---
title: "指月錄 · 酬答法要"
description: "指月录是明代瞿汝稷编纂的一部重要佛教典籍，成书于万历年间。该书以禅宗公案为核心，收录了从佛祖释迦牟尼到宋代高僧的六百余则禅门语录和典故，系统梳理了禅宗传承脉络。瞿汝稷作为晚明著名居士，以指月为喻，强调文字只是指向真理的工具而非真理本身，体现了禅宗不立文字、直指人心的宗旨。这部著作不仅保存了大量珍贵禅宗史料，更以其精要的选编和独到的评点，成为研究中国禅宗思想发展的重要文献，在佛教史上具有承前启后的地位，至今仍是禅学研究者必读经典。"
url: "https://rushiwowen.co/en/r/cma8x31xj02p3l4047e2o309k"
---

### 酬答法要

> Reply to the Dharma

佛言。若有欲知佛境界。當淨其意如虗空。遠離妄想及諸取。令心所向皆無礙。佛境界。非是外境界有相佛。乃自覺聖智之境界也。决欲知此境界。不假莊嚴修證而得。當淨意根下。無始時來客塵煩惱之染。如虗空之寬曠。遠離意識中諸取。虗偽不實妄想。亦如虗空。則此無功用妙心所向。自然無滯礙矣示李獻臣又云。古德有言。尋牛須訪跡。學道貴無心。跡在牛還在。無心道易尋。所謂無心者。非如土木瓦石頑然無知。謂觸境遇緣心定不動。不取著諸法。一切處蕩然。無障無礙。無所染污。亦不住在無染污處。觀身觀心如夢如幻。亦不住在夢幻虗無之境。到得如此境界。方始謂之真無心。且非口頭說底無心。若未得真無心。只據說底。與默照邪禪。何以異哉　但得本。莫愁末。空却此心是本。既得本。則種種語言。種種智慧。日用應物隨緣。七顛八倒。或喜或怒。或好或惡。或順或逆。皆末也。於隨緣處能自覺知。則無少無剩示黃伯成既學此道。十二時中遇物應緣處。不得令惡念相續。或照顧不著。起一惡念。當急著精彩。拽轉頭來。若一向隨他去。相續不斷。非獨障道。亦謂之無智慧人。昔溈山問嬾安。汝十二時中。當何所務。安云牧牛。山云。汝作麼生牧。安云。一回入草去。驀鼻拽將回。山云。子真牧牛也。學道人。制惡念。當如嬾安之牧牛。則久久自純熟矣示李獻臣又云。他弓莫把。他馬莫騎。他人之事莫知。此雖常言。亦可為入道之資糧。但常自檢察。自旦至暮。有甚利人自利之事。稍覺偏枯。當須自警不可忽也　又云。昔道林禪師。居秦望山長松之上。時人謂之鳥窠和尚。白居易侍郎鎮錢塘。特入山中謁之。乃問。禪師坐處甚危險。師曰。老僧有甚危險。侍郎險尤甚。曰弟子位鎮江山。何險之有。師曰。薪火相交。識性不停。得非險乎。又問。如何是佛法大意。師曰。諸惡莫作。眾善奉行。曰三歲孩兒也解恁麼道。師曰。三歲孩兒雖道得。八十老人行不得。白遂作禮而去。今欲省心力。莫管他三歲孩兒道得道不得。八十老人行得行不得。但諸惡莫作。便了此語。信也著。不信也著。請思之　又云。世人現行無明。矯而為善。善雖未至。豈不勝寡廉鮮耻。託善而為惡者。教中謂之因地不真。果招紆曲。苟能直心直行。直取無上菩提。可謂真大丈夫之所為矣。塵劫來事。只在如今。如今會得。塵劫來事。即時瓦解氷消。如今不會。更經塵却。亦只如是。如是之法亘古恒然。未甞移易一絲毫許又云。世間塵勞之事。如鈎鎖連環。相續不斷。得省便省。為無始時來習得熟。若不力與之爭。日久月深。不知不覺。入得頭深。臘月三十日。卒著手脚不辦。要得臨命終時不顛錯。便從如今作事處。莫教顛錯。如今作事處顛錯。欲臨命終時不顛錯。無有是處　又云。有一種人。早晨看經念佛懺悔。晚間縱口業罵詈人。次日依前禮佛懺悔。卒歲窮年。以為日課。此乃愚之甚也。殊不知。梵語懺摩。此云悔過。謂之斷相續心。一斷永不復續。一懺永不復造。此吾佛懺悔之意。學道之士。不可不知也　又云。學道人。十二時中。心意識常要寂靜無事。亦須靜坐。令心不放逸。身不動搖。久久習熟。自然身心寧怗。於道有趣向分。寂靜波羅蜜定眾生散亂妄覺耳。若執寂靜處便為究竟。則被默照邪禪之所攝持矣　梵語般若。此云智慧。未有明般若。而貪欲瞋恚癡者。未有明般若。而毒害眾生者。作如此等事底。與般若背馳。焉得謂之智慧示陳次仲以生死事在念。則心術已正。心術既正。則日用應緣時。不著用力排遣。既不著排遣。則無邪非。無邪非則正念獨脫。正念獨脫則理隨事變。理隨事變則事得理融。事得理融則省力。纔覺省力時。便是學此道得力處也。得力處省無限力。省力處得無限力示羅孟弼此事許聰明靈利漢擔荷。若使聰明靈利。則無擔荷分。聰明靈利者雖易入。而難於保任。葢入處不甚深。而力弱故。也聰明靈利者。纔聞善知識說著個中事。便眼目定動。早將心意識領解了也。似此者。自作障礙。永劫無有悟時。外鬼作殃猶可治。此乃家親作祟。不可禳禱也。永嘉云。損法財滅功德。莫不由茲心意識。此之謂也示李獻臣心意識之障道。甚於毒蛇猛虎。何以故。毒蛇猛虎尚可迴避。聰明利智之士。以心意識為窟宅。行住坐臥。未甞頃刻不與之相酬酢。日久月深。不知不覺。與之打作一塊。亦不是要作一塊。為無始時來。行得這一路子熟。雖乍識得破。欲相遠離。亦不可得。故曰。毒蛇猛虎尚可迴避。而心意識。真是無你迴避處示羅孟弼士大夫。多以有所得心。求無所得法。何謂有所得心。聰明靈利思量計較者是。何謂無所得法。思量不行計較不到。聰明靈利無處安著者是。不見釋迦老子。在法華會上。舍利弗殷勤三請。直得無啟口處。然後盡力道得個是法非思量分別之所能解。此是釋迦老子究竟此事。開方便門。示真實相之椎輪也。昔雪峰真覺禪師。為此事之切。三度到投子。九度上洞山。因緣不相契。後聞德山周金剛主化。遂造其室。一日問德山。從上宗風。以何法示人德山云。我宗無語句。亦無一法示人。後又問。從上宗乘中事。學人還有分也無。德山拈拄杖便打云。道什麼。雪峰於棒下。方打破漆桶。以是觀之。聰明靈利思量計較。於此個門中。一點也用不著。古德有言。般若如大火聚。近之則燎却面門。擬議尋思。便落意識。永嘉云。損法財滅功德。莫不由茲心意識。故知。心意識非獨障道。亦使得人七顛八倒。作諸不善。既有究竟此道之心。須是具決定志。不到大休大歇大解脫處。誓畢此生不退不墮。佛法無多子。久長難得人。世間塵勞中事。如鈎鎖相續不斷。志意下劣者。往往甘心。與伊作伴侶。不覺不知。被伊牽挽將去。除是當人夙有願力。方肯退步思量。永嘉又云。無明實性即佛性。幻化空身即法身。法身覺了無一物。本原自性天真佛。若如是思量。驀然向思量不及處。見得無一物底法身。即是當人出生死處。前所云無所得法。不可以有所得心求。便是這個道理也。士大夫。一生在思量計較中作活計。纔聞善知識說無所得法。心裏便疑惑怕落空去。妙喜每見如此說者。即問。他只這怕落空者。還空也無。十個有五雙。分疎不下。盖平時只以思量計較為窟宅。乍聞說著不得思量底話。便茫然無討巴鼻處。殊不知。只這無討巴鼻處。便是自家放身命底時節也。敦立道友。靖康中在夷門相會。是時春秋鼎盛。便知有此段大事因緣。敘事不錄但以博極羣書。於九經十七史內。入得太深。聰明太過。理路太多。定力太少。被日用應緣處牽挽將去。故於脚跟下。不能得啐地折嚗地斷耳。若時時正念現前。怕生死之心不變。則日月浸久。生處自熟。熟處自生矣。且那個是熟處。聰明靈利思量計較底是。那個是生處。菩提涅槃真如佛性。絕思惟分別。搏量卜度不到。無你用心安排底是。驀然時節到來。或於古人入道因緣上。或因看經教時。或於日用應緣。若善若不善。若身心散亂。若逆順境界現前。若暫得心意識寧靜時。忽地踏飜關棙子。不是差事示徐敦立士人博覽羣書。本以資益性識。而反以記持古人言語。蘊在胷中。作事業資談柄。殊不知。聖人說教之意。所謂終日數他寶。自無半錢分。看讀佛教亦然。當須見月忘指。不可依語生解。古德云。佛說一切法。為度一切心。我無一切心。何用一切法。有志之士。讀書看教。能如是。方體聖人之意少分也示李獻臣又云。近日叢林。以古人奇言妙語問答。為差別因緣。狐媚學者。殊不本其實。諸佛說法。惟恐人不會。縱有隱覆之說。則旁引譬喻。令眾生悟入而已。如僧問馬祖。如何是佛。祖曰即心是佛。於此悟入。又有何差別。於此不悟。即此即心是佛。便是差別因緣　參禪人。看經教及古德入道因緣。但虗却心。不用向聲名句義上。求玄妙求悟入。若起此心。即障却自己正知見。永劫無有入頭處。盤山云。譬如擲劍揮空。莫論及之不及。不可忽。淨名云。法過眼耳鼻舌身意。欲徹此法。先須屏除六根門頭。使無少過患。何謂過患。被色聲香味觸法所轉。而不能遠離。於經教及古德言句上。求知見覓解會者是。苟能於經教及古德入道因緣中。不起第二念。直下知歸。則於自境界他境界。無不如意。無不自在者。德山見僧入門便棒。臨濟見僧入門便喝。諸方尊宿。喚作劈面提持。直截分付。妙喜喚作第一等拖泥帶水。直饒向一棒一喝下。全身擔荷得。已是不丈夫漢。被他驀頭澆一杓惡水了也。況於一棒一喝下。求奇特覓妙會。乃是不唧𠺕中。又不唧𠺕者示鄧子立昔李文和都尉。參石門慈照聰禪師。悟臨濟宗旨。有一偈曰。學道須是鐵漢。著手心頭便判。直取無上菩提。一切是非莫管。妙哉斯言。可以為光明種子。發機之助也示李獻臣又云。佛是眾生藥。眾生病除。藥亦無用。或病去藥存。入佛境界。而不能入魔境界。其病與眾生未除之病等。病瘥藥除。佛魔俱掃。始於此大事因緣。有少分相應耳　佛是眾生界中了事漢。眾生是佛界中不了事漢。欲得一如。但佛與眾生一時放下。則無了無不了。古德云。但於事上通無事。見色聞聲不用聾示聶妙證是人知得世間有為虗妄不實底道理。及至對境遇緣。驀地撞在面前。不隨他去。則被伊穿却鼻孔定也。盖無始時來。熟處太熟。生處太生。雖暫識得破。終是道力不能勝他業力。且那個是業力。熟處是。那個是道力。生處是。然道力業力。本無定度。但看日用現行處。一個昧與不昧耳。味却道力。則被業力勝却。業力勝。則觸塗成滯。觸塗成滯。則處處染著。處處染著。則以苦為樂。故釋迦老子謂滿慈子曰。汝以色空相傾相奪於如來藏。而如來藏隨為色空。周徧法界。是故於中風動空澄。日明雲暗。眾生迷悶。背覺合塵。故發塵勞有世間相。遮個是昧道力而被業力勝者。釋迦老子又曰。我以妙明不滅不生合如來藏。而如來藏惟妙覺明。圓照法界。是故於中。一為無量。無量為一。小中現大。大中現小。不動道場徧十方界。身含十方無盡虗空。於一毛端現寶王剎。坐微塵裏轉大法輪。遮個是現行處不昧道力而勝業力者。然兩處俱歸虗妄。若捨業力而執著道力。則我說是人不會諸佛方便隨宜說法。何以故。不見釋迦老子曰。若取法相。即著我人眾生壽者。若取非法相。即著我人眾生壽者。是故不應取法。不應取非法。前所云道力業力本無定度是也。若有智慧丈夫兒。借道力為器仗。攘除業力。業力既除。道亦虗妄。所以道。但以假名字。引導於眾生。未識得破時。千難萬難。識得破後。有甚難易。龐居士曰。凡夫志量狹。妄說有難易。離相如虗空。盡契諸佛智。戒相亦如空。迷人自作持。病根不肯拔。只自弄花枝。要識病根麼。不是別物。只是個執難執易妄生取捨者。遮個病根拔不盡。生死海裏浮沉。直是無出頭時。昔張拙秀才。纔被尊宿點著病源。便解道。斷除煩惱重增病。趨向真如亦是邪。隨分世緣無󳬩礙。涅槃生死等空華。要得直截。不疑佛祖。不疑生死。但常放教方寸虗豁豁地。事來則隨時撥置。如水之定。如鑑之明。好惡妍醜到來。逃一毫不得。信知無心自然境界不可思議示呂舜元要識法麼。真如佛性菩提涅槃是。要識病麼。妄想顛倒貪嗔邪見是。雖然如是。離妄想顛倒。無真如佛性。離貪嗔邪見。無菩提涅槃。且道。分即是。不分即是。若分。存一去一。其病轉深。若不分。正是顢頇佛性。儱侗真如。畢竟作麼生說個除病不除法底道理。有般漢。聞恁麼說。便道。即法是病。即病是法。但有言說。都無實義。順真如。則顛倒妄想貪嗔邪見悉皆是法。隨顛倒。則真如佛性菩提涅槃悉皆是病。恁麼見解。莫道我披衲衣。便是作他座主奴。也未得在。何故。須知平地上死人無數。灼然過得荊棘林者是好手。不見古人云。設有一法過於涅槃。吾說亦如夢幻。苟能於夢幻中。如實而證。如實而解。如實而修。如實而行。以如實之法。能自調伏。起大悲心。作種種方便。復能調伏一切眾生。而於眾生不作調伏不調伏想。亦復不作顛倒想。不作貪嗔邪見想。不作真如佛性菩提涅槃想。不作除病不除法想。不作存一去一分不分想。既無如是之想。則一道清淨。平等解脫魏矼請陞座既曰虗幻。則作時亦幻。受時亦幻。知覺時亦幻。迷倒時亦幻。過去現在未來皆悉是幻。今日知非。則以幻藥復治幻病。病瘥藥除。依前只是舊時人。若別有人有法。則是邪魔外道見解也。答曾天游又云。善財於彌勒彈指之頃。尚能頓忘諸善知識所證三昧。況無始虗偽惡業習氣耶。若以前所作底罪為實。則現今目前境界皆為實有。乃至官職富貴恩愛悉皆是實　不識別後日用應緣處不被外境所奪否。視堆案之文。能撥置否。與物相遇時。能動轉否。住寂靜處。不妄想否。體究個事。無雜念否。故黃面老子有言。心不妄取過去法。亦不貪著未來事。不於現在有所住。了達三世悉空寂。過去事或善或惡不須思量。思量則障道矣。未來事不須計較。計較則狂亂矣。現在事在面前或順或逆。亦不須著意。著意則擾方寸矣。但一切臨時隨緣酬酢。自然合著遮個道理。逆境界易打。順境界難打。逆我意者。只消一個忍字定省。少時便過了。順境界。直是無你迴避處。如磁石與鐵相偶。彼此不覺合在一處。無情之物尚爾。況現行無明。全身在裏許作活計者。當此境界。若無智慧。不覺不知。被他引入羅網。却向裏許要求出路。不亦難乎。所以先聖云。入得世間出世無餘。便是遮個道理也。近世有一種修行失方便者。往往認現行無明。為入世間。便將世間法。強差排作出世無餘之事。可不悲乎。除夙有誓願。即時識得破。作得主。不被他牽引。故淨名有言。佛為增上慢人。說離婬怒癡為解脫耳若無增上慢者佛說婬怒癡性即是解脫。若免得此過。於逆順境界中。無起滅相。始離得增上慢名字。恁麼方可作入得世間。謂之有力量漢。已上所說。都是妙喜平昔經歷過底。即今亦只如此修行願公趁色力強健。亦入是三昧答樓樞密細讀來書。乃知四威儀中。無時間斷。不為公冗所奪。於急流中。時自猛省。殊不放逸。道心愈久愈堅固。深愜鄙懷。然世間塵勞。如火熾然。何時是了。正在閙中。不得忘却竹椅蒲團上事。平昔留心靜勝處。正要閙中用。若鬧中不得力。却似不曾在靜中做工夫一般。承有前緣駁雜。今受此報之歎。獨不敢聞命。若動此念。則障道矣。古德云。隨流認得性。無喜亦無憂。淨名云。譬如高原陸地不生蓮花。卑濕污泥乃生此花。老胡云。真如不守自性。隨緣成就一切事法。又云。隨緣赴感靡不周。而常處此菩提座。豈欺人哉。若以靜處為是。閙處為非。則是壞世間相而求實相。離生滅而求寂滅。好靜惡閙時。正好著力。驀然閙裏撞翻靜時消息。其力能勝竹椅蒲團上。千萬億倍答曾天游乍得身心寧靜。切須努力。不得便向寧靜處躲根。教中謂之解脫深坑可畏之處。須教轉轆轆。如水上葫蘆。自由自在。不受拘牽。入淨入穢。不礙不沒。方於衲僧門下。有少親近分。若只抱得不哭孩兒。有甚用處示空慧臨濟云。汝若歇得念念馳求心。與釋迦老子不別。不是欺人。第七地菩薩。求佛智心未滿足故。謂之煩惱。直是無你安排處。著一星兒外料不得。數年前有個許居士。認得個門頭戶口。將書來呈見解云。日用中空豁豁地。無一物作對待。方知三界萬法。一切元無。直是安樂快活放得下。因示之以偈曰。莫戀淨潔處。淨潔使人困。莫戀快活處。快活使人狂。如水之任器。隨方圓短長。放下不放下。更請細思量。三界與萬法。匪歸何有鄉。若只便恁麼。此事大乖張。為報許居士。家親作禍殃。豁開千聖眼。不須頻禱禳示嚴子卿學道人。日用空境易。而空心難。境空而心不空。心為境所勝。但空心而境自空矣。若心已空。而更起第二念。欲空其境。則是此心未得空。復為境所奪。此病不除。生死無由出離。不見龐公呈馬祖偈云。十方同聚會。個個學無為。此是選佛場。心空及第歸。此心既空矣。心外復有何物而可空耶。思之示黃伯成心不馳求。不妄想。不緣諸境。即此火宅塵勞。便是解脫出三界之處。何以故。佛不云乎。於一切境無依無住。無有分別。明見法界。廣大安立。了諸世間及一切法。平等無二。故遠行地菩薩。以自所行智慧力故。出過一切二乘之上。雖得佛境界藏。而示住魔境界。雖超魔道。而現行魔法。雖示同外道行。而不捨佛法。雖示隨順一切世間。而常行一切出世間法。此乃火宅塵勞中真方便也。學般若人。捨此方便。而隨順塵勞。定為魔所攝持。又於隨順境中。強說道理。謂煩惱即菩提。無明即大智。步步行有。口口談空。自不責業力所牽。更教人撥無因果。便言。飲酒食肉不離菩提。行盜行婬無妨般若。如此之流。邪魔惡毒入其心腑。都不覺知。欲出塵勞。如潑油救火。可不悲哉示真如又云。打得徹了。方可說煩惱即菩提。無明即大智。本來廣大寂滅妙心中。清淨圓明。蕩然無一物可作障礙。如太虗空一般。佛之一字亦是外物。況更有塵勞煩惱作對待耶　此事如青天白日皎然清淨不變不動。無減無增。各各當人日用應緣處。頭頭上明。物物上顯。取之不得。捨之常存。蕩蕩無礙。了了空虗。如水上葫蘆。拘牽他不得。惹絆他不得。古來有道之士。得之向生死海中頭出頭沒。全體受用。無欠無餘。不見有生死塵勞之狀。如析栴檀片片皆是。將甚麼作生死塵勞。生死塵勞從甚麼處起。收因結果時。却向甚麼處著。既無著處。則佛是幻。法是幻。三界二十五有。十二處十八界。空蕩蕩地。到得這個田地。佛之一字亦無處著。佛之一字尚無著處。真如佛性菩提涅槃。何處有也。故傅大士有言。恐人生斷見。權且立虗名。學道人理會。不得一向去。古人入道因緣。上求玄求妙。求奇特覓解會。不能見月忘指。直下一刀兩段。永嘉所謂。空拳指上生實解。根境法中虗揑怪。於五蘊十二處十八界二十五有塵勞中。妄自囚執。如來說為可憐憫者。不見巖頭和尚有言。汝但無欲無依。便是能仁。都來只有一個父母所生底肉塊子。一點氣不來。便屬他人所管。肉塊子外。更有甚麼。把甚麼作奇特玄妙。把甚麼作菩提涅槃。把甚麼作真如佛性。士大夫。要究竟此事。初不本其實。只管要於古人公案上求知求解。直饒你知盡解盡一大藏教。臘月三十日生死到來時。一點也使不著。又有一種。纔聞知識說如是事。又將心意識搏量卜度云。若如此則莫落空否。士大夫十個有五雙。作遮般見解。妙喜不得已向他道。你未曾得空。何怕之有。如船未翻。先要跳入水去。見伊不領略。不惜口業。又為他打葛藤一上云。只遮怕落空底。還空得也無。你眼若不空。將甚麼觀色。耳若不空。將甚麼聽聲。鼻若不空。將甚麼知香臭。舌若不空。將甚麼甞味。身若不空。將甚麼覺觸。意若不空。將甚麼分別萬法。佛不云乎。無眼耳鼻舌身意。無色聲香味觸法。乃至十二處十八界二十五有。乃至聲聞緣覺菩薩佛。及佛所說之法。菩提涅槃真如佛性。及說此法者。聽此法者。作如是說者。受如是說者。皆悉無有。得如是了。喚作空耶。喚作不空耶。喚作佛耶。喚作菩薩耶。喚作聲聞耶。喚作緣覺耶喚作菩提涅槃耶。喚作真如佛性耶。道我聰明靈利不受人瞞。向遮裏試定當看。若是定當得出。止宿草菴。且居門外。若定當不出。切忌開大口說過頭話。大丈夫漢。決欲究竟此一段大事因緣。一等打破面皮。性燥竪起脊梁骨。莫順人情。把自家平昔所疑處。貼在額頭上。常時一似欠了人百萬貫錢。被人追索。無物可償。生怕被人耻辱。無急得急。無忙得忙。無大得大底一件事。方有趨向分。此處比原文節去論口鼓子禪一段晝三夜三。孜孜矻矻。茶裏飯裏。喜時怒時。淨處穢處。妻兒聚頭處。與賓客相酬酢處。辦公家職事處。了私門婚嫁處。都是第一等做工夫提撕警覺底時節。昔李文和都尉。在富貴叢中參得禪。大徹大悟。楊文公參得禪時。身居翰苑。張無盡參得禪時。作江西轉運使。只遮三大老。便是個不壞世間相而談實相底樣子也。又何曾須要去妻孥。休官罷職。咬菜根。苦形劣志。避喧求靜。然後入枯禪鬼窟裏作妄想。方得悟道來。不見龐居士有言。但自無心於萬物。何妨萬物常圍繞。鐵牛不怕師子吼。恰似木人見花鳥。木人本體自無情。花鳥逢人亦不驚。心境如如只遮是。何慮菩提道不成。在世俗塵勞中。能不忘生死事。雖未即打破漆桶。然亦種得般若種智之深。異世出頭來。亦省心力。亦不至流落惡趣中。大勝躭染塵勞不求脫離。謂此事不可容易。且作歸敬信向處。似此見解者。不可勝數。士大夫學道。與我出家兒大不同。出家兒。父母不供甘旨。六親固已棄離。一瓶一鉢。日用應緣處。無許多障道底冤家。一心一意。體究此事而已。士大夫。開眼合眼處。無非障道底冤魂。若是個有智慧者。只就裏許做工夫。淨名所謂塵勞之儔為如來種。怕人壞世間相而求實相。又設個喻云。譬如高原陸地不生蓮花。卑濕污泥乃生此花。若就裏許。如楊文公李文和張無盡三大老。打得透。其力勝我出家兒二十倍。何以故。我出家兒在外打入。士大夫在內打出。在外打入者。其力弱。在內打出者。其力強。強者謂所乖處重。而轉處有力。弱者謂所乖處輕。而轉處少力。雖力有強弱。而所乖則一也示徐敦濟附。𠠇參政。請就天竺陞座。僧間。高揖釋迦。不拜彌勒時如何。師云。夢裏惺惺。進云。將謂和尚忘却。師云。你記得試道看。進云雖道不得。要旦不失。師云。原來不會。進云。從上來事分付阿誰。師云。分付瞎漢。進云。臨濟一宗。全憑渠力。師云。旦喜不干你事。問昔日七賢女游屍陀林。一女云。屍在這裏。人向甚麼處去。一女云。作麼作麼。當時齊悟無生法忍。如何是無生法忍。師云。拈却髑髏裏底。進云。輝騰今古爍破乾坤師云這田庫奴進云只如四主薄即今在甚麼處。師舉起拂子云。在這裏。進云。惟憑這個力。念念更無差。師云。摩竭令行傳萬古。乃云。拈提要妙。掘地覓天。就裏明真。望空啟告。直得心心不觸物念念絕扳緣。觀法界於一微塵之中。見一微塵徧法界之內。塵塵爾。念念爾法法爾。猶是教乘極則。未是衲僧放身命處。若識得衲僧放身命處。則出生入死。得大自在。以生死為游戲之塲。而不被生死之所留礙。其或不然。未免葛藤。妙性圓明離諸名相。本來無有世界眾生。因妄有生。因生有滅。生滅名妄。滅妄名真。乃顧視大眾云。今日參政相公。為亡男主簿盡七之晨。命山僧陞於此座。為眾舉揚。僧俗交參。同臨斯會。又是倜甚麼。若言是妄。現今說法聽法。歷歷孤明。復是何物。眼若是妄。將甚麼觀色。耳若是妄。將甚麼聽聲。鼻。若是妄將甚麼嗅香。舌若是妄。將甚麼了味。身若是妄。將甚麼覺觸。意若是妄。將甚麼分別。眼耳鼻舌身意。色聲香味觸法。既不是妄。一真何依。真既無依。一道平等。到這裏。方如主簿昔日雖生。本不曾生。今日雖滅。本不曾滅。既不曾生。又不曾滅。更喚甚麼作圓明妙性。真妄名相。何處安著。還委悉麼。騰身一擲太虛外。鼻孔依前搭上唇。下座從來無法與人。但為人做得指路頭底漢子耳。古德云。有所得是野干鳴。無所得是師子吼。佛是通變底人。於四十九年中。三百六十餘會說法。隨其根性而引導之。故於十法界內。一音演說。眾生隨類各獲饒益。譬如東風一拂。萬卉齊敷。佛所說法亦復如是。若有意於十法界內作饒益。則是以我說法。欲使眾生隨類得度。不亦難乎。不見舍利弗在般若會上。問文殊曰。諸佛如來不覺法界耶。文殊曰。弗也舍利弗。諸佛尚不可得。云何有佛而覺法界。法界尚不可得。云何法界為諸佛所覺。看他兩人恁麼激揚。又何曾著意來。從上諸佛諸祖為人。皆有如是體裁。自是後來兒孫。失其宗旨。各立門戶。造妖揑怪示曾叔遲以湛然號公。祖師云。但有心分別計較自心見量者。悉皆是夢。若心識寂滅。無一念動處。是名正覺。覺既正。則於日用二六時中。見色聞聲。嗅香了味。覺觸知法。行住坐臥。語默動靜。無不湛然。亦自不作顛倒想。有想無想悉皆清淨。既得清淨。動時顯湛然之用。不動時歸湛然之體。體用雖殊。而湛然則一也。如析栴檀片片皆栴檀。今時有一般杜撰漢。自己脚跟下不實。只管教人攝心靜坐。坐教絕氣息。此輩名為可憐愍者。請公只恁麼做工夫。山野雖然如此指示公。真不得已耳。若實有恁麼做工夫底事。即是染污公矣。此心無有實體。如何硬收攝得住。擬收攝。向甚處安著。既無安著處。則無時無節。無古無今。無凡無聖。無得無失。無靜無亂。無生無死。亦無湛然之名。亦無湛然之體。亦無湛然之用。亦無恁麼說湛然者。亦無恁麼受湛然說者答許壽源佛說一切法。為度一切心。我無一切心。何用一切法。法本無法。心亦無心。心法兩空。是真實相。而今學道之士。多怕落空。作如是解者。錯認方便。執病為藥。深可憐愍。故龐居士有言。汝勿嫌落空。落空亦不惡。又云。但願空諸所有。切勿實諸所無。若覰得遮一句子。破無邊惡業無明。當下瓦解氷消。如來所說一大藏教。亦註解遮一句子。不出當人。若具決定。信知得有如是大解脫法。只在知得處。撥轉上頭關棙子。則龐公一句。與佛說一大藏。無異無別。無前無後。無古無今。無少無剩。亦不見有一切法。亦不見有一切心。十方世界空蕩蕩地。亦莫作空蕩蕩地見。若作是見。則便有說空者。便有聞說空者。便有一切法可聽。便有一切心可證。既可聽可證。則內有能證之心。外有所證之法。此病不除。教中謂之以我說法。亦謂之謗佛法僧。又教中云。若取法相。即著我人眾生壽者。若取非法相。即著我人眾生壽者。前所云內有能證之心。外有所證之法。便是遮個道理也。佛弟子陳惇。知身是妄。知法是幻。於幻妄中。能看個狗子無佛性話。忽然洗面摸著鼻孔。伊有書來呈見解。試手說禪。如虎生三日。氣已食牛。其間通消息處。雖似吉獠棒打地。有著處。則入地數寸。不著處。則全無巴鼻。然大體基本已正。而大法未明。亦初心入道之常病耳。苟能知是般事。撥向一邊。却把諸佛諸祖要妙門。一時塞斷。向威音那畔。討個生涯處。方於法得自在矣。釋迦老子云。若但讚佛乘。眾生沒在苦。信知如是事。以我所證擴而充之。然後不被法縛。不求法脫。恁麼也得。不恁麼也得。恁麼不恁麼總得。凡有言句。凡所受用。如壯士展臂。不借他力。箭既離弦。無返迴勢。非是強為。法如是故。得如此了。始可言無善無惡。無佛無眾生等事。而今大法未明。若便說恁麼話。恐墮在永嘉所謂。豁達空撥因果。莽莽蕩蕩招殃禍中。不可不知也。但得本莫愁末。久久淹浸得熟。不愁不成一片。勉之勉之示陳明仲佛又言。不應於一法一事一身一國土一眾生。見於如來。應徧於一切處見於如來。佛者覺義。謂於一切處。常徧覺故。所謂徧見者。見自己本源自性天真佛。無一時一處一法一事一身一國土一眾生界中。而不徧故也。眾生迷此。而輪轉三界。受種種苦。諸佛悟此。而超諸有海。受殊勝妙樂。然苦樂皆無實體。但迷悟差別。而苦樂異途耳。故杜順云。法身流轉五道。名曰眾生。眾生現時。法身不現也示李獻臣　又鄭成忠請普說。師云。如今心地未明底。不免疑道世界從甚麼處起將來。却向甚麼處滅。為復先有世界。為復先有人。若道先有世界。古德不應云。三界惟心所現。萬法惟識所變。若道先有人。既未有世界。人却在甚麼處安頓。遮些子不妨被他窒礙。說先有世界也不是。先有人也不是。大法一明。不著排遣。自然分曉　幻寄曰。吾初讀華嚴十無盡藏品。至菩薩有無記法而疑之。調華嚴菩薩。具一切智。何獨於此數端。而獨無記。及讀徑山老人語。乃知菩薩之無記。杜人言思。正所以使之深證。後如黃檗被喝處。盖見無邊沙界于毛端。臨濟喫棒時。則拈十世古今于眼睫。若以言思求。必流魔外又云。善惡皆從自心起。且道。離却舉足動步思量分別外。喚甚麼作自心。自心却從甚麼處起。若識得自心起處。無邊業障一時清淨。種種殊勝不求而自至矣　又云。生從何處來。死向何處去。知得來去處。方名學佛人。知生死底是阿誰。受生死底復是阿誰。不知來去處底。又是阿誰。忽然知得來去處底又是阿誰。看此話。眼眨眨地。理會不得。肚裏七上八下。方寸中。如頓却一團火相似底。又是阿誰。若要識。但向理會不得處識取。若便識得。方知生死決定不相干涉　又云。凡看經教及古德入道因緣。心未明了。覺得迷悶。沒滋味。如齩鐵橛相似時。正好著力。第一不得放捨。乃是意識不行。思量不到。絕分別。滅理路處。尋常可以說得道理。分別得行處。盡是情識邊事。往往多認賊為子。不可不知也又答王大授云。不識左右。別後日用如何做工夫。若是曾於理性上得滋味。經教上得滋味。祖師言句上得滋味。眼見耳聞上得滋味。舉足動步處得滋味。心思意想處得滋味。都不濟事。若要直下休歇。應是從前得滋味處。都莫官他。却去沒撈摸處。沒滋味處。試著意看。若著意不得。撈摸不得。轉覺得沒󰚁柄可把捉。理路義路心意識都不行。如土木瓦石相似時。莫怕落空。此是當人放身命處。不可忽不可忽　又答李似表云。示諭。欲妙喜因書指示徑要處。只遮求指示徑要厎一念。早是刺頭入膠盆了也。不可更向雪上加霜。雖然。有問不可無答。請左右都將平昔。或自看經教話頭。或因人舉覺指示得滋味歡喜處。一時放下。依前百不知百不會。如三歲孩兒相似。有性識而未行。却向未起求徑要底一念子前頭看看來看去。覺得轉沒巴鼻。方寸轉不寧怗時。不得放緩。遮裏是坐斷千聖頂𩕳處。往往學道人。多向這裏打退了。左右若信得及。只向未起求徑要指示一念前看。看來看去。忽然睡夢覺。不是差事又云。趙州狗子無佛性話。喜怒靜鬧處。亦須提撕。第一不得用意等悟。若用意等悟。則自謂我即今迷。執迷待悟。縱經塵劫。亦不能得悟。但舉話頭時。略抖擻精神看。是個甚麼道理　常以生不知來處。死不知去處二事。貼在鼻孔尖上。茶裏飯裏。靜處閙處。念念孜孜。常似欠却人百萬貫錢債。無所從出。心胷煩悶。迴避無門。求生不得。求死不得。當恁麼時。善惡路頭相次絕也。覺得如此時。正好著力。只就這裏。看個話頭。僧問趙州。狗子還有佛性也無。州云無。看時不用博量。不用註解。不用要得分曉。不用向開口處承當。不用向舉起處作道理。不用墮在空寂處。不用將心等悟。不用向宗師說處領略。不用掉在無事甲裏。但行住坐臥。時時提撕。狗子還有佛性也無。無。提撕得熟。口議心思不及。方寸裏七上八下。如齩生鐵橛。沒滋味時。切莫退志。得如此時。却是好底消息。不見古德有言。佛說一切法。為度一切心。我無一切心。何用一切法。非但祖師門下如是。佛說一大藏教。盡是這般道理。眾生惡業障重。逐日下得牀來。便心識紛飛。思量名利。擔却人我。妄想顛倒。從旦至暮。如鈎鎖連環。相續不斷。都不厭惡。乍起一念。向此個門中著意思量。便要我會心意識。安排不到。便生煩惱。早要罷休。有著甚來由之。說如此者。不可勝數。舜元道友即不然。既知缺減界中。種種虗妄。一心一意。向自己脚跟下理會。生從何處來。死向何處去。既不知來處。又不知去處。現今歷歷孤明。與人分是非別好醜底。決定是有是無。是真實是虗妄。直待到如人飲水冷煖自知。不向他人口頭受處分。忽然噴地一發。到究竟安樂大休大歇處。方始自肯。以此軸來求指示。掇筆信手一揮。遂成一段葛藤。然則事不孤起。起必有由。若一向作葛藤會。又爭得。不見昔日子湖和尚有言。祖師西來。也只是個冬寒夏熱。夜暗日明。只為你徒無意立意。無事生事。無內外強作內外。無東西謾應作漫說東西。所以奢摩不能明了。以至根境不能自由。以是評量。舜元不曾來妙喜處求法語。妙喜元不曾寫一字。冬寒夏熱。夜暗日明。內外中間。東西南北。元不曾移易增減一絲毫許。何以故。我宗無語句。亦無一法與人。既無一法與人。即今寫底是個甚麼。說冬寒夏熱內外中間者。又是個甚麼。東西南北不曾移易一絲毫者。又是個甚麼。咄。有也不可得。無也不可得。冬寒夏熱也不可得。內外中間也不可得。作如是說者亦不可得。受如是說者亦不可得。一絲毫亦不可得。舜元亦不可得。妙喜亦不可得。不可得亦不可得。不可得中只麼得。舜元到者裏。合作麼生參。只這作麼生參。亦無著處。然後此語亦不受。此語既不受。妙喜決定無說。舜元決定無聞。無說處是真說。無聞處是真聞。如是則妙喜即是舜元。舜元即是妙喜。妙喜舜元無二無二分。無別無斷故。嘉州大像喫黃連。陝府鐵牛滿口苦。苦不苦。分明覰見沒可覩。咄示呂舜元疑生不知來處。死不知去處底心未亡。則是生死交加。但向交加處。看個話頭。僧問趙州和尚。狗子還有佛性也無。州云無。但將疑生不知來處。死不知去處底心。移來無字上。則交加之心不行矣。交加之心既不行。則疑生來死去底心將絕矣。但向欲絕未絕處廝崖。時節因緣到來。驀然噴地一下便了示李伯和僧問趙州。狗子還有佛性也無。州云無。此一字。便是個破生死疑心底刀子也。這刀子󰚁柄。只在當人手中。教別人下手不得。須是自家下手始得。若捨得性命。方肯自下手。若捨性命不得。且只管在疑不破處崖將去。驀然自肯捨命一下便了。那時方信靜時便是閙時底。閙時便是靜時底。語時便是默時底。默時便是語時底。不著問人。亦自然不受邪師胡說亂道也。又云。日用二六時中。不得執生死佛道是有。不得撥生死佛道歸無。但只看個狗子還有佛性也無。趙州云無答陳季任老居士。所作所為。冥與道合。但未能得㘞地一下耳。若日用應緣。不失故步。雖未得㘞地一下。臘月三十日。閻家老子。亦須拱手歸降。況一念相應耶。妙喜老漢。雖未目擊觀其行事。大小折中。無過不及。只此便是道所合處。到這裏。不用作塵勞想。亦不用作佛法想。佛法塵勞都是外事。然亦不得作外事想。但回光返照。作如是想者。從甚麼處得來。所作所為時。有何形段。所作既辦。隨我心意。無不周旋。無有少剩。正當恁麼時。承誰恩力。如此做工夫。日久月深。如人學射。自然中的矣。眾生顛倒迷己逐物。躭少欲味。甘心受無量苦。逐日未開眼時。未下牀時。半惺半覺時。心識已紛飛。隨妄想流蕩矣。作善作惡。雖未發露。未下牀時。天堂地獄在方寸中。已一時成就矣。及待發時。已落在第八。佛不云乎。一切諸根自心現器身等藏。自妄想相施設顯示。如河流。如種子。如燈如風如雲。剎那展轉壞。躁動如猿猴。樂不淨處如飛蠅。無厭足如風火。無始虗偽習氣因。如汲水輪等事。如此識得破。便喚作無人無我智。天堂地獄不在別處。只在當人半惺半覺。未下牀時方寸中。竝不從外來。發未發。覺未覺時。切須照顧。照顧時亦不得與之用力爭。爭著則費力矣。祖不云乎。止動歸止。止更彌動。纔覺日用塵勞中。漸漸省力時。便是當人得力之處。便是當人成佛作祖之處。便是當人變地獄作天堂之處。便是當人穩坐之處。便是當人出生死之處。便是當人致君堯舜之上之處。便是當人起疲氓於凋瘵之處。便是當人福蔭子孫之處。到這裏。說佛說祖。說心說性。說玄說妙。說理說事。說好說惡。亦是外邊事。如此等事。尚屬外矣。況肯作塵勞中。先聖所訶之事耶。作好事尚不肯。豈肯作不好事耶。若信得此說及。永嘉所謂。行亦禪坐亦禪。語默動靜體安然。不是虗語。請依此行履。始終不變易。則雖未徹證自己本地風光。雖未明見自己本來面目。生處已熟。熟處已生矣。切切記取。纔覺省力處。便是得力處也。妙喜老漢。每與個中人說此話。往往見說得頻了多忽之。不肯將為事。居士試如此做工夫看。只十餘日。便自見得省力不省力。得力不得力矣。如人飲水冷煖自知。說與人不得。呈似人不得。先德云。語證則不可示人。說理則非證不了。自證自得自信自悟處。除曾證曾得已信已悟者。方默默相契。未證未得未信未悟者。不唯自不信。亦不信他人有如此境界。老居士。天資近道。現定所作所為不著。更易以他人較之。萬分中已省得九千九百九十九分。只欠噴地一發便了。士大夫學道。多不著實理會。除却口議心思。便茫然無所措手足。不信無措手足處。正是好處。只管心裏要思量得到。口裏要說得分曉。殊不知錯了也。佛言。如來以一切譬喻。說種種事。無有譬喻能說此法。何以故。心智路絕。不思議故。信知思量分別障道必矣。若得前後際斷。心智路自絕矣。若得心智路絕。說種種事。皆此法也。此法既明。即此明處。便是不思議大解脫境界。只此境界亦不可思議。境界既不可思議。一切譬喻亦不可思議。種種事亦不可思議。只這不可思議底亦不可思議。此語亦無著處。只這無著處底亦不可思議。如是展轉窮詰。若事若法。若譬喻若境界。如環之無端。無起處無盡處。皆不可思議之法也。所以云。菩薩住是不思議。於中思議不可盡。入此不可思議處。思與非思皆寂滅。然亦不得住在寂滅處。若住在寂滅處。則被法界量之所管攝。教中謂之法塵煩惱。滅却法界量。種種殊勝一時蕩盡了。方始好看庭前柏樹子。麻三斤。乾矢橛。狗子無佛性。一口吸盡西江水。東山水上行之類。忽然一句下透得。方始謂之法界無量迴向。如實而見。如實而行。如實而用。便能於一毛端。現寶王剎。坐微塵裏。轉大法輪。成就種種法。破壞種種法。一切由我。如壯士展臂不借他力。師子遊行不求伴侶。種種勝妙境界現前。心不驚異。種種惡業境界現前。心不怕怖。日用四威儀中。隨緣放曠。任運逍遙。到得這個田地。方可說無天堂無地獄等事。永嘉云。亦無人亦無佛。大千沙界海中漚。一切聖賢如電拂。此老若不到這個田地。如何說得出來。此語錯會者甚多。苟未徹根源。不免依語生解。便道一切皆無。撥無因果。將諸佛諸祖所說言教。盡以為虗。謂之誑惑人。此病不除。乃莽莽蕩蕩招殃禍者也。佛言。虗妄浮心多諸巧見。若不著有。便著無。若不著此二種。便於有無之間。搏量卜度。縱識得此病。定在非有非無處著倒。故先聖苦口丁寧。令離四句絕百非。直下一刀兩段。更不念後思前。坐斷千聖頂𩕳。四句者。乃有無非有非無亦有亦無是也。若透得此四句了。見說一切諸法實有。我亦隨順與之說有。且不被此實有所礙。見說一切諸法實無。我亦隨順與之說無。且非世間虗豁之無。見說一切諸法亦有亦無。我亦隨順與之說亦有亦無。且非戲論。見說一切諸法非有非無。我亦隨順與之說非有非無。且非相違。淨名云。外道六師所墮。汝亦隨墮。是也答張暘叔趙州云。老僧逐日。除二時粥飯。是雜用心。餘外更無雜用心處。且道。這老漢。在甚處著倒。若於這裏識得他面目。始可說行亦禪坐亦禪。語默動靜體安然。未能如是。當時時退步。向自己脚跟下。子細推窮。我能知他人好惡長短底。是凡是聖。是有是無。推窮來推窮去。到無可推窮處。如老鼠入牛角。驀地偷心絕。則便是當人四棱榻地歸家穩坐處示熊叔雅伏承第五令嗣。以疾不起。父子之情。千生百劫。恩愛之所流注。想當此境界。應有訛缺無有是處。五濁世中種種虗幻。無一真實。請行住坐臥。常作是觀。則日久月深。漸漸消磨矣。然正煩惱時。子細揣摩窮詰。從甚麼處起。若窮起處不得。現今煩惱底。却從甚麼處得來。正煩惱時。是有是無。是虗是實。窮來窮去。心無所之。要思量但思量。要哭但哭。哭來哭去。思量來思量去。抖擻得藏識中許多恩愛習氣盡時。自然如氷歸水。還我個本來無煩惱無思量無憂無喜底去耳。入得世間出世無餘。世間法則佛法。佛法則世間法也。父子天性一而已。若子喪。而父不煩惱不思量。如父喪。而子不煩惱不思量。還得也無。若硬止遏。哭時又不敢哭。思量時又不敢思量。是特欲逆天理。滅天性。揚聲止響。潑油救火耳。正煩惱時。總不是外事。且不得作外邊想。永嘉云。無明實性即佛性。幻化空身即法身。是真語實語。不誑不妄語。恁麼見得了。要思量要煩惱亦不可得。作是觀者。名為正觀。若他觀者。名為邪觀。邪正未分。正好著力。此是妙喜決定義。無智人前莫說答汪彥章眾生日用現行無明。順無明則生歡喜。逆無明則生煩惱。佛菩薩則不然。借無明以為佛事。為眾生以無明為窟宅。逆之則是破他窟宅。順之則隨其所著而誘導之。淨名云。塵勞之儔為如來種。永嘉云。無明實性即佛性。幻化空身即法身。便是這個道理也示張太尉益之向自己脚跟下推窮。我這取富貴底從何處來。即今受富貴底。異日却向何處去。既不知來處。又不知去處。便覺心頭迷悶。正迷悶時亦非他物。只就這裏。看個話頭。僧問雲門。如何是佛。門云乾矢橛。但舉此話。忽然伎倆盡時便悟也。切忌尋文字引證。胡亂博量註解。縱然註解得分明。說得有下落。盡是鬼家活計。疑情不破。生死交加。疑情若破。則生死心絕矣。生死心絕。則佛見法見亡矣。佛見法見尚亡。況復更起眾生煩惱見耶。但將迷悶底心。移來乾矢橛上。一抵抵住。怖生死底心。迷悶底心。思量分別底心。作聰明底心。自然不行也。覺得不行時。莫怕落空。忽然向抵住處。絕消息。不勝慶快平生。得消息絕了。起佛見法見眾生見。思量分別。作聰明說道理。都不相妨。日用四威儀中。但常放教蕩蕩地。靜處閙處。常以乾矢橛提撕。日往月來。水牯牛自純熟矣。第一不得向外面別起疑也。乾矢橛上疑破。則恒河沙數疑。一時破矣。答呂隆禮　示曾天游云。莫於古人言句上。只管如疊塔子相似。一層了又一層。枉用工夫。無有了期。但只存心於一處。無有不到底。時節因緣到來。自然築著磕著。噴地省去耳。不起一念還有過也無。云須彌山。一物不將來時如何。放下著。這裏疑不破。只在這裏參。更不必自生枝葉也　答呂居仁云。千疑萬疑。只是一疑。話頭上疑破。則千疑萬疑一時破。話頭不破。則且就上面與之廁崕。若棄了話頭。別去文字上起疑。經教上起疑。古人公案上起疑。日用塵勞中起疑。皆是邪魔眷屬。

> The Buddha said: "If you wish to know the realm of Buddhahood, you must purify your mind like empty space, letting go of deluded thoughts and all attachments, so that wherever the mind turns, there is no obstruction." The realm of Buddhahood is not an external realm with a physical Buddha image—it is the realm of one's own awakened wisdom. If you truly wish to know this realm, it is not attained through external adornment, cultivation, or achievement. You must purify the root of mind, clearing away the defilements of guest dust that have accumulated since beginningless time, making it vast and open like space. Let go of all grasping in consciousness and the false, unreal delusions—also like space. Then this wondrous mind, effortless and uncontrived, will naturally move without hindrance. <note>Instruction for Li Xianchen</note> The master also said: An ancient virtuous teacher once said, "To find the ox, you must follow its tracks. To study the Way, value the mind that seeks nothing. If the tracks remain, the ox is still there. With a mind that seeks nothing, the Way is easy to find." What is called "the mind that seeks nothing" does not mean being like earth, wood, tiles, or stones—dull and unconscious. It means that when encountering situations and conditions, the mind remains still and unmoving, not grasping at any phenomena. In all places, it is open and free, without obstruction, without defilement—yet it does not dwell in the state of being undefiled either. It observes body and mind as like dreams and illusions, yet does not abide in the realm of dreamlike emptiness either. Only when you reach this state can it truly be called "the mind that seeks nothing." This is not the "nothing-seeking mind" spoken of merely with words. If you have not yet attained this true mind of non-seeking, then what you speak of is no different from the heretical silent-illumination Chan. Just grasp the root—do not worry about the branches. Emptying this mind is the root. Once you have the root, then all kinds of language, all kinds of wisdom, daily responses to things according to conditions—whether twisting and turning, delight or anger, like or dislike, agreeable or disagreeable—are all merely branches. If at the point of responding to conditions you can remain aware, then nothing is lacking and nothing is left over. <note>Instruction for Huang Bocheng</note> Since you study this Way, in the twelve periods of the day, when encountering things and responding to conditions, you must not let evil thoughts continue uninterrupted. If you fail to stay vigilant and an evil thought arises, quickly summon your spirit and turn your head around. If you just follow it all along, letting it continue without break, not only does it obstruct the Way, but you are also called a person without wisdom. In the past, Master Guishan asked Lan'an, "In the twelve periods of the day, what is your task?" Lan'an said, "Herding the ox." Guishan said, "How do you herd it?" Lan'an said, "Whenever it strays into the grass, I grab its nose and pull it back." Guishan said, "You truly know how to herd the ox." Those who study the Way should restrain evil thoughts just as Lan'an herded his ox. Then after a long time, it will naturally become mature and refined. <note>Instruction for Li Xianchen</note> The master also said: Don't draw another's bow. Don't ride another's horse. Don't know another's affairs. Though these are common sayings, they can serve as provisions for entering the Way. Always examine yourself. From dawn to dusk, ask: What have I done to benefit others and myself? If you sense any partiality or imbalance, you must warn yourself—do not be negligent. The master also said: In the past, Master Daolin lived atop a tall pine on Mount Qinwang, and people of his time called him "Hermit of the Birds' Nest." When Vice Minister Bai Juyi was governing Qiantang, he went into the mountains especially to visit him. Bai asked, "Master, your sitting place is very dangerous." The master said, "This old monk's danger is nothing. Vice Minister, your danger is far greater." Bai said, "I govern rivers and mountains in an official post—what danger could I have?" The master said, "Fire and fuel intersect, consciousness never rests—is