緇門警訓 5.6

5.6

Your master is old at Zhongshan Monastery,
Morning and evening with no one to look after and attend to him.
Not returning to sweep and sprinkle, or hold the towel and pitcher—
Does this accord with the ritual propriety between master and disciple, or not?
Your mother is, moreover, advanced in years;
Besides you alone, there is no second child.
Looking out through the autumn wind, she has not seen you return;
Leaning on the gate day by day, her tears long flow down.
Leaving your master and abandoning your mother to enter the mountains,
What, after all, do your aims accomplish?
Being content with poverty and delighting in the Path is indeed difficult;
Dwelling in a thatched hut—how could it be easy?
One must plant bamboo and cultivate pines;
one must hoe the mountains and dig the earth;
One must carry water and haul firewood;
one must water the vegetables and irrigate the taros;
One must practice the Path and recite scriptures;
one must gather the mind and banish sleep.
Goosefoot broth and millet rice plug the wound of hunger;
Bland pickles and thin congee clear the bowels and stomach.
In human life all are busy for the sake of mouth and body;
I too cannot escape the burden of this physical frame.
If your own mind-ground is not yet illumined,
The karmic consciousness is vast and adrift, without a fundamental basis.
Passing through by waterside and under trees for a short while,
For neither me nor you is this a plan for long dwelling.
Upādhyāya Yuejiang has sent a letter,
Urging you to return home to inquire [after your kin] with deep meaning.
Opening the seal, before reading it, immediately withdraw your person;
Do not fail the incoming message, fulfilling both filial piety and righteousness.
There is a saying: 'Filial piety comes first among the hundred practices';
Be it among the laity or among the monastic saṅgha, who is not like this?
Attending to one's master and revering one's mother is called the field of respect;
What need is there to enter the assembly and practice Chan inquiry?
If suddenly you long for quiet and dislike clamour,
With a short walking stick it is fine to leisurely come and go.