緇門警訓 7.36

7.36

Recently I was honoured by your letter of instruction, in which you further taught me with the doctrines of Chan and the teachings. Reading it brought me great opening and comfort. Previously I had also received some instruction from you, but just then, occupied with many affairs, I was unable to interact with you, Master. Now that you have spoken again, who could thus admonish me were it not for the depth of your affection? Considering my foolishness and ignorance, how could I be worthy to understand it? Yet concerning what you have said, Master, I venture to hold some doubts. Regarding the Tathāgata's path of expedient means, you seem to grasp one side, still harboring the views of self and other, taking oneself to be right and others to be wrong. Within the Buddha-dharma, this is a great illness. Without eliminating self and other, to talk recklessly of superiority and inferiority is merely frivolous discourse. If disputing it does not cease, it ultimately becomes slandering the Dharma; before attaining the wondrous fruit, one first invites evil retribution. One must not fail to be cautious! If one can only, in one expedient gate of the former Buddhas, cultivate diligently until one's practice is full and merits are complete, one will naturally transcend and attain liberation; one need not cling to what is one's own as right and take the rest to be wrong. As for cultivating the Pure Land, Buddhas and bodhisattvas all praise it; whether lay or monastic, those who attain rebirth are not few. Moreover, in this latter-day Dharma, for those who cultivate this gate it can be called a shortcut. Yet within this, one must also wash away the sense organs and dusts, and break down egotistical arrogance. As for the other various dharma-gates, though they are not one's main path of practice, according to one's strength and capacity one should also treat them with admiration and faith. How could one recklessly discourse on superiority and inferiority, arbitrarily setting up high and low? Bodhidharma came from the West without establishing words, directly transmitting the mind-seal; one flower with five petals came from Caoxi, and those who awakened to this Dharma were as numerous as rice plants, hemp, bamboo, and reeds. In the Tang dynasty, the rulers of the world venerated them as serving their masters, down to the present day without interruption of transmission between master and disciple. It certainly cannot be judged in terms of superiority and inferiority. If one must cite the doctrinal categories of the doctrinal schools to determine their attainment and realization, saying that one who cultivates like this only then enters such-and-such a ground, or one who practices like this only then ascends to such-and-such an abode, this is truly what is called painting empty space—toil in vain! Therefore a sutra says: 'Just as a man counting another's treasures does not have half a coin himself; so it is with much learning when one does not practice the Dharma.' I hope that you, Master, will cast aside intellectual views, not debate other matters, and single-mindedly cultivate yourself in pure karma. Whenever I converse with you, Master, I see you often reject the teaching of 'not establishing words'. If this teaching were not good, then Bodhidharma would surely not have come from the West, and the Second Patriarch would surely not have been willing to cut off his arm to seek it. Nowadays Chan writings fill the world; this is simply the natural development of the latter stream—what is there to be surprised at? The views of sentient beings in the Sahā world have various differences; they cannot attain transcendence through a single dharma. Therefore the Buddha, through expedient means, set up various dharma-gates so that whether east, west, south, north, vertical or horizontal, small or great, in all of them one can practice and in all of them one can enter realization. In the Avataṃsaka assembly, Mañjuśrī once asked Enlightenment-Chief (Bodhicitta-śīrṣa): 'The nature of mind is one; why is it seen to have various differences?' He asked Virtue-Chief: 'What the Tathāgata realized is only one dharma; why then does he preach immeasurable dharmas?' He asked Wisdom-Chief: 'In the Buddha-dharma, wisdom is foremost; why does the Tathāgata sometimes praise generosity, sometimes praise keeping precepts, sometimes praise patience, and even at times praise benevolence, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity, with none ever attaining transcendence through a single dharma?' To all these there were verse responses; these are what you, Master, recite morning and evening. You must thoroughly understand this principle! When illnesses suffered are different, the prescriptions are also different. If someone has an ailment of the hands and feet and is cured by taking a certain medicine, can one reproach another person whose illness is in the heart and abdomen for not taking the medicine for the hands and feet, taking the remedy for the heart and abdomen to be wrong? In the Śūraṅgama assembly, among the twenty-five practices Avalokiteśvara alone was praised foremost; can one then elevate Avalokiteśvara and degrade the other bodhisattvas, divine immortals, and non-Buddhists? In our Dharma, all such are heterodox views. Furthermore, the spiritual friends in the Avataṃsaka sometimes appeared as non-Buddhists, sometimes as kings of men, sometimes as courtesans to guide sentient beings. If one takes only those of orthodox practice to be right, then the ones Sudhana visited, such as Jayoṣṇīṣa, Vasumitrā, and King Ananala, could all be designated as wrong. The thousands of sutras and ten thousand treatises are only for eliminating the illnesses of sentient beings. When the illness is gone, the medicine is discarded; what need is there to cauterize oneself when there is no illness? Because the defilements of this mind are heavy, one cultivates pure causes; if both pure and defiled are gone, what further cultivation or realization is there? In the three realms there is no abiding place; where would one seek the mind? The four elements are fundamentally empty; on what does the Buddha abide? The jewel in the garment is only bound by the garment; if the garment is ruined and gone, the pearl will naturally manifest itself. I have briefly related my humble views in reply to your instructions. If there is anything else you can teach me, please favour me with another word; I would be most fortunate. Be careful not to be disorganized and rambling so as to turn into frivolous discourse. Has your physical body been light and at peace recently? Has your trouble with not being able to eat improved now? I pass my days following conditions, seeking only to be free from affairs. For now, please take the utmost care of yourself.