that not danger?" Bai then asked, "What is the great meaning of the Buddhadharma?" The master said, "Do no evil, practice all good." Bai said, "Even a three-year-old child can say that." The master said, "A three-year-old child can say it, but an eighty-year-old man cannot practice it." Bai then made a bow and left. Now, if you want to save mental energy, don't worry about whether a three-year-old child can say it or not, or whether an eighty-year-old man can practice it or not. Just do no evil—and this statement is settled. Believe it or not, it remains so. Please ponder this. The master also said: People of the world, operating under present ignorance, force themselves to do good. Though their good may not be perfect, is it not still better than those who are shameless and use goodness as a cover for evil? The scriptures say, "If the cause is not true, the fruit will be twisted and circuitous." If you can keep an upright mind and upright conduct, and directly pursue supreme enlightenment, this can truly be called the action of a great hero. Events from countless eons ago exist only in this present moment. If you understand this present moment, then events from countless eons immediately shatter like ice and melt like snow. If you do not understand this present moment, even after passing through countless more eons, it will still be exactly as it is now. This dharma of thusness has been constant from ancient times to now—never shifting even a hair's breadth. The master also said: The dusty labors of the world are like linked hooks and interlocking chains, continuing without end. Where you can simplify, simplify. Because since beginningless time, you have become habituated to them. If you do not vigorously contend with them, as days and months deepen, before you know it, you will sink in deeply. On the thirtieth day of the twelfth month—the day of death—you will suddenly find your hands and feet tied, unprepared. If you want to avoid confusion and error at the moment of death, then from now on, at the places where you act, do not let confusion and error occur. If you are confused and erroneous in your present actions, yet hope not to be confused and erroneous at death—there is no such possibility. The master also said: There is a kind of person who in the morning reads sutras, recites the Buddha's name, and repents, but in the evening lets loose verbal evil and curses people. The next day they again bow to the Buddha and repent. Year after year, this becomes their daily practice. This is extreme foolishness! Little do they know that the Sanskrit word \*kṣama\* means "repentance of faults"—that is, cutting off the continuing mind. Once cut off, it never continues again. Once repented, it is never done again. This is the meaning of repentance in our Buddha's teaching. Students of the Way must not be ignorant of this. The master also said: Students of the Way—in the twelve periods of the day, the mind, consciousness, and awareness should always be quiet and without affairs. You should also sit in stillness, letting the mind not become dissipated and the body not move. After practicing this for a long time, body and mind will naturally become peaceful and settled, and you will have some direction of progress in the Way. The perfection of stillness is meant to settle the scattered and deluded perceptions of sentient beings. But if you cling to stillness as the ultimate attainment, then you will be seized by the heretical silent-illumination Chan. In Sanskrit, \*prajñā\* means wisdom. There has never been one who clearly understands prajñā and yet is full of greed, hatred, and delusion. There has never been one who clearly understands prajñā and yet harms sentient beings. Those who do such things are running in the opposite direction from prajñā—how can they be called wise? <note>Instruction for Chen Cizhong</note> When you keep the matter of birth and death in mind, your mental direction is already correct. When your mental direction is correct, then in daily responses to conditions, you need not exert force to push things away. Since you need not push things away, there is no evil or wrong. With no evil or wrong, right mindfulness stands alone and free. When right mindfulness stands alone and free, principle follows events as they change. When principle follows events, events merge with principle. When events merge with principle, effort is saved. The moment you feel effort being saved—that is the point where studying this Way gains power. At the point of gaining power, you save limitless effort. At the point of saving effort, you gain limitless power. <note>Instruction for Luo Mengbi</note> This matter is meant to be shouldered by the clever and sharp-witted. But if you rely on cleverness and sharp wit, you have no share in shouldering it. Clever and sharp-witted people may enter easily, but they find it hard to maintain. This is because their entry point is not deep, and their strength is weak. Clever and sharp-witted people, the moment they hear a good spiritual friend speak of this matter, their eyes start moving—they have already used mind, consciousness, and awareness to understand it. People like this create their own obstacles and will never awaken for countless eons. When external ghosts cause trouble, it can still be remedied. But this is like one's own family spirits causing havoc—no prayer or ritual can dispel it. Yongjia said: "Damaging the Dharma treasure and extinguishing merit—none of it is not caused by this mind, consciousness, and awareness." This is exactly what is meant. <note>Instruction for Li Xianchen</note> The obstruction of the Way by mind, consciousness, and awareness is worse than poisonous snakes and fierce tigers. Why? Because poisonous snakes and fierce tigers can still be avoided. But clever and sharp-witted people make their home in mind, consciousness, and awareness. In walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, they are never apart from it for even an instant. As days and months deepen, before they know it, they have become fused with it into one piece. It is not that they intend to become one piece with it. It is that since beginningless time, they have traveled this road so habitually that even though they suddenly see through it, they still cannot distance themselves from it. Therefore it is said: "Poisonous snakes and fierce tigers can still be avoided, but mind, consciousness, and awareness truly leave you no place to avoid." <note>Instruction for Luo Mengbi</note> Scholars and officials mostly seek the Dharma that has nothing to attain using a mind that has something to attain. What is the "mind that has something to attain"? It is the clever, sharp-witted mind that calculates and deliberates. What is the "Dharma that has nothing to attain"? It is that which calculation cannot reach, deliberation cannot touch, and cleverness has no place to stand. Have you not seen how Śākyamuni, in the assembly on Vulture Peak, when Shariputra earnestly requested the teaching three times, had no place to open his mouth? Only then, with all his might, did he say: "This Dharma is beyond the reach of thought and discrimination." This was Śākyamuni's ultimate expression of this matter—the first turning of the wheel that opens the door of skillful means and reveals the true form. In the past, Master Xuefeng, in his urgency about this matter, went three times to Toutsī and nine times to Dongshan. His connections with them did not mature. Later he heard that Deshan, known as "Diamond Zhou," was teaching, so he went to his room. One day he asked Deshan, "What dharma did the ancestral teachers of old use to instruct people?" Deshan said, "My school has no words or phrases, and not a single dharma to give anyone." Later he asked again, "In the matter of the ancestral vehicle, does this student have any share?" Deshan picked up his staff and struck him, saying, "What did you say?" It was under that blow that Xuefeng finally broke through the lacquered bucket. From this, you can see that cleverness, sharp wit, deliberation, and calculation are of no use whatsoever at this gate. An ancient virtuous teacher said, "Prajñā is like a blazing fire—approach it and your face will be burned off." The moment you hesitate and speculate, you fall into consciousness. Yongjia said: "Damaging the Dharma treasure and extinguishing merit—none of it is not caused by this mind, consciousness, and awareness." Therefore know that mind, consciousness, and awareness not only obstruct the Way, they also cause people to be thrown into confusion and to commit all kinds of wrongdoing. Since you have the intention to thoroughly investigate this matter, you must possess a determined resolve. Until you reach the great rest, the great cessation, the great liberation, swear that in this lifetime you will not retreat or fall back. The Buddhadharma is not plentiful. What is rare is endurance over time. The dusty affairs of the world are like linked hooks continuing without end. People of weak resolve often willingly become companions with them. Unaware and unknowing, they are dragged along by them. Unless a person has vow-power from past lives, they will not be willing to step back and reflect. Yongjia also said: "The true nature of ignorance is precisely Buddha-nature. The empty body of illusion is precisely the Dharma-body. When the Dharma-body is awakened, there is not a single thing. The original source, self-nature, is the naturally true Buddha." If you ponder in this way, and suddenly, at the point where thought cannot reach, you see the Dharma-body that is devoid of a single thing—that is the place where you escape birth and death. What was said earlier—that the Dharma of nothing-to-attain cannot be sought with a mind of something-to-attain—is precisely this principle. Scholars and officials spend their whole lives dwelling in deliberation and calculation. The moment they hear a good spiritual friend speak of the Dharma of nothing-to-attain, their minds become suspicious and fearful of falling into emptiness. Miaoxi always asks such people: "This very fear of falling into emptiness—is it empty or not?" Ten out of five pairs cannot answer. This is because they ordinarily make their nest in deliberation and calculation. When they suddenly hear words about not deliberating, they are at a complete loss, unable to find any handle. Little do they know that this very place where they can find no handle is precisely the moment to cast off body and life. <note>This section contains narrative about Dūn Lì, not transcribed. The essential teaching follows.</note> Friend Dūn Lì—we met at Yímén during the Jìngkāng era. At that time, you were in your prime, and already you knew of this great causal matter. But because you had read widely and deeply, sinking too deeply into the Nine Classics and Seventeen Histories, your cleverness was too great, your rational pathways too many, and your concentration power too little. You were dragged along by daily responses to conditions. Therefore, at your very feet, you could not get that crisp snap, that clean break. If you can let right mindfulness appear before you at all times, and your fear of birth and death does not change, then as days and months pass, what is unfamiliar will become familiar, and what is familiar will become unfamiliar. Now, which is the "familiar" place? It is cleverness, sharp wit, deliberation, and calculation. Which is the "unfamiliar" place? It is enlightenment, nirvana, suchness, Buddha-nature—that which transcends thought and discrimination, which calculation and conjecture cannot reach, where you cannot use mind to arrange anything. Then suddenly, when the time arrives—perhaps on an ancient's entry into the Way, or while reading a sutra, or in daily responding to conditions, whether good or not good, whether body and mind are scattered, whether adverse or favorable states appear, or when you temporarily attain stillness of mind and consciousness—suddenly you kick over the latch. That will not be a minor matter. <note>Instruction for Xu Dunli</note> Scholars read widely, originally to nourish their nature and understanding. But instead, they store up the words of the ancients in their hearts, using them as career assets and material for conversation. Little do they know that the meaning of the sages' teachings is what was said: "All day counting another's treasures—never having half a coin of one's own." Reading Buddhist scriptures is the same. You must see the moon and forget the finger. Do not generate understanding based on the words. An ancient virtuous teacher said: "The Buddha taught all dharmas to cure all minds. If I have no mind at all, what use are all dharmas?" Those with aspiration who read books and study scriptures in this way will embody a small portion of the sages' meaning. <note>Instruction for Li Xianchen</note> The master also said: Recently in the monasteries, people treat the wonderful words and extraordinary dialogues of the ancients as "distinctive causal connections," using them to bewitch and deceive students, completely losing sight of the original truth. All Buddhas teach the Dharma out of concern that people will not understand. Even when they make hidden or veiled statements, they use analogies and examples alongside them, to lead sentient beings to awakening. For example, when a monk asked Mazu, "What is Buddha?" Mazu said, "This very mind is Buddha." For one who awakens through this, what distinction is there? For one who does not awaken through this, then even "this very mind is Buddha" becomes a distinctive causal construction. Those who practice Chan, when reading scriptures and the awakening stories of ancient teachers, should only empty their minds. Do not seek mystery or seek awakening in sounds, names, phrases, or meanings. If you arouse such a mind, you immediately obstruct your own correct knowledge and vision, and for countless eons you will never find the entrance. Panshan said: "It is like throwing a sword into the air—do not discuss whether it reaches or not." Do not take this lightly. Vimalakīrti said: "Dharma transcends eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind." To penetrate this Dharma, you must first clear the gates of the six sense faculties, so that they have no faults whatsoever. What are the faults? Being turned by forms, sounds, scents, tastes, touch, and mental objects, unable to distance yourself from them—this includes seeking knowledge and understanding from scriptures and the words of ancient teachers. If you can, within scriptures and the awakening stories of the ancients, not arouse a second thought, and directly know how to return, then in both your own realm and others' realms, nothing will not be as you wish, nothing will not be free. Deshan would strike monks as soon as they entered his door. Linji would shout as soon as monks entered his door. Various honored masters call this "face-to-face direct presentation" or "straightforward transmission." Miaoxi calls it "the first-class dragging through mud and water." Even if you could fully shoulder the whole matter under one blow or one shout, you would already be less than a great hero—you would have already had a ladle of foul water dumped on your head. How much worse are those who seek something extraordinary or seek wonderful understanding under the blow or shout? These are the most incompetent among the incompetent. <note>Instruction for Deng Zili</note> In the past, Commander Li Wenhe studied with Master Shimen Cizhao Cong and awakened to the Linji school's essential teaching. He wrote a verse: "To study the Way, you must be a man of iron. Make your decision at the point of action. Directly attain supreme enlightenment— Pay no attention to right and wrong." Wonderful words indeed! They can serve as seeds of light and aids to awakening. <note>Instruction for Li Xianchen</note> The master also said: The Buddha is medicine for sentient beings. When the beings' sickness is cured, the medicine is also useless. If the sickness departs but the medicine remains—entering the Buddha realm but unable to enter the demon realm—that sickness is equal to the sickness of beings not yet cured. When the illness heals and the medicine is removed, then both Buddha and demon are swept away. Only then is there a small measure of accord with this great causal matter. The Buddha is one who has finished his business in the realm of sentient beings. Sentient beings are those who have not finished their business in the realm of Buddha. If you want to attain oneness, then let go of both Buddha and sentient beings at once. Then there is no "finished" and no "unfinished." An ancient virtuous teacher said: "Just be free of affairs within affairs. When seeing forms and hearing sounds, there is no need to be deaf." <note>Instruction for Nie Miaozheng</note> People know the principle that worldly conditioned phenomena are false and unreal. Yet when they encounter situations and meet conditions, and something suddenly appears before them, if they do not follow it, they are certain to have their noses threaded and be led away by it. This is because since beginningless time, what is familiar is too familiar, and what is unfamiliar is too unfamiliar. Though one may see through it for a moment, in the end the power of the Way cannot overcome the power of karma. Now, which is the power of karma? The familiar places. Which is the power of the Way? The unfamiliar places. However, the power of the Way and the power of karma fundamentally have no fixed measure. It all depends on whether, in your present daily functioning, you are deluded or not deluded. If you obscure the power of the Way, then the power of karma overcomes you. When the power of karma overcomes you, then every step you take becomes an obstruction. When every step is an obstruction, you are defiled everywhere. When defiled everywhere, you mistake suffering for happiness. Therefore, Śākyamuni said to Pūrṇa: "You tilt form and emptiness against each other, robbing each other, within the Tathāgatagarbha. And the Tathāgatagarbha, following form and emptiness, pervades the whole dharma realm. Therefore within it, wind moves and emptiness is still, the sun is bright and clouds are dark. Sentient beings, deluded and confused, turn their backs on awakening and merge with dust. Thus they produce defilement and the appearance of the world." This describes one who has obscured the power of the Way and been overcome by the power of karma. Śākyamuni also said: "I, with wonderful brightness that is neither born nor destroyed, unite with the Tathāgatagarbha. And the Tathāgatagarbha is only wonderful awakening and brightness, perfectly illuminating the dharma realm. Therefore within it, one becomes immeasurable, and immeasurable becomes one. The small manifests the great, and the great manifests the small. The unmoving site of awakening pervades the ten directions. The body contains the inexhaustible space of the ten directions. At the tip of a single hair, appears the jeweled king's land. Sitting in a mote of dust, one turns the great Dharma wheel." This describes one who, in present functioning, does not obscure the power of the Way and overcomes the power of karma. Yet both of these ultimately return to emptiness. If you abandon the power of karma and cling to the power of the Way, then I say this person does not understand the Buddhas' skillful means of teaching according to circumstances. Why? Have you not seen Śākyamuni say: "If you grasp the mark of Dharma, you cling to self, person, sentient being, and lifespan. If you grasp the mark of no-Dharma, you also cling to self, person, sentient being, and lifespan. Therefore you should not grasp Dharma, and should not grasp no-Dharma." This is what was said earlier: "The power of the Way and the power of karma fundamentally have no fixed measure." If there is a wise son who uses the power of the Way as a weapon to defeat the power of karma—once the power of karma is removed, the Way is also empty and false. Therefore it is said: "Only with false names does one guide sentient beings." Before seeing through it, there are a thousand difficulties and ten thousand hardships. After seeing through it, what difficulty or ease is there? Layman Pang said: "Ordinary people's minds are narrow— They wrongly speak of difficulty and ease. Separate from marks, like empty space, Perfectly merging with all Buddha