緇門警訓 3.9

3.9

禪法濫觴自於秦世。僧叡法師序關中出禪經。其文則明心達理之趣也。然譬若始有其方未能修合。弗聞療疾徒曰醫書。矧以大教既敷群英分講。註之者矜其辭義。科之者逞其區分。執麈搖松。但尚其乘機應變解紛挫銳。唯觀其智刃辭鋒。都忘其詮不求出離。江表遠公慨禪法未敷。於是苦求而得也。菩提達磨祖師。觀此土之根緣。對一期之繁紊。而宣言曰。不立文字。遣其執文滯逐也。直指人心。明其頓了無生也。其機峻其理圓。故不免漸修之徒篤加訕謗。傳禪法者自達磨為始焉。直下相繼六代傳衣。橫枝而出。不可勝紀。如曹溪寶林傳所明也（道法師箋本於直指人心下削本今依舊本補入）。

Chan methods originated in the Qin era. Dharma Master Sengrui prefaced the Chan scriptures produced in Guanzhong, the text of which elucidated the essentials of understanding the mind and penetrating principle. However, it was like just possessing the prescription without yet having compounded the medicine: not having heard of curing illness, it was merely called a medical book. What is more, once the great teaching was disseminated, the various talents divided it into lectures; those who annotated it boasted of its phrasing and meaning, while those who parsed it showed off their divisions. Holding the whisk and shaking the pine branch, they only esteemed adapting to conditions, responding to changes, resolving entanglements, and blunting sharpness. Looking solely at the blades of their intellect and the tips of their rhetoric, they completely forgot its purport and did not seek liberation. Huiyuan of the region south of the Yangzi lamented that the Chan methods were not yet spread, and thereupon sought them out with bitter effort and obtained them. Patriarch Bodhidharma observed the capacities and conditions of this land and addressed the tangled confusion of that period by proclaiming: 'Do not establish words and letters,' to dispel their attachment to texts and their pursuing after them; and 'Directly point to the human mind,' to elucidate sudden awakening to the unproduced. His dynamic was sharp and his principle was complete; therefore, it was inevitable that followers of gradual cultivation would intensely heap slander and reproach upon him. The transmission of Chan methods began with Bodhidharma. Directly succeeding one another, the robe was transmitted for six generations, and branches emerged laterally beyond counting, as explained in the Baolin Record of Caoxi. (Master Daofa's annotated edition excised the characters below 'directly point to the human mind'; we now restore them according to the old edition).