黃檗山斷際禪師傳心法要 1.17

1.17

A question was asked: "The Sixth Patriarch could not understand the scriptures; how did he receive the robe and become the patriarch? Elder Shenxiu was the head monk of five hundred people and acted as their instructor, able to lecture on thirty-two scriptures and treatises; why was the robe not transmitted to him?" The Master said: "Because he had a mind, which is a saṃskṛta dharma; he took what he cultivated and what he realized to be correct. Therefore, the Fifth Patriarch conferred it upon the Sixth Patriarch. At that time, the Sixth Patriarch only had silent accord, secretly receiving the Tathāgata's profound intention; therefore, the Dharma was conferred upon him. Have you not seen it said: 'The fundamental dharma of dharmas is no-dharma; the dharma of no-dharma is also a dharma. Now, when conferring the no-dharma, how could the dharma of dharmas ever be a dharma?' If you understand this meaning, only then are you called a child who has left home, and only then are you fit to practice. If you do not believe this, why did Elder Huiming run to the top of the Dayu Ridge in search of the Sixth Patriarch? The Sixth Patriarch then asked: 'What have you come seeking? Do you come seeking the robe, or do you come seeking the Dharma?' Elder Huiming said: 'I have not come for the robe; I have come only for the Dharma.' The Sixth Patriarch said: 'Quiet your thoughts for a moment, and do not deliberate on good or evil.' Huiming received his words. The Sixth Patriarch said: 'Do not think of good; do not think of evil. At just such a moment, return to me Elder Huiming's original face before your father and mother were born!' Huiming, upon these words, suddenly had silent accord. He then bowed and said: 'Like a person drinking water, naturally knowing whether it is cold or warm. I was in the Fifth Patriarch's assembly and vainly spent thirty years of effort; only today do I awaken to my former errors.' The Sixth Patriarch said: 'It is so.' When reaching this point, only then does one know that the ancestral master's coming from the West, directly pointing to the human mind and seeing its nature to become a Buddha, does not consist in words. Have you not seen: Ānanda asked Kāśyapa, 'Apart from the golden robe, what else did the Bhagavat transmit?' Kāśyapa called, 'Ānanda!' Ānanda replied, 'Yes?' Kāśyapa said: 'Knock down the flagpole in front of the gate.' This is the model of the ancestral masters. What about Ānanda being an attendant for thirty years? Just because of his extensive learning and wisdom, he was scolded by the Buddha: 'Your studying wisdom for a thousand days is not as good as studying the Way for a single day. If you do not study the Way, even a single drop of water is hard to digest.'"