wisdom. Precepts, too, are like space. Deluded people cling to them as something to observe. The root of sickness they refuse to pull out, Only playing with flower branches." Do you want to know the root of the sickness? It is nothing other than this thing that clings to difficulty and ease, that falsely creates grasping and rejecting. If this root is not completely pulled out, you will float and sink in the sea of birth and death, with no time of emergence. In the past, Scholar Zhang Zhuo, the moment an honored master pointed out his sickness, could immediately say: "Cutting off affliction only adds more sickness. Running toward suchness is also deviant. Responding to worldly conditions without obstruction— Nirvana and birth and death are equal to empty flowers." If you want directness—not doubting Buddhas and ancestors, not doubting birth and death—then constantly let your mind be wide open and vacant. When things come, set them aside according to the moment. Like still water, like a bright mirror—when lovely and ugly come before you, not a hair's breadth can escape. Then you will truly believe that the natural realm of the mind-free is inconceivable. <note>Instruction for Lü Shunyuan</note> Do you want to know the Dharma? It is suchness, Buddha-nature, enlightenment, nirvana. Do you want to know the sickness? It is deluded thoughts, inversion, greed, hatred, and wrong views. Even so, apart from deluded thoughts and inversion, there is no suchness or Buddha-nature. Apart from greed, hatred, and wrong views, there is no enlightenment or nirvana. Now tell me: should we separate them, or not separate them? If we separate, keeping one and discarding the other, the sickness deepens. If we do not separate, that is precisely a muddled Buddha-nature, a careless suchness. After all, how can we express the principle of "removing the sickness without removing the Dharma"? There are fellows who, hearing this said, immediately respond: "Then the Dharma itself is the sickness. The sickness itself is the Dharma. Whatever is spoken is without real meaning. If you accord with suchness, then even inversion, delusion, greed, hatred, and wrong views are all Dharma. If you follow inversion, then suchness, Buddha-nature, enlightenment, and nirvana are all sickness." People with such views—never mind me wearing patchwork robes—they could not even be slaves to a lecturer. Why? You must know: on level ground, dead people are countless. Only those who can truly pass through the thorn forest are good hands. Have you not seen the ancients say: "Even if there were a dharma superior to nirvana, I say it too is like a dream or illusion." If you can, within dreams and illusions, actually realize, actually understand, actually cultivate, actually practice—using the true dharma to tame yourself, arousing great compassion, creating various skillful means to tame all sentient beings—yet toward those beings, not forming thoughts of "taming" or "not taming"; also not forming thoughts of inversion; not forming thoughts of greed, hatred, or wrong views; not forming thoughts of suchness, Buddha-nature, enlightenment, or nirvana; not forming thoughts of "removing sickness without removing Dharma"; not forming thoughts of "keeping one, discarding one, separating, or not separating"—if you have no such thoughts, then the one path is pure, and liberation is equal and impartial. <note>Invited by Wèi Gāng to ascend the hall</note> Since it is said to be illusory, then when acting, it is illusion; when receiving, it is illusion; when knowing and perceiving, it is illusion; when confused and inverted, it is illusion. Past, present, and future—all are illusion. Today, recognizing your errors, you use the illusory medicine to cure the illusory sickness. When the sickness heals, the medicine is removed—and you are still just the same person as before. If there were some other person or some other dharma, that would be the view of heretics and externalists. <note>Reply to Zeng Tianyou</note> The master also said: Sudhana, in the moment of Maitreya's finger-snap, could instantly forget all the samādhis realized under his various spiritual friends—how much more so the false evil karma and habits of beginningless time? If you regard the sins you committed before as real, then all your present circumstances would also be real—even official positions, wealth, honor, love, and affection would all be real. I wonder: after our parting, in your daily responses to conditions, are you not carried away by external states? Can you set aside the documents stacked on your desk? When meeting things, can you respond freely? When dwelling in stillness, do you avoid deluded thoughts? When investigating this matter, are you free of stray thoughts? Therefore the Buddha said: "The mind does not wrongly grasp dharmas of the past, Nor does it crave things of the future. It does not abide in the present— Truly understanding the three times as utterly empty." Past events, whether good or evil, need not be pondered. Pondering them obstructs the Way. Future events need not be calculated. Calculating them drives you insane. Present events before you, whether agreeable or disagreeable, also need no particular attention. Attending to them disturbs your mind. Just respond to everything moment by moment according to conditions, and you will naturally accord with this principle. Adverse states are easy to handle. Favorable states are hard. Things that go against my wishes—just one word "endure" and after a short while, they pass. But favorable states truly leave you no place to avoid. They are like a magnet meeting iron—before either knows it, they are stuck together. If even insentient things behave this way, how much more so for those with active ignorance who live their entire lives within it? When facing such states, without wisdom you will be led unknowingly into the net. Then to seek a way out from within—is that not difficult? Therefore the ancient sages said: "Enter the world, and transcending the world is complete without remainder." This is precisely this principle. In recent times, there is a kind of practitioner who has lost the skillful means. They mistake active ignorance for "entering the world," then forcibly arrange worldly dharmas as if they were "transcending the world without remainder." Is this not pitiful? Unless one has vowed from past lives, one should immediately see through it and become master of oneself, not dragged by it. Therefore Vimalakīrti said: "The Buddha spoke of separating from lust, anger, and delusion as liberation for those with arrogance. But for those without arrogance, the Buddha said that the very nature of lust, anger, and delusion is liberation." If you can avoid this fault, then within favorable and adverse states there is no mark of arising or ceasing. Only then do you leave behind the label of "arrogant one." Only then can you be said to have "entered the world" and be called a person of strength. Everything said above is what Miaoxi has personally experienced. Even now, I only practice in this way. I hope that while your strength and complexion are still good, you too will enter this samādhi. <note>Reply to Minister Lou</note> Reading your letter carefully, I know that in the four postures you have no interruption, that you are not seized by official busyness, that amid the swift currents you often awaken yourself and are not at all negligent. Your mind of the Way grows firmer with time—this deeply pleases me. Yet the dusty labors of the world burn like a blazing fire. When will they end? Just in the midst of commotion, do not forget the matter of the bamboo chair and the cattail cushion. In ordinary times you have taken delight in quiet and still places—precisely so that they can be used in commotion. If you cannot gain power in commotion, it is as if you never did the work in stillness. You mention sighs about the karmic entanglements of previous conditions bringing present retribution—but I dare not accept this statement. If you arouse such a thought, it will obstruct the Way. An ancient virtuous teacher said: "Following the flow, recognize your nature—without joy and without sorrow." Vimalakīrti said: "For example, lotus flowers do not grow on high, dry land. Only in low, muddy, wet ground do they grow." The old barbarian said: "Suchness does not guard its own nature but follows conditions to accomplish all things and dharmas." He also said: "Following conditions, responding to sensations, nothing is not covered—yet ever dwelling on this seat of enlightenment." How could this deceive people? If you regard stillness as right and commotion as wrong, then you are destroying the marks of the world to seek true form, and separating from arising and ceasing to seek quiescence. When you dislike noise and prefer stillness, that is precisely the time to exert effort. If suddenly, in the midst of commotion, you overturn the stillness-experience, its power will surpass that of the bamboo chair and cattail cushion by a million times. <note>Reply to Zeng Tianyou</note> When you first attain tranquility of body and mind, you must make effort. Do not immediately hide in tranquility—the scriptures call this "the deep pit of liberation," a fearsome place. You must make it turn freely, like a gourd floating on water—unrestricted, unconstrained. Entering purity or entering filth, unhindered and unsinkable—only then do you have some slight proximity to the path of the patch-robed monks. If you only cling to a doll that never cries, what use is that? <note>Instruction for Kong Hui</note> Linji said: "If you can stop the thought that endlessly chases after things, you are no different from Śākyamuni." This is not deceiving people. Even a seventh-stage bodhisattva, because the mind seeking Buddha wisdom is not yet satisfied, is said to have affliction. Truly, there is no place for you to arrange anything—not even a single atom of external contrivance can be added. Several years ago there was a Layman Xu who had recognized a certain entrance and wrote a letter presenting his view: "In daily life, everything is wide open and empty, with nothing as a counterpart. Then I realize that the three realms and the myriad dharmas are all originally nonexistent. Truly this is peace, happiness, and freedom to put everything down." So I showed him a verse: "Do not cling to clean places— Cleanliness wearies people. Do not cling to happy places— Happiness drives people mad. Be like water in a vessel, Conforming to square, round, short, long. Putting down or not putting down— Please consider this more carefully. The three realms and myriad dharmas— Where do they not return to their home? If you just carry on like this, This matter goes thoroughly wrong. To report to Layman Xu: The family spirits are causing the calamity. Open wide the thousand sages' eye— No need for constant prayers and rituals." <note>Instruction for Yan Ziqing</note> For students of the Way, it is easy to empty states in daily life, but hard to empty the mind. If states are empty but the mind is not, the mind is conquered by states. But just empty the mind, and states become empty by themselves. If the mind is already empty, and then you arouse a second thought, wanting to empty states—this means the mind has not yet become truly empty, and is again seized by states. If this sickness is not removed, there is no way to escape birth and death. Have you not seen Layman Pang's verse presented to Mazu: "From the ten directions they gather, Each one studying non-action. This is the place for choosing Buddhas— With mind empty, they return home in triumph." Since this mind is already empty, what thing outside the mind could there be that needs emptying? Think about it. <note>Instruction for Huang Bocheng</note> If the mind does not race after things, does not indulge in deluded thoughts, does not cling to any state—then this very burning house of defilement is the place of liberation, the place of escaping the three realms. Why? Did not the Buddha say: "Toward all states, leaning on nothing, abiding nowhere, without discrimination—clearly seeing the dharma realm, vast and well-established, understanding all worlds and all dharmas as equal, without duality"? Therefore, bodhisattvas on the ground of Far-Going, through the power of their own practiced wisdom, surpass all practitioners of the two vehicles. Though they attain the treasury of the Buddha realm, they display dwelling in the demon realm. Though they transcend the demonic path, they manifest demonic dharmas. Though they appear to follow heterodox paths, they do not abandon the Buddhadharma. Though they appear to conform to all worldly things, they constantly practice all supramundane dharmas. This is the true skillful means within the burning house of defilement. Those who study prajñā—if they abandon this skillful means and instead conform to defilement, they will surely be seized by demons. Moreover, in agreeable situations they forcibly speak of principles, claiming "affliction is precisely enlightenment, ignorance is precisely great wisdom." Step by step they practice existence, while with their mouths they speak of emptiness. They do not blame the pull of their own karma, and even teach others to deny cause and effect, saying, "Drinking wine and eating meat does not separate you from enlightenment. Theft and lust do not hinder prajñā." People like this have demonic poison enter their hearts and organs. Unaware of it, they want to escape defilement—like pouring oil to put out a fire. Is this not pitiable? <note>Instruction for Zhen Ru</note> The master also said: Only after smashing completely through can you speak of "affliction is precisely enlightenment" or "ignorance is precisely great wisdom." In the originally vast, quiescent, wonderful mind, pure, perfectly bright, and open with nothing whatsoever to obstruct it—like great empty space—even the word "Buddha" is an external thing. How much more so defilements and afflictions as counterparts? This matter is like the broad daylight—clearly pure, unchanging, unmoving, neither decreasing nor increasing. In each person's daily functioning and response to conditions, it is clear at every head, manifest on every thing. You cannot grasp it, but let it go and it is always present. Vast and unobstructed, clearly empty—like a gourd on water, you cannot constrain it, cannot entangle it. The ancient adepts of the Way, having attained it, rise and dive in the sea of birth and death, experiencing it fully with their entire being—nothing lacking, nothing extra. They do not see any trace of birth and death or defilement. It is like splitting sandalwood—every piece is sandalwood. What could you use to make birth and death or defilement? Where do birth and death and defilement arise from? When the fruits are gathered and the results concluded, where would they settle? Since there is no place for them to settle, then Buddha is illusion, Dharma is illusion. The three realms, the twenty-five forms of existence, the twelve sense fields, the eighteen elements—all are utterly empty and open. When you reach this ground, even the word "Buddha" has nowhere to settle. If even the word "Buddha" has nowhere to settle, where could suchness, Buddha-nature, enlightenment, or nirvana possibly be? Therefore, Great Master Fu said: "Fearing people would fall into nihilism, I provisionally established empty names." Students of the Way who have not understood must not go off seeking mystery or seeking wonder in the awakening stories of the ancients, seeking the extraordinary or hunting for interpretations. They cannot see the moon and forget the finger, cannot make a direct one-knife cut. As Yongjia said: "On the fingers of an empty fist, they give birth to real interpretations. In the realms of sense organs and objects, they vainly create strange gesturing." Within the five aggregates, twelve sense fields, eighteen elements, and twenty-five forms of existence, they falsely imprison themselves. The Tathāgata calls them pitiable. Have you not seen Headmaster Yantou say: "Just have no desire and no reliance—that is the Able One \[Buddha\]." In the end, there is only a lump of flesh born of father and mother. When one breath does not come, it belongs to someone else's control. Beyond this lump of flesh, what more is there? What can you use as the extraordinary and mysterious? What can you use as enlightenment and nirvana? What can you use as suchness and Buddha-nature? Scholars and officials who want to investigate this matter but do not base themselves in reality—they only insist on seeking knowledge and understanding from the ancient masters' gōng'àn. Even if you knew and understood the entire canon, when the thirtieth day of the twelfth month—the day of death—arrives, not one bit of it would be of use. There is another type: the moment they hear a knowledgeable teacher speak thus, they use mind and consciousness to calculate and conjecture, saying, "If it is like this, won't I fall into emptiness?" Ten out of five pairs of scholars have this kind of view. Miaoxi, unable to avoid it, tells them: "You have never attained emptiness—what do you fear?" It is like someone jumping into the water before the boat has even capsized. Seeing they do not grasp it, not begrudging the karma of speech, I expound further for them: "This very fear of falling into emptiness—is it empty or not? If your eye were not empty, with what would you see forms? If your ear were not empty, with what would you hear sounds? If your nose were not empty, with what would you know fragrances and stenches? If your tongue were not empty, with what would you taste flavors? If your body were not empty, with what would you feel touch? If your mind were not empty, with what would you discriminate the myriad dharmas?" Did not the Buddha say: "No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind. No form, sound, scent, taste, touch, mental object... up to the twelve sense fields, the eighteen elements, the twenty-five forms of existence... up to voice-hearers, condition-awakened ones, bodhisattvas, Buddhas, and the Dharma spoken by Buddhas. Enlightenment, nirvana, suchness, Buddha-nature—and those who speak this Dharma, those who hear this Dharma, those who speak thus, those who receive such speech—all are completely nonexistent." If you understand in this way, do you call it emptiness or not-emptiness? Do you call it Buddha or bodhisattva? Do you call it voice-hearer or condition-awakened one? Do you call it enlightenment or nirvana? Do you call it suchness or Buddha-nature? You say, "I am clever and sharp-witted, not fooled by anyone." Then try to decide it here! If you can decide it, you may lodge in a grass hut and stand outside the gate. If you cannot decide it, be careful not to open your mouth wide and speak outrageous words. A true man who is determined to investigate this great causal matter—equally willing to lose face, to get worked up, to stiffen his spine—must not go along with worldly sentiment. Take all your ordinary doubts and paste them on your forehead. Always be like someone who owes a million in cash, hounded by creditors, with nothing to pay, terrified of being shamed. If you can become truly anxious about this One Great Matter, then there is hope of progress. <note>A passage on "mouth-drum Chan" is abbreviated here compared to the original.