景德傳燈錄 9.29

9.29

京兆大薦福寺弘辯禪師。唐宣宗問。禪宗何有南北之名。師對曰。禪門本無南北。昔如來以正法眼付大迦葉。展轉相傳至二十八祖菩提達磨。來遊此方為初祖。暨第五祖弘忍大師。在蘄州東山開法。時有二弟子。一名慧能。受衣法居嶺南為六祖。一名神秀。在北揚化。其後神秀門人普寂立本師為第六祖。而自稱七祖。其所得法雖一。而開導發悟有頓漸之異。故曰南頓北漸。非禪宗本有南北之號也。帝曰。云何名戒師。對曰。防非止惡謂之戒。帝曰。何為定。對曰。六根涉境心不隨緣名定。帝曰。何為慧。對曰。心境俱空照覽無惑名慧。帝曰。何為方便。對曰。方便者隱實覆相權巧之門也。被接中下曲施誘迪。謂之方便。設為上根言捨方便但說無上道者。斯亦方便之譚。乃至祖師玄言忘功絕謂亦無出方便之迹。帝曰。何為佛心。對曰。佛者西天之語。唐言覺。謂人有智慧覺照為佛心。心者佛之別名。有百千異號。體唯其一。本無形狀。非青黃赤白男女等相。在天非天在人非人。而現天現人。能男能女非始非終無生無滅。故號靈覺之性。如陛下日應萬機。即是陛下佛心。假使千佛共傳。而不念別有所得也。帝曰。如今有人念佛如何。對曰。如來出世為天人師善知識。隨根器而說法。為上根者開最上乘頓悟至理。中下者未能頓曉。是以佛為韋提希。權開十六觀門。令念佛生於極樂。故經云。是心是佛是心作佛。心外無佛佛外無心。帝曰。有人持經念佛持呪求佛如何。對曰。如來種種開讚皆為最上一乘。如百川眾流莫不朝宗于海。如是差別諸數皆歸薩婆若海。帝曰。祖師既契會心印。金剛經云。無所得法如何。對曰。佛之一化實無一法與人。但示眾人。各各自性同一法寶藏。當時然燈如來但印釋迦本法。而無所得方契然燈本意。故經云。無我無人無眾生無壽者。是法平等修一切善法不住於相。帝曰。禪師既會祖意。還禮佛轉經否。對曰。沙門釋子禮佛轉經。蓋是住持常法有四報焉。然依佛戒修身。參尋知識漸修梵行。履踐如來所行之迹。帝曰。何為頓見何為漸修。對曰。頓明自性與佛同儔。然有無始染習故。假漸修對治。令順性起用。如人喫飯不一口便飽。是日辯師對七刻。賜紫方袍號圓智禪師。仍勅修天下祖塔各令守護。

