禪關策進 1.9

1.9

預前若打不徹。臘月三十日到來。管取爾熱亂。有般外道。纔見人做工夫。便冷咲。猶有這箇在。我且問爾。忽然臨命終時。爾將何抵敵生死。須是閒時辦得下。忙時得用。多少省力。休待臨渴掘井。做手脚不迭。前路茫茫。胡鑽亂撞。苦哉苦哉。平日只學口頭三昧。說禪說道。呵佛罵祖。到這裏都用不著。只管瞞人。爭知今日自瞞了也。勸爾兄弟家。趁色力康健時。討取箇分曉。這些關棙子。甚是容易。自是爾不肯去下死志做工夫。只管道難了又難。若是丈夫漢。看箇公案。僧問趙州。狗子還有佛性也無。州云無。但二六時中看箇無字。晝參夜參。行住坐臥。著衣吃飯處。屙屎放尿處。心心相顧。猛著精彩。守箇無字。日久歲深。打成一片。忽然心華頓發。悟佛祖之機。便不被天下老和尚舌頭瞞。便會開大口。達磨西來。無風起浪。世尊拈花。一場敗闕到這裏。說甚閻羅老子。千聖尚不奈爾何。不信道直有這般奇特。為甚如此。事怕有心人。

“If you do not break through beforehand, when the thirtieth day of the twelfth month arrives, rest assured you will be in frantic confusion. There is a sort of non-Buddhist who, as soon as they see someone applying effort, sneers, ‘Still holding onto that thing!’ Let me ask you: when suddenly faced with the end of life, with what will you resist birth and death? You must make preparations when at leisure, so that it can be used when things are pressing—how much effort that saves! Do not wait to dig a well when you are thirsty, scrambling your hands and feet in vain. The road ahead is boundless and dim; you will blunder about blindly. How bitter! How bitter! In ordinary times you only learn lip-service samādhi, talking of Chan and speaking of the Way, scolding buddhas and reviling patriarchs; but when it comes to this point, none of it can be used. You only cared about deceiving others; how could you have known that today you would deceive yourself? I advise you brothers to obtain clarity while your bodily faculties are strong and healthy. These trigger-mechanisms are exceedingly easy; it is only that you are unwilling to form a dead-set resolve to apply effort, simply saying that the Way is difficult upon difficult. If you are a real man, inspect a gongan: A monk asked Zhaozhou, ‘Does a dog have buddha-nature or not?’ Zhaozhou said, ‘Wu.’ Simply inspect the character Wu throughout the twelve two-hour periods. Investigate it by day and investigate it by night, whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, while putting on clothes and eating food, or while defecating and urinating. Keep thought attending to thought, fiercely summon your vigor, and hold fast to the character Wu. As days and years deepen, it will be fused into one whole. Suddenly, the mind-flower suddenly blooming, you will awaken to the dynamic functioning of the buddhas and patriarchs. Then you will not be deceived by the tongues of old monks throughout the world; you will be able to open your big mouth: Bodhidharma coming from the West was making waves where there was no wind; the Bhagavat holding up a flower was a complete fiasco. Arriving here, what Old Yama could be spoken of? Even a thousand sages could do nothing to you. If you do not believe that it is indeed so extraordinary: why is it like this? Any matter yields to a determined mind.”