鐔津文集 3.30

3.30

To 'eulogize' (zan) means to proclaim; it means to unfold the scripture and proclaim it everywhere. The Platform Sutra is that by which the perfected person proclaimed his mind. What mind? The wondrous mind transmitted by the Buddhas. How great is this mind! It serves as the source of all transformation and change, yet remains ever pure as it is. Whether ordinary or sage, hidden or manifest, there is nowhere it abides where it is not self-attained. Spoken of in terms of the sage, it is luminous; spoken of in terms of the ordinary person, it is obscure. Obscurity is change; luminosity is return. Although change and return differ, the wondrous mind is one. Originally, Śākyamuni Buddha transmitted this to the Great Turtle Clan (Mahākāśyapa). From the Great Turtle Clan it was transmitted down through thirty-three generations to Dajian (the posthumous title of the Sixth Patriarch is Chan Master Dajian). Dajian transmitted it, and it was transmitted all the more. Those who explain it do so in manifold ways: some use identical names for different realities, while others use multiple meanings for the one mind. When speaking of the 'flesh-and-blood mind', the 'mind of cognitive conditions', the 'mind of accumulation and arising', and the 'firm and solid mind', these mental factors of mind become ever more numerous; these are what is called 'identical names for different realities'. When speaking of the 'mind of true suchness', the 'mind of arising and ceasing', the 'mind of afflictions', and the 'mind of bodhi', instances of this kind in the sūtras can scarcely be counted; these are what is called 'multiple meanings for the one mind'. Among meanings, there is the meaning of enlightenment and the meaning of non-enlightenment; among minds, there is the true mind and the deluded mind—all serving to distinguish the correct mind. As for what the Platform Sutra refers to as 'mind', it is the meaning of enlightenment among meanings, and the true mind among minds. Anciently, when the Sage was about to pass into concealment, he commanded the Turtle Clan to transmit the essentials of the Dharma outside the teachings, suspecting that people would cling to traces and forget to return, and genuinely desiring that later generations would grasp the root and rectify the branches. Thus the Nirvāṇa [Sūtra] says: 'I have the unsurpassed true Dharma; all of it has already been entrusted to Mahākāśyapa.' The Way of Heaven resides in the simple; the Way of Earth resides in the easy; the Way of the Sage resides in the essential. 'The essential' means the utmost wondrous. When the Way of the Sage is taken in its essentials, it serves as the pivot for the gates of the Dharma realm, the convergence of immeasurable meanings, and the primitive cart of the Great Vehicle. Does not the Lotus [Sūtra] say: 'You should know that this wondrous Dharma is the secret essential of all Buddhas'? Does not the Avataṃsaka [Sūtra] say: 'With few skillful means, one swiftly attains bodhi'? How beneficial and great are essentials for the Way of the Sage! Therefore, the lineage of the Platform Sutra reveres its mind-essential. This mind: as if bright, as if dark, as if empty, as if luminous, as if tranquil, as if alert. Is there an entity, or is there no entity? Call it a single entity, and it pervades all things; call it all things, and it is unified in a single entity. The single entity is like all things; all things are like the single entity. This may be called conceivable. When it comes to its being inconceivable and ineffable, the world calls it 'profound understanding', calls it 'spiritual meeting', calls it 'transcending duality', calls it 'silent embodiment', calls it 'dark communion'. Yet all these are discarded and banished; banished and banished again, how could one reach it? Were it not truly obtained on one's own, matching that of the perfected person, who could believe it? Extended and broadened, there is nowhere it cannot go; plumbed and applied, there is nothing it does not suit. Applied to witnessing one's nature, what is seen is most intimate; applied to cultivating the mind, where one arrives is most upright; applied to elevating virtue and dispelling doubt, the true and the deluded are easily manifested; applied to world-transcendence, the Buddha Way is swiftly completed; applied to saving the world, worldly toil is easily stilled. This is why the lineage of the Platform Sutra travels far and wide throughout the world without encountering weariness. Those who say that 'mind itself is Buddha' is shallow—how little do they know its measure! Probing the earth with a broken awl and deeming the earth shallow, or peering at the sky through a roof-chink and deeming the sky small—is that how heaven and earth truly are? Even if the hundred schools were somehow to surpass it, they would not equal it. That the perfected person comprehended and unified it, harmonizing with the multitude of scriptures, is clearly evident. That the perfected person transformed and mastered it, not abiding in names and words, cannot be fathomed. Therefore, his explicit preaching had order and coherence, while his esoteric preaching had neither beginning nor end. Those of sharp natural faculties attained its depth; those of dull natural faculties attained its shallowness. Can it be simulated? Can it be debated? If one has no choice but to characterize it, it is the Perfect and Sudden Teaching, the supreme vehicle, the pure Chan of the Tathāgata, the orthodox lineage of the Bodhisattva Piṭaka. When commentators call it profound learning, is that not thorough? When the world calls it the ancestral lineage, is that not appropriate? The Platform Sutra says that taking concentration and wisdom as the basis is the beginning of proceeding toward the Way. Concentration is tranquility; wisdom is illumination. Using illumination to observe it and tranquility to settle it—by settling the mind, one can embody the mind; by observing the Way, one can speak of the Way. The one-practice