六祖大師法寶壇經 1.37

1.37

「惠能於東山得法，辛苦受盡，命似懸絲。今日得與使君、官僚、僧尼、道俗同此一會，莫非累劫之緣，亦是過去生中供養諸佛，同種善根，方始得聞如上頓教得法之因。教是先聖所傳，不是惠能自智。願聞先聖教者，各令淨心，聞了各自除疑，如先代聖人無別。」

tered the tonsure for me and asked to serve me as his teacher.

“Thus did I, under the bodhi tree, reveal the East Mountain teaching. After receiving the Dharma at East Mountain, I experienced all kinds of suffering, and my life expectancy was like a dangling thread. Today I have been able to join this assembly of the prefect, government staff members, monks, nuns, and laypeople—could it but be the karmic result of successive eons? Also, that you have been able to hear the sudden teaching just given and have gained the cause for attaining the Dharma can only be because in past lives you cultivated good roots identical to those of the buddhas. The teaching is that which has been transmitted by the former sages; it is not something known to myself [alone]. I wish you would all listen to this teaching of the former sages: you should all purify your minds, and after hearing it you should all eradicate your doubts. You are no different from the former generations of sages.”

The entire assembly, after hearing this Dharma, joyfully did obeisance and dispersed.

The next day Prefect Wei asked [Huineng] to benefit [sentient beings by lecturing on the Dharma]. The master ascended the [lecture] seat and informed

the assembly, “You should all purify your minds and concentrate on the Great Perfection of Wisdom (mahāprajñāpāramitā).”

[Huineng] continued, “Good friends, bodhi is the wisdom of prajñā. People of this world possess it fundamentally and naturally. It is only because your minds are deluded that you are unable to become enlightened yourselves. You must rely on a great spiritual compatriot to show you how to see the nature. Youmust realize that there is fundamentally no distinction between the buddhanatures of the foolish and the wise—it is only because of delusion and enlightenment that [you think they are] different and that there are foolish and wise.

“I will now explain the teaching of the Great Perfection of Wisdom for you, so that you will all attain wisdom. Listen well and attentively, and I will explain this for you!

“Good friends, people of this world always recite prajñā with their mouths, but they don’t recognize the prajñā of the self-natures. This is like talking about eating, which doesn’t satisfy one’s hunger. If you just talk about emptiness with your mouths, you won’t be able to see the nature for a myriad eons. Ultimately, this is of no benefit at all.

“Good friends, ‘mahāprajñāpāramitā’ is a Sanskrit word; here we say ‘great wisdom going to the other shore.’ This must be practiced in the mind, not recited by the mouth. To recite it orally without practicing it in the mind is [as unreal] as a phantasm or hallucination, [and as evanescent] as dew or lightning. To recite it orally and practice it mentally is for mind and mouth to correspond. The fundamental nature is buddha. There is no other buddha apart from this nature.

“What is ‘mahā’? Mahā means ‘great.’ The ratiocination of the mind is vast, like space, which is boundless. [Space] is also without square and round, large and small. It is also neither blue, yellow, red, nor white. It is also without above and below, long and short. It is also without anger and without joy, without affirmation and without negation, without good and without evil, without beginning and end. The fields of the Buddha are all identical to space. The wondrous natures of people of this world are empty, without a single dharma that can be perceived. The emptiness of the self-natures is also like this.

“Good friends, don’t listen to me explain emptiness and then become attached to emptiness. The most important thing is not to become attached

to emptiness. If you empty your minds and sit in quietude, this is to become attached to the emptiness of blankness.

“Good friends, the space of this world embraces within itself the myriad things and [all] the images of form. The sun, moon, and stars; and the