</note> Day and night, in tea and in rice, in joy and in anger, in pure and in impure places, when gathered with wife and children, when exchanging pleasantries with guests, when handling official duties, when managing private weddings and funerals—these are all the foremost occasions for making effort and staying vigilant. In the past, Commander Li Wenhe practiced Chan amid wealth and honor and achieved great awakening. Yang Wengong practiced Chan while serving in the Hanlin Academy. Zhang Wujin practiced Chan while serving as transport commissioner of Jiangxi. These three great men are precisely examples of "speaking of true form without destroying the marks of the world." Did they need to abandon wives and children, resign official posts, chew vegetable roots, torment their bodies, suppress their aspirations, avoid noise and seek stillness—and only then enter dead meditation in demonic caves and indulge in deluded thinking—before awakening to the Way? Have you not seen Layman Pang say: "Just be without mind toward the myriad things— What harm if myriad things surround you? The iron ox does not fear the lion's roar, Like a wooden man seeing flowers and birds. The wooden man's original substance is without feeling— Flowers and birds meeting people also do not startle. Mind and realm are thus—just this. Why worry that the bodhi path will not be accomplished?" For those in the midst of worldly defilement who can keep the matter of birth and death from being forgotten—though they may not immediately smash the lacquered bucket, they still plant the deep seed of prajñā wisdom. In a future life, when they emerge, they will save mental energy and will not sink into the evil destinies. This is vastly superior to those who wallow in defilement, seeking no liberation, thinking "this matter cannot be easily accomplished," and merely making it an object of reverence and faith. Those with such views are too numerous to count. Scholars and officials studying the Way are very different from us home-leavers. Home-leavers do not provide for their parents, have already abandoned their six kinds of relatives, and with one bowl and one robe, in daily responses to conditions, do not have so many karmic enemies obstructing the Way. They can wholeheartedly investigate this matter alone. Scholars and officials—wherever they open or close their eyes, there is nothing but wronged souls obstructing the Way. If one is wise, one can make the work right within that very place. This is what Vimalakīrti meant by "the company of defilements is the seed of the Tathāgata." Fearing people would destroy the marks of the world to seek true form, he gave an analogy: "For example, lotus flowers do not grow on high, dry land. Only in low, muddy, wet ground do they grow." If within that very place—like the three great men Yang Wengong, Li Wenhe, and Zhang Wujin—you can break through, its power surpasses us home-leavers by twenty times. Why? We home-leavers strike from outside in. Scholars strike from inside out. Those who strike from outside in have weaker power. Those who strike from inside out have stronger power. "Strong" means the resistance they meet is heavy, and the turning is forceful. "Weak" means the resistance is light, and the turning has less force. Though power may differ in strength, what they break through is the same. <note>Instruction for Xu Dunji, appended. When Vice Counselor Xu invited the master to ascend the hall at Tianzhu \[Temple\], a monk asked: "When one greatly salutes Śākyamuni and does not bow to Maitreya—what then?" The master said: "Awake within a dream." The monk continued: "I thought the master had forgotten." The master said: "You remember—try to say it." The monk said: "Though I cannot say it, I do not lose it." The master said: "So you don't understand after all." The monk asked: "To whom is this matter from above entrusted?" The master said: "Entrusted to a blind fellow." The monk said: "The Linji school relies entirely on his strength." The master said: "Fortunately it's no concern of yours." Another asked: "In ancient times, the seven worthy maidens wandered in the channel-ground. One maiden said, 'The corpse is here—where has the person gone?' Another said, 'What? What?' At that moment they all awakened to the patient endurance of the birthless. What is the patient endurance of the birthless?" The master said: "Throw away what is inside the skull." The monk said: "Radiant through past and present, blazing through heavens and earth." The master said: "This field-slave!" The monk said: "Where then is Fourth Officer in this very moment?" The master raised his whisk and said: "Right here." The monk said: "Only relying on this power, thought after thought without difference." The master said: "The command of Makah is proclaimed for ten thousand ages." Then the master said: "To raise up essentials and subtle meanings is to dig the earth searching for the sky. To seek illumination within is to face the void and make announcements. Even reaching the point where mind after mind does not touch things, thought after thought severs all clinging—observing the dharma realm within a single speck of dust, seeing a single speck of dust pervading the dharma realm—where every dust is thus, every thought is thus, every dharma is thus—this is still only the ultimate of the doctrinal vehicle, not the place where a patch-robed monk casts off body and life. If you recognize the place where a patch-robed monk casts off body and life, then entering birth and exiting death, you attain great freedom, making birth and death a playground without being obstructed by them. If not, you will inevitably be entangled in creepers. "The wonderful nature, perfectly bright, is free of all names and marks. Originally there was no world and no sentient beings. Because of delusion there is birth; because of birth there is extinction. Birth and extinction are called delusion. Extinguishing delusion is called truth." Then the master looked about the assembly and said: "Today, because it is the seventh-day commemoration of the Vice Counselor's deceased son, the Fourth Officer, he has invited this mountain monk to ascend this seat and raise the matter for all. Monks and laypeople gather together in this assembly. What is this? If you say it is delusion—here and now, speaking and listening are clear and distinct. What is this? If the eye were delusion, with what would it see forms? If the ear were delusion, with what would it hear sounds? If the nose were delusion, with what would it smell scents? If the tongue were delusion, with what would it taste flavors? If the body were delusion, with what would it feel touch? If the mind were delusion, with what would it discriminate? "Since eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind, and form, sound, scent, taste, touch, and mental objects are not delusion, on what does the one truth depend? Since truth has no support, the one path is equal. Reaching here, we understand that the Fourth Officer, though he was once born, was originally never born; though today he has died, he originally never died. Since he was never born and never died, what more can you call the perfectly bright wonderful nature? Where can true and false, names and marks, settle?" "Do you understand? Leap once and cast yourself beyond the great void—yet the nostrils remain as before, resting on the upper lip." Then the master descended from the seat.</note> From the beginning, there has never been a dharma to give anyone. I only serve as one who points out the road for people. An ancient virtuous teacher said: "Having something attained is the yelp of a wild fox. Having nothing attained is the lion's roar." The Buddha was one who understood transformation. In forty-nine years, at over three hundred and sixty assemblies, he spoke the Dharma, guiding beings according to their faculties. Therefore, within the ten dharma realms, with a single voice he proclaimed the teaching, and beings of every kind each received their own benefit. It is like when the east wind sweeps once—ten thousand flowers all bloom together. The Buddha's teaching is the same. If he had deliberately intended to benefit beings within the ten dharma realms, then he would have been preaching with a self—and how could he have hoped for beings to be saved according to their kind? Is that not difficult? Have you not seen Shariputra asking Mañjuśrī in the prajñā assembly: "Do the Buddhas and Tathāgatas not awaken to the dharma realm?" Mañjuśrī said: "No, Shariputra. The Buddhas are not even findable—how could there be a Buddha who awakens to the dharma realm? The dharma realm is not even findable—how could the dharma realm be that to which Buddhas awaken?" Look at how those two stirred each other up—yet where was any deliberate intention? All the Buddhas and ancestors of the past taught people with this same pattern. It was only later descendants who lost the school's essential purpose, each establishing his own school, creating anomalies and pinching strange shapes. <note>Instruction for Zeng Shuchi</note> You have taken the name "Zhánrán" (Serenely Still). The ancestors said: "Any mind that discriminates, calculates, or measures its own perceptions is all a dream. When mind and consciousness are quiescent, with not a single moment of movement, this is called true awakening." When awakening is true, then in the daily twenty-four hours, seeing forms, hearing sounds, smelling scents, tasting flavors, feeling touch, knowing dharmas—walking, standing, sitting, lying, speaking, silent, active, still—everything is serenely still. Naturally, you also do not create inverted thoughts. With thoughts or without thoughts, all is pure. Once pure, when moving, the function of serenity is manifest; when not moving, it returns to the substance of serenity. Though substance and function differ, the serenity is one. Like splitting sandalwood—every fragment is sandalwood. Nowadays there are a bunch of counterfeit fellows whose own footing is not solid, who only teach people to restrain the mind and sit still, sitting until breathing stops. Such people are called the pitiable ones. Please, just make your effort in this way. Though I, a mountain monk, have indicated thus to you, it is truly because there is no other choice. If there were actually some "making effort" as a thing, that would defile you. This mind has no real substance—how could it be forcibly restrained? If you try to restrain it, where would you place it? Since there is no place to place it, then there is no time, no season, no ancient, no modern, no ordinary, no sage, no gain, no loss, no stillness, no chaos, no birth, no death. Nor is there the name "serenely still," nor its substance, nor its function, nor one who speaks of serenity, nor one who receives the teaching of serenity. <note>Reply to Xu Shouyuan</note> The Buddha taught all dharmas to cure all minds. If I have no mind at all, what use are all dharmas? Dharma is originally without dharma. Mind is also without mind. When both mind and dharma are empty, that is the true mark. Yet students of the Way today mostly fear falling into emptiness. Those who interpret in this way have mistaken the expedient, clinging to the sickness as medicine. They are deeply pitiable. Therefore Layman Pang said: "Do not dislike falling into emptiness. Falling into emptiness is not bad either." He also said: "Pray only to empty all that exists—never solidify what does not." If you can see through this one phrase, the boundless evil karma and ignorance break apart and melt away on the spot. The entire canon spoken by the Tathāgata is only a commentary on this one phrase—nothing beyond it. If you possess determination and truly believe there is such a great liberating Dharma, and it is only in the place of knowing, where you flip the latch above—then Layman Pang's single phrase and the Buddha's entire canon are identical, without distinction, without before or after, without ancient or modern, without less or more. Nor do you see any dharmas, nor any mind. The worlds of the ten directions are wide open and empty. But do not form a view of "wide open and empty." If you form such a view, then there is one who speaks of emptiness, one who hears of emptiness, dharmas to be heard, a mind to be certified. Since there is something to be heard and certified, then within there is a mind that certifies, and without there is a dharma that is certified. If this sickness is not removed, the scriptures call it "preaching the Dharma with a self," and also "slandering the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha." The scriptures also say: "If you grasp the mark of Dharma, you cling to self, person, sentient being, and lifespan. If you grasp the mark of no-Dharma, you also cling to self, person, sentient being, and lifespan." What was said before—"within there is a mind that certifies, without there is a dharma that is certified"—is precisely this principle. The Buddhist disciple Chen Dun knows that the body is false and knows that dharmas are illusory. Within the illusory and false, he can watch the gōng'àn "A dog has no Buddha-nature." Then suddenly, while washing his face, he touches his nose. He wrote a letter presenting his view, trying his hand at speaking Chan like a tiger three days old—already its spirit can devour an ox. Within his words, places where the message gets through are like a "good barbarian" beating the ground with a stick—where it lands, it drives inches into the earth; where it misses, there is no trace at all. Yet the great foundation is already correct, though the great Dharma is not yet clear. This is the common sickness of beginners entering the Way. If he can know such a matter and set it aside, then block up all at once the essential and wonderful gates of all Buddhas and ancestors—seeking a place to make a living on the other side of "before the first sound." Only then will he attain freedom in the Dharma. Śākyamuni said: "If one only praises the Buddha vehicle, sentient beings sink in suffering." Truly know that this matter—taking what I have realized and expanding it—then you are no longer bound by dharmas, nor seek liberation from dharmas. Thus it is—or not thus it is—either way it is fine. Whatever words you speak, whatever you receive and use, it is like a strong man stretching his arm—not borrowing another's strength. Like an arrow already loosed from the bow, there is no returning. This is not forced. The Dharma is naturally so. Only after attaining this can you speak of no good and no evil, no Buddha and no sentient beings, and such matters. But if the great Dharma is not yet clear and you speak such words, I fear you will fall into what Yongjia called: "Rash emptiness, dismissing cause and effect— Careless and reckless, inviting disaster." You must know this. Just grasp the root—do not worry about the branches. After a long time of soaking and steeping, do not worry about not becoming one piece. Strive on! Strive on! <note>Instruction for Chen Mingzhong</note> The Buddha also said: "You should not see the Tathāgata in a single dharma, a single matter, a single body, a single land, or a single sentient being. You should see the Tathāgata everywhere, in all places." "Buddha" means awakening—awakening constantly and universally in all places. What is called "seeing everywhere" means seeing your own original source, the naturally true Buddha of self-nature. There is not one time, one place, one dharma, one matter, one body, one land, or one realm of sentient beings where it is not present. Sentient beings, deluded about this, revolve through the three realms, experiencing various sufferings. The Buddhas, awakened to this, transcend the ocean of existence and receive supreme and wonderful bliss. Yet both suffering and bliss have no real substance. It is only the difference between delusion and awakening that makes suffering and bliss take different paths. Therefore Dushun said: "When the Dharma-body flows through the five destinies, it is called a sentient being. When the sentient being appears, the Dharma-body does not appear." <note>Instruction for Li Xianchen. Also, when Zheng Chengzhong requested a general discourse, the master said: "Those whose mind-ground is not yet clear inevitably wonder: where did the world arise from, and where will it go? Did the world come first, or did people come first? If you say the world came first, the ancient virtuous teachers said, 'The three realms are only mind; the myriad dharmas are only consciousness.' If you say people came first, then when there was not yet a world, where were people placed? These matters cannot help but stymie you. Saying the world came first is not right, and saying people came first is also not right. When the great Dharma is clear, no arrangement is needed—it becomes clear by itself." Huàn Jì comments: "When I first read the Avataṃsaka's ten inexhaustible treasuries chapter, I wondered about the bodhisattva's 'unrecorded dharmas.' I thought, bodhisattvas of the Avataṃsaka possess all wisdom—why would they not record these few matters? When I later read Master Jìngshān's words, I understood that the bodhisattva's refusal to record is precisely to block people's speech and thought, causing them to realize deeply. Later, as with Huángbò receiving the shout—this is seeing limitless sand-realm worlds at a hair-tip. When Línjì received the blow—this is holding ten generations of past and present at the eyelashes. If you seek them through words and thought, you will surely drift into demonic paths."</note> The master also said: Good and evil both arise from your own mind. Now tell me—apart from the movements of raising feet and lifting hands, apart from discrimination and deliberation, what do you call your own mind? And where does this self-mind arise from? If you recognize where the self-mind arises, the boundless karmic obstructions are purified in an instant, and all kinds of supreme excellence come unsummoned. He also said: Where does birth come from? Where does death go? Knowing the place of coming and going—only then are you called a student of the Buddha. Who is it that knows birth and death? Who is it that experiences birth and death? And who is it that does not know the place of coming and going? And then, who is the one who suddenly knows the place of coming and going? Watch this saying—eyes blinking, unable to make sense of it, stomach churning, as if a ball of fire were stuffed in your chest. Who is that? If you want to recognize it, just recognize it at the place where you cannot make sense of it. If you recognize it there, you will know that birth and death fundamentally have nothing to do with you. <note>Also replying to Wang Dazhi: "I don't know how you have been making effort in daily life since we parted. If you have gotten flavor from principles, flavor from scriptures, flavor from ancestral teachers' words, flavor from what eyes see and ears hear, flavor from raising the foot and moving the step, flavor from mental contemplation—none of this helps at all. If you want to immediately rest and settle, you should disregard all the places where you previously got flavor, and instead try to pay attention to the place where there is nothing to grasp and no flavor. If you cannot pay attention, cannot grasp anything, and increasingly feel there is no handle to hold—where principles, meanings, and mind-consciousness all stop, like earth, wood, tiles, and stones—do not fear falling into emptiness. This is the time and place for you to cast off body and life. Do not neglect it, do not neglect it." Also replying to Li Sibiao: "You ask that Miaoxi point out through a letter the shortcut. This very thought of seeking a shortcut is already sticking your head into a glue pot. Do not add frost on top of snow. Yet since a question has been asked, there must be an answer. Please set aside entirely whatever flavors and joys you have previously gained—whether from reading scriptures and gōng'àn yourself, or from others raising and pointing things out—and return to your former state of knowing nothing, understanding nothing, like a three-year-old child who has consciousness but cannot yet walk. Then look at what comes before that thought of seeking a shortcut. Look and look, and when you feel increasingly without any handle, and your mind becomes increasingly unsettled—do not slacken. This is the place where a thousand sages have their crowns crushed. Often students of the Way retreat here. If you can trust this, just look at what precedes the thought of seeking a shortcut. Look and look—and suddenly, as if waking from a dream, it will not be a trivial matter."