緇門警訓 6.18

6.18

夫小參者。謂之家教。何謂家教。譬如人家有三箇五箇兒子。大底今日幹甚事。小底今日幹甚事。是與不是晚間歸來。父母一一處斷。叢林中亦復如是。院門今日幹甚事。是與不是住持人當一一處斷。觀今之時節。叢林淡薄人根狹劣。不可說也。有一般破落戶長老。馳書達信。遮邊討院住。那邊討院住。纔討得院住。便揀箇好日入院。又道我是長老。方丈裏自在受快活。遮般底喚作地獄滓。如今叢林中。若論參禪固是難得其人。我看見爾遮一隊漢。在遮裏心憤憤口悱悱。道我會禪會道。入方丈裏趁口快撐。兩轉語便行。不是遮箇道理。又有一般漢。影影響響認得箇頑空。便道只是遮箇事。又有一般道。見虛空裏光影。又有一般道。無有不是者錯了也。救不得了也。遮般底只宜色身安樂。莫教一頓病打在延壽堂內。如落湯螃蟹手忙脚亂。見神見鬼遮邊討巫師。那邊討醫博。卜凶卜吉問好問惡。爾不見。我佛如來為三界醫王四生慈父。醫一切眾生心病。只為爾不信自心。向外馳求。被邪魔魍魎入爾心中。做得許多見解要識爾自心麼。如太陽當晝天下皆明。那裏更有暗處。若到遮箇田地。亦無吉凶爻象。亦無是非好惡。便能向是非頭上坐。是非頭上臥。乃至婬坊酒肆虎穴魔宮。盡是當人安身立命之處。只為爾無量劫來業識濃厚。心中趫趫欹欹繘繘繂繂。信之不及。便被世間情愛。纏縛得來七顛八倒。江南人護江南人。廣南人護廣南人。淮南人護淮南人。向北人護向北人。湖南人護湖南人。福建人護福建人。川僧護川僧。浙僧護浙僧。道我鄉人住院。我去讚佐他。一朝有箇不周。全翻作是非到處說。苦哉苦哉。恁麼行脚掩彩殺人。鈍置殺人若是箇漢一畫畫斷多少自由自在。若也畫不斷處處被愛之所縛。愛色被色縛。愛院被院縛。愛名被名縛。愛利被利縛。愛身被身縛。爾何不退步思量。爾遮臭皮袋有甚麼好處。當時只為爾有一念愛心。便入母胎中受父精母血。交搆成一塊膿團。母喫熱時便受鑊湯地獄。母喫冷時便受寒氷地獄。及至撞從母胎裏出來。受寒受熱。受饑受飽。受病受苦。煎煎逼逼直至今日。只為不能返觀。便有許多是非生滅我生爾死。爾死我生。生生死死死死生生。隨業受報無有休時。近來又有一般奴狗。受雇得錢買度牒剃下狗頭。披佛袈裟。奴郎不辨菽麥不分。入吾法中破壞吾法。一向裝裹箇渾身。捼腰捺𦜮胡揮亂𣫝。要做大漢。大漢不恁麼做。要做大漢。須是退步莫面前背後。奴脣婢舌嫌好道惡。說遮裏飲食豐厚。那裏寮舍穩便不消得。如此諸上座。人身難得佛法難聞。此身不向今生度。更向何生度此身。爾諸人要參禪麼須是放下著。放下箇甚麼。放下箇四大五蘊。放下無量劫來許多業識。向自己根脚下推窮看。是甚麼道理。推來推去。忽然心華發明。照十方剎。可謂得之於心應之於手。便能變大地作黃金。攪長河為酥酪。豈不暢快平生。莫只管冊子上念言念語討禪討道。禪道不在冊子上。縱饒念得一大藏教。諸子百家。也只是閑言語。臨死之時總用不著。古人悟了方求明師決擇。去其砂石純一真寔。秤斤定兩。恰如人開雜貨鋪相似。無種不有。來買甘草。便將甘草與他。來買黃連便將黃連與他。不可買黃連却將甘草與他。又似爾有一塊金。將入紅爐裏煆煉。煉來煉去煉得熟也。方上鉗鎚打作瓶盤釵釧。瓶重幾兩盤重幾兩。一一分明。然後却將此瓶盤釵釧。鎔成一金。喚作一味平等法門。若不如此。盡是儱洞真如顢頇佛性爾還會麼。爾還信麼。山僧適來答遮僧四轉語道。死中有活活中有死。死中怕死活中怕活。將此四轉語驗盡天下衲僧。且道。天下衲僧將甚麼驗。良久云。大體還他肌骨好。不搽紅粉也風流（語錄）。