Chan Master Hongbian of the Great Jianfu Monastery in the Capital Jingzhao. Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang asked, 'Why does the Chan tradition have the designations of North and South?' The master replied, 'The Chan school originally has no North or South. In ancient times, the Tathāgata entrusted the correct Dharma eye to Mahākāśyapa; it was transmitted successively down to the twenty-eighth ancestor, Bodhidharma, who came to wander in this land and became the first ancestor. When it reached the Great Master Hongren, the fifth ancestor, he opened the Dharma at Mount Dongshan in Qizhou. At that time he had two disciples: one was named Huineng, who received the robe and Dharma, resided in Lingnan, and became the sixth ancestor; the other was named Shenxiu, who propagated the transformation in the north. Later, Shenxiu's disciple Puji established his original master as the sixth ancestor and called himself the seventh ancestor. Although the Dharma they attained was one, their guiding and awakening had the difference of sudden and gradual; therefore, they are called the Southern Sudden and Northern Gradual. It is not that the Chan tradition originally had the designations of North and South.' The Emperor asked, 'What is called the precepts?' The master replied, 'Guarding against wrongdoing and halting evil is called precepts.' The Emperor asked, 'What is samādhi?' The master replied, 'When the six sense organs contact external realms while the mind does not follow conditions, that is called samādhi.' The Emperor asked, 'What is wisdom?' The master replied, 'When mind and realm are both empty, perceiving clearly without confusion, that is called wisdom.' The Emperor asked, 'What are skillful means?' The master replied, 'Skillful means are the expedient and clever gates that conceal the real and cover marks. Attracting the intermediate and lower capacities by bending to guide and instruct them is called skillful means. Even if, for the sake of the highest capacity, it is said that one should abandon skillful means and expound only the unsurpassed path, this too is a talk of skillful means. Even the ancestral masters' profound words of forgetting effort and cutting off predication do not go beyond the traces of skillful means.' The Emperor asked, 'What is the Buddha-mind?' The master replied, '"Buddha" is a word from the Western Heavens; in the language of the Tang it means "awakened." That people possess the wisdom of awakened illumination is the Buddha-mind. Mind is another name for Buddha; it has hundreds of thousands of different designations, but its substance is only one. It fundamentally has no form or characteristics, neither blue, yellow, red, white, male, female, nor any such mark. Among the devas it is not a deva, among humans it is not a human; yet it manifests as devas and manifests as humans, can be male and can be female; it has neither beginning nor end, neither birth nor death. Therefore it is called the nature of numinous awareness. Just as Your Majesty daily responds to the myriad affairs of state, this is Your Majesty's Buddha-mind. Even if a thousand Buddhas transmitted it together, you should not think there is something else to be attained.' The Emperor asked, 'Nowadays there are people who recite the Buddha's name; what about that?' The master replied, 'When the Tathāgata appeared in the world, he was a teacher of gods and humans and a kalyāṇamitra; he expounded the Dharma according to their faculties and capacities. For those of highest capacity, he opened the supreme vehicle of sudden awakening to the ultimate principle. Those of intermediate and lower capacities could not suddenly understand; therefore, for Vaidehī, the Buddha provisionally opened the sixteen contemplation gates, causing her to recite the Buddha's name and be born in Sukhāvatī. Hence the sūtra says: "This mind is Buddha; this mind creates Buddha." Outside the mind there is no Buddha; outside the Buddha there is no mind.' The Emperor asked, 'What about those who uphold sūtras, recite the Buddha's name, and chant dhāraṇīs to seek buddhahood?' The master replied, 'The Tathāgata's various openings and praises are all for the sake of the supreme single vehicle. Just as the hundreds of rivers and myriad streams all converge toward the ocean, so such differentiated practices all return to the ocean of sarvajña.' The Emperor asked, 'Since the ancestral masters were in accord with the mind-seal, what of the Diamond Sūtra's saying that there is "no Dharma to be attained"?' The master replied, 'In the Buddha's entire teaching career, he truly did not give a single Dharma to people; he merely showed that each person's own nature is the same single Dharma-treasure house. When Dīpaṅkara Buddha merely certified Śākyamuni's original Dharma, there was nothing attained, and only then did it accord with Dīpaṅkara's original intent. Thus the sūtra says: "Without self, without person, without sentient beings, without life-span; this Dharma is equal, cultivating all good dharmas without abiding in marks."' The Emperor asked, 'Since you understand the ancestral intent, Chan Master, do you still pay homage to Buddhas and recite sūtras?' The master replied, 'For śramaṇas and disciples of Śākya to pay homage to Buddhas and recite sūtras is the regular practice of abiding and sustaining, repaying the four debts of gratitude. Furthermore, relying on the Buddha's precepts to cultivate oneself, visiting kalyāṇamitras, gradually cultivating pure conduct, one treads the traces walked by the Tathāgata.' The Emperor asked, 'What is sudden seeing and what is gradual cultivation?' The master replied, 'Suddenly clarifying the self-nature makes one equal to the Buddhas. Yet because there are beginningless defiling habits, one relies on gradual cultivation as an antidote to cause function to arise in accordance with the nature. It is like a person eating food: one is not filled by a single mouthful.' On that day, Master Bian replied for seven ke. He was bestowed the purple square robe and given the title Chan Master Yuanzhi. An imperial edict was also issued to repair the ancestral stupas throughout the empire and order them guarded.