景德傳燈錄 30.22

30.22

Do you not see / the person of the Way who has cut off learning, free of action, at ease, / who neither eliminates false thoughts nor seeks the true? / The real nature of ignorance is itself Buddha-nature; / the illusory, empty body is itself the Dharma body. / When the Dharma body is awakened to, there is not a single thing; / originally inherent self-nature is the naturally true Buddha. / The five aggregates are floating clouds, vainly coming and going; / the three poisons are bubbles of water, emptily rising and vanishing. / When true reality is realized, there are neither persons nor dharmas; / in a single instant, the karma of Avīci is eradicated. / If one uses false words to deceive sentient beings, / one will bring upon oneself [the punishment of] having the tongue pulled out for dust-sand kalpas. / When one suddenly awakens to the Tathāgata-dhyāna, / the six perfections and myriad practices are complete within its substance. / In the dream, clearly, there are the six destinies; / after waking, emptily, there is no great chiliocosm. / There are neither sins nor merits, neither losses nor gains; / within the quiescent nature do not search or seek. / Up to now, the mirror of the dusts was never polished; / today it must be clearly analyzed. / Who is without thought? Who is unborn? / If truly unborn, there is nothing not born. / Call forth a wooden puppet and ask it: / if one strives to achieve Buddhahood, early or late will it be accomplished? / Let go of the four great elements, do not grasp them; / within the quiescent nature follow drink and peck. / All conditioned things are impermanent, everything is empty; / this is the Tathāgata's great and complete awakening. / The decisive discourse reveals the true vehicle; / if anyone does not agree, let them examine as they please. / Directly cutting to the source is sealed by the Buddhas; / plucking leaves and searching branches is something I cannot do. / People do not recognize the maṇi-jewel, / personally obtained inside the tathāgatagarbha. / Its six spiritual functions are empty yet not empty; / the round light of this single gem is visible form yet not form. / Purifying the five eyes, gaining the five powers, / only through realization is it known; who can measure it? / Seeing the form in a mirror is not difficult to view; / catching the moon in water—how could one pluck it out? / Always walking alone, always stepping alone, / the reached ones travel together on the path of nirvāṇa. / The ancient tune and pure spirit have naturally high demeanor; / with worn appearance and hardy bones, nobody pays heed. / The poor son of Śākya speaks of poverty; / in truth his body is poor, but the Way is not poor. / Poor, so his body is always draped in patched hemp; / the Way means the mind harbors a priceless treasure. / The priceless treasure's function is inexhaustible; / benefiting beings in accord with the time, never stingy. / The three bodies and four wisdoms are complete within the substance; / the eight liberations and six supernormal knowledges are stamped on the mind-ground. / The superior person, once resolved, understands all; / the middling and inferior hear much and doubt much. / Simply remove the dirty robe from one's own bosom; / who can boast of vigorous advancement toward the outside? / Let others slander, let them criticize; / holding a torch to burn the sky only wearies oneself. / When I hear it, it is just like drinking sweet dew; / melted and dissolved, suddenly entering the inconceivable. / Regard harsh words as merit; / these then become my kalyāṇamitra. / Without giving rise to enmity or affection due to slander and mockery, / how could the power of unborn, compassionate patience be displayed? / Thorough in the lineage and thorough in discourse, / samādhi and prajñā are completely bright, not stuck in emptiness. / Not only have I alone now reached and understood; / the Buddhas of the river sands are all identical in substance. / The lion's roar, the fearless discourse— / when the hundred beasts hear it, their brains all burst; / fragrant elephants rush about, losing their dignity; / heavenly dragons listen in silence and give rise to joyful delight. / Wandering over rivers and seas, traversing mountains and streams, / seeking teachers and inquiring into the Way for the sake of practicing Chan. / Ever since recognizing the road of Caoxi, / I clearly know that birth and death are of no concern. / Walking is also Chan, sitting is also Chan; / speaking or silent, moving or still, the substance is at ease. / Even meeting sharp blades, always calm and composed; / even if given poison, relaxed and unbothered. / My teacher met Dīpaṃkara Buddha / after being a sage of patience for many kalpas. / How many returns of birth? How many returns of death? / Birth and death stretch boundlessly with no fixed stop. / Ever since sudden awakening to the realization of the unborn, / why be sad or glad over