禪源諸詮集都序 2.9

2.9

If one thoroughly examines the foregoing account and closely contemplates this diagram, comparing self and other and reflecting upon ordinary beings and sages—whether they are identical or different, whether they are true or false, at what gate I stand, and in what position the Buddha abides; whether they are distinct substances or share the same source—then naturally one will neither cling to the status of an ordinary being nor arrogate to oneself the sage's position, neither linger immersed in attachment and views nor yield away one's claim to the Buddha-mind. Now, the first ten tiers are the conditions under which the disease of afflictions within the dharmakāya (first tier), which is treated by the entire Tripiṭaka, arises at its source (next three tiers), gradually increases (the two attachments to self and dharmas), and reaches the gross and heavy state (the three poisons generating karma) where wisdom is extinguished (experiencing retribution). The latter ten tiers are the conditions where the dharmakāya develops faith and takes the medicine (sweating in the first three tiers), the sweat breaks out and the disease remits (the manifestation of bodhicitta), the methods of treatment are applied (ṣaṭpāramitā), [the disease] gradually subsides (from the sixth to the ninth), and finally there is full recovery (becoming a Buddha). It is like a person (the dharmakāya encased in defilements) complete with all sense faculties (virtues numerous as the sands of the Ganges), robust and strong (permanently abiding and unvarying, undefiled by delusion), and skilled in many arts (wondrous functions numerous as the sands of the Ganges). Suddenly he falls ill (beginningless avidyā); the illness gradually worsens (the next seven tiers) until his breath ceases (the tenth tier), with warmth remaining only at the center of his chest (the seeds of anāsrava wisdom within the ālayavijñāna). Suddenly he meets a fine physician (a great kalyāṇamitra) who knows that his life remains (seeing that ordinary beings are, in their very mind, the Buddha). He forcibly pours down a wondrous medicine (hearing it for the first time without faith, yet visited repeatedly without being abandoned); suddenly [the patient] revives (awakening and understanding), at first unable to speak (a newly awakened person cannot yet preach the Dharma, being entirely unable to answer others' questions or objections), until gradually he can speak (able to preach the Dharma), and gradually can walk (the daśabhūmi and ten pāramitās), straight through to full recovery (becoming a Buddha). In the arts and skills he understands, there is nothing he cannot do (supernormal powers, radiance, and sarvākārajñatā). If one pairs each of these with the Dharma, what doubt could fail to be dispelled? Thus one knows that ordinary beings' inability to display supernormal transformations and functions is merely because they are bound by the disease of delusion in the karmic consciousness, not that their own dharmakāya lacks wondrous virtues. Now, foolish people raise objections, saying: 'Since your sudden awakening makes you identical with the Buddha, why do you not emit light?' How is this any different from demanding that a person who has not yet recovered from illness immediately perform his inherent arts? However, when a worldly physician prescribes medicine, he must first feel the pulse; if he does not assess the mildness or severity of the symptoms, how can he evaluate the right and wrong of medical treatises? If he does not consider the depth of recovery, how can he discuss methods of recuperation? The spiritual physician is also like this. Therefore, I have now fully described the origins and ends of the ten tiers each of delusion and awakening, and placed them in direct comparison against the depths of the three doctrinal teachings and three schools of Chan explained earlier from the sūtras and treatises, making them as clear as pointing to the palm of one's hand. I urge all students to settle their minds and conduct well: with regard to practice, they may follow any single gate; with regard to understanding, they must penetrate without obstruction. Furthermore, they must not, out of anxiety over narrow bias, become so vast and vague that they have nowhere to direct their course. They must thoroughly discern the source and flow, distinguishing beans from wheat. They must make sure to see differences within identity, and identity in places of difference. The mirror's reflections are of a thousand variations; do not cling to beauty or ugliness. The mirror's clarity is of a single mark; do not shun green or yellow. A thousand vessels of single gold are not obstructed [from unity], yet a single pearl's thousand reflections are originally never mixed. Establish your aspiration and exercise your mind as vast as empty space; guard against faults and scrutinize your thoughts within the breadth of a hair. Seeing sights and hearing sounds, reflect on whether they are like shadows and echoes. Moving the body and raising a thought, consider whether it accords with the Buddhadharma. Eating fine delicacies or coarse grains, consider whether you are free from disgust and attachment. Facing heat, cold, freezing, or warmth, see whether you avoid