緇門警訓 7.38

7.38

I have received your inquiry concerning the Chan tradition, and look up with admiration to your modesty and love of goodness. Looking at my shallowness and baseness, how could I be worthy of such an honour? Yet how dare I not express my humble views? As to whether the huatou should be investigated or not, in my view, there was originally no fixed doctrine. If one can attain non-arising in a single thought, one's entire body is Buddha; where else would there be a huatou? It is only because of the habitual tendencies of many lifetimes, turning one's back on awakening and uniting with dust, that in an instant thoughts arise and cease, just like a monkey picking up chestnuts. The Buddhas and patriarchs, having no alternative, provisionally set up expedient means, having one chew on a tasteless huatou so that conceptual consciousness cannot operate—exchanging a bitter gourd for a honey fruit, washing away your karmic consciousness, all without any real substance. It is also like the state's military weapons, used only when there is no choice. Students nowadays, however, force far-fetched interpretations onto the huatou, or even go so far as to explain them one by one, treating this as their work—how far off they are! Practitioner Leng sat through seven rush mats in twenty years, doing nothing but looking at 'before the donkey's affair is gone, the horse's affair arrives'. Upon rolling up a blind he had a great awakening. The so-called eighty-four thousand pivot mechanisms require only a single key to unlock. How could it consist in many words? Your letter says: 'Without reciting the Buddha's words, keeping the Buddha's mind, and carrying out the Buddha's conduct, after a long time one must find a place of attainment.' To conduct oneself like this certainly does not fail to make one a worthy person of an age; yet the matter of the Chan tradition requires that one clearly see through to one's own original ground, only then is it ultimate. Although this matter is originally possessed by everyone, it is merely covered by adventitious dust and false thoughts. If one does not undergo severe smelting, it will never become bright and pure. The Sutra of Complete Enlightenment says: 'Just like smelting gold ore: the gold does not exist because of smelting, yet although it is originally gold, it is ultimately brought to completion by smelting.' This is precisely what it means! Your letter also says: 'If the Dao is not in words and letters, why did the Buddhas and patriarchs leave so many sutras and treatises in the world?' The sutras are the Buddha's words, and Chan is the Buddha's mind; originally they do not contradict each other. But worldly people pursue words and follow phrases, sinking and drowning in the doctrinal net, not knowing that they themselves have a great matter of illumination. Therefore Bodhidharma came from the West without establishing words, directly pointing to the human mind to see one's nature and attain Buddhahood, which is called a separate transmission outside the teachings. It is not that outside the teachings there is a separate principle; it is simply necessary to clearly understand this mind without clinging to doctrinal marks. If one now only recites the Buddha's words without returning them to oneself, it is like a person counting others' rare treasures without having half a coin himself; it is also like wrapping pearls in a torn rag: as soon as one walks out the door, they leak out and are lost. Even if one finds a little flavour therein, it is still the view of Dharma-attachment, not the matter of one's own fundamental portion. As it is said: 'Although gold dust is precious, falling into the eye it causes a film.' One must sweep away everything until all is completely clear, only then will there be a slight degree of accord. Although I have not read the entire Great Canon, I have recited sutras such as the Avataṃsaka, Śūraṅgama, Complete Enlightenment, and Vimalakīrti quite familiarly. Others, such as the records of the elders in the Transmission of the Lamp and Master Yanshou's Zongjing lu, I have savoured for several decades before finding a footing at home; then I had no leisure to read sutras and treatises. Although the Laṅkāvatāra is the mind doctrine of Bodhidharma, because its syntax is difficult to parse, I have not investigated it deeply. One must know that we are all sincere in mind, not like those worldly people who deceive themselves merely to provide material for conversation. For now, test it in daily use: although there are no turbid, evil, coarse faults, in all realms of good, bad, adverse, and favorable, can you really shine through without being swayed by them? In nighttime sleep, are dream and waking identical? Are there terrors and inversions? In sickness, can you be the master? If there are still objects before your eyes, then in dream and slumber you will inevitably be inverted. Once dream and slumber are inverted, in sickness you will definitely be unable to be the master. If you cannot be the master in sickness, then at the brink of birth and death you will certainly not be at ease. As it is said: 'Like a person drinking water, naturally knowing whether it is cold or warm.' For an imperial drafter during the height of your career and fame to cultivate purity, lessen desires, and turn your mind to this Dao, you can be called a lotus in the fire. The ancients said: 'This is the business of a great man; it is not something that generals and ministers can do.' They also said: 'One must stand atop the highest peak and walk on the deepest ocean bed.' One must further probe deeply and reach far, straight to the place of no doubt. Your letter says that there is nowhere to lay a hand; this very place where there is nowhere to lay a hand is precisely the place to gain strength. As said in my previous letter, in both quiet places and noisy places, keep an eye watching: what is this principle? When one is practiced and matured for a long time, naturally there will be no difference between quiet and noisy. If random thoughts fly about, arising and ceasing without stop, then bring up a gong'an to push against them; then the mind of arising and ceasing will naturally cease at once, and illumination and the illuminator will simultaneously be silenced—this is arriving home. I too have studied this and have not yet reached it; for now I pour it all out like this. Do not show it to others, for I fear those who hold Confucianism and Buddhism to be incompatible will surely find it greatly strange; and you, imperial drafter, when your mind's eye is opened and bright in the future, will also surely laugh heartily and scold me.