景德傳燈錄 5.43

5.43

廣州志道禪師者南海人也。初參六祖曰。學人自出家。覽涅槃經僅十餘載。未明大意。願和尚垂誨。祖曰。汝何處未了。對曰。諸行無常。是生滅法。生滅滅已。寂滅為樂。於此疑惑。祖曰。汝作麼生疑。對曰。一切眾生皆有二身。謂色身法身也。色身無常有生有滅。法身有常無知無覺。經云。生滅滅已寂滅為樂者。未審是何身寂滅何身受樂。若色身者。色身滅時。四大分散全是苦。苦不可言樂。若法身寂滅。即同草木瓦石。誰當受樂。又法性是生滅之體。五蘊是生滅之用。一體五用生滅是常。生則從體起用。滅則攝用歸體。若聽更生。即有情之類不斷不滅。若不聽更生。即永歸寂滅。同於無情之物。如是則一切諸法。被涅槃之所禁伏。尚不得生何樂之有。祖曰。汝是釋子何習外道斷常邪見。而議最上乘法。據汝所解。即色身外別有法身。離生滅求於寂滅。又推涅槃常樂。言有身受者。斯乃執吝生死耽著世樂。汝今當知。佛為一切迷人認五蘊和合為自體相。分別一切法為外塵相。好生惡死念念遷流。不知夢幻虛假。枉受輪迴。以常樂涅槃翻為苦相終日馳求。佛愍此故乃示涅槃真樂。剎那無有生相。剎那無有滅相。更無生滅可滅。是則寂滅見前。當見前之時亦無見前之量乃謂常樂此樂無有受者亦無不受者豈有一體五用之名何況更言涅槃禁伏諸法令永不生斯乃謗佛毀法。聽吾偈曰。

Chan Master Zhidao of Guangzhou was a native of Nanhai. When he first visited the Sixth Patriarch, he said, 'Since leaving home, I have read the Nirvāṇa Sūtra for barely more than ten years, yet I have not understood its great meaning. I pray that the Upādhyāya will deign to instruct me.' The Patriarch said, 'Where are you not yet clear?' He replied, ''All conditioned things are impermanent; they are phenomena of arising and ceasing. When arising and ceasing have ceased, the extinction of quiescence is bliss.' I have doubts regarding this.' The Patriarch said, 'How do you doubt it?' He replied, 'All sentient beings have two bodies: namely, the physical body and the Dharma body. The physical body is impermanent, having arising and ceasing; the Dharma body is permanent, having no knowledge and no sensation. The sūtra says: 'When arising and ceasing have ceased, the extinction of quiescence is bliss.' I do not know which body undergoes extinction of quiescence and which body experiences bliss. If it is the physical body: when the physical body ceases, the four great elements disperse, which is entirely suffering, and suffering cannot be called bliss. If the Dharma body undergoes extinction of quiescence, it would be identical to grasses, trees, tiles, and stones—who would then experience bliss? Furthermore, the Dharma-nature is the substance of arising and ceasing, and the five aggregates are the function of arising and ceasing. With one substance and five functions, arising and ceasing are constant: upon arising, function emerges from substance; upon ceasing, function is gathered back to substance. If another birth is allowed, then sentient kinds would never be cut off or extinguished. If another birth is not allowed, then they would forever return to quiescence and extinction, being identical to insentient things. If this were so, all dharmas would be restrained and suppressed by nirvāṇa; they would not even be able to arise, so what bliss could there be?' The Patriarch said, 'You are a son of Śākya; why do you study the non-Buddhist heterodox views of annihilation and permanence to critique the supreme vehicle? According to your understanding, outside the physical body there is separately a Dharma body, and apart from arising and ceasing you seek quiescence and extinction. Moreover, inferring that nirvāṇa is permanent bliss, you say there is a body that experiences it—this is merely clinging stubbornly to birth and death and indulging in worldly pleasures. You must know now: because all deluded people mistake the confluence of the five aggregates for the mark of their own substance, and discriminate all dharmas as marks of external dust, loving life and hating death, their thought-moments shifting and flowing, unaware of the dreamlike, illusory falsehood [of existence], they vainly undergo saṃsāra, turning the constant bliss of nirvāṇa instead into a mark of suffering and running about seeking it all day long. Pitiful of this, the Buddha demonstrated the true bliss of nirvāṇa: in an instant there is no mark of arising; in an instant there is no mark of ceasing; there is no further arising and ceasing to be ceased. This is the presence of quiescence and extinction before your eyes. In this moment of presence, there is also no measure of presence; it is called constant bliss. This bliss has no one who experiences it, nor anyone who does not experience it. How could there be the designation of one substance and five functions? How much less should one say that nirvāṇa restrains and suppresses all dharmas so that they never arise again? This is slandering the Buddha and defaming the Dharma. Listen to my verse:'