禪源諸詮集都序 1.12.5

1.12.5

That is to say, the upāyas handed down from the past all first reveal the fundamental nature, and only then instruct one to cultivate dhyāna in reliance on that nature. The nature is not easily awakened to, mostly because of clinging to phenomenal marks. Therefore, wishing to reveal the nature, one must first break attachments. As for the upāyas of breaking attachments, ordinary and holy must both be extinguished, and merit and demerit equally dispelled. Precepts are without violating and without keeping; dhyāna is without stability and without distraction. The thirty-two marks are all flowers in the sky; the thirty-seven factors are entirely dreams and illusions. The aim is to make the mind have no attachments, and only then can one cultivate dhyāna. Later students of shallow understanding then merely cling to these words as the ultimate path. Furthermore, because in the gate of practice people are often lax, they then extensively explain aversion and attraction, disparaging and rebuking greed and anger, praising diligence and frugality, regulating the body and regulating the breath, and coarse and fine stages. Later people hearing this again become confused about the function of original awakening, and completely cling to phenomenal marks. Only those of sharp faculties and firm determination who serve their masters from beginning to end attain the essential meaning of awakening and cultivation. Those of shallow and frivolous nature think it sufficient upon hearing merely one point; further relying on petty intellect, they act as teachers to others. Failing to fathom the root and branch, they mostly form one-sided attachments. Consequently, disciples of the sudden and gradual gates view each other as bitter enemies, and the southern and northern schools oppose each other like Chu and Han. The admonition of washing the feet and the analogy of feeling the elephant are verified here! Does my present work wish to set up a separate collection to harmonize them? Its essential purpose lies in the three dots of the letter 'i'. If the three dots are separate, they do not form the letter 'i'; if the three schools are in conflict, how can one become a Buddha? Thus we know that if one wishes to recognize the medicine and illness in the transmission, one must see that the three schools do not conflict, and one must understand the three kinds of Buddhist doctrinal teachings. (Earlier, it was related that someone objected, 'How can a Chan master deliver lectures?' I now answer all these difficulties with these ten points. Therefore, at the outset I already related that the patriarchs in the Western regions all propagated the sūtras and treatises.)