景德傳燈錄 9.45.2

9.45.2

Therefore, students of the Way only recognise seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing as functioning. If they empty seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing, then the path of the mind is cut off and there is no entry point. Just recognise the original mind in the midst of seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing; however, the original mind does not belong to seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing, nor is it apart from seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing. Simply do not give rise to views and understandings based on seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing; do not stir up thoughts on seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing; nor seek the mind apart from seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing; nor cast away seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing to grasp phenomena. Neither conforming nor departing, neither abiding nor clinging—freely unrestrained in all directions, nowhere is not the bodhimanda.

Worldly people hear it said that all Buddhas transmit the Dharma of the mind, and they suppose there is a separate Dharma upon the mind that can be realized and grasped. Thereupon they use the mind to seek the Dharma, not knowing that the mind is the Dharma and the Dharma is the mind. One cannot use the mind to further seek the mind; even after thousands of myriads of kalpas, the day of attainment will never arrive. It is better right now to be without mind—that is the original Dharma. It is like the strongman whose forehead jewel was hidden inside his forehead: seeking it outside, he travelled throughout the ten directions, but in the end could not find it. A wise person pointed it out, and at that very moment he saw his original jewel just as before. Students of the Way, deluded about their own original mind, do not recognise it as the Buddha; they then seek externally, generating efforts and practices, realizing stages of fruition according to the gradual sequence, yet diligently seeking through kalpas, they fundamentally never achieve the Way. It is better right now to be without mind, decisively knowing that all phenomena originally do not exist and are unobtainable, without abiding, without reliance, without subject, and without object. Not stirring delusive thoughts, one immediately realizes bodhi. When one realizes the Way, one only realizes the Buddha of the original mind; efforts across kalpas were entirely empty practices. Just as when the strongman obtained the jewel, he only got the original jewel on his forehead, which had nothing to do with the effort of seeking outside. Thus the Buddha said: 'I truly had nothing obtained in anuttarasamyaksaṃbodhi.' Fearing people would not believe, he cited what was seen by the five eyes and the five kinds of speech: what he spoke is true and not empty—it is the supreme ultimate truth.

Students of the Way must not doubt. The four great elements constitute the body; the four great elements have no self, and the self also has no master. Therefore know that this body has no self and no master. The five aggregates have no self and no master. Therefore know that this mind has no self and no master. The conjunction, arising, and ceasing of the six sense faculties, six sense objects, and six consciousnesses are likewise like this. Since the eighteen realms are empty, all things are empty; there is only the original mind, vast and pure.

There is feeding on consciousness and feeding on wisdom. When the body of the four great elements suffers from hunger and sores, sustaining it according to need without giving rise to greed and attachment is called feeding on wisdom. Giving rein to desires to indulge in flavours, giving rise to false distinctions, seeking only to please the palate without giving rise to revulsion is called feeding on consciousness.

Śrāvakas: because of sound they attain awakening, hence they are called śrāvakas. Merely failing to understand their own mind, they give rise to interpretations upon the spoken teachings; or by virtue of supernormal powers, or auspicious signs, words, and actions, hearing that there are bodhi and nirvāṇa to be cultivated into the Buddha Way through three asaṃkhyeya kalpas—these all belong to the way of śrāvakas and are called 'śrāvaka Buddhas'. Only directly and suddenly realizing that one's own mind is originally Buddha, with not a single Dharma to be obtained and not a single practice to be cultivated—this is the unsurpassed Way; this is the Buddha of suchness. Students of the Way need only fear that if a single thought arises, they are separated from the Way. Thought after thought signless, thought after thought unconditioned—that is the Buddha. If students of the Way wish to attain Buddhahood, they do not need to study any of the Buddha's teachings at all; they need only study being without seeking and without clinging. Without seeking, the mind does not arise; without clinging, the mind is not defiled. Not arising and not defiled—that is the Buddha. The eighty-four thousand Dharma-gates correspond to the eighty-four thousand afflictions; they are gates for teaching, transforming, and guiding. Originally there is not a single Dharma; transcendence is itself the Dharma. One who knows transcendence is a Buddha. Simply transcending all afflictions, there is no Dharma to be obtained.

If students of the Way wish to know the essential secret, they must not attach a single thing onto the mind. It is said that the Buddha's dharmakāya is like empty space; this is an analogy that the dharmakāya is empty space, and empty space is the dharmakāya. Ordinary people suppose that the dharmakāya pervades the extent of empty space, or that empty space contains the dharmakāya, not knowing that empty space is the dharmakāya and the dharmakāya is empty space. If one definitively says there is empty space, then empty space is not the dharmakāya; if one definitively says there is a dharmakāya, then the dharmakāya is not empty space. Just do not form an interpretation of empty space, and empty space is the dharmakāya; do not form an interpretation of dharmakāya, and the dharmakāya is empty space. Empty space and the dharmakāya have no distinct marks; Buddhas and sentient beings have no distinct marks; saṃsāra and nirvāṇa have no distinct marks; afflictions and bodhi have no distinct marks. Transcending all marks is the Buddha. Ordinary people grasp at objects; people of the Way grasp at the mind. Forgetting both mind and objects is the true Dharma. Forgetting objects is still easy; forgetting the mind is extremely difficult. People dare not forget the mind, fearing they will fall into emptiness with nothing to grasp onto, not knowing that emptiness is fundamentally not empty, but is only the one true realm.

This numinous awareness-nature has shared the same lifespan with emptiness since beginningless time. It has never been born and never ceased; it has never existed and never not existed; it has never been defiled and never pure; it has never been clamorous and never quiet; it has never been young and never old. It has no location, no inside or outside, no quantity, no form or appearance, no visual characteristics, and no sounds. It cannot be sought, cannot be searched for, cannot be understood through intellect, cannot be grasped through words, cannot be met through external scenes, and cannot be reached through effort. All Buddhas and bodhisattvas, together with all crawling, wriggling sentient beings, share the same great nirvāṇa-nature. The nature is the mind; the mind is the Buddha; the Buddha is the Dharma. A single thought departing from the truth is all delusion. One cannot use the mind to further seek the mind; one cannot use the Buddha to further seek the Buddha; one cannot use the Dharma to further seek the Dharma. Therefore practitioners of the Way directly realize mindlessness and tally in silence. Conceiving a thought, one errs. Transmitting the mind with the mind is correct view. Take care not to chase external objects as the mind—that is taking a thief for one's son. Because there are greed, anger, and delusion, morality, meditation, and wisdom are established. When there are fundamentally no afflictions, how could there be bodhi? Therefore the ancestral master said: 'The Buddha taught all Dharmas / in order to eliminate all minds. / I have no minds at all; / what use have I for any Dharmas?' Upon the pure Buddha of the original source, not a single thing may be attached. For example, empty space, though adorned with immeasurable precious jewels, can never retain them. The Buddha-nature is identical to empty space; though adorned with immeasurable wisdom and merit, it can never retain them. It is only that when one is deluded about one's original nature, it turns out that one cannot see it.

As for the so-called mind-ground Dharma-gate: all phenomena are established relying on this mind. When encountering objects, they exist; when there are no objects, they do not exist. One must not, regarding the pure nature, exclusively make an interpretation of objects.