[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Taishō Tripiṭaka (Chinese Buddhist canon)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho) › [緇門警訓](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2023) › 5.12 # 緇門警訓 5.12 緇門警訓 5.12 - **Language:** Classical Chinese ### [5.12](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2023.5.12) 佛法無爾會處。生死無爾脫處。一報之身如風燈。石火念念。如救頭然。尚無爾了辦處。著甚死急。平地上討許多忙亂。眨得眼來。早已四五十歲了也。爾喚甚麼作佛法。任爾以百千聰明。一一把他三乘十二分教。乃至一千七百則陳爛葛藤。及與百氏諸子。從頭解註得盛水不漏。總是門外打之。遶說時似悟對境還迷。此事向道無爾會處。爾轉要會轉不相應。爾莫見與麼說。便擬別生知解。直饒向千人萬人拶不入處。別有生機。總不出箇要會的妄念。惟有具大信根。向己躬下真參實悟。乃能荷負爾若作荷負想。依舊沒交涉。故古教謂。假使滿世間。皆如舍利弗。盡思共度量。不能測佛智。如今有等人拾得橘皮。自認為火。到處高談闊論主張。一路道我會佛法要人恭敬有甚得便宜處。幻者三四十年。向此事上著到展轉。於佛法二字尚不相應。所以日夜懷慚。安敢濫膺師位。尋常遇甘言厚幣。不啻毒箭入心累。避之而不可。此蓋多生緣業所致。乃虛妄本非道力使之然也。每見道流沒要緊。遇些子不順意事。一點無明恣縱業識。狂心毒行。平地上桍陷人。喚作我持公論。殊不知從無量劫來。被此等公論結縛無明。未曾有一事以公論而會道念。且今日所持底公論。爾還知多少人在爾背後。掩鼻之不暇。生死無爾脫處。自家一箇生死大事。粘皮綴骨念念無間。無量劫來百千伎倆。一齊弄盡。只是此心不肯休歇。徒向千佛萬祖。累發重誓逗到今日。撞在三衣下喚作道流。奈何依舊識它。目前不破動便生心起念。莫非滋長生死結縛。忘却最初出家本志。似與麼熱亂。得千生萬生。徒長業輪於理何益。好教爾知眾生結縛濃厚。無爾奈何處。爾若無力。處眾但只全身放下。向半間草屋冷淡枯寂。丐食鶉衣且圖自度。亦免犯人苗稼作無慚人。所以知佛法無爾會處。生死無爾脫處。既會不得。又脫不得。但向不得處。一捱捱住。亦莫問三十年二十年。忽向不得處。驀爾援透。始信余言之不相誣矣。 > In the Buddhadharma there is no place for you to understand; in birth and death there is no place for you to escape. A body of a single retribution is like a wind-blown lamp or sparks of flint; thought after thought is like saving your head when it is on fire. You still have no place where you have settled and completed it; what desperate urgency drives you to seek out so much bustling chaos on flat ground? In the blink of an eye, you are already forty or fifty years old! What do you call the Buddhadharma? Even if you, with your hundred and thousandfold cleverness, were from beginning to end to explain and annotate the teachings of the three vehicles and twelve divisions of scriptures, and down to the one thousand seven hundred cases of rotten old entanglements, as well as the hundred schools and various philosophers, so tightly that water could not leak through, it would all still be beating about outside the gate; when speaking you seem awakened, but facing objects you are still deluded. Regarding this matter, it has been said to you: there is no place for you to understand. The more you want to understand, the less you will correspond. Do not, upon hearing such speech, plan to produce some other intellectual understanding. Even if you have another path of vitality where thousands and tens of thousands cannot squeeze in, it still does not go beyond the delusive thought of wanting to understand. Only by possessing great roots of faith and truly investigating and actually awakening within your own person can you shoulder it. If you generate the thought of shouldering it, you still have no connection with it. Therefore, an ancient teaching states: 'Even if the entire world were full of beings like Śāriputra, exhausting their thoughts together to measure it, they could not fathom the Buddha's wisdom.' Nowadays there are people who pick up a piece of orange peel and consider it to be fire, everywhere engaging in loud and lofty talk to advocate their own school, saying, 'I understand the Buddhadharma,' wanting people to respect them—what advantage is gained from this? For thirty or forty years this illusory one has applied effort to this matter, shifting and turning, yet still does not correspond to the two words 'Buddhadharma'; this is why day and night I harbour shame, and how could I dare improperly occupy the master's seat? Usually, when encountering sweet words and generous gifts, it is no different from a poisonous arrow entering the heart; repeatedly trying to avoid them, it has proved impossible. This is caused by conditions and karma from many lifetimes, and is an illusion; fundamentally it is not brought about by the power of the Path. I often see people of the Path, when it is not essential, encounter some slight disagreeable matter, and with a spark of ignorance they indulge their karmic consciousness, acting with wild minds and toxic conduct, framing and trapping people on flat ground, calling it 'holding to public justice.' Little do they know that from beginningless kalpas, they have been bound by ignorance through such 'public justice,' and there has never been a single matter where by means of 'public justice' they met with the thought of the Path. Moreover, regarding the 'public justice' held today, do you know how many people behind your back do not even have time to cover their noses? In birth and death there is no place for you to escape. One's own great matter of birth and death adheres to the skin and connects to the bones, thought after thought without interruption. From beginningless kalpas, the hundreds and thousands of tricks have all been played out completely; it is only that this mind refuses to rest. In vain before thousands of Buddhas and myriads of ancestors you have repeatedly made heavy vows, dragging on until today, bumping into the three robes and being called a person of the Path. Yet, alas, you still do not break through the consciousness before your eyes; whenever you move, you produce thoughts and give rise to notions—is not all this nourishing the fetters of birth and death, forgetting the initial resolve of your pravrajyā? In such frantic agitation, lasting for thousands and myriads of births, in vain you lengthen the wheel of karma; what benefit is there in principle? Let me instruct you clearly: the fetters of sentient beings are thick and heavy; there is nothing you can do about them. If you have no strength, then in being among the assembly simply let go of your entire body, and in a half-room thatched hut, cool, indifferent, withered, and still, beg for food in patched robes, striving for the time being to liberate yourself, and also avoiding treading upon others' sprouts and crops and becoming a person without shame. Therefore know that in the Buddhadharma there is no place for you to understand, and in birth and death there is no place for you to escape. Since you cannot understand and cannot escape, just persevere and hold on right in the place where you cannot. Nor ask whether it takes thirty years or twenty years; if suddenly in the place where you cannot, you abruptly break through, only then will you believe that my words have not deceived you. > — English (machine translation) (machine translation) - [Previous: 5.11](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2023.5.11) - [Next: 5.13](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2023.5.13) - [Up: 5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2023.5) ## Translations (1) - [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2023~en-mt.5.12) — English, machine translation --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2023.5.12](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2023.5.12) · Pramāṇa