緇門警訓 7.20

7.20

A monk asked: "The twelve divisions of the teachings flowed into this land, and those who attained the fruit of the Way were more than just one or two. Why did the Patriarch come east to teach and separately proclaim the profound school, directly pointing to the human mind, seeing one's nature and becoming a buddha? Could it be that the Bhagavat's exposition of the Dharma had something left unsaid? Consider only the virtuous high monks of past generations: all of them mastered the nine schools of thought and thoroughly illuminated the Tripiṭaka. Men such as Daosheng, Sengzhao, Sengrong, and Daorui were all rare prodigies born at special intervals. How could they fail to know the depth or shallowness of the Buddha's Dharma? I am dull and ignorant, and I pray the Master will instruct me."
The Master said: "The Buddhas never appeared in the world, nor is there a single dharma to give to people. They merely prescribed remedies according to the illness, so that the twelve divisions of the teachings came to be. It is like exchanging a sweet melon for a bitter gourd to cleanse the karmic roots of all of you; there is no actual substance to it at all. The supernormal transformations and the hundreds of thousands of samādhi doors were used to convert and break down heavenly demons and non-Buddhists. The two adornments of merit and wisdom were meant to shatter the views of clinging to existence or stagnating in emptiness. If one does not understand the Way or the Patriarch's intention in coming, what is the use of discussing Daosheng, Sengzhao, Sengrong, or Daorui?
"Nowadays throughout the realm, those who claim to understand Chan and understand the Way are like the sands of the Ganges; those who speak of the Buddha and speak of the mind number hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis. Yet if the finest dust of delusion is not cast off, saṃsāra cannot be avoided; if thoughts are not extinguished, one will entirely sink and fall. People of this sort cannot even recognize their own karmic fruits, yet they falsely claim to benefit themselves and others, boasting that they are of the highest class, on par with the virtuous ancients. They merely claim, 'Whatever meets the eye is nothing but the Buddha's work; wherever I set foot is a place of the Way.' In reality, their conduct does not even match that of an ordinary person keeping the five precepts and ten virtuous deeds; yet judging by their speech, they look down upon the two vehicles and the bodhisattvas of the ten grounds. Now, sarpirmaṇḍa is the supreme flavor, treasured as rare by the world; but when it meets such people, it turns into poison. Master Nanshan would not even allow them to be called followers of the Mahāyāna! This crowd of word-parrots strives for supremacy with lips and tongues, stirring up arguments about formless matters and comparing themselves to the sincerity of the ancients—how lamentable!
"Consider even the lofty hermits of the wilds: they still knew how to pillow their heads on stone and rinse their mouths with the stream, casting aside profit and emoluments; yet they possessed stratagems to pacify the state and govern the people, declining when summoned to court. How much more so should our Chan school take a different path! Look at the men of the Way among the virtuous ancients: after attaining the realization, they lived in thatched huts and stone caves, cooking rice in broken-legged pots. Twenty or thirty years would pass, with fame and profit never touching their minds, and wealth never a consideration. Completely oblivious to the human world, they concealed their traces among crags and thickets; kings summoned them and they did not come, feudal lords invited them and they did not go. How could they be like us, who covet fame and love profit, sinking in worldly paths like petty merchants, seeking small gains while forgetting the great fruit?
"Did the worthy ones of the ten grounds not comprehend the Buddha's principles? Could they be inferior to an ordinary person bound to the earth? There is truly no such principle! Even when their preaching of the Dharma was like clouds and rain, they were still rebuked by the Buddha, who said that seeing their nature was like peering through fine gauze—simply because their feelings harbored attachment to the measure of holiness, and their vision remained tied to causes and effects, unable to transcend the sentiment of holiness and surpass all traces and shadows.
"The former sages and virtuous ancients were learned scholars and lofty masters, broadly versed in past and present and thoroughly clear about the net of the teachings. Yet because they were trapped in textual learning and interpretive writing, unable to distinguish milk from water, failing to clarify their own nature's principle, and pursuing stillness to seek reality—alas! Those who obtain a human body are like the dirt on a fingernail; those who lose a human body are like the dirt of the great earth. How truly sorrowful!
"Even if there are those who awaken to the principle, having a single piece of knowledge or a single understanding, they do not realize that this is merely a rule within awakening, a gate for entering the principle. Thereupon they claim to have eternally transcended worldly profit; they roam the mountains and skirt the streams, slighting their superiors. Consequently, the leakages of their mind are never exhausted, the ground of principle remains unclarified, and in vain they reach old age and death without accomplishment, uselessly prolonging the months and years. Furthermore, cleverness cannot counter karma, and dry wisdom cannot escape the wheel of suffering. Even if your talent equaled Aśvaghoṣa and your understanding matched Nāgārjuna, it would only ensure that you do not lose a human body for one or two lifetimes; having purified your faculties and thinking in past lives, you understand upon hearing. Even someone like Master Daosheng is hardly worthy of envy—he was completely far from the Way.
"Brothers, let us discuss the real, not the vain! Merely this food for the mouth and clothing for the body are entirely acquired by deceiving the worthy and defrauding the holy. When seen with the eye of wisdom that knows others' minds, it is just like eating pus and blood; every bit of it must be repaid! Who among you possesses the fruit of the Way such that you naturally attract the offerings of faithful donors without accepting them? Bodhisattvas studying prajñā must not deceive themselves! It is like walking on thin ice, like treading on a sword's edge. At the time of approaching death, if the slightest trace of ordinary or holy sentiment is not exhausted, if the finest speck of conceptual thought is not forgotten, you will take birth in accordance with your thoughts into the lighter or heavier five skandhas, entrusting your form to a donkey's womb or a horse's belly. After being boiled and scalded once in the cauldrons of Niraya, all the retention, recollection, views, understanding, and wisdom you previously held will be completely lost in an instant. As before, you will again become an ant, and start over once more as a mosquito or gnat. Although you had good causes, you suffer evil fruits—what were you striving for?
"Brothers, simply because craving and desire have become second nature, the twenty-five states of existence remain bound beneath your heels, with no time of completion in sight. The Patriarch observed that sentient beings in this land possessed the capacity for the Mahāyāna; he transmitted solely the mind-seal to instruct deluded sentiments. For those who attain it, no distinction is made between ordinary or holy, foolish or wise. Moreover, much that is empty is not as good as a little that is real. If you are great men, rest right this moment! Instantly bring an end to all conditions, cross over the flow of birth and death, transcend ordinary conventions, and let the spiritual light shine alone, unencumbered by things! Lofty and magnificent, walk alone through the three realms! What need is there for a sixteen-foot body glowing with purple-golden radiance, a halo around the neck, or the mark of a broad and long tongue? 'If one sees me by form, one is practicing a deviant path.' If one is adorned with retinue and virtues, they will be attained naturally without seeking. The mountains, rivers, and the great earth will not obstruct the vision of the eye; one attains the great dhāraṇī, awakening to a thousand things upon hearing one, without coveting the value of a single meal.
"If all of you are not like this, the Patriarch's coming to this land has both immense harm and immense benefit. As for the benefit: out of hundreds of thousands of people, one or half a person is scooped out who is fit to become a vessel of the Dharma. As for the harm: it is just as explained before. If people had instead followed the teachings of the three vehicles in their cultivation, they might well have attained the four fruits and the three stages of worthiness, possessing a share of progressive practice. Therefore an ancient worthy said: 'When awakened, karmic obstacles are fundamentally empty; / when unawakened, one must still repay past debts.'" (Record of the Transmission of the Lamp)