宗鏡錄 25.11

25.11

答。即心即佛。是其表詮。直表示其事。令親證自心。了了見性。若非心非佛。是其遮詮。即護過遮非。去疑破執。奪下情見依通。意解妄認之者。以心佛俱不可得故。是以云非心非佛。此乃拂下能心。權立頓教泯絕無寄之門。言語道斷。心行處滅。故亦是一機入路。若圓教。即此情盡體露之法。有遮有表。非即非離。體用相收。理事無礙。今時學者。既無智眼。又闕多聞。偏重遮非之詞。不見圓常之理。奴郎莫辯。真偽何分。如棄海存漚。遺金拾礫。掬泡作寶。執石為珠。所以經云。譬如癡賊。棄捨金寶。擔負瓦礫。此之謂也。今當纂集。正為於茲。且心之與佛。皆世間之名。是之與非。乃分別之見。空論妄想。曷得真歸。所以祖師云。若言是心是佛。如牛有角。若言非心非佛。如兔無角。並是對待強名邊事。若因名召體。豁悟本心。證自真知。分明無惑者。終不認名滯體。起有得心。去取全亡。是非頓息。亦不一向離之。妄起絕言之見。亦不一向即之而墮執指之譏。如華嚴論云。滯名即名立。廢說即言生。並是背覺合塵。捨己徇物。若實親省。現證自宗。尚無能證之智心。及所證之妙理。豈況更存能知能解有得有趣之妄想乎。近代或有濫參禪門。不得旨者。相承不信即心即佛之言。判為是教乘所說。未得幽玄。我自有宗門向上事在。唯重非心非佛之說。並是指鹿作馬。期悟遭迷。執影是真。以病為法。只要門風緊峻。問答尖新。發狂慧而守癡禪。迷方便而違宗旨。立格量而據道理。猶入假之金。存規矩而定邊隅。如添水之乳。一向於言語上取辦。意根下依通。都為能所未亡。名相不破。若實見性。心境自虛。匿跡韜光。潛行密用。是以全不悟道。唯逐妄輪迴。起法我見。而輕忽上流。恃錯知解。而摧殘未學。毀金口所說之正典。撥圓因助道之修行。斥二乘之菩提。滅人天之善種。但欲作探玄上士。傚無礙無修。不知返墮無知。成空見外道。唯觀影。跡莫究圓常。積見不休。徒自疲極。如孔子迷津問漁父。漁父曰。人有畏影惡跡。疾走不休。絕力而死。不知處陰以休影。靜處以息跡。愚亦甚矣。何不一心為道。息諍除非。自然過量超情。還淳返朴。若以道自養則不失。以道濟他則不誑。以道治國則國泰。以道修家則家安。故不可頃剋忘道矣。所以道德經云。故失道而後德。失德而後仁。失仁而後義。失義而後禮。失禮者。忠信之薄日以衰薄。而亂之首。莊子云。五色不亂。孰為文彩。五聲不亂。孰為律呂。白玉無瑕。孰為珪璋。殘朴以為器者。工匠之罪。毀道德而為仁義者。聖人之罪。君能焚符破璽。賊盜自止。割斗折衡而民不諍。聖人生而賊盜起。聖人死而賊盜止。故知仁義禮智信。而利天下者少。害天下者多矣。曷如開示如是不思議大威德廣大法門。普廕十方。群生等潤。可謂深達妙旨。冥合真歸。如香象渡河。步步到底。似養由駕箭。一一穿楊。盡為破的之文。皆是窮源之說。此是圓頓義。非權宜門。如水月頓呈。更無來去。猶明鏡頓照。豈有初終。如首楞嚴疏鈔云。若聞此經。即悟得。微塵毛孔一切眾生。皆在我本覺中。推一切物皆無自性。則除無明。無明若除。一時頓證。則是頓得。不從修得。如觀音入流亡所。阿難自慶不歷僧祇獲法身等。並是頓也。