</note> The master also said: The gōng'àn "A dog has no Buddha-nature" should be raised in joy and anger, in stillness and noise alike. But first, do not deliberately wait for awakening. If you deliberately wait for awakening, then you tell yourself "I am now deluded" and cling to delusion while waiting to awaken—even after countless eons, you will not awaken. Just when raising the gōng'àn, slightly rouse your spirit and see: "What is this principle?" Always keep these two matters—birth without knowing where it comes from, death without knowing where it goes—pasted to the tip of your nose. In tea, in rice, in quiet places, in noisy places, thought after thought, diligently—always like someone who owes a million in cash debts they cannot repay, chest oppressed and mind vexed, no door of escape, unable to live and unable to die. When you are in such a state, the road of good and evil is about to be cut off. When you feel like this, that is precisely the time to make effort. Right there, watch this gōng'àn: A monk asked Zhaozhou, "Does a dog have Buddha-nature or not?" Zhaozhou said, "No." When watching it, do not speculate broadly, do not annotate, do not demand clarity, do not try to receive it at the moment of speaking, do not construct theories from the raising, do not fall into empty stillness, do not wait with the mind for awakening, do not try to grasp it where the master speaks, do not fall into the nest of having nothing to do. Just in walking, standing, sitting, lying down—always raise it: "Does a dog have Buddha-nature or not? No." When the raising becomes mature, beyond the reach of mouth and thought, chest churning up and down like biting on a raw iron stake, with no flavor—at such a time, do not abandon your resolve. When it is like this, it is actually a good sign. Have you not seen the ancient virtuous teacher say: "The Buddha taught all dharmas to cure all minds. If I have no mind at all, what use are all dharmas?" Not only at the ancestral teachers' gate is this so. The entire canon taught by the Buddha is entirely this principle. Sentient beings, heavy with evil karma, as soon as they get out of bed each day, their minds and consciousness flutter about, thinking of fame and profit, carrying self and others, deluded and inverted. From dawn to dusk, like linked hooks and interlocking chains, it continues without end, and they do not find it repulsive. Then suddenly a thought arises to seek meaning in this gate, and they deliberately try to understand with mind and consciousness. When mind and consciousness cannot arrange it, they become frustrated and want to quit, saying, "What's the point?" Countless people are like this. Friend Shunyuan is not like that. Knowing that within the realm of deficiency all things are false, with single-minded focus he investigates beneath his own feet: "Where does birth come from? Where does death go?" Since he does not know the coming-place nor the going-place, then this present distinct awareness that distinguishes right from wrong and good from bad for people—is it definitely existent or nonexistent? Is it real or illusory? He waits until, like a person drinking water, he knows for himself whether it is cold or warm—not receiving his understanding from another's mouth. Then suddenly, with a bursting "pa!", he arrives at the ultimate peace, the great rest, the great cessation—and only then does he confirm himself. Now he brings this scroll asking for instruction. I grab the brush and dash off this mass of creepers. Yet matters do not arise alone—when they arise, there must be a reason. If you try to understand all this as mere intellectual creepers, how could that work? Have you not seen how in the past, Master Zihu said: "When the ancestor came from the West, it was only about winter cold and summer heat, night dark and day bright. It is only because you disciples have no intention yet raise intention, have no affairs yet create affairs, have no inside and outside yet forcibly make inside and outside, have no east and west yet carelessly speak of east and west—that therefore samatha cannot illuminate clearly, and faculties and objects cannot be free." Judging by this—Shunyuan never came to Miaoxi seeking a dharma-talk, and Miaoxi never wrote a single word. Winter cold and summer heat, night dark and day bright, inside and outside and in between, east, west, south, north—originally they have never shifted or changed by so much as a hair's breadth. Why? "My school has no words and phrases, and not a single dharma to give anyone." Since there is not a single dharma to give anyone, then what is this that is now being written? And what is this that speaks of winter cold and summer heat, inside and outside and in between? And what is this that says east, west, south, north never shifted a hair's breadth? Huh! Existence is unattainable. Nonexistence is unattainable. Winter cold and summer heat are unattainable. Inside, outside, and in between are unattainable. The speaker thus is unattainable. The receiver thus is unattainable. A hair's breadth is unattainable. Shunyuan is unattainable. Miaoxi is unattainable. Unattainability itself is unattainable. Within unattainability, thus it is attained. Arriving here, how should Shunyuan practice? This very "how should one practice" also has nowhere to settle. Then even this statement is not accepted. Since this statement is not accepted, Miaoxi is definitely not speaking, and Shunyuan is definitely not hearing. Where there is no speaking is true speaking. Where there is no hearing is true hearing. Thus, Miaoxi is Shunyuan, and Shunyuan is Miaoxi. Miaoxi and Shunyuan are not two, not divided, without distinction, without interruption. The great statue of Jiāzhōu eats goldthread. The iron ox of Shǎnfǔ has a mouth full of bitterness. Bitter or not bitter? Clearly seen—yet nothing to behold. Huh! <note>Instruction for Lü Shunyuan</note> If the mind that doubts—"birth without knowing where it comes from, death without knowing where it goes"—has not died, then birth and death are intertwined. Just at that interweaving point, watch this gōng'àn. A monk asked Master Zhaozhou, "Does a dog have Buddha-nature or not?" Zhaozhou said, "No." Just take the mind that doubts where birth comes from and death goes, and move it onto this "No." Then the interweaving mind ceases to function. When the interweaving mind no longer functions, the mind that doubts birth and death is about to end. Just struggle at the point between ending and not yet ending. When the time and conditions ripen, suddenly with a "pa!"—it is done. <note>Instruction for Li Bohe</note> A monk asked Zhaozhou, "Does a dog have Buddha-nature or not?" Zhaozhou said, "No." This single word is a knife that cuts through the mind of doubt about birth and death. The handle of this knife is in your own hand. No one else can wield it for you. You yourself must take it in hand. If you can give up your life, then you will naturally wield it yourself. If you cannot give up your life, then just keep struggling at the point where the doubt will not break. Then suddenly, of yourself, you will be willing to risk your life with one stroke—and it is done. At that time, you will finally believe that stillness is precisely the noise, and noise is precisely stillness. Speech is precisely silence, and silence is precisely speech. No need to ask others, and naturally you will not be fooled by false teachers' wild talk. The master also said: In the daily twenty-four hours, do not cling to birth and death, Buddha and the Way, as existent. Do not dismiss birth and death, Buddha and the Way, as nonexistent. Just watch this: "Does a dog have Buddha-nature or not?" Zhaozhou said, "No." <note>Reply to Chen Jiren</note> Old Layman, everything you do is secretly aligned with the Way. You just have not yet gotten that one "pa!" sound. If in daily responses to conditions you do not lose your original step, then even without that "pa!", on the thirtieth day of the twelfth month, Old Yama himself will have to bow his head in surrender—how much more so if one thought becomes responsive? Old Miaoxi—though I have not seen your deeds with my own eyes—whether large or small, you hit the mean, never overdoing or underdoing. This very fact is where you align with the Way. Arriving here, you need not form thoughts of defilement, nor thoughts of Buddhadharma. Buddhadharma and defilement are both external matters. Yet neither should you form thoughts of "external." Just turn the light inward and ask: "This thought that forms such views—where does it come from? When acting, what shape does it have?" Whatever you do is done. Following your mind, everything proceeds— nothing lacking, nothing left over. At just such a moment, whose strength and favor are you receiving? If you make effort in this way, as days and months deepen, like a man learning archery, you will naturally hit the target. Sentient beings, inverted, are confused about themselves and chase after things. Indulging in the taste of meager desires, they willingly undergo immeasurable suffering. Each day, before their eyes open, before they get out of bed, half-awake and half-asleep, their minds and consciousness are already scattering, flowing along with deluded thoughts. Though good and evil deeds have not yet been revealed, before leaving the bed, heaven and hell are already fully accomplished within their minds. By the time it manifests, it has already fallen into the eighth consciousness. Did not the Buddha say: "All sense faculties, self-manifesting mind, objects, body, and treasury—false projections of self, displayed and shown. Like rivers, like seeds, like lamps, like wind, like clouds—in an instant they turn and decay. Restless like monkeys. Delighting in impure places like flies. Without satiety like wind and fire. Conditioned by beginningless false habits, like a waterwheel." If you can see through it thus, you can be said to possess the wisdom of no-person and no-self. Heaven and hell are nowhere else—only in the half-awake, half-asleep mind of the present person before getting out of bed. They do not come from outside. Whether manifested or unmanifested, whether conscious or unconscious, you must be careful. But in being careful, you also must not forcefully struggle—struggling only wastes energy. Did not the ancestor say: "Stopping movement returns to stillness, but stopping only stirs it more." The moment you feel that daily defilements gradually require less effort—that is the place where you gain power. That is the place where you become Buddha and become ancestor. That is the place where you turn hell into heaven. That is the place where you sit steadily. That is the place where you escape birth and death. That is the place where you elevate your lord above Yáo and Shùn. That is the place where you revive the weary from exhaustion. That is the place where you bless your descendants. Arriving here, speaking of Buddha or ancestor, mind or nature, mystery or wonder, principle or matters, good or evil—all these are still external matters. If even such things are still external, how much less would you willingly do the things that the ancient sages condemned within defilement? If you would not even do good deeds deliberately, how could you do bad ones? If you can believe this saying, then Yongjia's words— "Walking is Chan, sitting is Chan. Whether speaking or silent, moving or still, the substance is at peace." —are not empty words. Please practice accordingly, without changing from beginning to end. Then, though you may not yet fully realize your own native scenery, though you may not yet clearly see your own original face, the unfamiliar will have become familiar, and the familiar will have become unfamiliar. Remember this well: the moment you feel effort being saved is precisely the moment you gain power. Miaoxi always says this to those in the circle, but often, because it is said so frequently, people overlook it and do not take it seriously. Layman, please try making effort this way. Within just ten days, you will see for yourself whether effort is saved or not, whether power is gained or not. Like a person drinking water, you know for yourself whether it is cold or warm—you cannot tell others, cannot show others. A former virtuous teacher said: "When speaking of realization, it cannot be shown to others. When speaking of principle, without realization one does not understand." The place of self-realization, self-attainment, self-faith, self-awakening—only with those who have already realized, attained, believed, and awakened could you silently correspond. Those who have not realized, attained, believed, or awakened not only do not believe themselves, they also do not believe others have such a state. Old Layman, your natural endowments are close to the Way. In your present conduct there is nothing forced. Compared to others, you have already saved 9,999 parts out of 10,000. You only lack that one "pa!" and it is done. Scholars and officials studying the Way mostly do not investigate in a real manner. Apart from mouth-discussion and mind-deliberation, they are completely at a loss, not knowing what to do with hands or feet. They do not believe that the place of being at a loss is precisely the good place. They only insist that the mind must deliberate and reach an understanding, and the mouth must articulate it clearly. Little do they know this is already wrong. The Buddha said: "The Tathāgata uses all similes to explain various matters. But there is no simile that can explain this Dharma. Why? Because the road of mind and intellect is cut off—it is inconceivable." Truly know that deliberation and discrimination certainly obstruct the Way. If you can sever the before-and-after continuum, the road of mind and intellect naturally cuts off. When the road of mind and intellect is cut off, then all the various matters spoken of are just this Dharma. When this Dharma is clear, then at this very clarity is the inconceivable great liberation realm. This realm itself is also inconceivable. Since the realm is inconceivable, all similes are inconceivable, all various matters are inconceivable. This very inconceivability is also inconceivable. This statement also has no place to settle. And this no-place-to-settle is also inconceivable. Thus repeatedly pressing to the end—whether matters or dharmas, similes or realms—like a ring without an end, without a beginning point and without an ending point—they are all inconceivable dharmas. Therefore it is said: "The bodhisattva abides in this inconceivability. Within it, thought cannot exhaust it. Entering this inconceivable place, Both thought and non-thought are quiescent." Yet you must also not dwell in the place of quiescence. If you dwell in quiescence, then you are governed by the measure of the dharma realm. The scriptures call this "dharma-object defilement." When the measure of the dharma realm is destroyed, all kinds of supramundane excellence are completely swept away. Only then can you properly look at "the cypress tree in the courtyard," "three pounds of flax," "a dry shit-stick," "a dog has no Buddha-nature," "drink up the West River in one gulp," "the eastern mountain walks on water," and so forth. If suddenly you penetrate through one of these phrases, only then can it be called "the immeasurable dharma realm directed toward." Seeing thus, practicing thus, functioning thus—you can manifest a jeweled king's land at the tip of a hair, turn the great Dharma wheel sitting in a mote of dust, accomplish all kinds of dharmas, destroy all kinds of dharmas. Everything is up to you, like a strong man stretching his arm without borrowing another's strength. Like a lion roaming, seeking no companion. When all kinds of wonderful states appear, the mind is not startled. When all kinds of evil karma states appear, the mind is not afraid. In the daily four postures, responding to conditions with openness, moving freely and carefree— Only when you reach this ground can you speak of "no heaven, no hell," and such matters. Yongjia said: "There is also no person, also no Buddha— The great chiliocosm is a bubble in the sea. All sages and saints are like lightning brushing past." If this old man had not reached this ground, how could he have spoken thus? People misunderstand these words often. If one has not penetrated to the root, one inevitably generates interpretations from the words, saying "everything is nonexistent," denying cause and effect, regarding all the words of Buddhas and ancestors as false, calling them deceptions. If this sickness is not removed, it is "careless and reckless, inviting disaster." The Buddha said: "False, floating minds produce many clever views. If not attached to existence, they attach to nonexistence. If not attached to these two, they speculate and calculate between existence and nonexistence. Even if they recognize this sickness, they fall into the position of 'neither existent nor nonexistent.'" Therefore the ancient sages, with bitter words and careful instruction, tell you to transcend the four propositions and cut off the hundred negations—making a direct one-knife cut, without thinking of what came before or after, crushing the crowns of a thousand sages. The four propositions are: existence, nonexistence, neither existence nor nonexistence, and both existence and nonexistence. If you penetrate these four propositions, then when you see others say all dharmas truly exist, you can go along and speak of existence—yet not be obstructed by this existence. When you see others say all dharmas truly do not exist, you can go along and speak of nonexistence—yet it is not the world's rash void. When you see others say all dharmas are both existent and nonexistent, you can go along and speak of both—yet it is not mere wordplay. When you see others say all dharmas are neither existent nor nonexistent, you can go along and speak of neither—yet it is not contradiction. Vimalakīrti said: "Where the six heterodox teachers have fallen, you also fall along with them." This is exactly it. <note>Reply to Zhang Yangshu</note> Zhaozhou said: "This old monk, every day, apart from the two periods of gruel and rice, which are mixed-mindedness—beyond that, there is no other place of mixed-mindedness." Now tell me: where does this old man settle? If you can recognize his face right here, only then can you say, "Walking is Chan, sitting is Chan. Whether speaking or silent, moving or still, the substance is at peace." If you cannot yet do this, then constantly step back and, beneath your own feet, investigate carefully: "This 'I' that knows others' good and bad, merits and faults—is it ordinary or sage? Is it existent or nonexistent?" Investigate and investigate. When you reach the point where there is nothing left to investigate—like a mouse entering an ox horn—and suddenly the thieving mind dies, then this is the moment when you, with four legs planted flat, return home and sit in stability. <note>Instruction for Xiong Shuya</note> I have heard that your fifth son has passed away from illness. The bond between father and son flows from hundreds of lives and countless eons of love and affection. I imagine you are in a state... \[there seems to be a gap in the text\]... No place of recourse. In this world of the five turbidities, everything is illusory—not a single thing is real. Please, in walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, constantly maintain this contemplation. Then as days and months deepen, it will gradually dissolve. But when you are actually in the midst of grief, examine and investigate carefully: "Where did this grief arise from?" If you cannot find where it arose, then "this present grief—where did it come from?" While grieving, is it existent or nonexistent? Is it real or empty? Investigate and investigate until the mind has nowhere to go. If you want to think, think. If you want to cry, cry. Cry and cry, think and think—when you have shaken out all the love and attachment habits from the store consciousness, then naturally, like ice returning to water, you will return to your original state of no-grief, no-thought, no-worry, no-joy. "Enter the world, and transcending the world is complete without remainder." Worldly dharmas are precisely Buddhadharma. Buddhadharma is precisely worldly dharmas. The bond between father and son is one single nature. If a son dies and the father does not grieve or think—or if a father dies and the son does not grieve or think—would that be right? If you forcibly suppress yourself—not daring to cry when you want to cry, not daring to think when you want to think—that is merely trying to defy heavenly principle and extinguish natural feeling. It is like shouting to stop an echo, or pouring oil to extinguish a fire. When you are actually grieving, it is not at all an external matter. Do not think of it as something outside. Yongjia said: "The true nature of ignorance is precisely Buddha-nature. The empty body of illusion is precisely the Dharma-body." These are true words, real words, not deceptive, not false. If you see it this way, then even wanting to think or grieve is unattainable. Contemplating thus is called right contemplation. Any other contemplation is called wrong contemplation. When right and wrong are