緇門警訓 5.4

5.4

In general, on an itinerant pilgrimage one must take the mind for the Path as paramount. You must not receive ready-made offerings and idly pass the days. You must stick the two characters 'birth and death' upon your forehead, and throughout the twelve periods of every day tear off your face to demand a clear accounting before you are done. If you only follow the crowd, run in a pack, and spend your days causing a clamour, then when you suddenly die and Old Man Yama tallies your food money, do not say I never told you! If you are doing cultivation, you must constantly examine and moment by moment raise awareness: Where is there strength? Where is there no strength? Where has it been lost? Where has it not been lost? If you examine yourself and do your cultivation in this way, there will definitely come a time when you reach home. There is a class of practitioners who neither read the scriptures nor bow to the Buddha; no sooner do they step onto the meditation cushion than they doze off, and once awake they indulge in wild and random thoughts; no sooner do they step off the meditation cushion than they chatter idly with others. If you cultivate like this, even when Maitreya Buddha descends to be born, you will not yet have found a way in. You must vigorously summon your spirit, bring up the single word 'Mu', and confront it face to face day and night. You must not sit in the shell of doing nothing, nor may you sit dead upon the meditation cushion; you must handle it with vitality. If you fear that miscellaneous thoughts are arising in profusion, you must by no means confront them face to face; the more you battle them, the more they will multiply. There are people who, reaching this point, do not know when to advance or retreat, cannot untie and discharge them, and so become manic and mad, ruining their entire lives. You should gently let go right where the profusion arises, turn around, go down to the floor, take a walk around, and then get back on the meditation cushion. Open both eyes, clench both fists, straighten your spine, and as before raise the huatou you are inquiring into; you will immediately feel clear and cool, just like pouring a ladle of cold water into a pot of boiling soup. If you do your cultivation in this way, over months and years there will naturally come a time when you reach home. When the cultivation has not yet taken hold, you must not give rise to afflictions, lest the demon of afflictions enter your mind; if you feel you have gained strength, you must not give rise to joy, lest the demon of joy enter your mind. The various Chan illnesses are too numerous to recount. If there is a seasoned companion on the Path in the assembly, by all means ask for guidance at all times. If there is none, take the words of the former generations and ancestral masters teaching people how to do cultivation and read them through once, just as if meeting them in person. Nowadays, people who turn toward this Path are rare to find. Put forth all your effort! Moving forward, I hope you will quickly smash the lacquer bucket and return to scrub this old monk's back. The verse says:
When looking to the wind and parting the grass as you leave home,
Well protect the single thought along the road.
In recent days the flavour of the monasteries has become strange;
Wherever your feet lead, be on your guard.