廣弘明集 22.42

22.42

通敏先生曰。子既慇懃屢請。余亦僶俛相答。但自省庸陋。未申其要妙耳。尋法本非有。非有則無生。理自非無。非無則無滅。無生無滅諸法安在。非有非無萬物何寄。蕩乎清淨。推求之路斯斷。夷然平等。取捨之徑無從。豈有報應之理可求善惡之想可得。直以凡品眾生未了斯致。故橫興諍論強生分別。所謂渴人逐焰。水在河池。眼病見華。空曾無樹。但為引接近情祛其重惑。微示因果略顯業緣。使定性執除自然見弭。若達乎正理悟此真法。亦復何所而有。何所而無哉。於是二三君子相視心驚。欣然領悟。退席敬伏而言曰。今者可謂朝聞夕死。虛往實歸。積滯皆傾。等秋風之落葉。繁疑並散。譬春日之銷氷。謹當共捨前迷同遵後業矣。

The Master of Penetrating Keenness said: 'Since you, sir, have repeatedly and earnestly made this request, I will make an effort to answer you. But examining my own unworthiness, I may fail to expound its essentials and subtleties. In investigating dharmas, they are originally not existent; being not existent, there is no arising. Principle naturally is not non-existent; being not non-existent, there is no cessation. With no arising and no cessation, where do all dharmas reside? Neither existent nor non-existent, upon what do the myriad things rely? Boundlessly pure, the pathway of discursive inquiry is severed; serenely equal, the route of grasping and rejecting has nowhere to turn. How could there be any principle of retribution to be sought, or any notion of good and evil to be grasped? It is solely because ordinary sentient beings have not comprehended this truth that they arbitrarily raise disputations and forcefully produce discriminations. This is what is called a thirsty person chasing a mirage while water is in rivers and ponds, or diseased eyes seeing sky-flowers when the empty sky never had a tree. It is merely to guide and accommodate proximate sentiments and dispel their heavy delusions that causes and effects are subtly indicated and karmic conditions are briefly displayed, causing attachment to fixed natures to be eliminated and spontaneous views to be extinguished. If one reaches the correct principle and awakens to this true Dharma, what then exists, and what does not exist?' Thereupon the several gentlemen looked at one another in astonished reverence and joyfully grasped the meaning. Stepping back from their seats, they respectfully submitted, saying: 'Today we may truly say: having heard the Way in the morning, one may die in the evening; going empty, we return full! The piled-up blockages have all collapsed, like leaves falling before the autumn wind; our manifold doubts have all dispersed, like ice melting in the spring sun. We shall conscientiously cast aside our previous confusions and together follow the subsequent practice.'