is as if you eliminate the

clouds and mists and see the great sky, or as if you climb Mount Tai and can

see all around without restriction.

According to Wang [Wenkang], who borrowed from a profane text to

say, “With a single change [the mantle] passed from Qi to Lu, and with a

single change it changed from Lu to the Way.”32 This saying is close [to the

truth]. The Nirvana [Sutra] says, “From the Deer Park in the beginning to

the Ajivatā River at the end, for fifty years [the Buddha] never spoke a sin-

gle word.” The manifestation of the Dharma is not done in words, and this

saying is to prevent us from seeking his message in words. [The Nirvana

Sutra also] says, “Rely on the Dharma, do not rely on the man”—this is

because the Dharma is true and the man (i.e., Śākyamuni) is provisional. It

says, “Rely on the meaning, do not rely on words”—this is because the

meanings are real and the words provisional. It says, “Rely on wisdom, do

not rely on knowledge”—this is because wisdom is the ultimate and knowl-

edge is false. It says “Rely on sutras that are comprehensive in meaning,

do not rely on sutras that are not comprehensive in meaning”—this is because