Now, an informal instruction is what is called "household training." What is meant by household training? For example, a family may have three or five sons; what the elder ones did today, what the younger ones did today, whether right or not, when they return in the evening, the parents judge each matter one by one. In the monasteries it is also like this: what was done at the monastery today, whether right or not, the abbot should judge each matter one by one. Looking at the present time, the monasteries are insipid and people's faculties are narrow and inferior, beyond description. There is a sort of bankrupt sthavira who send letters and messages, seeking a monastery to preside over here and seeking a monastery to preside over there. As soon as they obtain a monastery to preside over, they pick an auspicious day to enter the monastery, and furthermore say, 'I am a sthavira,' enjoying pleasures at ease within the abbot's quarters. This sort is called the dregs of hell. Nowadays in the monasteries, when it comes to Chan inquiry, such persons are indeed hard to find. I see this band of fellows here, inwardly indignant and mouths muttering, saying, 'I understand Chan, I understand the Way!' They enter the abbot's quarters, taking advantage of a quick tongue to prop up a couple of turning words, and then walk off. It is not this principle at all! There is another sort of fellow who, through vague impressions, recognizes a stubborn emptiness and immediately says, 'It is just this matter!' There is another sort who say they see light and shadows in empty space. There is another sort who say, 'There is nothing that is not it!' They are mistaken! Beyond salvation! This sort is fit only for the peace and happiness of the physical body. Let them not be struck down at once by illness in the Life-Prolonging Hall, flailing hands and feet like a crab fallen into boiling water, seeing gods and seeing ghosts, seeking a shaman here and a physician there, divining misfortune and divining good fortune, inquiring after good and inquiring after bad! Do you not see? Our Buddha, the Tathāgata, is the King of Physicians for the traidhātuka and the Compassionate Father of the four forms of birth, healing the mental illnesses of all sentient beings. It is only because you do not believe in your own mind and seek externally that demonic spirits and goblins enter your minds, producing so many views. Do you wish to recognize your own mind? It is like the sun at noon: all under heaven is bright; where else could there be darkness? If you reach this ground, there are no hexagram images of good or ill fortune, nor right and wrong, good and bad. Then you can sit atop right and wrong and lie atop right and wrong, and even brothels, taverns, tigers' dens, and demons' palaces are all places where one establishes one's life. It is solely because for measureless kalpas your karmic consciousness has been heavy and thick, with your minds jumping, wavering, agitated, and entangled, and your faith cannot reach it, that you are bound by worldly affections, thrown into utter confusion: people from Jiangnan protect people from Jiangnan; people from Guangnan protect people from Guangnan; people from Huainan protect people from Huainan; people from the north protect people from the north; people from Hunan protect people from Hunan; people from Fujian protect people from Fujian; monks from Sichuan protect monks from Sichuan; monks from Zhejiang protect monks from Zhejiang. Saying, 'A fellow countryman of mine is residing in a monastery, I will go assist him'—one day if something falls short, it is completely overturned into right and wrong spoken everywhere! How bitter, how bitter! Going on itinerant pilgrimage like this is completely disgraceful and humiliating! If one is a real fellow, severing it with a single stroke, how much freedom and ease! But if you cannot sever it, you will be bound by affection everywhere: loving form, you are bound by form; loving monasteries, you are bound by monasteries; loving fame, you are bound by fame; loving profit, you are bound by profit; loving the body, you are bound by the body. Why do you not take a step back and reflect: what good is there in this stinking bag of skin of yours? At that time, simply because you had a single thought of lustful affection, you entered your mother's womb and received your father's semen and mother's blood, intercourse forming a lump of pus. When the mother ate hot food, you endured the hell of boiling cauldrons; when the mother ate cold food, you endured the hell of freezing ice. And when you burst out from your mother's womb, you endured cold and endured heat, endured hunger and endured fullness, endured sickness and endured pain, tormented and oppressed right up to today. Solely because you cannot reflect inwardly, there arise so many rights and wrongs, births and deaths: 'I live, you die; you die, I live'; living, dying, dying, living, receiving retribution according to karma without cessation. Recently, there is another sort of slave-dog: hired for money, they buy an ordination certificate, shave their dog heads, and put on the Buddha's kāṣāya. Not distinguishing master from servant, unable to tell beans from wheat, they enter my Dharma to destroy my Dharma. Consistently decking out their whole bodies, swaying their waists and holding their hips, wildly waving and thrashing about, wanting to act like great men. Great men do not act like that! If you want to be a great man, you must step back and not, before others' faces and behind their backs, with servants' lips and maids' tongues, dislike good and speak evil, saying food and drink are lavish here, or the dormitories are comfortable there—none of this is needed! Eminent monks! A human body is hard to obtain, the Buddha's Dharma is hard to hear. If this body is not delivered in this life, in what life will you deliver this body? Do you all want to engage in Chan inquiry? You must put it down! Put down what? Put down the four great elements and the five aggregates; put down the multitude of karmic consciousnesses accumulated over measureless kalpas; investigate thoroughly right beneath your own feet to see: what principle is this? Pushing back and forth, suddenly the flower of the mind bursts into blossom, illuminating the lands of the ten directions. It can be said that what is grasped in the mind responds to the hand: then you can transform the great earth into yellow gold and churn the long river into sarpirmaṇḍa. Would this not be the great joy of a lifetime? Do not merely recite words from books, seeking Chan and seeking the Way! Chan and the Way are not in books. Even if you could recite the entire canon of teachings and the hundred schools of philosophy, they would still just be idle words; when dying, they are of no use at all. The ancients, having awakened, only then sought an enlightened master to discern and decide, removing the sand and gravel to leave pure authenticity, weighing catty and ounce—just like someone opening a general store with everything in stock: if someone comes to buy licorice, give him licorice; if someone comes to buy coptis, give him coptis—you must not give licorice when someone buys coptis! It is also like having a lump of gold: putting it into a blazing furnace to smelt it, smelting back and forth until it is thoroughly refined; only then do you apply tongs and hammer to beat it into vases, plates, hairpins, and bracelets. How many ounces the vase weighs, how many ounces the plate weighs, each is distinct and clear. Afterward, you melt these vases, plates, hairpins, and bracelets back into a single piece of gold—this is called the one-flavor equal Dharma-door. If it is not like this, it is entirely blurry Suchness and muddled Buddha-nature! Do you still understand? Do you still believe? Just now this mountain monk answered this monk with four turning words, saying: 'Within death there is life; within life there is death. Within death fear death; within life fear life.' Testing all the patch-robed monks under heaven with these four turning words—tell me: with what will the patch-robed monks under heaven test them?" After a long pause, he said, "Basically, one must grant that their bone and flesh are good; even without rouge, she is naturally charming." (Recorded Sayings)