黃檗山斷際禪師傳心法要 1.16

1.16

A question was asked: "What is conventional truth?" The Master said: "Why speak of entanglements? Fundamentally pure, what need is there for words, questions, and answers? Simply being without any mind whatsoever is called outflow-free wisdom. In your daily walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, and in all your speech, just do not become attached to saṃskṛta dharmas; uttering a word or blinking an eye is then entirely identical with the outflow-free. Nowadays, heading toward the end of the Dharma, most of those who study Chan and the Way are attached to all sounds and sights. Why do you not, along with me, make thought after thought identical to empty space—like dry wood or a cold stone, like cold ashes or a dead fire? Only then will you have a small degree of accord. If you are not like this, on a future day you will all be interrogated and beaten by Old Yama. You need only leave behind all dharmas of being and non-being; then your mind will be like the solar disk constantly in empty space, its brightness naturally shining without having to shine. Is this not an effortless matter? When you reach this point, there is no place to alight; this is to practice the practices of all the Buddhas, which is none other than 'giving rise to this mind without dwelling anywhere.' This is your pure dharma-body, called anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi. If you do not understand this meaning, then even if you acquire much knowledge through study, practice with diligence and hardship, wear grass clothes, and eat bark, failing to recognize your own mind is entirely called heterodox practice, and you will certainly become a minion of the heavenly Māra. What benefit could there be in practicing like this? Master Zhi said: 'The Buddha is fundamentally made by one's own mind; how could one seek him in written words?' Even if you study and fully master the minds of the three classes of sages, the four fruits, and the ten bhūmis, you are still only sitting within the realm of the ordinary and the sacred. Have you not seen it said: 'All conditioned things are impermanent; they are dharmas of arising and ceasing. When its momentum is spent, the arrow falls back down, bringing about an unwelcome future rebirth. How can that compare to the gate of the asamskṛta true nature, where with a single leap one directly enters the stage of the Tathāgata?' Because you are not such people, you must go to the provisional teachings established by the ancients to broadly study intellectual understanding. Master Zhi said: 'If you do not meet an enlightened master who has transcended the world, you will vainly take the medicine of the Great Vehicle's Dharma.' Now, in all hours, whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, just learn no-mind. Over a long time, you must truly attain it. Because your strength is small, you cannot transcend頓 [immediately]; but after three years, five years, or ten years, you are bound to obtain an entry point, and will naturally understand. Because you cannot be like this, you insist on using the mind to study Chan and study the Way; what connection does that have with the Buddha-Dharma? Therefore it is said: 'All that the Tathāgata spoke was meant to transform people, just like using yellow leaves as gold to stop a child's crying; it is definitely not real.' If there were something real to be attained, one would not be a guest of our school. Moreover, what connection does it have with your original essence? Therefore the sūtra says: 'Truly not having the slightest dharma to be attained is called anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi.' If you can understand this meaning, only then will you know that both the Buddha's path and Māra's path are mistaken. Fundamentally pure and gleaming, it has no characteristics of square or round, large or small, long or short; it is outflow-free, asamskṛta, without delusion, and without awakening. Clearly seeing that there is not a single thing, there are neither humans nor Buddhas. The great chiliocosm's worlds of sand are bubbles in the ocean; all the noble sages are like flashes of lightning. Nothing is as real as the mind's true dharma-body. From antiquity to the present, it is identical with the Buddhas and ancestral masters; where is it lacking by even a single hair? Since you understand this meaning, you must strive with great effort throughout this present life. An exhalation does not guarantee an inhalation."