or seek them. Down to gain and loss, defamation and praise, praise and blame, suffering and pleasure: examine and reflect upon each one, asking whether your inner state is truly uniform. If you assess yourself as not having attained this, then sights are not yet like shadows, and sounds are not yet like echoes. Even if there is genuine sudden awakening, gradual cultivation is ultimately required. Do not be like a poor man counting another's wealth all day without having a half-penny of his own. The Great Master, the Sixth Patriarch, said: 'The Buddha taught all Dharmas to cross over all minds; I have no mind at all, so what need is there for any Dharmas?' People today merely take these words to belittle listening and study, without at all examining themselves as to whether they are truly without mind. If one is without mind, the eight winds cannot shake one. Even if habit energies are not yet exhausted, when thoughts of anger arise spontaneously, there is no intention to strike, revile, or take revenge; when thoughts of greed arise spontaneously, there is no intention to pursue and obtain; when seeing others' glory and prosperity, there is no intention to envy or vie for superiority; at all times, regarding oneself, there is no mind of anxiety over hunger and cold, and no fear of others looking down upon one. Down to various instances such as these, it may also be termed 'having no mind at all'. This is called 'cultivating the Path'; if, when facing agreeable and disagreeable objects, there is completely no greed, anger, love, or hate, this is called 'attaining the Path'. Let each examine themselves: if there is illness, treat it; if there is no illness, do not medicate. Question: Since greed, anger, and the like are empty, this is already termed 'having no mind at all'; why is counteracting them necessary? Answer: If so, when you suddenly encounter a grave illness and excruciating pain, since the pain is empty, it would be termed 'having no illness'; why would medical treatment be necessary? One must understand that although greed and anger are empty, they can produce karma; although karma is also empty, it can incur suffering; and although suffering is also empty, it is just as hard to endure. Therefore the preceding diagram says: 'Its substance is empty, yet it establishes phenomena' (just like a ghost on a wooden stump is completely empty, yet it can terrify someone into running away, falling to the ground, and cracking their skull). If you take karma to be empty, yet emptiness just like that produces karma, then you must understand that the burning and boiling torments in hell are also empty, yet emptiness just like that produces torment and pain. If you say that one can just as well endure the torment, then at present, if someone were to burn you with fire or hack you with a knife, how is it that you could not endure it? Looking at students of the Path today, when they hear a single disagreeable word, they cannot even endure it; how could they be willing to endure burning and hacking? (Nine out of ten are like this.) Question: The three doctrinal teachings and three schools of Chan set forth above, along with the ten reasons, the ten distinctions, and the ten tiers each of saṃsāra and practice-realisation, have fully exhausted the principle and left nothing omitted among phenomena. Investigating and savouring them is quite sufficient for cultivating the mind; why is it further necessary to read the Tripiṭaka and compile various Chan verses exceeding a hundred fascicles? Answer: The illnesses of delusion among sentient beings are each different, their number equal to dust and sand; how could they be merely eighty-four thousand? The upāyas of the sages have immeasurable gates, and the nature and marks of the one mind have immeasurable meanings. What has been presented above is merely the overarching cord of the net; although comprehensive, not exceeding what has been laid out, its applications possess thousands of transformations and myriads of postures. Furthermore, past masters and later talents each have their strengths, and ancient sages and present worthies each have their advantages. Therefore, I have collected the fine records of the various houses; where their sectarian followers had discrepancies, I have not altered them, but where meanings were missing, I have annotated and rounded them out, and where the texts were cumbersome, I have annotated and clarified them. In addition, at the beginning of each house, I have annotated and appraised its general purport. Holding up the cord aims at casting the net; one cannot discard the net and keep only the cord (The Avataṃsaka Sūtra says: 'Spread the great net of the teaching, catch the fish of humans and gods, and place them on the shore of nirvāṇa'). Raising the collar aims at wearing the robe; one cannot discard the robe and take only the collar. If one only compiles without presenting the preface, it is like a net without a cord; if one only presents the preface without compiling, it is like a cord without a net. If you reflect and understand this, there is no need to raise difficulties. However, those who discipline themselves for personal perfection alone need not search everywhere; but if one wishes to be a teacher of others, one