景德傳燈錄 28.5

28.5

Upādhyāya Weiyan of Yaoshan in Lizhou entered the hall and said: "The ancestral masters taught only protection. If greed and anger arise, you must be extremely vigilant to guard against them; do not let them touch you. If you wish to know withered wood and cold stones, you must take it upon yourself. Truly, there are no branches or leaves to be had. Even though it is like this, you should look into it yourself; you must not completely cut off speech. I am now speaking these words for you to manifest that which is without speech. That one originally has no features such as ears and eyes." At that time, a monk asked, "Why are there the six destinies?" The master said, "Although I am within this vital wheel, I am originally untainted." [The monk] asked, "When one does not understand the afflictions within one's body, what then?" The master said, "What appearance do afflictions have? I want you to examine it for a while." "There is another sort who merely remember words on the backs of paper; they are mostly deluded by sūtras and treatises. I have never read sūtra or treatise booklets. You are only deluded by phenomena, losing yourself and remaining unsettled; therefore, you have a mind of birth and death. Before you have even learned half a phrase, a single sūtra, or a single treatise, you talk like this about whether bodhi and nirvāṇa are subsumed in the worldly or not. If you understand like this, that is birth and death. If you are not bound by these gains and losses, then there is no birth and death. What do you see Vinaya masters talking about? Niḥsargika and duṣkṛta are the very roots of birth and death. Even so, examining birth and death, they cannot be found. From the Buddhas above down to ants below, all have these differences of long and short, good and bad, large and small. If they do not come from the outside, where is there an idle fellow digging a hell to wait for you? If you wish to know the destiny of hell, it is precisely those who are right now boiling and simmering in cauldrons of soup. If you wish to know the destiny of hungry ghosts, it is precisely those who right now are mostly false and seldom true, not causing people to trust them. If you wish to know the destiny of animals, it is precisely those who presently do not know benevolence and righteousness, and do not distinguish between kin and stranger. How could it require being clad in fur, wearing horns, or being butchered and hung upside down? If you wish to know humans and devas, it is precisely those who right now wash cleanly, maintain dignified deportment, and hold the water pitcher and carry the alms bowl. Protect it to avoid falling into the various destinies. Above all, you must not abandon this. This is not easy to obtain. You must stand on the highest mountain peak and walk on the deepest ocean floor. Walking in this place is not easy; only then will there be a little accord. Nowadays, those who come forward are all busybodies; one cannot find a single dull-witted person. Do not merely remember words in booklets and take them to be your own views and knowledge. Seeing that others do not understand, you immediately give rise to arrogance and contempt. People of this sort are all icchantikas and non-Buddhists. This mind is directly unserviceable; you must be extremely discerning. Speaking like this still belongs to the side of the three realms. Do not pass your time in vain under the patch-robe. When reaching this place, it is even more subtle. Do not treat it as ordinary. You should take care."