宗鏡錄 98.55

98.55

龍牙和尚云。夫言修道者。此是勸喻之詞。接引之語。從上已來。無法與人。只是相承種種方便。為說。出意旨。令識自心。究竟無法可得。無道可修。故云菩提道自然。今言法者。是軌持之名。道是眾生體性。未有世界。早有此性。世界壞時。此性不滅。喚作隨流之性。常無變異。動靜與虛空齊等。喚作世間相常住。亦名第一義空。亦名本際。亦名心王。亦名真如解脫。亦名菩薩涅槃。百千異號。皆是假名。雖有多名。而無多體。會多名而同一體。會萬義而歸一心。若識自家本心。喚作歸根得旨。譬如人欲得諸流水。但向大海中求欲識萬法之相。但向心中契會。會得玄理。舉體全真。萬像森羅。一法所印。

Master Longya said: 'Speaking of cultivating the Way is a phrase of exhortation, words of guidance. From antiquity onward, no dharma has been given to people; it is merely an inheritance of various skillful means, expounded to bring out the purport and make them recognize their own minds. Ultimately there is no dharma to be attained, and no Way to be cultivated. Therefore it is said: "The bodhi Way is spontaneous." Now, what is called "dharma" is a designation for what upholds and models; the "Way" is the substance and nature of sentient beings. Before there was a world, this nature already existed; when the world is destroyed, this nature is not destroyed. It is called the nature that accords with the flow, constantly without change. In motion and stillness it is equal to empty space. It is called the worldly characteristics being constantly abiding; it is also named the emptiness of the ultimate truth, the fundamental limit, the mind king, tathatā-liberation, and bodhisattva-nirvāṇa. The hundreds of thousands of different designations are all conventional names. Although there are many names, there are not many substances. Gathering many names, they share a single substance; gathering the ten thousand meanings, they return to the one mind. If you recognize your own original mind, this is called returning to the root and attaining the purport. It is like a person who wishes to obtain all flowing waters needing only to seek them in the great ocean; if you wish to recognize the characteristics of the ten thousand dharmas, just resonate and unite with them in the mind. If you understand the profound principle, the entire substance is completely true, and the myriad dense images are imprinted by the single Dharma.'