萬善同歸集 3.35

3.35

答：「祖立言詮，佛垂教跡，但破遍計所執，不壞緣起法門。遍計性者，情有理無。如繩上生蛇、杌中見鬼，無而橫計，脫體全空。依他性者，即是因緣。若隨淨緣，即得成聖；若隨染緣，即乃為凡。是以從緣無性故號圓成。《法華經》云：『諸佛兩足尊，知法常無性；佛種從緣起，是故說一乘。』論云：『若見因緣法，則名為見佛。』故知無有一塵，不合理事；未有一法，非是佛乘。皆是不了萬法之初源，一塵之自性，遂生情執；滯相迷名，妄分自他，強生離合，致令理事，水火競生，各據二邊，不成一味。自翳眼見，明珠有類；以執心觀，萬善生瑕。婬怒癡性，邪見非道，尚為解脫之門；尊崇三寶，利他眾善，豈成障閡之事？是以達之則瓦礫為金，取之則妙藥成毒。故經云：『虛妄是實語，除邪執故；實語成虛妄，生語見故。』但除去取之情，盡履玄通之道。見網既裂，惟一真心；塵翳若消，無非佛國。故《大般若經》云：『佛言：「我以諸法無所執故，即名般若波羅蜜多。我等住此無所執故，便能獲得真金色身，常光一尋。」』若欲無過，但理事融通，行願相從，悲智兼濟。故《華嚴論》云：『偏修理則滯寂；偏修智則無悲；偏修悲則染習便增；但發願則有為情起。故菩薩以法融通，不去不取。』圭峯禪師云：『師資傳授，須識藥病。』承上方便，皆須先開示本性，方令依性修禪；性不易悟，多由執相。故欲顯性，先須破執；破執方便，須凡聖俱泯，功業齊祛，使心無所著，方可修禪。後學淺識，便執此言，為究竟道。又以修習之門人多放逸故，後廣說欣厭、毀責、貪瞋；讚歎勤苦、調身、調息，入道次第，後人聞此，又迷本覺之用，便一向執相、滯教、違宗。又學淺之人，或秖知離垢清淨，離障解脫，故毀禪門即心是佛；或秖知自性清淨，性淨解脫，故輕於教相、持律、坐禪、調伏等行。不知必須頓悟自性清淨，性淨解脫；漸修令得圓滿清淨，究竟解脫。若身、若心無所擁滯。又云：『空宗但述遮詮，非凡非聖，一切不可得等；性宗有遮有表。』今時人皆謂，遮言為深，表言為淺，故惟重非心非佛。良由以遮非之辭為妙，不欲親證自法體，故如此也。如上所引，祖教了然。但以所非者，破其執：離性之相而生常見，離相之性成其斷滅。或有所讚者：乃是了即性之相，用不離體；即相之性，體不離用。故知相是性之相，性是相之體。若欲讚性，即是讚相；若欲毀相，秖是毀性。云何妄起取捨之心，而生二見？若入一際法門，則毀讚都息。」