samādhi refers to the single mark of the Dharma realm; it means that although the ten thousand good deeds differ, they are all rectified within the single practice. Taking formlessness as the substance reveres the great precepts. Taking non-thought as the lineage reveres the great concentration. Taking non-abiding as the basis reveres the great wisdom. Indeed, precepts, concentration, and wisdom are the thoroughfare of the three vehicles. And the wondrous mind is the great resource of precepts, concentration, and wisdom. Using the one wondrous mind to unify the three dharmas—therefore it is called 'great'. The formless precepts vow that one must attain right awakening. The four universal vows mean: vowing to liberate is liberating from suffering; vowing to cut off is cutting off the origin; vowing to study is studying the Way; vowing to accomplish is accomplishing cessation. When cessation has nothing to cease, there is nothing that is not cut off; when the Way has nothing to be trodden, there is nothing that is not liberated. The formless repentance repents what cannot be repented. The three refuge precepts take refuge in the One; the One is that from which the Three Jewels emerge. Preaching the Mahāprajñā refers to the utmost center of the mind. Prajñā is the skillful means of the sage and the great wisdom of the sage. It can indeed quiet it, illuminate it, make it provisional, and make it real. With its quietude, the world can extinguish all evils; with its illumination, the world can gather all goods; with its provisionality, the world can achieve great purposeful action; with its reality, the world can achieve great non-action. How supreme is prajñā! Without prajñā, the Way of the Sage is neither clear nor complete; without prajñā, worldly affairs are neither fitting nor proper. Is not the conduct of the perfected person, stirred by prajñā, far-reaching? That my Dharma is spoken for people of the highest faculties is because it is suitable. Putting heavy burdens on light things leads to failure; granting great standards to the small is an error. What has traditionally been silently transmitted and conferred refers to esoteric preaching. 'Esoteric' does not mean non-verbal, dark realization; it means being genuine and secret. Those who fail to understand this Dharma and hastily slander it, saying that for a hundred kalpas and a thousand lives one will sever the Buddha-nature, do so to prevent the world from losing its mind. How grand is the composition of the Platform Sutra! Its root is upright, its traces effective; its cause is genuine, its fruit unerring. Former sages and later sages arose like this, revealed like this, and returned like this—vast and surging like the pouring of a great river, unobstructed like empty space, luminous like the sun and moon, unhindered like form and shadow, orderly like the wild geese advancing. Attaining it wondrously is called the root; extending and applying it is called the traces. Beginning what has no beginning is called the cause; accomplishing what has no accomplishment is called the fruit. When the fruit does not differ from the cause, it is called the right fruit; when the cause does not differ from the fruit, it is called the right cause. The traces necessarily reflecting the root is called the great function; the root necessarily reflecting the traces is called the Great Vehicle. The 'vehicle' is the Sage's metaphor for the Way; the 'function' is the Sage's establishment of the teachings. In the Way of the Sage, nothing reaches higher than the mind; in the teachings of the Sage, nothing reaches higher than cultivation. In harmonizing the spirit and entering the Way, nothing reaches higher than the single-mark calming and insight. In standardizing goodness and completing virtue, nothing reaches higher than the one-practice samādhi. In resourcing all precepts, nothing reaches higher than formlessness. In rectifying all concentration, nothing reaches higher than non-thought. In penetrating all wisdom, nothing reaches higher than non-abiding. In generating goodness and eliminating evil, nothing reaches higher than the formless precepts. In dedicating to the Way and advancing virtue, nothing reaches higher than the four universal vows. In skillfully observing faults, nothing reaches higher than formless repentance. In rectifying where one heads, nothing reaches higher than the three refuge precepts. In rectifying the great substance and regulating the great function, nothing reaches higher than great prajñā. In giving rise to great faith and committing to the great Way, nothing reaches higher than great resolve. In exhausting principle and fulfilling nature in the world, nothing reaches higher than silent transmission. In wishing that the mind have no fault, nothing is better than not slandering. Concentration and wisdom as the beginning are the foundation of the Way. The one-practice samādhi is the beginning of virtue. The lineage of non-thought is called liberation. The basis of non-abiding is called prajñā. The substance of formlessness is called the Dharma body. The formless precepts are the utmost of precepts. The four universal vows are the pinnacle of vows. The formless repentance is the highest repentance. The three refuge precepts are the true refuge. Mahā-wisdom is the great model for both sages and ordinary people. Preaching for those of the highest faculties is direct preaching. Silent transmission is the utmost transmission. Forbidding slander is a proper warning. The wondrous mind is not accomplished through cultivation, nor illuminated through verification; it is fundamentally accomplished and fundamentally illuminated. Using the recovery of illumination by those confused about illumination is why it is called verification; using the recovery of accomplishment by those who turned their backs on accomplishment is why it is called cultivation. Cultivating it through non-cultivation is therefore called right cultivation; illuminating it through non-illumination is therefore