must thoroughly comprehend the roots and branches. When scholars who love learning unroll and read this work, they must examine each and every one: what school and what teaching's meaning is this? If applied without error, they all become wondrous medicines; if applied erroneously, they all become harmful. However, the order of compilation was not easy to arrange. According to the upāyas for entering the Path, one should properly first reveal the original mind, next penetrate principle and phenomena, next praise the supreme wondrousness of the Dharma and reprove the faults and perils of the world, next encourage and admonish cultivation, and finally show the gradual gates of counteracting upāyas. If I now wished to edit it according to this order, I found that the lineages of masters and disciples would be inverted and intermingled, which is inappropriate. For example, after six generations, many expounded the One True [Mind], whereas the Great Master Bodhidharma taught the Four Practices; the descendant cannot be made the head of a section, with the ancestor as the final piece. For several days I contemplated this matter. I thought of placing what lies outside the lineage of Bodhidharma first, but the dhyāna taught and the principles expounded by those various houses are not the universal, constant Way that can serve as a master generation after generation. Some showed it to others because their efforts in self-cultivation led to realization (such as Guṇabhadra, Huichou, and Wolun); some gathered the multitude because understanding arose from hearing and reading the sacred teachings (such as Dhyāna Master Huiwen); some concealed their traces and followed their nature, awakening the deluded crowd for a time (such as Master Zhi, Mahāsattva Fu, and Wang Fanzhi); some maintained high integrity and observed the Dharma, serving as models for monastics throughout the realm (such as Master Huiyuan of Mount Lu). Among their compositions, some chanted songs of the ultimate Way, some lamented the deluded ordinary people, some merely explained meanings, some solely encouraged practice, some encompassed various teachings without ever pointing the way, and some praised a single gate exclusively, so that its practice did not apply to all. Although these are all echoes within the Chan gate and reed-pipes of the Buddhadharma, if one relies on them from beginning to end as the Dharma of Śākyamuni, that would not be acceptable (although the extensive texts of the Tiantai spoken teachings are complete from beginning to end, they are not included in this collection). Direct transmission from mind to mind belongs solely to the Bodhidharma lineage. The mind is the source of all dharmas; what dharma does it not contain? The dhyāna practice cultivated seems confined to a single gate, yet the transmitted mind school actually penetrates the three trainings. Furthermore, tracing back to its beginning (the beginning being Mahākāśyapa and Ānanda), it was personally received from Śākyamuni, transmitted generation after generation, each bestowed face-to-face through thirty-seven generations (some say there were already twenty-eight patriarchs in the Western lands, which is analyzed in detail below in the preface to the patriarchal transmissions), down to my own master (when I reflect upon this, how fortunate I am to be a legitimate descendant of the thirty-eighth generation from Śākyamuni!). Therefore, in the order of this current compilation, I first record the single lineage of Bodhidharma, next compile the miscellaneous writings of the various houses, and finally write out the sacred teachings that seal this single school. The sacred teachings are placed at the end just as in worldly government documents the departmental verdicts come first and the high official's judgment comes last (only more than ten fascicles of the most precise and definitive texts are written out). Within this very lineage, I have arranged the sequence according to status and generational order. In it, the sudden and gradual alternate, principle and practice intermingle, and they mutually untie bonds, so that naturally the mind abides nowhere (The Vimalakīrtinirdeśa says: 'Greedily clinging to the taste of dhyāna is the bodhisattva's bondage; arising through upāya is the bodhisattva's liberation.' Also, the Yogācārabhūmi explains that the increase of compassion and the increase of wisdom mutually untie bonds). When the path of awakening and cultivation is complete, understanding and practice thereby achieve perfect penetration. Next, one glances broadly at the various houses to expand one's hearing and knowledge, and finally studies the sacred teachings to seal the beginning and the end. How could this fail to cause the True Dharma to abide long? Although my intention seeks nothing for myself, yet regarding the mind that protects the Dharma, spiritual principle should not let me be thwarted; regarding my merit in succeeding the lineage, the ancestral masters should not abandon me; and regarding the grace of giving the Dharma, later students should not fail me. If they do not fail me, and I am not thwarted or abandoned, then I vow that together with all those of shared affinity, we will swiftly assemble at the assemblies of all the Buddhas.