honor and disgrace? / Entering deep mountains, dwelling in an araṇya, / precipitous and secluded under the tall pines; / leisurely and quietly sitting in the wild monk's lodge, / peacefully residing in stillness is truly carefree. / Awakening is total; no effort is applied; / it is not like all conditioned dharmas. / Giving while dwelling in appearances generates heavenly blessings, / like shooting an arrow upward into empty space. / When its force is exhausted, the arrow falls back down, / bringing about discontent in future lives. / How can that compare to the gate of unconditioned true reality, / leaping straight into the Tathāgata-ground with one single leap? / Just grasp the root, do not worry about the branches, / like pure lapis lazuli containing the precious moon. / Once able to understand this wish-fulfilling pearl, / benefiting oneself and others will never run out. / River moon shines, pine wind blows; / through the long night and clear evening, what is there to do? / The Buddha-nature precept-jewel is stamped on the mind-ground; / mists, dews, clouds, and rosy glow are the robes upon the body. / The dragon-subduing bowl, the tiger-reconciling staff; / the two-pronged golden rings ring out clearly. / This is not a mere external display of useless practice; / it is the personal trace of the Tathāgata's precious staff. / Neither seek the true nor sever the false; / clearly know that the two dharmas are empty and without form. / Without form, without emptiness, and not un-empty: / this is the Tathāgata's true reality. / The mind-mirror is clear, illuminating without hindrance; / openly shining through, permeating sands of worlds. / The myriad phenomena are reflected within; / a single round clarity is neither inside nor outside. / Vastly [falling into] emptiness and repudiating cause and effect, / boundless and reckless, incurs disaster and calamity. / Rejecting existence to cling to emptiness is the same disease, / like jumping into fire to avoid drowning. / Abandoning the false mind to grasp the true principle, / the mind of grasping and discarding becomes clever deceit. / If practitioners do not understand this in their practice, / they truly take a thief for their son. / Depleting Dharma-wealth and destroying merit / is entirely due to this mind, intellect, and consciousness. / Therefore, the Chan school puts an end to the mind, / suddenly entering the power of the vision of unborn wisdom. / A great hero holds the sword of wisdom, / its prajñā blade, a vajra flame! / Not only can it crush the mind of non-Buddhists, / it has already struck dread into the heavenly māras. / Strike the Dharma-thunder, beat the Dharma-drum, / spread clouds of compassion, and sprinkle sweet dew! / Dragon-elephants tread, moistening boundlessly; / the three vehicles and five natures are all awakened. / The snowy mountain is rich and pure without impurities, / producing pure ghee that I constantly partake of. / One nature completely penetrates all natures; / one dharma universally contains all dharmas. / One moon universally appears in all waters; / all water-moons are gathered in the one moon. / The Dharma bodies of all Buddhas enter my nature; / my nature is in turn united with the Tathāgatas. / One stage is fully endowed with all stages; / it is neither matter, nor mind, nor action. / In the snap of a finger, eighty thousand gates are completely fulfilled; / in an instant, the karma of Avīci is eradicated. / All numeric propositions and non-numeric propositions— / what do they have to do with my spiritual awareness? / It cannot be defamed, it cannot be praised; / its substance is like empty space, without shores or banks. / Never leaving the present place, always serene; / if you search for it, know that you cannot see it. / It cannot be grasped, it cannot be rejected; / within the ungraspable it is grasped just so. / In silence it speaks, in speaking it is silent; / the gate of great giving is open without obstruction. / If someone asks me what lineage I understand, / I report to them: the power of mahāprajñā. / Whether right or wrong, people do not know; / whether moving against or along, the heavens cannot fathom. / I already practiced through many kalpas; / this is not idle deception. / Erecting the Dharma banner, establishing the tradition of the school, / the Buddha's clear decree was Caoxi. / The first, Kāśyapa, initiated the transmission of the lamp; / twenty-eight generations recorded in the Western Heavens. / The Dharma flowed east and entered this land; / Bodhidharma became the first patriarch. / The robe was transmitted for six generations, known to all under heaven; / how could one count the later people who attained the Way? / The true is not established, the false is originally empty; / both existence and non-existence are cast aside, and the non-empty is empty. / The twenty gates of emptiness are fundamentally unattached; / the one-nature Tathāgata is identical in