景德傳燈錄 28.10

28.10

Upādhyāya Yixuan of Linji in Zhenzhou addressed the assembly, saying: "Practitioners nowadays must clarify their own genuine insight. If you obtain your own insight, you will not be defiled by birth and death, and going or staying will be unobstructed. Do not seek the extraordinary from outside; the extraordinary is completely present within yourself. Those of the Way nowadays must not be stalled in doubt. When you need to function, just function. Nowadays, if you cannot attain it, where does the illness lie? The illness lies in not trusting yourself. If you do not have sufficient trust in yourself, you rush around in haste following all circumstances. If you, virtuous ones, can only bring to rest the mind of racing about seeking thought after thought, you will be no different from the patriarchs. Do you wish to recognize the patriarchs? They are the very one right before your eyes listening to the Dharma. When practitioners do not have sufficient trust, they rush outward to seek. Those who attain something merely have textual learning, far removed from the patriarchs. Make no mistake, virtuous ones! If you do not encounter it at this time, for ten thousand kalpas and a thousand lives you will transmigrate through the three realms, following agreeable and disagreeable circumstances into the bellies of donkeys and oxen. How do you people nowadays differ from the ancient sages? What do you lack? The divine radiance of the six senses has never ceased. If you can see in this manner, you are a person of no affairs for a lifetime. A single thought of pure radiance is the Dharmakāya Buddha in your house. A single thought of non-discriminating radiance is your Saṃbhogakāya Buddha. A single thought of non-differentiated radiance is your Nirmāṇakāya Buddha. These three bodies are the very person right before our eyes listening to the Dharma. Because you do not seek outward, you possess these three functions. According to the teachings, these three are named the ultimate principle; according to this mountain monk, these three are mere names and words. Thus it is said, 'Bodies are established according to meaning; realms are discussed based on substance.' The Dharma-nature body and the Dharma-nature realm are clearly known to be light and shadow. Virtuous ones, you must recognize the person who manipulates the light and shadow! This is the source of all Buddhas, the home to which all people of the Way return. Virtuous ones, the body of the four elements cannot preach the Dharma or listen to the Dharma; empty space cannot preach the Dharma or listen to the Dharma. It is that vividly distinct, solitary brightness right before your eyes, without form or shape, that can preach the Dharma and listen to the Dharma. Therefore this mountain monk says to you: Within the field of the five aggregates' body, there is a true person of no rank, magnificently manifest without the slightest thread of separation. Why do you not recognize him? The Dharma of the mind is without form and penetrates the ten directions: in the eye it is called seeing; in the ear it is called hearing; in the hands it grasps; in the feet it runs. If the mind is not attached, there is liberation everywhere. As this mountain monk sees it, I sit and sever the crown of the Saṃbhogakāya and Nirmāṇakāya Buddhas; those who have completed the ten stages are like hired laborers; the two awakenings of equality and wondrousness are like carrying cangues and chains; the arhats and pratyekabuddhas are like filth and dung; bodhi and nirvāṇa are tethering posts for donkeys and horses. Why is it so? It is because they do not realize the emptiness of the three asaṃkhyeya kalpas that they have these obstructions. If one is a true follower of the Way, it is completely not like this. Now, I have broadly spoken and broken through it for you all; see for yourselves whether you are near or far. Time is precious; exert yourselves, each of you! Take care!"