not yet distinguished, that is exactly the time to make effort. This is Miaoxi's definitive teaching. Do not speak of it before those without wisdom. <note>Reply to Wang Yanzhang</note> Sentient beings in daily life operate under present ignorance. Following ignorance brings delight. Going against ignorance brings affliction. Buddhas and bodhisattvas are not like this. They borrow ignorance to carry out Buddha-work. Because sentient beings make their nest in ignorance, going against it would destroy their nest, so they go along with it, guiding them according to their attachments. Vimalakīrti said: "The company of defilements is the seed of the Tathāgata." Yongjia said: "The true nature of ignorance is precisely Buddha-nature. The empty body of illusion is precisely the Dharma-body." This is precisely this principle. <note>Instruction for General Zhang Yizhi</note> Investigate beneath your own feet: "This 'I' that obtains wealth and rank—where does it come from? This 'I' that now experiences wealth and rank—where will it go in the future?" Since you know neither the coming place nor the going place, your mind will naturally feel lost and oppressed. Right in that lost and oppressed state—which is nothing other than this matter—watch this gōng'àn: A monk asked Yunmen, "What is Buddha?" Yunmen said, "A dry shit-stick." Just raise this story. Suddenly, when your tricks are exhausted, you will awaken. But be careful not to seek textual evidence, not to speculate wildly or annotate. Even if you annotate it clearly and explain it with full confidence, it is all ghost-folk activity. If the doubt does not break, birth and death intertwine. When the doubt breaks, the mind of birth and death ceases. When the mind of birth and death ceases, views of Buddha and views of Dharma die. If even views of Buddha and Dharma die, how much less would views of sentient beings and affliction arise? Just take the lost, oppressed mind and place it on "a dry shit-stick." Press it there firmly. Then the mind fearing birth and death, the lost and oppressed mind, the discriminating and calculating mind, the clever mind—all naturally cease to function. When you feel them cease, do not fear falling into emptiness. If suddenly, at the place of pressing, all signs of life cease—what happiness beyond compare for this lifetime! When all signs have ceased, raising views of Buddha, views of Dharma, views of sentient beings, discriminating and calculating, acting clever, speaking of principles—none of these obstruct anything. In the daily four postures, always keep things open and free. In quiet and noisy places alike, constantly raise "a dry shit-stick." As months and days pass, the water-buffalo will naturally become tame. But above all, do not raise other doubts outside. When the doubt on "dry shit-stick" breaks, doubts as numerous as the sands of the Ganges all break at once. <note>Reply to Lü Longli. Instruction to Zeng Tianyou: "Do not, on the ancients' words and phrases, keep piling up like building a pagoda—one layer then another. You waste your effort with no end in sight. Just focus the mind on one place. Nothing does not arrive there. When the time and conditions ripen, you will naturally bump into it and suddenly wake up. 'Does even a single thought not arising still have any fault?' He said, 'Mount Sumeru.' 'When not bringing a single thing along, what then?' 'Put it down.' If the doubt does not break here, just practice here. Do not create branches and leaves." Reply to Lü Juren: "A thousand doubts and ten thousand doubts are just one doubt. When the doubt on the gōng'àn breaks, then all doubts break at once. If the gōng'àn does not break, then just keep struggling with it. If you abandon the gōng'àn and raise doubts in texts, doubts in scriptures, doubts in ancient masters' cases, or doubts in daily defilements—all these make you a disciple of demons and heretics."</note>

既辦此心。第一不要急。急則轉遲矣。又不得緩。緩則怠惰矣。如調琴之法。緊緩要得中。方成曲調。但向日用應緣處。時時覰捕。我遮能與人決斷是非曲直底。承誰恩力。畢竟從甚麼處流出。覰捕來覰捕去。平昔生處路頭自熟。生處既熟。則熟處却生矣。那個是熟處。五陰六入十二處十八界二十五有。無明業識思量計較心識。晝夜熠熠。如野馬無暫停息底。是這一落索。使得人流浪生死。使得人做不好事。這一落索既生。則菩提涅槃真如佛性。便現前矣。當現前時。亦無現前之量。故古德契證得了。便解道。應眼時若千日。萬象不能逃影質。應耳時若幽谷。大小音聲無不足。如此等事。不假他求。不借他力。自然向應緣處。活鱍鱍地。未得如此。且將思量世間塵勞底心。回在思量不及處。試思量看教看無字話頭云云。答榮茂實既已知有此段大事因緣。決定不從人得。則便好頓捨外塵。時時向自己脚跟下推窮。推來推去。內不見有能推之心。外不見有所推之境。淨躶躶。赤灑灑。沒可把。如水上放葫蘆。無人動著。常蕩蕩地。拘牽他不得。惹絆他不得。撥著便動。觸著便轉。如是自在。如是瞥脫。如是靈聖。不與千聖同途。不與衲僧借借。直能號令佛祖。佛祖號令他不得。當人知是般事。便好猛著精彩。向百尺竿頭更進一步。如進得這一步。則不異善財童子。於普賢毛孔剎中行一步。過不可說不可說佛剎微塵數世界。如是而行。盡未來劫。猶不能知一毛孔中剎海次第。剎海藏。剎海差別。剎海普入。剎海成。剎海壞。剎海莊嚴。所有邊際。似這般境界。亦不是外邊起心用意修證得來。只是當人脚跟下。本來具足底道理耳。不見德山和尚有言。汝但無事於心。無心於事。則虗而靈。空而妙。若毫端許言之本末者。皆為自欺。何故。毫釐繫念。三塗業因。瞥爾情生。萬劫羈鎖。聖名凡號盡是虗聲。殊相劣形皆為幻色。汝欲求之。得無累乎。及其厭之。又成大患。恁麼說話。棒打石人頭。嚗嚗論實事。前所云。內不見有能推之心。外不見有所推之境。便是這個道理也。這個道理。向事上覰則疾。若向意根下思量卜度。則轉疏轉遠矣。所以釋迦老子。在法華會上。只度得個八歲底女人。華嚴會上。只度得個童子。涅槃會上。只度得個屠兒。看他這三個成佛底樣子。又何曾向外取證。辛勤修學來。佛亦只言。我今為汝保任此事。終不虗也。只說為他保任而已。且不說有法可傳。令汝向外馳求。然後成佛。幸有如此體格。何故不信。苟能直下信得及。不向外馳求。亦不於心內取證。則二六時中。隨處解脫。何以故。既不向外馳求。則內心寂靜。既不於心內取證。則外境幽閑。故祖師云。境緣無好醜。好醜起於心。心若不強名。妄情從何起。妄情既不起。真心任徧知。當知內心外境。只是一事。切忌作兩般看。記得溈山問仰山。妙淨明心。子作麼生會。仰山云。山河大地日月星辰。溈山云。汝只得其事。仰山云。和尚適來問甚麼。溈山云。妙淨明心。仰山云。喚作事得麼。溈山云。如是如是。觀使師重敘事不錄為立號曰妙淨居士。師重勉之。行住坐臥造次顛沛。不可忘了妙淨明心之義。妄念起時。不必用力排遣。只舉僧問趙州。狗子還有佛性也無。趙州云無。舉來舉去。和這舉話底。亦不見有。只這知不見有底。亦不見有。然後此語亦無所受。驀地於無所受處。不覺失聲大笑一巡時。便是歸家穩坐處也示趙師重巖頭云。若欲他時播揚大教。須是一一從自己胷襟流出。盖天盖地。始是大丈夫所為。巖頭之語。非獨發明雪峰根器。亦可作學此道者萬世規式。所謂胷襟流出者。乃是自己無始時來現量。本自具足。纔起第二念。則落比量矣。比量是外境莊嚴所得之法。現量是父母未生前威音那畔事。從現量中得者。氣力粗。從比量中得者。氣力弱。氣力粗者。能入佛又能入魔。氣力弱者。入得佛境界。往往於魔境界打退鼓。不可勝數。此事不在聰明靈利。亦不在鈍根淺識。據實而論。只以噴地一發為准的耳。纔得這個消息。凡有言句。非離真而立處。立處即真。所謂胷襟流出。盖天盖地者。如是而已。非是做言語求奇特。他人道不出。錦心繡口。意句尖新。以為胷襟流出也示曾叔遲欲學此道。當於自己脚跟下理會。纔涉秋毫知見。即蹉過脚跟下消息。脚跟下消息通了。種種知見。無非盡是脚跟下事。故祖師云。正說知見時。知見即是心。當心即知見。知見即如今。若如今不越一念。向脚跟下頓亡知見。便與祖師把手共行。未能如是。切忌向知見上著倒示陳次□學世間法。全仗口議心思。學出世間法。用口議心思則遠矣。佛不云乎。是法非思量分別之所能解。永嘉云。損法財滅功德。莫不由茲心意識。盖心意識。乃思量分別之窟宅也。決欲荷擔此段大事因緣。請猛著精彩。把這個來為先鋒。去為殿後底。生死魔根一刀斫斷。便是出頭時節。正當恁麼時。方用得口議心思著。何以故。第八識既除。則生死魔無處棲泊。生死魔無棲泊處。則思量分別底。渾是般若妙智。更無毫髮許為我作障。所以道。觀法先後。以智分別。是非審定。不違法印。得到這個田地了。儘作聰明。儘說道理。皆是大寂滅大究竟大解脫境界。更非他物。故盤山云。全心即佛。全佛即人。是也。未得如是。直須行住坐臥。勿令心意識得其便。久久純熟。自然不著用力排遣矣示謝廓然尋常計較安排底是識情。隨生死遷流底亦是識情。怕怖慞惶底亦是識情。而今參學之人。不知是病。只管在裏許頭出頭沒。教中所謂隨識而行不隨智。以故昧却本地風光本來面目。若或一時放得下。百不思量計較。忽然失脚蹋著鼻孔。即此識情便是真空妙智。更無別智可得。若別有所得。別有所證。則又却不是也。如人迷時喚東作西。及至悟時。即西便是東。無別有東。此真空妙智。與太虗空齊壽。只這大虗空中。還有一物礙得他否。雖不受一物礙。而不妨諸物於空中往來。此真空妙智亦然。生死凡聖垢染。著一點不得。雖著不得。而不礙生死凡聖於中往來答曾天游心火熾然。熠熠不息。貪慾嗔恚癡。繼之如鈎鎖連環。相續不斷。若無猛烈志氣。日月浸久。不覺被五陰魔所攝持。若能一念緣起無生。不離貪慾嗔恚癡。倒用魔王印。驅諸魔侶。以為護法善神。且非強為。法如是故示謝廓然禪不在靜處。不在閙處。不在思量分別處。不在日用應緣處。然雖如是。第一不得捨却靜處閙處。日用應緣處。思量分別處參。忽然眼開。都是自家屋裏事示聶寺丞但於日用應緣處不昧。則日月浸久。自然打成一片。何處為應緣處。喜時怒時。判斷公事時。與賓客相酬酢時。與妻子聚會時。思量善惡時。觸境遇緣時。皆是噴地一發時節。千萬記取示熊叔雅這個道理。只為太近。遠不出自家眼睛裏。開眼處便刺著。合眼處亦不欠少。開口處便道著。合口處亦自現成。擬欲起心動念承當渠。早已蹉過十萬八千了也答劉彥冲狗子無佛性話。左右如人捕賊。已知窩盤處。但未捉著耳。請快著精彩。不得有少間斷。時時向行住坐臥處。看讀書史處。修仁義禮智信處。侍奉尊長處。提誨學者處。喫粥喫飯處。與之廝崖。忽然打失布袋。夫復何言示汪聖錫古德有言。但辦肯心。必不相賺。只恐當人信不及。於日用應緣處。被外境所奪。不能純一做工夫。則成間斷。當間斷時。未免方寸擾擾。正擾擾時。却是個好底時節。佛言。居一切時不起妄念。於諸妄心亦不息滅。住妄想境不加了知。於無了知不辨真實。便是這個道理也。這個道理。說似人不得。惟證悟者。舉起便知落處示謝廓然示諭。自得山野向來書之後。每遇閙中躲避不得處。常自點檢。而未有著力工夫。只這躲避不得處。便是工夫了也。若更著力點檢。則却又遠矣。昔魏府老華嚴云。佛法在日用處。行住坐臥處。喫茶喫飯處。語言相問處。所作所為處。舉心動念。又却不是也。正當躲避不得處。切忌起心動念。作點檢想。祖師云。分別不生。虗明自照。又龐居士云。日用事無別。惟吾自偶諧。頭頭非取捨。處處沒張乖。朱紫誰為號。丘山絕點埃。神通并妙用。運水及搬柴。又先聖云。但有心分別計較自心現量者。悉皆如夢。切記取。躲避不得時。不得更擬心。不擬心時。一切現成。亦不用理會利。亦不用理會鈍。總不干他利鈍之事。亦不干他靜亂之事。正當躲避不得時。忽然打失布袋。不覺拊掌大笑矣。記取記取。此事若用一毫毛工夫取證。則如人以手撮摩虗空。祇益自勞耳示陳季任情識未破。則心火熠熠地。正當恁麼時。但只以所疑底話頭提撕。如僧問趙州。狗子還有佛性也無。州云無。只管提撕舉覺。左來也不是。右來也不是。又不得將心等悟。又不得向舉起處承當。又不得作玄妙領略。又不得作有無商量。又不得作真無之無卜度。又不得坐在無事甲裏。又不得向擊石火閃電光處會。直得無所用心。心無所之時。莫怕落空。這裏却是好處。驀然老鼠入牛角。便見倒斷也。此事非難非易。除是夙曾種得般若種智之深。曾于無始曠大劫來。承事真善知識。熏習得正知正見。在靈識中。觸境遇緣。於現行處。築著磕著。如在萬人叢裏。認得自家父母相似。當恁麼時。不著問人。自然求覔底心不馳散矣。雲門云。不可說時即有。不說時即無也。不可商量時便有。不商量時便無也。又自提起云。且道。不商量時。是個甚麼。恐人不會。又自云。更是甚麼答張安國大凡涉世有餘之士。久膠於塵勞中。忽然得人指令。向靜默處做工夫。乍得胸中無事。便認著以為究竟安樂。殊不知。似石壓草。雖暫覺絕消息。奈何根株猶在。寧有證徹寂滅之期。要得真正寂滅現前。必須于熾然生滅之中。驀地一跳跳出。不動一絲毫。便攪長河為酥酪。變大地作黃金。臨機縱奪。殺活自由。利他自利。無施不可示富季申昔嚴陽尊者問趙州。一物不將來時如何。州云。放下著。嚴陽云。一物既不將來。放下個甚麼。州云。放不下。擔取去。嚴陽於言下大悟。又有僧問古德。學人奈何不得時如何。古德云。老僧亦奈何不得。僧云。學人在學地故。是奈何不得。和尚是大善知識。為甚麼亦奈何不得。古德云。我若奈何得。則便拈却你這不奈何。僧於言下大悟。二僧悟處。即是樓樞密迷處樓樞密疑處。即是二僧問處。法從分別生。還從分別滅。滅諸分別法。是法無生滅答樓樞密與向伯恭。論夢覺書見隆慶閑師章中示諭。臘月三十日已到。要之日用當如是觀察。則世間塵勞之心。自然消隕矣。塵勞之心既消隕。則來日依前孟春猶寒矣。古德云。欲識佛性義。當觀時節因緣。此個時節。乃是黃面老子出世成佛。坐金剛座。降伏魔軍。轉法輪。度眾生。入涅槃底時節。與解空所謂臘月三十日時節。無異無別。到這裏。只如是觀。以此觀者。名為正觀。異此觀者。名為邪觀。邪正未分。未免隨他時節遷變。要得不隨時節。但一時放下著。放到無可放處。此語亦不受。依前只是解空居士。更不是別人答劉季高章敬和尚曰。至理亡言。時人不悉。強習他事。以為功能。不知自性元非塵境。是個微妙大解脫門。所有鑑覺。不染不礙。如是光明。未曾休廢。曩劫至今。固無變易。猶如日輪遠近斯照。雖及眾色。不與一切和合。靈燭妙明。非假鍛鍊。為不了故。取於物象。但如揑目妄起空華。徒自疲勞。枉經劫數。若能返照。無第二人。舉措施為。不虧實相。左右自言根鈍試。如此返照看。能知鈍者。還鈍也無。若不回光返。照只守鈍根。更增煩惱。乃是向幻妄上。重增幻妄。空花上更添空花也。但相聽能知根性鈍者。決定不鈍。雖不得守著這個鈍底。然亦不得捨却這個鈍底參。取捨利鈍。在人不在心。此心與三世諸佛一體無二。若有二。則法不平等矣。受教傳心。俱為虗妄。求真覓實。轉見參差。但知得一體無二之心。決定不在利鈍取捨之間。則便當見月亡指。直下一刀兩段。若更遲疑。思前筭後。則乃是空拳指上生實解。根境法中虗揑怪。於陰界中。妄自囚執。無有了時答陳季任伏承杜門息交。世事一切闊略。朝夕惟以某向所舉話頭提撕。甚善甚善。既辦此心。當以悟為則。若自生退屈。謂根性陋劣。更求入頭處。正是含元殿裏問長安。在甚處耳。正提撕時。是阿誰。能知根性陋劣底。又是阿誰。求入頭處底。又是阿誰。妙喜不避口業。分明為居士說破。只是個汪彥章。更無兩個。只有一個汪彥章。更那裏得個提撕底。知根性陋劣底。求入頭處底來。當知皆是汪彥章影子。並不干他汪彥章事。若是真個汪彥章。根性必不陋劣。必不求入頭處。但只信得自家主人公。皮並不消得許多勞攘。昔有僧問仰山。禪宗頓悟。畢竟入門的意如何。山曰。此意極難。若是祖宗門下上根上智。一聞千悟。得大總持。此根人難得。其有根微智劣。所以古德道。若不安禪靜慮。到這裏。總須茫然。僧曰。除此格外。還有別方便。令學人得入也無。山曰。別有別無。令汝心不安。我今問汝。汝是甚處人。曰幽州人。山曰。汝還思彼處否。曰常思。山曰。彼處樓臺林苑人馬駢闐。汝返思思底。還有許多般也無。曰某甲到這裏。一切不見有。山曰。汝解猶在境。信位即是。人位即不是。妙喜已是老婆心切。須著更下個注脚。人位即是汪彥章。信位即是知根性陋劣。求入頭處底。若於正提撕話頭時。返思能提撕底還是汪彥章否。到這裏。間不容髮。若佇思停機。則被影子惑矣。請快著精彩。不可忽不可忽答汪彥章向承示諭。性根昏鈍。而黽勉修持。終未得超悟之方。某頃在雙徑。答富季申所問。正與此問同。能知昏鈍者。決定不昏鈍。更欲向甚處求超悟。士大夫學此道。却須借昏鈍而入。若執昏鈍。自謂我無分。則為昏鈍魔所攝矣。葢平昔知見。多以求證悟之心。在前作障。故自己正知見。不能現前。此障亦非外來。亦非別事。只是個能知昏鈍底主人公耳。故瑞巖和尚。居常在丈室中。自喚云主人公。又自應云諾。惺惺著。又自應云諾。他時後日。莫受人謾。又自應云諾諾。古來幸有恁麼榜樣。慢向這裏提撕看。是個甚麼。只這提撕底。亦不是別人。只是這能知昏鈍者耳。能知昏鈍者。亦不是別人。便是李寶文本命元辰也。此是妙喜不得已應病與藥。略為居士指個歸家穩坐底路頭而已。若便認定死語。真個喚作本命元辰。則是認識神為自己。轉沒交涉矣。故長沙和尚云。學道之人不識真。只為從來詔識神。無量劫來生死本。癡人喚作本來人。前所云借昏鈍而入。是也。但只看能知得如是昏鈍底。畢竟是個甚麼。只向這裏看。不用求超悟。看來看去。忽地大笑去矣。此外無可言者答李茂嘉士大夫學道。利根者蹉過。鈍根者難入。難入則自生退屈。蹉過則起謗無疑。若要著中。但將蹉過底。移在難入處。却將難入底。移在蹉過處。自然怗怗地。不作難入蹉過之解矣。得如此了却。好向這裏全身放下。放下時。亦不得作放下道理。古德所謂。放蕩長如癡兀人。他家自有通人愛示陳次仲昏沉掉舉。先聖所訶。靜坐時纔覺此兩種病現前。但只舉狗子無佛性話。兩種病不著用力排遣。當下怗怗地矣。日久月深。纔覺省力。便是得力處也。亦不著做靜勝工夫。只這便是工夫也答富季申令兄寶學公。初未甞知管帶忘懷之事。信手摸著鼻孔。雖未盡識得諸方邪正。而基本堅實。邪毒不能侵。忘懷管帶在其中矣。若一向忘懷管帶。生死心不破。陰魔得其便。未免把虗空隔絕作兩處。處靜時受無量樂。處閙時受無量苦。要得苦樂均平。但莫起心管帶。將心忘懷。十二時中。放教蕩蕩地。忽爾舊習瞥起。亦不著用心遏捺。只就瞥起處。看個話頭。狗子還有佛性也無。無。正當恁麼時。如紅罏上一點雪相似。眼辨手親者。一趠趠得。方知嬾融道。恰恰用心時。恰恰無心用。曲談名相勞。直說無繁重。無心恰恰用。常用恰恰無。今說無心處。不與有心殊。不是誑人語答𠠇彥冲示諭。應緣日涉差別境界。未甞不在佛法中。又於日用動容之間。以狗子無佛性話。破除情塵。若作如是工夫。恐卒未得悟入。請於脚跟下。照顧差別境界從甚麼處起。動容周旋之間。如何以狗子無佛性話。破除情塵。能知破除情塵者。又是阿誰。佛不云乎。眾生顛倒。迷己逐物。物本無自性。迷己者自逐之耳。境界本無差別。迷己者自差別耳。既日涉差別境界。又在佛法中。既在佛法中。則非差別境界。既在差別境界中。則非佛法矣。拈一放一。有甚了期。廣額屠兒。在涅槃會上。放下屠刀。立地便成佛。豈有許多忉忉怛怛來。日用應緣處。纔覺涉差別境界時。但只就差別處。舉狗子無佛性話。不用作破除想。不用作情塵想。不用作差別想。不用作佛法想。但只看狗子無佛性話。但只舉個無字。亦不用存心等悟。若存心等悟。則境界也差別。佛法也差別。情塵也差別。狗子無佛性話也差別。間斷處也差別。無間斷處也差別。遭情塵惑亂身心不安樂處也差別。能知許多差別底亦差別。若要除此病。但只看個無字。但只看廣額屠兒放下屠刀云。我是千佛一數。是實是虗。若作虗實商量。又打入差別境界上去也。不如一刀兩段。不得念後思前。念後思前。則又差別矣。玄沙云。此事限約不得。心思路絕。不因莊嚴。本來真淨。動用語笑隨處明了。更無欠少。今時人不悟個中道理。妄自涉事涉塵。處處染著。頭頭繫絆。縱悟則塵境紛紜。名相不實。便擬凝心斂念。攝事歸空。閉目藏睛。隨有念起。旋旋破除。細想纔生。即便遏捺。如此見解。即是落空亡底外道。魂不散底死人。冥冥漠漠。無覺無知。塞耳偷鈴。徒自欺誑。左右來書云云。盡是玄沙所訶底病。寂照邪禪。埋人底坑子。不可不知也。舉話時。都不用作許多伎倆。但行住坐臥處。勿令間斷。喜怒哀樂處。莫生分別。舉來舉去。看來看去。覺得沒理路沒滋味。心頭熱悶時。便是當人放身命處也。記取記取。莫見如此境界便退心。如此境界。正是成佛作祖底消息也。而今默照邪師輩。只以無言無說為極則。喚作威音那畔事。亦喚作空劫已前事。不信有悟門。以悟為誑。以悟為第二頭。以悟為方便語。以悟為接引之詞。如此之徒。謾人自謾。誤人自誤。亦不可不知。日用四威儀中。涉差別境界。覺得省力時。便是得力處也。得力處極省力。若用一毫毛氣力支撐。定是邪法。非佛法也。但辦取長遠心。與狗子無佛性話廝崖。崖來崖去。心無所之。忽然如睡夢覺。如蓮花開。如披雲見日。到恁麼時。自然成一片矣。但日用七顛八倒處。只看個無字。莫管悟不悟徹不徹。三世諸佛。只是個無事人。諸代祖師。亦只是個無事人。古德云。但於事上通無事。見色聞聲不用聾。又古德云。愚人除境不亡心。智者亡心不除境。於一切處無心。則種種差別境界自無矣。而今士大夫。多是急性。便要會禪。於經教上及祖師言句中博量。要說得分曉。殊不知。分曉處却是不分曉底事。若透得個無字。分曉不分曉。不著問人矣。老漢教士大夫放教鈍。便是這個道理也。作鈍榜狀元亦不惡。只怕拖白耳一笑答宗直閣知迷不悟是大錯。執迷待悟。其錯益大。何以故。為不覺故迷。執迷待悟。乃不覺中又不覺。迷中又迷。決欲破此兩重關。請一時放下著。若放不下。迷迷悟悟。盡未來際。何有休歇示黃伯成又云。學此道。未得個入頭處時。覺得千難萬難。聞宗師舉著。愈覺難會。盖以取證求歇底心不除。反被此作障礙。此心纔歇。方知非難非易。亦非師家可以傳授　欲得將心待悟。將心待休歇。從脚下參到彌勒下生。亦不能得悟。亦不能得休歇。轉加迷悶耳。平田和尚曰。神光不昧。萬古徽猷。入此門來。莫存知解。又古德曰。此事不可以有心求。不可以無心得。不可以語言造。不可以寂默通。此是第一等入泥入水老婆說話。往往參禪人。只恁麼念過。殊不子細看是甚道理。若是個有筋骨底。纔聞舉著。直下將金剛王寶劒。一截截斷此四路葛藤。則生死路頭亦斷。凡聖路頭亦斷。計較思量亦斷。得失是非亦斷。當人脚跟下。淨躶躶。赤灑灑。沒可把。豈不快哉。豈不暢哉。不見昔日灌溪和尚。初參臨濟。濟見來。便下繩牀驀胸擒住。灌溪便云領領。濟知其已徹。即便推出。更無言句與之商量。當恁麼時。灌溪如何思量計較祗對得。古來幸有如此榜樣。如今人總不將為事。只為粗心。灌溪當初。若有一點待悟待證待休歇底心在前時。莫道被擒住便悟。便是縛却手脚。遶四天下拖一遭。也不能得悟。也不能得休歇答曾天游示諭。蚤歲知信向此道。晚年為知解所障。未有一悟入處。欲知日夕體道方便。既荷至誠。不敢自外據欵結案葛藤少許。只這求悟入底。便是障道知解了也。更別有甚麼知解。為公作障。畢竟喚甚麼作知解。知解從何而至。被障者復是阿誰。只此一句。顛倒有三。自言為知解所障。是一。自言未悟。甘作迷人。是一。更在迷中將心待悟。是一。只這三顛倒。便是生死根本。直須一念不生。顛倒心絕。方知無迷可破。無悟可待。無知解可障。如人飲水冷煖自知。久久自然。不作這個見解也。但就能知知解底心上看。還障得也無。能知知解底心上。還有如許多般也無。從上大智慧之士。莫不皆以知解為儔侶。以知解為方便。於知解上。行平等慈。於知解上。作諸佛事。如龍得水。似虎靠山。終不以此為惱。只為他識得知解起處。既識得起處。即此知解。便是解脫之場。便是出生死處。既是解脫之場。出生死處。則知底解底當體寂滅。知底解底既寂滅。能知知解者不可不寂滅。菩提涅槃。真如佛性。不可不寂滅。更有何物可障。更向何處求悟入。答富季申定光大師妙道問雲門。此心此性迷悟向背如何。乞省要處指示。雲門良久不答。妙道再問。雲門笑曰。若論省要處。則不可指示於人。若可指示。則不省要矣。妙道曰。豈無方便。令學人趣向。雲門曰。若論方便。則心無迷悟。性無向背。但人立迷悟見。執向背解。欲明此心見此性。而此心此性。即隨人顛倒。錯亂流入邪途。以故佛魔不辨。邪正不分。盖不了此性此心之夢幻。妄立二種之名言。以向背迷悟為實。認此心此性為真。殊不知。若實若不實。若妄若非妄。世間出世間。但是假言說。故淨名云。法不可見聞覺知。若行見聞覺知。是則見聞覺知。非求法也。又古德云。若取自己自心為究竟。必有他物他人為對治。又佛謂富樓那曰。汝以色空。相傾相奪於如來藏。而如來藏。隨為色空。周徧法界。我以妙明不滅不生。合如來藏。而如來藏。惟妙覺明。圓照法界。如來藏即此心此性也。而佛權指色空相傾相奪為非。以妙明不滅不生為是。此兩段。是藥語。治迷悟二病。非佛定意也。為破執迷悟心性向背為實法者之言耳。不見金剛藏菩薩曰。一切三世。惟是言說。一切諸法。於言說中。無有依處。一切言說。於諸法中。亦無依處。苟迷悟見亡。向背解絕。則此心洞明如皎日。此性寬廓等虗空。當人脚跟下。放光動地。照徹十方。覩斯光者。盡證無生法忍。到恁麼時自然與此心此性。默默相契。方知昔本無迷。今本無悟。悟即迷。迷即悟。向即背。背即向。性即心。心即性。佛即魔。魔即佛。一道清淨平等。無有平等不平等者。皆吾心之常分。非假於他術。既得恁麼。亦是不得已而言之。不可便以為實。若以為實。則又是不識方便。認定死語。重增虗妄。展轉惑亂。無有了期。到這裏。無你用心處。不若知是般事。撥置一邊。却轉頭來看。馬大師即心即佛。非心非佛。不是心不是佛不是物。趙州庭前栢樹子。雲門須彌山。大愚鋸解秤鎚。嚴陽尊者土塊。汾州莫妄想。俱胝竪指頭。畢竟是何道理。此乃雲門方便也。妙道思之示妙道禪人只這著忙底。便是臘月三十日消息也。如何是佛。乾矢橛。這裏不透。與臘月三十日何異答呂隆禮示諭。能行佛事。而不解禪語。能與不能。無別無同。但知能行者即是禪語。會禪語而不能行佛事。如人在水底坐呌渴。飯籮裏坐呌饑何異。當知禪語即佛事。佛事即禪語。能行能解。在人不在法答樊茂實擔荷此段大事因緣。須是有決定志。若半信半疑。則沒交涉矣。古德云。學道如鑽火。逢烟未可休。直待金星現。歸家始到頭。欲知到頭處。自境界他境界一如是也示李獻臣又云。趙州和尚云。老僧十二時中。除二時粥飯。是雜用心。餘無雜用心處。此是這老和尚。真實行履處。不用作佛法禪道會無常迅速。生死事大。眾生界中。順生死底事。如麻似粟。撥整了一番。又一番到來。若不把生死兩字。貼在鼻尖兒上作對治。則直待臘月三十日。手忙脚亂。如落湯螃蟹時。方始知悔則遲也。若要直截。請從而今便截斷示聶寺丞欲學此道。須是具決安信。逢逆順境。心不動搖。方有趣向分。佛言。信能永滅煩惱本。信能專向佛功德。信於境界無所著。遠離諸難得無難。又云。信能超出眾魔路。示現無上解脫道。如上所說。教有明文。佛豈欺人耶。若半明半暗。半信半不信。則觸境遇緣。心生疑惑。乃是於境界。心有所著。不能於此道決定無疑。滅煩惱本。遠離諸難。諸難者。為無決定信。被自己陰魔所撓。若能一念緣起無生。則不越此念。即時超出魔路。所謂魔路亦非他物。乃是昧却此心。於此心外。妄生差別諸見。而此心即隨差別妄念流轉故。成就魔境。若能直下信此心。決定本來成佛。頓忘諸見。即此魔路。便是當人出生死菩提路也示鄧子立道家者流。全以妄想心想。日精月華。吞霞服氣。尚能留形住世。不被寒暑所侵。況回此心此念。全在般若中耶。先聖明明有言。喻如太末蟲。處處能泊。惟不能泊於火燄之上。眾生心亦爾。處處能緣。惟不能緣於般若之上。苟念念不退初心。把自家心識。緣世間塵勞底。回來抵在般若上。雖今生打未徹。臨命終時。定不為惡業所牽。流落惡道。來生出頭。隨我今生願力。定在般若中。現成受用。此是決定底事。無可疑者答曾天游臘月三十日到來。恩愛也使不著。勢力也使不著。財寶也使不著。性氣也使不著。官職也使不著。富貴也使不著。眼光落地時。惟有平昔造善造惡兩路境界。一一現前。作惡多作善少。則隨惡業流浪將去。作善多作惡少。則隨善業生人天十善之家去。既知得這兩路子。皆屬虗幻。然後發勇猛精進堅固不退之心。決欲超情離見。透脫生死。臘月三十日。善惡兩路。拘執我不得示鄧兩府宅。

> Once you have dedicated your mind to this, the first thing is not to rush. If you rush, you'll only move slower. But you also must not be lax—laxity leads to laziness. It's like tuning a stringed instrument: the tension must be neither too tight nor too loose, just right, before a melody can emerge. So simply keep watch over your daily encounters with circumstances—when you have to judge right and wrong, decide disputes—ask yourself: "Whose power am I relying on? Where does this ultimately come from?" Keep watching, again and again. The paths that once felt unfamiliar in your ordinary life will gradually become familiar. Once what was unfamiliar becomes familiar, then what was familiar will become unfamiliar. What is that familiar thing? The five aggregates, the six sense bases, the twelve sense fields, the eighteen elements, the twenty-five realms of existence. The ignorance, karmic consciousness, calculating, discriminating mind—flashing and flickering day and night, like a heat mirage with no respite. This is that bundle of tangled things that sends people drifting through birth and death, that makes people do bad things. But once this bundle becomes unfamiliar, then Enlightenment, Nirvana, Thusness, Buddha-nature appear right before you. When it appears, there is no measure or quantity to its appearing. That's why the ancients, having realized this, could say: "When functioning through the eyes, it's like a thousand suns—no phenomenon can escape its light. When functioning through the ears, it's like a deep valley—no sound, great or small, goes unheard." Such things don't require seeking from others, don't rely on external power—they naturally come alive in the midst of responding to circumstances. If you haven't yet reached this point, then take the mind that mulls over worldly concerns and turn it toward that which thought cannot reach. Try pondering that. <note>Teaching the "no" meditation topic. Reply to Rong Maoshi</note> Now that you know this great matter of cause and conditions is definitely not something received from others, you should immediately let go of external dust. Constantly investigate right at your own feet. Push and investigate, back and forth—internally no "investigating mind" appears, externally no "investigated object" appears. Naked, bare, nothing to hold onto—like a gourd floating on water, no one pushing it, always bobbing freely. It can't be constrained, can't be entangled. Nudge it and it moves; touch it and it turns. Such freedom, such sudden liberation, such miraculous awareness—it doesn't share a path with the thousand sages, doesn't borrow anything from the monk's robes. It can command Buddhas and Patriarchs—Buddhas and Patriarchs cannot command it. When you know such a matter, you should vigorously muster your energy and take one more step from the top of a hundred-foot pole. If you take this step, you'll be no different from the youth Sudhana, who took one step within the pore of Samantabhadra's body and passed through worlds countless as dust motes in Buddha-fields—worlds beyond telling. Walking on like this for future eons, he still couldn't fathom the order, the treasury, the distinctions, the universal entry, the formation, the destruction, the adornment of the realms within a single pore—their boundaries and limits. Such a realm isn't something cultivated or attained by deliberate mental effort. It's simply the principle inherently complete at your own feet. Don't you see Dharmamaster Deshan said: "Just have no concerns in your mind and no mind toward concerns—then you'll be empty yet aware, vast yet subtle. If there's even a hair-tip of talking about beginnings and endings, it's all self-deception." Why? A hair's breadth of clinging thought becomes the karmic cause of the three lower realms. A sudden flash of emotion binds you for ten thousand eons. Sacred names and ordinary labels are all empty sounds. Special forms and inferior shapes are all illusory colors. If you seek them, won't you be weighed down? And if you tire of them, that too becomes a great affliction. When he speaks like this, it's like hitting a stone man on the head with a stick—he's discussing real matters, plain and direct. What was said before—"internally no investigating mind appears, externally no investigated object appears"—is precisely this principle. This principle, if you watch it right in the midst of activities, is quick. But if you try to figure it out and speculate with your intellect, you drift further and further away. That's why Shakyamuni, in the Lotus assembly, could only liberate an eight-year-old girl. In the Avatamsaka assembly, he only liberated a youth. In the Nirvana assembly, he only liberated a butcher. Look at these three examples of becoming Buddha—did any of them seek proof externally, or study and practice with bitter toil? The Buddha only said: "I now guarantee this matter for you—it will never be in vain." He only spoke of guaranteeing it for them. He didn't say there was some Dharma to transmit, to make you run outward seeking, and then become Buddha. When there is such a model available, why don't you believe it? If you can indeed trust it directly, neither running outward nor seeking proof inwardly, then at all times, in every situation, you'll be liberated. Why? Not running outward means the inner mind is still. Not seeking proof inwardly means outer circumstances are serene. So the ancestor said: "Conditions and objects have no good or bad; good and bad arise from the mind. If the mind doesn't impose names, where do deluded feelings come from? Once deluded feelings don't arise, the true mind pervades all knowing." You should know that the inner mind and outer circumstances are one single matter. Take care not to view them as two separate things. Remember how Guishan asked Yangshan: "The wonderfully pure, clear mind—how do you understand it?" Yangshan said: "Mountains, rivers, the earth, sun, moon, and stars." Guishan said: "You've only got the matter." Yangshan said: "What did you just ask, Master?" Guishan said: "The wonderfully pure, clear mind." Yangshan said: "Can you call it 'a matter'?" Guishan said: "Yes, yes." <note>The narrative about Guan Shizhong is not recorded. He was given the name "Wonderfully Pure Layman." Shi Zhong, take heart—whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, whether hurried or fallen, don't forget the meaning of the wonderfully pure, clear mind. When delusive thoughts arise, no need to forcefully push them away. Just raise the question: A monk asked Zhaozhou, "Does a dog have Buddha-nature or not?" Zhaozhou said, "No." Raise it again and again. Even the one raising it disappears. Even the knowing that it has disappeared disappears. Then even this saying finds nothing to receive. Suddenly, in that place of no reception, you can't help but burst out laughing—that's the moment of returning home and sitting securely.