substance. / The mind is the sense-organ, dharmas are the dusts; / the two are like marks upon a mirror. / Only when the stains of the marks are completely removed does the light appear; / when both mind and dharmas are forgotten, the nature is real. / Alas, the degenerate age of the Dharma, the evil time and world! / Sentient beings have little merit and are hard to regulate. / Far removed from the sage, heterodox views run deep; / māras are strong, the Dharma weak, with much resentment and harm. / Hearing the discourse on the Tathāgata's sudden teaching gate, / they resent not destroying it, smashing it like tiles. / Made in the mind, the calamity falls upon the body; / there is no need to complain and blame others. / If you wish not to incur the karma of Avīci, / do not slander the Tathāgata's wheel of the correct Dharma. / In a sandalwood forest there are no mixed trees; / dense and deep, the lions dwell. / In the quiet realm among the woods they roam alone; / walking beasts and flying birds all flee far away. / The lion cubs follow behind the pride; / at three years old they can already roar loudly. / If a jackal pursues the Dharma King, / a hundred-year-old monster opens its mouth in vain. / In the complete and sudden teaching, there is no human sentiment; / where there is doubt and no decision, one must contest it directly. / It is not that this mountain monk shows off self and other; / in practice I fear falling into the pits of annihilation and permanence. / Not non-wrong, is non-right; / a hair's breadth of discrepancy misses by a thousand miles. / The 'right' is the dragon girl instantly becoming a Buddha; / the 'wrong' is Sunakṣatra falling alive [into hell]. / In my early years I accumulated learning; / I also once probed commentaries and sought through sūtras and treatises. / Distinguishing names and characteristics without rest, / entering the ocean to count the grains of sand, I only wearied myself in vain. / But I was severely rebuked by the Tathāgata: / what benefit is there in counting another's treasures? / Looking back on my stumbling, I realize it was futile action; / for many years I acted in vain as a guest in wind and dust. / Their seed-nature is perverse, their understanding mistaken; / they do not comprehend the Tathāgata's complete and sudden ordinance. / The two vehicles are vigorous but lack the mind of the Way; / non-Buddhists are clever but lack wisdom. / Both foolish and naive, / they conceive real understanding upon an empty fist and fingers. / Grasping the finger as the moon, their effort is wasted; / within faculties, objects, and dharmas, they conjure up phantom monstrosities. / Not seeing a single dharma is itself the Tathāgata; / only then can one be called Avalokiteśvara. / When understood, karmic hindrances are originally empty; / if not understood, one must still repay past debts. / When hungry, encountering royal feasts yet unable to eat; / when sick, meeting the King of Doctors, how can one be cured? / Practicing Chan in desire through the power of knowledge and vision, / a lotus born in fire is never destroyed. / Śūra committed grave offenses yet awakened to the unborn; / he achieved Buddhahood long ago and abides even today. / The lion's roar, the fearless discourse! / Deeply lament the ignorant, tough-skinned dullards: / they only know that grave offenses obstruct bodhi, / and fail to see the Tathāgata open the secret key. / There were two monks who broke the precepts of lust and killing; / Upāli's firefly-light increased the knots of guilt. / The great being Vimalakīrti suddenly dispelled their doubts, / just like the blazing sun melting frost and snow. / The inconceivable power of liberation: / this becomes my kalyāṇamitra. / How could I begrudge labor for the fourfold offerings? / Even ten thousand ounces of gold could be consumed. / Shattering bones and breaking the body would not suffice to repay; / a single phrase clearly understood transcends billions. / The King among Dharmas is the highest and supreme, / jointly realized by Buddhas [numerous as] river sands. / I now understand this wish-fulfilling pearl; / those who believe and accept it will all correspond. / Clearly seeing that there is not a single thing, / there are neither persons nor Buddhas. / The great chiliocosm is a bubble in the ocean; / all sages and worthies are like flashes of lightning. / Even if an iron wheel were spun atop one's head, / the round brightness of samādhi and prajñā would never be lost. / The sun may turn cold, the moon may turn hot, / but the hordes of māras cannot destroy the true discourse. / When the elephant-carriage towers up and moves down the road, / who has seen a mantis able to block its wheel-ruts? / The great elephant does not stroll along a rabbit's path; / great awakening is not restricted by minor details. / Do not slander the blue heavens with your tube-bound vision; / for those who have not yet understood, I now decide it for you.