景德傳燈錄 30.20

30.20

Sitting does not constrain the body; meditation does not involve objects. If one constrains [the body], one will surely tire; if one involves [objects], then it is not stillness. Neither involving nor constraining, the true light is lofty and solitary; the six sense gates respond together, and the myriad practices unfold in unison. Alas! You of initial capacity have not yet attained the dark subtlety; abiding in sinking, you follow agitation, subject and object falling into disarray. Without skillful expedients, how can you apply remedies? Spur on or suppress, evenly balance dullness and distraction; rest thoughts and forget conditions, as if suddenly a dead fellow. According to suitability, combine or open; do not dedicate yourself solely to wall-contemplation (Master Bodhidharma, besides directly transmitting the Dharma eye, gave detailed instructions to those of initial capacity on the essentials of cultivating the mind, establishing the four gates and the four practices, not dedicating solely to one). When galloping thoughts are overly numerous, [practice] ānāpānasmṛti (if agitation is intense or dullness abides, one should change the contemplation and cultivate counting the breaths, breathing out or in without alternation). Flow along the Sword Gallery; do not be held back by the wooden goose. Like fire meeting water, like illness meeting a physician; when the illness is cured, the physician is dismissed; when the fire is quenched, the water is poured away. With one thought pure, the substance is tranquil and ever numinous. Is it numinous? Is it tranquil? It is neither numinous nor tranquil. Right and wrong arise alternately, committing faults without limit; former ones perish, later ones arise, like pacing back and forth. The trouble lies in not knowing; if one knows, there is no fault. The sun departs from night at its back; how could a mirror illuminate behind itself? This, however, is not so: it is perfectly bright and thoroughly penetrating. It illuminates without conditions; it is tranquil, yet who guards it? The myriad phenomena are ocean foam; empty space is a flash of lightning. It destroys the demon palaces and knocks down the Buddha halls; the lame receive shoes, and the blind gain sight. The dharmadhātu and the dust realms appear simultaneously in equal wheels. Free and unconstrained on the wild moors, whether sitting or sleeping; having understood skillful means, one is termed a Golden Immortal. Though I speak forcibly, it accords with the holy words. What are the holy words? They must be spoken again: 'Neither moving nor meditating is unproduced meditation.' It is also said: 'If you study the various samādhis, that is movement, not sitting meditation. If the mind flows along with objective realms, how can it be called absorption?' Therefore we know that the ancestral masters of all generations transmitted only this one mind. Since the light of the ancestors is vast and far-reaching, fortunately, you, my disciple, can bear the responsibility. I have briefly related the wordless meaning, and thus call it the Admonition on Sitting Meditation.