</note> <note>Instruction to Zhao Shizhong</note> Yantou said: "If you want to spread the great teaching in the future, everything must flow from your own chest, covering heaven and earth—only then is it the deed of a true hero." Yantou's words don't merely illuminate Xuefeng's capacities—they can serve as a model for all who study this path for ten thousand generations. What is meant by "flowing from the chest" is the direct perception (现量) inherently complete in yourself since beginningless time. The moment a second thought arises, you fall into comparison (比量). Comparison is the realm of external adornment and acquired phenomena. Direct perception is the matter from before your parents were born, from before the first sound. What is gained from direct perception has strong force. What is gained from comparison has weak force. Those with strong force can enter both Buddha and Mara. Those with weak force can enter Buddha's realm, but when faced with Mara's realm, they often sound the retreat—and such cases are countless. This matter doesn't depend on intelligence or cleverness, nor on dull faculties or shallow understanding. To speak plainly: it's the sudden burst that counts. Once you get this news, all words and phrases are not established apart from truth—the place of establishment is itself truth. That's what "flowing from the chest, covering heaven and earth" means—nothing more. It's not about crafting fancy language, seeking novelty, saying what others can't say, adorning with embroidered phrases and clever lines—that's not what "flowing from the chest" means. <note>Instruction to Zeng Shuchi</note> If you want to study this path, you must work it out right at your own feet. The moment you involve even a hair's worth of intellectual views, you miss the news at your feet. Once the news at your feet is understood, all kinds of intellectual views become nothing but the matter at your feet. So the ancestor said: "When rightly speaking views, views are exactly mind. When mind is views, views are exactly the present moment." If in the present moment you don't go beyond a single thought—if right at your feet you suddenly drop all views—then you walk hand in hand with the ancestors. If you can't yet do this, take care not to get tangled up in views. <note>Instruction to Chen Ci\[?\]</note> Studying worldly dharmas relies entirely on verbal debate and mental speculation. Studying the supramundane Dharma—if you use verbal debate and mental speculation, you're far off. Didn't the Buddha say: "This Dharma cannot be understood through speculation or discrimination." Yongjia said: "Damaging Dharma wealth and destroying merit—all comes from this mind, consciousness, and mentation." Mind, consciousness, and mentation are the lair of speculation and discrimination. If you truly want to shoulder this great matter of cause and conditions, please muster your energy sharply. Take this thing that serves as your vanguard and rear guard and cut through the root of birth-and-death Mara with one stroke of the sword—that's the moment of emerging from the cocoon. It's precisely at such a time that verbal debate and mental speculation become useful. Why? Once the eighth consciousness is removed, the Mara of birth and death has nowhere to lodge. When it has no place to lodge, then what speculates and discriminates is entirely Prajñā's wondrous wisdom—not a hair's breadth remains to obstruct you. Therefore it's said: "Contemplate dharmas in their sequence, discriminating with wisdom, judging right and wrong accurately—not violating the Dharma seal." When you reach this ground, however much you exercise cleverness, however much you speak of principles, it's all the realm of great stillness, great finality, great liberation. It's nothing else. So Panshan said: "The whole mind is Buddha; the whole Buddha is this person." That's it. If you haven't yet reached this, you must see to it that walking, standing, sitting, lying—don't give mind, consciousness, and mentation any opening. Over time, as it ripens, naturally you won't need to exert force to push anything away. <note>Instruction to Xie Kuoran</note> What ordinarily calculates and arranges is emotional consciousness. What drifts along with birth and death is also emotional consciousness. What fears, panics, and flusters is also emotional consciousness. People studying meditation nowadays don't recognize this as an illness—they just keep popping in and out of it. This is what the teachings call "following consciousness rather than following wisdom." Thus they lose sight of their original scenery and original face. If for one moment you can let it all go—not a hundred calculations or discriminations—and suddenly stumble and bump into your own nose, then this very emotional consciousness is the wondrous wisdom of emptiness. There's no other wisdom to be found. If you find something else, if you realize something else, then it's not it. It's like when a person is lost and calls east "west"—but when they wake up, the west is exactly the east; there's no separate east. This wondrous wisdom of emptiness shares the lifespan of great space itself. In this vast space, is there anything that can obstruct it? Though nothing obstructs it, it doesn't prevent all things from coming and going within it. This wondrous wisdom of emptiness is likewise—birth and death, ordinary and sage, defilement and stain cannot touch it by a single point. Yet though they can't touch it, it doesn't prevent them from coming and going within it. <note>Reply to Zeng Tianyou</note> The mind-fire blazes, flickering without cease. Greed, hatred, delusion follow in succession like linked chains, continuing without break. Without fierce determined spirit, as days and months wear on, before you know it, you're seized by the Mara of the five aggregates. If you can in a single thought perceive dependent origination as unborn—not departing from greed, hatred, and delusion—you can invertedly use the Mara king's seal and drive his entire host to serve as Dharma-protecting spirits. This isn't forced; it's simply the nature of Dharma. <note>Instruction to Xie Kuoran</note> Meditation isn't in quiet places, isn't in noisy places, isn't in places of speculation and discrimination, isn't in daily responding to conditions. Yet even so, above all don't abandon quiet places, noisy places, daily responding to conditions, places of speculation and discrimination and investigate there. Suddenly your eyes open—and it turns out it was all your own household affairs. <note>Instruction to Nie Sizheng</note> Just don't be dim in your daily encountering of conditions, and as days and months accumulate, naturally it all becomes one piece. What is the place of encountering conditions? When happy, when angry, when judging official cases, when exchanging pleasantries with guests, when gathering with wife and children, when pondering good and evil, when touching objects and meeting circumstances—these are all moments for the sudden burst. A thousand times, remember this. <note>Instruction to Xiong Shuya</note> This principle is only too close—it's never farther than your own eyes. With eyes open, it pricks you. With eyes closed, nothing is lacking. With mouth open, you speak it. With mouth closed, it's already manifest. If you even intend to stir mind and thought to grasp it—you've already missed it by a hundred and eight thousand miles. <note>Reply to Liu Yanzhong</note> The "dog has no Buddha-nature" topic—think of it like catching a thief. You already know where the hideout is, but you haven't caught him yet. Please move with sharp energy. Don't allow even the slightest gap. At all times—walking, standing, sitting, lying; reading history books; practicing benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trust; serving elders; instructing students; eating porridge and rice—grapple with it. Suddenly the cloth sack drops away. What more is there to say? <note>Instruction to Wang Shengxi</note> The ancients said: "If you only summon up a willing mind, you will never be cheated." I only fear you don't trust enough—that in daily life, when responding to conditions, you get carried away by external circumstances and can't practice single-mindedly, creating gaps. When gaps occur, unavoidably the heart gets agitated. But right in that agitation is a good moment. The Buddha said: "In all times, don't arouse delusive thoughts. Toward all delusive thoughts, don't extinguish them either. Abiding in deluded thought-states, don't add understanding. In no-understanding, don't distinguish true from false." This is exactly that principle. This principle can't be explained to others—only those who have realized it, when it's raised, know where it lands. <note>Instruction to Xie Kuoran</note> You wrote that after receiving my previous letter, whenever you encounter places in the midst of activity that you cannot avoid, you often self-examine but haven't found the actual effort. But this very place of not being able to avoid—that's precisely where the practice is. If you add more deliberate examination, you move further away. In the old days, Elder Huayan of Wei Prefecture said: "Buddhadharma is in daily functioning—in walking, standing, sitting, lying; in drinking tea and eating rice; in words exchanged between questions; in all activities and deeds. But when you raise the mind and stir thoughts about it—that's not it." Right at the place where you can't avoid, take care not to raise mind or stir thoughts, not to form the notion of examining yourself. The ancestor said: "When discrimination doesn't arise, empty illumination shines by itself." And Layman Pang said: "In daily affairs there's nothing special—only I harmonize with myself. In every thing, no grasping or rejecting; everywhere, no cunning or contrivance. Who names the reds and purples? Hills and mounds free of dust. Spiritual powers and wondrous functioning—carrying water and hauling firewood." And the ancient sages said: "Whatever has mind discriminating and calculating its own self-manifestation—all of it is like a dream." Remember this carefully: when you can't avoid, don't deliberate further. When you don't deliberate, everything is already manifest. No need to fuss over sharpness or dullness—it has nothing to do with sharp or dull, nothing to do with calm or chaos. Right at the place of not being able to avoid, suddenly the cloth sack drops away—and without thinking, you slap your thigh and laugh aloud. Remember, remember. If you try to use a hair's worth of effort to grasp this matter, it's like someone rubbing empty space with their hand—you only exhaust yourself. <note>Instruction to Chen Jiren</note> When emotional consciousness hasn't yet been broken through, the mind-fire flickers. Right at such a moment, just keep raising the topic you're questioning. Like when a monk asked Zhaozhou, "Does a dog have Buddha-nature or not?" and Zhaozhou said, "No." Just keep raising and awakening it. Left comes—not it. Right comes—not it. Don't wait with the mind for awakening. Don't grasp at the moment of raising. Don't understand it as something mysterious. Don't deliberate over existence or non-existence. Don't speculate about it as true nothingness. Don't sit in the nest of "nothing to do." Don't try to understand at the flash of stone and spark of lightning. When you reach the point of having nothing to which to apply the mind—when the mind has no place to go—don't fear falling into emptiness. This place is genuinely good. Suddenly, like a mouse entering a cow's horn, you'll see it snap. This matter is neither difficult nor easy. Unless in past lives you've deeply planted the seeds of Prajñā-wisdom—unless over countless eons you've served true good advisors, absorbing right views into your consciousness, so that when you touch circumstances and meet conditions, in the midst of arising, you bump and knock into it—like recognizing your own parents in a crowd of ten thousand. At such a moment, you don't need to ask anyone—naturally the seeking mind doesn't scatter. Yunmen said: "It's not that when spoken of it exists, and when not spoken of it doesn't exist. It's not that when deliberated it exists, and when not deliberated it doesn't exist." Then he raised it himself: "Tell me—when not deliberating, what is it?" Fearing people wouldn't understand, he answered himself: "What else could it be?" <note>Reply to Zhang An'guo</note> Generally, those with abundant worldly experience, long stuck in the dust of toil, suddenly get directed by someone to practice in stillness and silence. When they momentarily get a taste of an undistracted mind, they mistake it for final peace and joy. Little do they know—it's like pressing grass with a stone. Though temporarily it seems to stop, the roots are still there. How could there ever be a time of true penetrating stillness? For genuine stillness to manifest, you must suddenly leap out from within the blazing midst of arising and ceasing—without moving a single hair—and stir the long river into curds and ghee, transform the great earth into gold. Then, facing any situation, you can take away or give, kill or enliven, freely. Benefiting others and yourself—nothing you can't do. <note>Instruction to Fu Jishen</note> In the old days, Venerable Yanyang asked Zhaozhou: "What about when not a single thing is brought along?" Zhaozhou said: "Put it down." Yanyang said: "Since not a single thing is brought, what is there to put down?" Zhaozhou said: "If you can't put it down, then carry it." At these words, Yanyang was greatly awakened. Another time, a monk asked an ancient worthy: "What about when I can't do anything about myself?" The ancient worthy said: "This old monk also can't do anything about it." The monk said: "I'm still in the stage of learning, so of course I can't do anything about it. But you, Master, are a great knowledgeable one—why can't you do anything about it either?" The ancient worthy said: "If I could do something about it, I'd take away that 'can't' of yours." At these words, the monk was greatly awakened. Where those two monks awakened—that's where Secretary Lou was deluded. Where Secretary Lou was in doubt—that's where the two monks questioned. "Dharmas arise from discrimination and cease with discrimination. When discrimination of dharmas ceases, that Dharma neither arises nor ceases." <note>Reply to Lou Shumi</note> The letter on dream and awakening sent to Xiang Bogong is found in the chapter on Elder Longqing Xian. You wrote that New Year's Eve has already arrived. In short, if you observe thus in daily life, the worldly mind of defilement will naturally dissolve. Once the defiled mind dissolves, then tomorrow will again be early spring, still cold. The ancients said: "If you want to understand the meaning of Buddha-nature, observe the season and conditions." This season—it's the season of the yellow-faced elder's appearance in the world, his enlightenment, his sitting on the diamond throne, his subduing of Mara's armies, his turning of the Dharma wheel, his liberating of sentient beings, his entering Nirvana. It's no different from what the Emptiness-Understanding Layman calls the season of New Year's Eve. When you come here, just observe thus. Observing thus is called right observation. Observing otherwise is called wrong observation. While right and wrong are not yet distinguished, you inevitably drift with outer seasons and changes. If you want not to drift with the seasons—just put it all down at once. Put down until there's nothing left to put down. Then even this saying isn't held. You remain, as before, just the Emptiness-Understanding Layman, no one else. <note>Reply to Liu Jigao</note> Chan Master Zhangjing said: "The ultimate principle is beyond words. People of this age don't understand and force themselves to study other matters, taking these as accomplishments. They don't know that self-nature is originally not an object of the senses. It is a subtle, great gate of liberation. All its awareness and illumination is undefiled and unobstructed. Such radiance has never rested or ceased. From distant eons to the present, it has never changed or altered. Like the sun disk shining near and far—though it reaches all forms, it doesn't mix with any. This spiritual candle, subtle and bright, doesn't depend on forging or refinement. Because people don't understand, they grasp at images of things—like pressing their eyes to create illusory flowers in empty space, only tiring themselves and vainly passing through eons. If you can turn the light inward, there is no second person. Every movement and gesture doesn't diminish ultimate reality." You say you feel your faculties are dull—try turning the light inward like this. Can that which knows dullness be said to be dull? If you don't turn the light around but just cling to dull faculties, you only increase affliction—piling illusion on illusion, adding flowers in the sky to flowers in the sky. But listen: that which can know dull faculties is definitely not dull. Though you shouldn't cling to this dullness, you also shouldn't abandon it and seek elsewhere. Taking and rejecting sharp or dull lies with the person, not the mind. This mind is one with the Buddhas of the three times, without duality. If there were duality, the Dharma wouldn't be equal. Receiving teachings and transmitting mind—both are illusory. Seeking truth and reality only produces more discrepancy. If you just know this mind that is one without duality, definitely not residing in sharp-dull or taking-rejecting, then you should see the moon and forget the finger—cut directly, one stroke, two pieces. If you hesitate further, calculating before and after, you're taking empty fists and fingers to produce real understanding, vainly conjuring illusions within the realms of sense and objects, imprisoning yourself within the aggregates and elements—with no end in sight. <note>Reply to Chen Jiren</note> I'm glad to hear you've closed your gates and cut off socializing, setting aside all worldly affairs, focusing morning and evening on the meditation topic I suggested. Very good, very good. Now that you've dedicated your mind, make awakening your standard. If you retreat, thinking your faculties are too inferior and you need to seek some point of entry, that's like standing in the Hall of Universal Origin and asking where Chang'an is! When you're right in the middle of raising the topic, who is it that's raising? And who is it that knows your faculties are inferior? Who is it that seeks an entry point? Miaoxi, not fearing bad karma from speech, will tell you plainly: it's just Wang Yanzhang—there aren't two. There's only one Wang Yanzhang. So where would a separate "raiser," a separate "knower of inferior faculties," a separate "seeker of entry" come from? You should know these are all shadows of Wang Yanzhang—none of them are the real Wang Yanzhang. If he's truly Wang Yanzhang, his faculties could not be inferior, he would not seek an entry point. Just trust your own true master directly—no need for all this fuss. In the old days, a monk asked Yangshan: "For sudden awakening in the Zen school, what after all is the meaning of the entrance?" Yangshan said: "This meaning is extremely difficult. For those of superior faculties and highest wisdom in the patriarchs' gate, one hearing brings a thousand awakenings, and they attain the great total retention. Such people are rare. For those with slight faculties and meager wisdom..." — that's why the ancients said: "If you don't settle into meditation and quiet reflection, arriving here you'll be lost." The monk said: "Apart from this special case, is there another expedient means by which a student can enter?" Yangshan said: "Whether there's another or not, it would make your mind unsettled. I now ask you: where are you from?" The monk said: "From Youzhou." Yangshan said: "Do you think of that place?" The monk said: "Always." Yangshan said: "That place has towers, pavilions, groves, gardens, people, horses, bustling crowds. When you think of the thinker of these things—does it have all these varieties?" The monk said: "Arriving here, I don't see any of them." Yangshan said: "Your understanding is still lodged in