Answer: "The patriarchs established verbal explanations and the Buddhas bequeathed the traces of their teachings merely to demolish what is grasped by conceptual clinging, not to destroy the teaching of dependent origination. The nature of conceptual clinging exists in delusion but is absent in principle. It is like seeing a snake in a rope or perceiving a ghost in a tree stump: it is non-existent yet falsely imagined, and fundamentally entirely void. The nature of dependence on others is simply causes and conditions. If one follows pure conditions, one attains sagehood; if one follows defiled conditions, one becomes an ordinary person. Therefore, because it lacks inherent nature due to conditions, it is named the fully perfected nature. The Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra says: 'The Buddhas, the most honoured among two-legged beings, / Know that phenomena are perpetually without inherent nature. / The Buddha-seed arises from conditions; / Therefore they preach the One Vehicle.' A treatise says: 'If one sees the dharma of causes and conditions, that is called seeing the Buddha.' Thus we know that not a single dust mote fails to accord with principle and phenomena; not a single phenomenon is not the Buddha vehicle. It is simply because people do not understand the primeval source of the myriad phenomena and the intrinsic nature of a single dust mote that emotional attachments arise. Stagnating in marks and confused by names, they falsely divide self from other and forcefully generate separation and union, causing principle and phenomena to clash like fire and water, each occupying two extremes without becoming a single flavour. Seen through clouded eyes, a bright pearl appears defective; viewed with a clinging mind, the myriad good practices appear flawed. The nature of lust, anger, and delusion, as well as heterodox views and non-paths, are still gates to liberation; how could revering the Triratna and performing diverse goods that benefit others become matters of obstruction? Therefore, if one penetrates it, rubble is gold; if one grasps at it, wondrous medicine turns to poison. Thus a sūtra says: 'Falsehood is true speech because it removes heterodox clingings; true speech becomes falsehood because it generates verbal views.' Simply remove the feelings of grasping and rejecting, and fully tread the path of profound penetration. Once the net of views is torn apart, there is only the one true mind; if the dust-cloud is dispelled, nothing is not a Buddha land. Therefore the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra says: 'The Buddha said: "Because I have no grasping regarding any phenomena, it is called prajñāpāramitā. Because we abide in this absence of grasping, we are able to attain a true golden body with an eternal light extending one fathom."' If you wish to be free of errors, simply blend and harmonize principle and phenomena, let practices and vows accompany each other, and cultivate both compassion and wisdom. Therefore the Huayan Treatise says: 'Cultivating principle exclusively leads to stagnation in quiescence; cultivating wisdom exclusively leads to a lack of compassion; cultivating compassion exclusively increases defiled habits; merely making vows generates feelings of conditioned action. Therefore, the bodhisattva uses the Dharma to harmonize and penetrate, neither rejecting nor grasping.' Chan Master Guifeng said: 'In transmission between master and disciple, one must recognize medicine and sickness.' In inheriting the skillful means of the predecessors, all must first reveal the original nature, and only then instruct one to cultivate Chan in reliance on that nature. The nature is not easily awakened to, mostly because people cling to marks. Therefore, to manifest the nature, one must first break attachments; as a skillful means to break attachments, both ordinary and sacred must be obliterated, and karmic deeds equally banished, so that the mind has nowhere to abide—only then can one cultivate Chan. Later students of shallow understanding then clung to these words as the ultimate path. Furthermore, because many people in the gate of practice were negligent, later teachers extensively spoke of joy and revulsion, censure, greed and anger; they praised diligence, regulating the body, regulating the breath, and the stages of entering the path. When later people heard this, they again became confused about the function of original awakening, and went entirely to clinging to marks, stagnating in doctrinal teachings, and running counter to the fundamental tenets. Moreover, people of shallow learning either only know the purity of detachment from defilement and the liberation of detachment from hindrances, and therefore defame the Chan gate's 'the mind itself is Buddha'; or they only know the purity of intrinsic nature and the liberation of natural purity, and therefore disparage doctrinal marks, keeping the vinaya, seated meditation, subduing the mind, and other practices. They do not know that one must have sudden awakening to the purity of intrinsic nature and the liberation of natural purity, and gradual cultivation to attain complete purity and ultimate liberation, so that neither body nor mind has any stagnation. He also said: 'The Emptiness school only articulates apophatic expressions, such as neither ordinary nor sacred, everything ungraspable, and so forth; the Nature school has both apophatic and cataphatic expressions.' People nowadays all claim that apophatic words are profound and cataphatic words are shallow, and thus they only value 'neither mind nor Buddha'. This is truly because they regard phrases of negation as wondrous and do not wish to personally realize their own Dharma-body, which is why it is so. As cited above, the teachings of the patriarchs are clear. It is only that what is negated is meant to break their clingings: marks divorced from nature give rise to the view of permanence, and nature divorced from marks results in annihilationism. What is praised is precisely understanding that marks are identical to nature, where function is not divorced from essence; and nature is identical to marks, where essence is not divorced from function. Thus we know that marks are the marks of nature, and nature is the essence of marks. If one wishes to praise nature, that is praising marks; if one wishes to defame marks, that is merely defaming nature. How could one falsely give rise to a mind of grasping and rejecting, and produce two views? If one enters the Dharma gate of the single limit, both defamation and praise will entirely cease."