景德傳燈錄 5.24

5.24

Hearing the gāthā, the Master repented his fault, saying: "From this day forward, I shall be humble and respectful toward all things. I only pray that the Upādhyāya, out of great compassion, will briefly explain the doctrine within the sutra." The Patriarch said: "You recite this sutra—what do you take as its fundamental message?" The Master said: "I, a student, am dull and ignorant; until now I have merely recited it following the words, so how could I understand its fundamental message?" The Patriarch said: "Try reciting it once for me, and I shall explain it for you." The Master immediately recited the sutra in a loud voice up to the 'Skillful Means' chapter. The Patriarch said: "Stop! This sutra originally takes 'arising in the world for a single cause and condition' as its fundamental message. Even though it expounds many varieties of parables, none go beyond this. What is this cause and condition? It is only the one great matter, and this one great matter is nothing other than the vision and knowledge of the Buddha. Be careful not to misunderstand the sutra's meaning! Seeing where it says that opening, revealing, awakening to, and entering [the vision and knowledge] belong naturally to the Buddha's vision and knowledge, [people think] we ourselves have no share in it. If one adopts such an interpretation, it is slandering the sutra and defaming the Buddha. If he is already a Buddha and possesses this vision and knowledge, why would there be any need to open it further? You should now have faith that the Buddha's vision and knowledge is simply your own mind, having no other essence. It is only because all sentient beings obstruct their own radiance, craving dust-like sensory realms, disturbed within by outer conditions, and willingly submitting to being driven about, that they trouble him to arise from samādhi, using all manner of earnest words to urge them to desist, to seek nothing externally, and to be not two with the Buddha—hence it is called 'opening the Buddha's vision and knowledge.' For you merely to cling laboriously to reciting it, regarding it as daily practice—how does that differ from a yak treasuring its tail?" The Master said: "If so, does one merely need to understand the meaning, without taking the trouble to recite the sutra?" The Patriarch said: "What fault is there in the sutra that it would hinder your recitation? It is solely that delusion and awakening depend on the person, and loss and gain proceed from yourself. Listen to my gāthā:"