少室六門 1.115

1.115

Question again: "Why can one not?"
Answer: "If there is the slightest dharma to be attained, it is a conditioned dharma, it is cause and effect, it is undergoing retribution, it is the dharma of cyclic existence; one cannot escape birth and death. When could one attain the Buddha-way? To become a Buddha, one must see the nature. If one does not see the nature, talks of cause and effect and the like are the teachings of non-Buddhists. If one is a Buddha, one does not practice non-Buddhist teachings. A Buddha is a person without karma, without cause and effect. If there is even the slightest dharma to be attained, it is completely slandering the Buddha; on what basis could one accomplish it? If there is any attachment to a single mind, a single capability, a single understanding, or a single view, the Buddha does not permit any of it. A Buddha has neither upholding nor breaking; the mind-nature is originally empty, and neither defiled nor pure. All dharmas are without cultivation and without realization, without cause and without effect. A Buddha does not uphold precepts, does not cultivate good, does not commit evil, is not vigorous, and is not indolent. A Buddha is a person of non-contrivance. Having an attached mind and seeing a Buddha is not permitted. A Buddha is not a Buddha; do not conceptualize a Buddha. If one does not see this principle, at all times and in all places, one does not comprehend the original mind. If one does not see the nature, yet at all times plans to form notions of non-contrivance, one is a great sinner, a foolish person who falls into non-defined emptiness, dazed like a drunken person, unable to distinguish good from bad. If one intends to cultivate the dharma of non-contrivance, one must first see the nature, and only then extinguish conditioned thoughts. If one can attain the Buddha-way without seeing the nature, there is no such thing. There are people who reject cause and effect, brazenly committing evil karma, falsely claiming that it is originally empty and that doing evil is without fault. Such people fall into the continuous, dark hells with no time of release. A person of wisdom should not hold such views."