景德傳燈錄 5.24

5.24

師聞偈悔過曰。而今而後當謙恭一切。惟願和尚大慈。略說經中義理。祖曰。汝念此經以何為宗。師曰。學人愚鈍。從來但依文誦念。豈知宗趣。祖曰。汝試為吾念一遍。吾當為汝解說。師即高聲念經至方便品。祖曰止。此經元來以因緣出世為宗。縱說多種譬喻。亦無越於此。何者因緣。唯一大事。一大事即佛知見也。汝慎勿錯解經意。見他道。開示悟入自是佛之知見。我輩無分。若作此解乃是謗經毀佛也。彼既是佛已具知見。何用更開。汝今當信。佛知見者。只汝自心更無別體。蓋為一切眾生自蔽光明。貪愛塵境外緣內擾甘受驅馳。便勞他從三昧起。種種苦口勸令寢息。莫向外求與佛無二。故云開佛知見。汝但勞勞執念謂為功課者。何異犛牛愛尾也。師曰。若然者但得解義。不勞誦經耶。祖曰。經有何過豈障汝念。只為迷悟在人損益由汝。聽吾偈曰。

Hearing the gāthā, the Master repented his fault, saying: "From this day forward, I shall be humble and respectful toward all things. I only pray that the Upādhyāya, out of great compassion, will briefly explain the doctrine within the sutra." The Patriarch said: "You recite this sutra—what do you take as its fundamental message?" The Master said: "I, a student, am dull and ignorant; until now I have merely recited it following the words, so how could I understand its fundamental message?" The Patriarch said: "Try reciting it once for me, and I shall explain it for you." The Master immediately recited the sutra in a loud voice up to the 'Skillful Means' chapter. The Patriarch said: "Stop! This sutra originally takes 'arising in the world for a single cause and condition' as its fundamental message. Even though it expounds many varieties of parables, none go beyond this. What is this cause and condition? It is only the one great matter, and this one great matter is nothing other than the vision and knowledge of the Buddha. Be careful not to misunderstand the sutra's meaning! Seeing where it says that opening, revealing, awakening to, and entering [the vision and knowledge] belong naturally to the Buddha's vision and knowledge, [people think] we ourselves have no share in it. If one adopts such an interpretation, it is slandering the sutra and defaming the Buddha. If he is already a Buddha and possesses this vision and knowledge, why would there be any need to open it further? You should now have faith that the Buddha's vision and knowledge is simply your own mind, having no other essence. It is only because all sentient beings obstruct their own radiance, craving dust-like sensory realms, disturbed within by outer conditions, and willingly submitting to being driven about, that they trouble him to arise from samādhi, using all manner of earnest words to urge them to desist, to seek nothing externally, and to be not two with the Buddha—hence it is called 'opening the Buddha's vision and knowledge.' For you merely to cling laboriously to reciting it, regarding it as daily practice—how does that differ from a yak treasuring its tail?" The Master said: "If so, does one merely need to understand the meaning, without taking the trouble to recite the sutra?" The Patriarch said: "What fault is there in the sutra that it would hinder your recitation? It is solely that delusion and awakening depend on the person, and loss and gain proceed from yourself. Listen to my gāthā:"