called right verification. The perfected person is dim and unremarkable, showing no outward majesty, yet his accomplished virtue and conduct are abundant; the perfected person is relaxed as if holding to nothing, yet his Way is manifested to the world. This is because he cultivates through right cultivation and verifies through right verification. Here, some now say there is no cultivation, no verification, no cause, and no fruit, forcing far-fetched interpretations and competing with trivial theories, thus erring against the intent of the perfected person. Alas! If one abandons precepts, concentration, and wisdom and insists on plunging into the void of chaos, then I know not what to do with them. How severe it is that sentient beings drown their minds and float along with consciousness! Consciousness and karma ride upon one another, revolving along their echoes without end. Embodying physical form, humans and creatures are born together, chaotic between heaven and earth—can they be numbered? Those who obtain a human form are merely one in ten thousand. And among humans, those who can awaken are exceedingly few! Harboring this, although the Sage unfolded it with manifold meanings, there are still those in the world who do not understand; although the Sage treated it with manifold methods, there are still those in the world who do not awaken. The worthy are confused by their cleverness, the unworthy are obstructed by their stupidity, and ordinary people are clouded by neutrality. When stimulated by external things, they give rise to joy, anger, sorrow, and delight, and their delusions become ten thousandfold, murky as if walking in the night without knowing where they are going. Receiving the words of the Sage, they calculate and debate them, like gazing afar through a thick fog, declaring it existent, declaring it nonexistent, declaring it neither existent nor nonexistent, declaring it both existent and nonexistent. Blinding themselves through not seeing, they go their whole lives without attaining clarity. The sea is where water resides, yet fish and dragons live and die in the sea without seeing the water. The Way is where the mind resides, yet people speak of the Way all day long without seeing the mind—how sorrowful! The mind is indeed subtle, profound, and distant, difficult to understand and difficult to access; such is its nature. After the Sage passed into concealment, although the world over a hundred generations transmitted it through texts, none could obtain its clear verification. Therefore, when the lineage of the Platform Sutra arose, it directly pointed to this mind, and only then did the world realize that nature and life are directly rectified. It is like parting the clouds and mist to suddenly see the clear sky, or ascending Mount Tai so that one's view becomes expansive. When Master Wang compared it to worldly books, he said: 'Qi with one change reached Lu; Lu with one change reached the Way.' These words are close to it. The Nirvāṇa [Sūtra] says: 'From the Deer Park at the beginning to the river Bhadrikā at the end, in the fifty years between, I never preached a single word.' This shows that the Dharma is not words and letters, guarding against seeking what it refers to through words and letters. When it says 'rely on the Dharma, not on the person', it is because the Dharma is real and the person is provisional. When it says 'rely on the meaning, not on the words', it is because the meaning is solid and words are provisional. When it says 'rely on wisdom, not on consciousness', it is because wisdom is ultimate and consciousness is false. When it says 'rely on sūtras of definitive meaning, not on sūtras of non-definitive meaning', it is because sūtras of definitive meaning exhaust the principle. And what the Bodhisattva called 'this is preaching the Great Nirvāṇa' means that one's own words are identical with the scripture. What the Sage called the four persons appearing in the world (that is, the four reliances) who protect and uphold the true Dharma and should be verified and known—because they should be verified and known, the perfected person traced the root to rectify the branches. Because his own words were identical with the scripture, the perfected person preached the scripture as scripture. Because he relied on meaning and relied on sūtras of definitive meaning, the perfected person's explicit preaching conformed to meaning and conformed to scripture. Because he relied on Dharma and relied on wisdom, the perfected person's esoteric preaching transformed and penetrated without blindly clinging. Because he showed that the Dharma is not words and letters, the lineage of the perfected person esteemed silent transmission. The Sage is like spring washing, washing and bringing forth; the perfected person is like autumn scouring, scouring and bringing to completion. The Sage commanded it, and the perfected person fulfilled it. The perfected person was truly of extraordinary virtue and outstanding merit within the Sage's gate. The perfected person initially arose from humble beginnings and claimed he did not know worldly writing. When he attained completion, in just a single sitting of preaching he illuminated the Way and saved the world, tallying with what the Great Sage said and did like two halves of a tally. Was his profound virtue and superior wisdom something he was born knowing, or did he deliberately manifest his Dharma by displaying his lack of book-learning? Though he has been dead for nearly four hundred years, the Dharma flows through the four seas without ceasing; sovereigns, emperors, sages, and worthies across thirty generations have sought his Way with ever-increasing reverence. Had he not reached what the Great Sage reached, Heaven would long since have discarded him; how could it be like this? How could I fully encompass his Way? Fortunate to be like a mosquito drinking from the sea, partaking also of its taste, I dare to bow my head and set this forth to leave it for later students.