黃檗山斷際禪師傳心法要 1.5

1.5

The master said to Xiu: All Buddhas and all sentient beings are only this One Mind; there is no other dharma besides. This mind from beginningless time has never been produced and has never been extinguished. It is neither blue nor yellow; it has neither form nor characteristics. It does not belong to existence or non-existence, nor is it reckoned as new or old. It is neither long nor short, neither large nor small. It transcends all limitations, designations, traces, and dualities. Right in its essence, it is just this; stirring a thought is immediately to deviate. It is like empty space, without boundaries and unfathomable. Only this One Mind itself is the Buddha; between the Buddha and sentient beings there is no difference at all. It is only that sentient beings have attachment to characteristics and seek outward. Seeking it, they lose it all the more. It is making a Buddha search for a Buddha, using the mind to catch the mind; though they exhaust kalpas and wear out their bodies, in the end they can never attain it. They do not know that if they cease thoughts and forget deliberations, the Buddha naturally appears before them. This mind itself is the Buddha, and the Buddha is none other than sentient beings. When it is a sentient being, this mind does not diminish; when it is all the Buddhas, this mind does not increase. Even as for the six pāramitās, the ten thousand practices, and guṇas numerous as the sands of the Ganges, they are originally complete in themselves without relying on cultivation or addition. Meeting conditions, it acts; conditions ceasing, it is still. If one does not resolutely believe that this is the Buddha, but desires to cultivate with attachment to characteristics in order to seek efficacy, these are all delusive thinking, at variance with the Way. This mind itself is the Buddha; there is no other Buddha besides, nor is there any other mind. This mind is bright and pure, like empty space without a single characteristic. Raising the mind and stirring a thought is immediately to deviate from the dharma-body; that is attachment to characteristics. From beginningless time, there has never been a Buddha with attachment to characteristics. Cultivating the six pāramitās and ten thousand practices wishing to attain Buddhahood is gradual stages; from beginningless time, there has never been a Buddha of gradual stages. Only awaken to the One Mind, and there is not the slightest dharma to be attained; this is the true Buddha. The Buddha and sentient beings are identical in the One Mind, just like empty space, without mixture and without destruction. It is like the great disc of the sun illuminating the four continents. When the sun rises, light pervades all under heaven, yet empty space has never become bright; when the sun sets, darkness pervades all under heaven, yet empty space has never become dark. The realms of light and darkness encroach upon and usurp each other, but the nature of empty space is vast and unchanging. The mind of the Buddha and sentient beings is also like this. If you view the Buddha as having the characteristics of purity, radiance, and vimukti, and view sentient beings as having the characteristics of defilement, dull darkness, and birth-and-death, one who holds this understanding will pass through kalpas numerous as the sands of the Ganges and never attain bodhi in the end, because of attachment to characteristics. It is only this One Mind, and there is not the slightest dharma to be attained; mind itself is the Buddha. Nowadays, students of the Way do not awaken to this mind-essence, so they give rise to mind on top of mind, seeking the Buddha externally, and practicing with attachment to characteristics. These are all bad dharmas, not the path to bodhi. To make offerings to all the Buddhas of the ten directions is not as good as making offerings to a single person of the Way who has no-mind. Why? One of no-mind is one without any mind. The essence of tathatā is inwardly like wood or stone, unmoved and unshakable; outwardly it is like empty space, unblocked and unobstructed. It has neither subject nor object, neither direction nor place, neither characteristic nor appearance, neither gain nor loss. Those who hasten [on the path] do not dare enter this dharma, for fear of falling into emptiness with no resting place; looking down the cliff, they turn back. They universally seek wide knowledge and views instead; therefore, those who seek knowledge and views are like hairs, while those who awaken to the Way are like horns. Mañjuśrī represents principle; Samantabhadra represents practice. Principle is the principle of true emptiness without obstruction; practice is the endless practice free from characteristics. Avalokiteśvara represents great compassion; Mahāsthāmaprāpta represents great wisdom. Vimalakīrti means 'Pure Name.' Purity is nature; name is characteristics. Nature and characteristics are not different, hence the name 'Pure Name.' That which the great bodhisattvas represent is possessed by all people. It is not separate from the One Mind; awakening to it, that is it. Nowadays, students of the Way do not awaken within their own minds, but become attached to characteristics outside the mind and grasp at objects; all of this runs contrary to the Way. As for the sands of the Ganges, the Buddha called them sand. When all the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, Śakra, Brahmā, and the various devas walk across it, the sand does not rejoice; when oxen, sheep, insects, and ants trample upon it, the sand does not anger. For rare jewels and sweet fragrances, the sand has no greed; for feces, urine, and foul filth, the sand has no aversion. This mind is the mind of no-mind, free from all characteristics; sentient beings and all Buddhas have no difference whatsoever. If one can simply attain no-mind, that is the ultimate. If students of the Way do not directly attain no-mind right here, though they cultivate for repeated kalpas, in the end they will not accomplish the Way, bound by the practices of the triyāna and unable to attain vimukti. However, realization of this mind has slow and swift: there are those who hear the Dharma and in a single thought