Answer: "This citta is the Buddha" is affirmative expression (vyatireka-pratipakṣa / vidhi); it directly reveals the phenomenon, causing one to personally realize one's own citta and see the nature clearly. "Neither citta nor Buddha" is negative expression (apoha / pratiṣedha); it protects against faults and negates errors, removes doubt and breaks attachment, and strips away those of emotional views who rely on secondary comprehension and falsely identify intellectual understanding, because both citta and Buddha are unobtainable. Hence it is said: "Neither citta nor Buddha." This wipes away the subjective citta below, provisionally establishing the gate of the Sudden Teaching that annihilates [all] and leaves nothing to rely upon, where the path of speech is cut off and the realm of mental activity is extinguished; thus it is also an entry path for one capacity. As for the Perfect Teaching: regarding this very dharma wherein emotional [views] are exhausted and the substance is revealed, it has negation and affirmation; it is neither identical nor separate; substance and function subsume each other; principle and phenomena are unhindered. Present-day scholars neither possess the eye of wisdom nor have heard much; they are biased toward words of negation, failing to see the principle of the perfect and eternal. Unable to distinguish servant from master, how can they separate the true from the false? It is like abandoning the ocean to keep a bubble, casting away gold to pick up gravel, scooping up foam as treasure, or grasping a stone as a pearl. Therefore a sūtra says: "For example, a foolish thief casts away gold and treasures, and carries away broken tiles and gravel." It speaks of this. Now this compilation is undertaken precisely for this reason. Furthermore, both "citta" and "Buddha" are worldly designations; "affirmation" and "negation" are discriminatory views. In vain discussions and false imaginings, how could one attain the true refuge? Therefore the ancestral master said: "If one says 'this citta is the Buddha,' it is like an ox having horns; if one says 'neither citta nor Buddha,' it is like a hare lacking horns." Both are provisional names on the side of duality. If, relying on the name to invoke the substance, one opens to enlightenment regarding the original citta, realizes one's own true knowing, and is clear and free of confusion, then in the end one will not mistake the name and be stuck in the substance, nor give rise to a citta of attainment; rejection and acceptance will completely perish, and right and wrong will suddenly cease. Nor does one exclusively separate from it to falsely give rise to views of transcending speech, nor does one exclusively identify with it to fall into the reproach of clinging to the finger. As the Huayan Lun says: "Being stuck in names, names are established; discarding words, speech is born." Both are turning one's back on awakening to merge with dust, abandoning oneself to follow objects. If one truly and personally examines and presently realizes one's own source, there is not even the wisdom-citta that is able to realize, nor the subtle principle that is realized; how much less could there still remain the false thoughts of being able to know, being able to understand, having attainment, or having an aim? In recent times there are those who improperly dabble in the Chan school without grasping its purport; transmitting it to one another, they disbelieve the words "this citta is the Buddha," judging them to be what is spoken by the doctrinal vehicles that have not yet attained the profound and abstruse, [saying,] "I myself have the matter of transcendence in the ancestral school." Exclusively valuing the saying "neither citta nor Buddha," they all point to a deer and call it a horse; hoping for awakening, they meet with delusion; grasping the shadow as real, they take illness to be the Dharma. They only want their school's style to be sharp and austere and their exchanges to be pointed and novel; releasing wild wisdom, they hold to foolish meditation; confused about expedients, they go against the ancestral source. Establishing standards and relying on conceptual reason is like gold mixed with counterfeit; retaining rules and fixing boundaries is like milk diluted with water. Exclusively striving for verbal performance and relying on superficial comprehension in the sense-organ of the intellect, this is entirely because subject and object have not perished and names and characteristics have not been broken. If one truly sees the nature, citta and objects become naturally empty; hiding one's tracks and concealing one's light, one practices covertly and functions in secret. Thus, totally unawakened to the Way, they only chase falsehood in saṃsāra, giving rise to views of dharmas and self while disparaging the superior; relying on erroneous intellectual understanding, they crush beginners; they revile the correct scriptures spoken from the golden mouth, discard the practice of auxiliary paths with perfect causes, denounce the bodhi of the Two Vehicles, and extinguish the wholesome seeds of humans and devas. Merely desiring to be superior persons who explore the abstruse, they imitate unhinderedness and non-cultivation, unaware that they instead fall into ignorance and become heterodox proponents of the view of emptiness. Merely watching the shadows and traces, they never investigate the perfect and eternal; accumulating views unceasingly, they vainly exhaust themselves. Just as when Confucius, lost at the ford, questioned the fisherman; the fisherman said: "There was a man who feared his shadow and disliked his tracks, so he ran swiftly without stopping, until his strength was spent and he died. He did not know that staying in the shade stops the shadow, and resting in stillness stops the tracks. His foolishness was extreme!" Why not make the Way one's single citta, cease disputes, and eliminate errors? Naturally, one will transcend measurement and surpass emotional views, returning to purity and simplicity. If one nourishes oneself with the Way, one will not fail; if one aids others with the Way, one will not deceive; if one governs the state with the Way, the state will be peaceful; if one cultivates the family with the Way, the family will be secure. Therefore, one must not forget the Way even for an instant. Hence the Daodejing says: "Therefore, when the Way is lost, virtue appears; when virtue is lost, benevolence appears; when benevolence is lost, righteousness appears; when righteousness is lost, propriety appears. Now propriety is the thinning of loyalty and good faith, growing thinner day by day, and is the beginning of disorder." Zhuangzi says: "If the five colors are not disordered, who would make patterns? If the five tones are not disordered, who would make the pitch-pipes? If white jade has no flaw, who would make sacrificial vessels? Destroying the uncarved block to make utensils is the fault of the artisan; destroying the Way and virtue to practice benevolence and righteousness is the fault of the sage. If the ruler can burn tallies and break seals, thieves and robbers will cease on their own; break the bushels and snap the balances, and the people will not contend. When sages are born, thieves and robbers arise; when sages die, thieves and robbers cease." Thus we know that benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and good faith benefit few under heaven, but harm many under heaven. How could that compare to revealing such an inconceivable, great, majestic, and broad Dharma-gate? It universally shades the ten directions and equally moistens all living beings; it can be called deeply penetrating the subtle purport and secretly uniting with the true refuge. Like a fragrant elephant crossing a river, every step reaches the bottom; like Yang Youji nocking his arrow, every shot pierces the willow leaf. All are texts that hit the mark; all are discourses that fathom the source. This is the meaning of the Perfect and Sudden, not a provisional gate. Like the moon in water appearing suddenly, it has neither coming nor going; like a bright mirror illuminating suddenly, how could it have beginning or end? As the commentary and subcommentary on the Śūraṅgama says: "If one hears this sūtra, one immediately awakens to the fact that all sentient beings in dust motes and pore-hairs are all within my original enlightenment. Tracing all things to be without self-nature, ignorance is eliminated; if ignorance is eliminated, one suddenly realizes [the truth] all at once, which is sudden attainment, not attained through cultivation. Just like Avalokiteśvara entering the flow and forgetting what was perceived, and Ānanda rejoicing that without passing through asaṃkhyeyas he obtained the dharmakāya, these are all sudden."