緇門警訓 1.3

1.3

...the fair judgments of golden-wheel monarchs and the gāthās and praises of ancient sages and Confucian masters among them. Some might think that pointing directly and transmitting solely sweeps away written words, and that setting down words contradicts the fundamental principle. One must tell them: divine workings are alive and free, like sparks from flint or flashes of lightning; killing and reviving, releasing and capturing do not involve deliberate effort. This is intended only for directly receiving those of supreme capacity; those of medium and lower faculties cannot bear to look upon it. Regard the four dharmadhātus within that Avataṃsaka, culminating in the unobstructed interpenetration of phenomenon and phenomenon, clarifying that not a single dharma is abandoned, and that nothing is inappropriate. How could this not be the standard that reveals provisional expedients and responses according to capacity, in accordance with the saying, 'When principle is awakened to, it is one; yet cultivation of phenomena is boundless'? Chan practitioner Jin of Jiahe has published this book, intending that everyone, through words, may see phenomena; through phenomena, may see principle; through principle, may see the mind; and through the mind, may see the nature, thereby returning to their inherently natural reality. This shares the same source though differing in name with seeing the moon by means of the finger, forgetting the finger by means of the moon, forgetting the moon by means of forgetting, and forgetting the very forgetting that was forgotten. These are further superfluous words of those for whom phenomena and principle interpenetrate, emptiness and existence transcend duality, and mind, Buddha, and sentient beings—these three—are without distinction. Still, what admonitions and instructions could there be? Still, what admonitions and instructions could there be?