attain no-mind; there are those who reach the ten faiths, the ten dwellings, the ten practices, and the ten dedications before attaining no-mind. Long or short, it is upon attaining no-mind that they abide; there is no further cultivation and no further realization, and truly nothing to be attained. This is real and not false. To attain it in a single thought or to attain it at the ten bhūmis, the efficacy is precisely equal, without deep or shallow; it is only that one has suffered bitterness and toil in vain through successive kalpas. Creating evil and creating good are both attachment to characteristics: creating evil with attachment to characteristics, one suffers saṃsāra in vain; creating good with attachment to characteristics, one suffers toil and hardship in vain. None of this is as good as immediately recognizing the original dharma upon hearing the words. This dharma is mind; outside of mind there is no dharma. This mind is dharma; outside of dharma there is no mind. Mind is of itself no-mind, nor is there any one of no-mind. If you use the mind to make no-mind, the mind instead turns into existence. It is only silent accord; it cuts off all thought and deliberation. Therefore it is said: 'The path of speech is cut off, and the place of the mind's workings is extinguished.' This mind is the originally pure Buddha, which all people possess. Writhing insects and sentient creatures are of one essence with all Buddhas and bodhisattvas, not different. It is only because of delusive thinking and discrimination that they generate various karmic results. In the original Buddha there is truly not a single thing: it is merely open, unobstructed, tranquil, brilliantly wondrous, peaceful, and joyful. Deeply awaken and enter it yourself; right here it is, complete and fully endowed, lacking nothing. Even if you exert vigorous practice through three asaṃkhyeya kalpas and pass through all the stages and grounds, when you realize it in a single thought, you only realize the original self-Buddha, not adding a single thing above it. Looking back on the efforts of successive kalpas, they were entirely deluded actions in a dream. Therefore the Tathāgata said: 'In anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi, I truly had nothing attained. If there had been anything attained, Dīpaṃkara Buddha would not have given me the prediction.' He also said: 'This dharma is equal, without high or low; this is called bodhi.' This originally pure mind, together with sentient beings, all Buddhas, world realms, mountains, and rivers—with characteristics or without characteristics, pervading the realms of the ten directions—is entirely equal, without characteristics of this or that. This originally pure mind is always naturally perfect and bright, shining everywhere. Worldly people do not awaken; they only recognize seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing as mind, and are obscured by seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing, so they do not behold the quintessentially luminous original essence. If you only directly attain no-mind, the original essence appears of itself, like the great disc of the sun rising into empty space, illuminating the ten directions without any further obstruction. Therefore, students of the Way only recognize seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing as functioning and moving; when they empty seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing, then the path of the mind is cut off with no place of entry. One should simply recognize the original mind at the place of seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing. Yet the original mind does not belong to seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing, nor is it separate from seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing. Only do not give rise to views upon seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing, and do not stir a thought upon seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing; nor should you search for the mind apart from seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing, nor discard seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing to grasp the dharma. Neither identical nor separate, neither abiding nor attached, free and unimpeded in all directions—there is nothing that is not the bodhimaṇḍa. When worldly people hear that all Buddhas transmit the mind-dharma, they think there is a separate dharma on top of the mind that can be realized and grasped, and so they use the mind to seek the dharma, not knowing that mind itself is dharma and dharma itself is mind. You cannot use the mind to further seek the mind; though you pass through thousands of myriads of kalpas, in the end there will never be a day of attainment. It is not as good as right now being without mind—that is the original dharma. It is like the wrestler who forgot the jewel inside his forehead and sought it outward, traveling all around the ten directions without ever being able to find it; a wise person pointed it out, and at that moment he saw his own jewel just as before. Therefore, students of the Way are deluded about their own original mind, not recognizing it as Buddha, and so seek outward, initiating practices of effort and realizing according to gradual stages; diligently seeking through kalpas, they will never accomplish the Way. It is not as good as right now having no-mind, decisively knowing that all dharmas are originally non-existent and ungraspable, without reliance and without abode, without subject and without object. Not stirring delusive thoughts, one immediately realizes bodhi. And when one realizes the Way, one only realizes the Buddha of the original mind; the efforts of successive kalpas were all empty cultivation. Just as when the wrestler found the jewel, he only found the jewel originally on his forehead, which had nothing to do with the strength of outward seeking. Therefore the Buddha said: 'In anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi, I truly had nothing attained.' Fearing that people would not believe, he therefore cited what is seen by the five eyes and spoken by the five speeches: it is real and not false, the paramārthasatya.