objects—you've got the level of faith, but not the level of the person." Miaoxi has already been overly grandmotherly; now I must add another footnote. "The level of the person" means Wang Yanzhang himself. "The level of faith" means the one who knows faculties are inferior and seeks an entry point. When you're right in the midst of raising the topic, if you turn back to look: is the raiser still Wang Yanzhang or not? When you get here, there's no room for even a hair's breadth. If you pause and halt your momentum, you'll be bewitched by shadows. Please, with sharp energy—don't be careless, don't be careless. <note>Reply to Wang Yanzhang</note> You previously wrote that your faculties are dull and muddled, and though you practice diligently, you haven't found the method for transcendence and awakening. When I was at Shuangjing, my reply to Fu Jishen's question was exactly about this. That which knows dullness is definitely not dull. Where else would you seek transcendence and awakening? For scholar-officials studying this path, you must enter by borrowing this very dullness. If you cling to dullness, thinking "I have no share in this," you're already seized by the Mara of dullness. This is because your accumulated intellectual views, along with the mind seeking realization, stand in front as obstacles, preventing your own right views from appearing. This obstacle doesn't come from outside, isn't some separate thing—it's just the master within who knows dullness. So Venerable Ruiyan always sat alone in his quarters, calling out: "Master!" and answering, "Yes!" Then: "Stay alert!" and answering, "Yes!" Then: "In the future, don't be fooled by others!" and answering, "Yes, yes!" Fortunately, the ancients left us this model. Now try raising it here: what is it? This very raiser is no other—it's just this one who knows dullness. And the one who knows dullness is none other—it's your own fundamental identity, Li Baowen himself. This is Miaoxi, with no choice, prescribing medicine according to the illness, merely pointing out the road home for you to sit securely. If you take these dead words literally and truly call it your "fundamental identity," then you're mistaking consciousness for the self—getting further from the matter. So Venerable Changsha said: "Students of the path don't recognize the true—only because from the start they mistake consciousness for spirit. The root of birth and death through countless eons—fools call it the original person." What I said before about "borrowing dullness to enter" is exactly this. Just look: this which knows such dullness—what after all is it? Just look right here. No need to seek transcendence or awakening. Keep looking, and suddenly you'll burst out laughing. Beyond this, there's nothing more to say. <note>Reply to Li Maojia</note> When scholar-officials study the path, those with sharp faculties pass it right by; those with dull faculties find it hard to enter. Finding it hard, they retreat in discouragement. Passing it by, they inevitably slander. If you want to hit the middle, take what you've passed by and put it where you find it hard to enter; take what you find hard and put it where you passed it by. Then naturally everything settles—you no longer form concepts of "hard to enter" or "passed by." Once you're like this, then go ahead and release your whole body right here. When releasing, don't form a notion of releasing either. As the ancient said: "Carefree and loose, always like a dull fool—yet the one who understands will love him." <note>Instruction to Chen Cizhong</note> Torpor and restlessness—the ancient sages scolded both. When you're sitting quietly and feel these two illnesses arise, just raise the "dog has no Buddha-nature" topic. No need to forcefully push either illness away—they settle on their own immediately. As days and months deepen, when you notice it feels effortless, that's exactly where the power is. No need for some special "conquering stillness" practice—this itself is the practice. <note>Reply to Fu Jishen</note> Your elder brother, the Learned Lord Bao, never knew about the methods of maintaining and forgetting, yet he touched his nose by accident. Though he hasn't fully distinguished all the right and wrong schools, his foundation is solid, and evil influences can't penetrate him. Maintaining and forgetting are both present within. But if you keep maintaining and forgetting one-sidedly—if the mind of birth and death remains unbroken—the dark Mara finds its opening, and unavoidably you'll cut space into two compartments: enjoying limitless bliss in stillness, enduring limitless suffering in activity. To balance bliss and suffering equally, don't arouse the mind to maintain or use the mind to forget. Throughout the twelve hours, let it all hang loose and free. If old habits suddenly flare up, no need to forcibly suppress them—right at the point of the flare-up, observe the topic: "Does a dog have Buddha-nature or not? No." At such a moment, it's like a single snowflake on a red-hot furnace. Those with sharp eyes and quick hands catch it in one leap—then they understand Leng Rong's words: "Precisely when using the mind, precisely there's no mind to use. Laborious are the explanations of names and forms—the direct talk isn't complicated. In no-mind, function is just right. In constant function, there's just no-mind. Now speaking of the place of no-mind—it's not different from having mind." This isn't deceiving talk. <note>Reply to \[Li\] Yanzhong</note> You wrote that in responding to conditions, you encounter differentiated realms daily yet never leave the Buddhadharma, and that in daily activities you use the "dog has no Buddha-nature" topic to break through emotional defilements. If you practice this way, I fear you may never awaken. Please examine, right at your feet: where do differentiated realms arise from? In your movements and demeanor, how do you use the "dog has no Buddha-nature" topic to break through emotional defilements? And who is it that knows the breaking through? Didn't the Buddha say: "Sentient beings are inverted—confused about self, they chase objects. Objects fundamentally have no self-nature; it's those confused about self who chase them. Realms fundamentally have no differentiations; it's those confused about self who differentiate them." Since you daily traverse differentiated realms and yet claim to be in the Buddhadharma—if you're truly in the Buddhadharma, then they're not differentiated realms. If you're in differentiated realms, then you're not in the Buddhadharma. Tossing up one and putting down another—when will it ever end? The broad-browed butcher, in the Nirvana assembly, put down his knife knife and instantly became a Buddha. Was there all this fussing and fretting? In daily responding to conditions, the moment you feel you've entered differentiated realms, just at that very point of differentiation, raise the "dog has no Buddha-nature" topic. Don't form notions of "breaking through," don't think of "emotional defilements," don't think of "differentiation," don't think of "Buddhadharma." Just watch the phrase "dog has no Buddha-nature." Just raise the word "No." Don't hold the mind waiting for awakening—if you wait for awakening, then the realm becomes differentiated, the Buddhadharma becomes differentiated, emotional defilements become differentiated, the "dog has no Buddha-nature" topic becomes differentiated, the gaps become differentiated, the non-gaps become differentiated, the places where emotions defilements disturb you become differentiated, and even the one who knows all these differentiations becomes differentiated. If you want to cure this illness, just watch the single word "No." Just observe the broad-browed butcher putting down his knife and saying, "I am one of the thousand Buddhas." Is this real or unreal? If you deliberate on real or unreal, you're back into differentiated realms. Better to cut with one stroke—don't think of what came before or after. Thinking of before and after—that's differentiation again. Xuan Sha said: "This matter cannot be bounded or restricted. Mental pathways are cut off. It doesn't depend on adornment. Originally true and pure. In movement and still, in speech and laughter, it's clear everywhere, with nothing lacking." People these days don't awaken to the principle within—they vainly involve themselves in affairs and dust, staining everything, tying themselves to everything. Even if they wake, they see the realm of dust as chaotic, names and forms as unreal—then they try to still the mind, gather thoughts, return phenomena to emptiness, close their eyes and hide their gaze. When a thought arises, they crush it at once. When subtle thinking begins, they immediately suppress it. Such views are the externalist paths of falling into empty annihilation—dead people whose spirits haven't scattered. Dark and dim, without awareness, they plug their ears to steal a bell, deceiving only themselves. Everything in your letter is exactly the illness Xuan Sha scolded—the heretical meditation of silent illumination, a pit that buries people. You must know this. When raising the topic, none of these tricks are needed. Just don't let it be interrupted whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying. In pleasure, anger, sorrow, joy—don't discriminate. Raise it again and again. Watch it again and again. When you feel there's no logic, no flavor, when your heart feels hot and stifled—that's the moment for you to abandon your life. Remember, remember. Don't see such a state and retreat. Such a state is exactly the news of becoming Buddha and ancestor. The current crowd of silent-illumination heretics only takes wordless non-speech as the ultimate, calling it "the matter before the first sound," calling it "the matter before the empty eon." They don't believe there's a gate of awakening—they call awakening deception, call it second-rate, call it expedient speech, call it something to hook people in. Such types fool others and themselves, mislead others and themselves. You must know this too. In the four deportments of daily life, when you traverse differentiated realms and feel it's effortless—that's where the power is. The place of power is extremely effortless. If you use even a hair's worth of force to brace yourself, it's certainly wrong Dharma, not Buddhadharma. Just maintain a long-term mind and grapple with the "dog has no Buddha-nature" topic. Grapple and grapple until the mind has nowhere to go. Suddenly, like waking from sleep, like a lotus blooming, like parting clouds to see the sun—at such a moment, naturally it all becomes one piece. In daily life, in the midst of all your flips and tumbles, just watch the word "No." Don't worry about awakening or not, penetrating or not. The Buddhas of the three times are just people with nothing to do. The patriarchal ancestors are also just people with nothing to do. The ancients said: "Just see no-thing within affairs—seeing forms and hearing sounds, no need to be deaf." Another ancient said: "The fool removes objects but doesn't remove mind. The wise removes mind and doesn't remove objects." When the mind is absent in all places, then all kinds of differentiated realms vanish by themselves. Scholar-officials these days are mostly impatient—they want to understand Zen immediately, measuring and weighing sutra teachings and patriarchs' words, wanting to explain everything clearly. Little do they know: the place where it's clear is precisely where it's not clear. If you penetrate this single word "No," then "clear" or "not clear"—you won't need to ask anyone. This old man tells scholar-officials to let themselves be dull—that's this principle. Being the champion in the dullards' exam isn't bad either. I just fear you'll turn in a blank paper! (laughter) <note>Reply to Zong Zhige</note> Knowing you're lost but not awakening—that's a great mistake. Clinging to the lost state and waiting for awakening makes the mistake even greater. Why? Because not realizing is delusion. Clinging to delusion and waiting for awakening—that's not realizing within not realizing, delusion within delusion. If you truly want to break through these two layers of gate, please put it all down at once. If you can't put it down, then delusion and awakening alternate endlessly through future eons—when will there ever be rest? <note>Instruction to Huang Bocheng</note> He also said: When studying this path, before you find an entry point, everything feels a thousand times difficult. Hearing a master raise it makes it seem even harder to grasp. This is because the mind seeking proof and rest hasn't been removed—instead it becomes the obstacle. The moment this mind rests, you'll know it's neither difficult nor easy, nor is it something a teacher can transmit. If you want to hold the mind waiting for awakening, hold the mind waiting for rest, and investigate from your feet all the way until Maitreya's descent—you'll never awaken, never rest. You'll only grow more confused and stifled. Venerable Pingtian said: "The spirit light is undimmed—the ancient path through ten thousand ages. Entering this gate, don't preserve intellectual understanding." And an ancient worthy said: "This matter cannot be obtained with an intentional mind, cannot be gained with an unintentional mind, cannot be created with words, cannot be reached through silent stillness." This is first-class grandmotherly speech that gets muddy entering the world. Often meditators just recite it and let it pass, never carefully examining what principle it contains. If you're someone with backbone, the moment you hear it raised, you'd use the King of Jewels sword to cut through these four tangled paths in a single stroke. Then the road of birth and death is cut. The road of ordinary and sage is cut. Calculating and pondering is cut. Gain and loss, right and wrong—all cut. At your feet: naked, bare, nothing to grasp. Isn't that joyful? Isn't that liberating? Don't you see how Master Guanxi, when first visiting Linji, was grabbed by the chest as soon as he arrived, pulled off the rope bed? Guanxi immediately said, "I understand, I understand." Linji, knowing he was through, pushed him out the door—not another word of discussion. At that moment, how could Guanxi have calculated or deliberated to respond? Fortunately, the ancients left such models. People today don't take such matters seriously—just because of their coarseness. If Guanxi had had the slightest mind waiting for awakening, waiting for proof, waiting for rest when grabbed—not to mention being grabbed and awakening, even if tied hand and foot and dragged around the four continents once, he couldn't have awakened, couldn't have rested. <note>Reply to Zeng Tianyou</note> You wrote that in early years you knew to have faith in this path, but in later years intellectual understanding obstructed you, and you haven't had a single awakening. You want to know the expedient means for practicing the path day and night. Since you've entrusted me with such sincerity, I dare not hold back—to settle the case, here's a bit of vine. This very mind seeking awakening is the intellectual understanding that obstructs the path! What other intellectual understanding is there to obstruct you? After all, what do you call "intellectual understanding"? Where does it come from? And who is it that's obstructed? This single phrase contains three inversions: First, you say you're obstructed by intellectual understanding. Second, you say you haven't awakened, content to be a deluded person. Third, within delusion, you wait with your mind for awakening. These three inversions are exactly the root of birth and death. You must bring about the non-arising of a single thought—when these inverted minds are cut off, then you'll know there's no delusion to break, no awakening to wait for, no intellectual understanding to obstruct. As it's said: "When a person drinks water, they know for themselves whether it's cold or warm." Over time, naturally you won't form such views. Just look at the mind that knows intellectual understanding—can it be obstructed? Does the mind that knows intellectual understanding contain all these varieties? The great wise ones of old all used intellectual understanding as companions, as skillful means. Upon intellectual understanding they practiced equal compassion. Upon intellectual understanding they performed Buddha's work. Like a dragon finding water, like a tiger leaning on a mountain—they never found it troublesome. Only because they recognized where intellectual understanding arises. Once they recognize its arising point, this very intellectual understanding becomes the ground of liberation, the place of escape from birth and death. Since it's the ground of liberation, the place of escape, then what's known and what's understood are themselves still. Since what's known and understood are still, the one who knows the knowing and understanding must also be still. Enlightenment, Nirvana, Thusness, Buddha-nature must also be still. What else could obstruct? Where else would you seek awakening? <note>Reply to Fu Jishen</note> The great meditator Dingguang asked Master Miaodao to Yunmen: "How about confusion and awakening, facing and turning away of this mind, this nature? I beg for a concise essential instruction." Yunmen was silent for a long time without answering. Miaodao asked again. Yunmen smiled and said: "When it comes to the concise essential, it cannot be indicated to others. If it could be indicated, it wouldn't be concise and essential." Miaodao said: "Is there no expedient means to give students a direction?" Yunmen said: "When it comes to expedient means—the mind has no confusion or awakening, the nature has no facing or turning away. It's just that people set up views of confusion and awakening, cling to interpretations of facing and turning. Wanting to clarify this mind and see this nature, yet this mind and this nature then follow people's inversions, chaotically flowing into false paths. Thus Buddha and Mara aren't distinguished, right and wrong aren't separated. This is because they don't understand that this nature and this mind are dream-like, and vainly establish two kinds of conceptual names, taking facing/turning and confusion/awakening as real, recognizing this mind and this nature as true. Little do they know: real or unreal, deluded or not, worldly or transcendent—all are merely provisional speech. So Vimalakirti said: 'The Dharma cannot be seen, heard, sensed, or known. If you practice seeing, hearing, sensing, knowing—that's seeing, hearing, sensing, knowing, not seeking the Dharma.' An ancient worthy also said: 'If you take your own mind's self-nature as ultimate, there must be other objects and other people to counter it.' And the Buddha told Purna: 'You tilt and snatch form and emptiness against each other within the Tathāgatagarbha, so the Tathāgatagarbha follows and becomes form and emptiness, pervading the Dharma realm. But I, through the wondrously bright neither-arising nor-ceasing, unite with the Tathāgatagarbha, and the Tathāgatagarbha is only wondrous awakening, bright, perfectly illumining the Dharma realm.' The Tathāgatagarbha is this mind, this nature. The Buddha provisionally pointed to form and emptiness tilting against each other as wrong, and the wondrous bright neither-arising-nor-ceasing as right. These two statements are medicinal words, curing the two illnesses of confusion and awakening—not the Buddha's final intention. They were spoken to break the views of those who hold confusion/awakening and mind/nature facing/turning as real dharmas. Don't you see Bodhisattva Vajragarbha saying: 'All three times are only speech. All dharmas have no support within speech. All speech has no support within dharmas.' If views of confusion and awakening vanish, if interpretations of facing and turning are cut off, then this mind shines bright like the clear sun; this nature is vast as empty space. At your feet, light radiates, shaking the earth, illumining the ten directions. All who see this light realize the patient endurance of the non-arising of dharmas. At such a moment, naturally you'll be silently in accord with this mind and this nature. Then you'll know: originally there was no confusion; now there is no awakening. Awakening is confusion; confusion is awakening. Facing is turning; turning is facing. Nature is mind; mind is nature. Buddha is Mara; Mara is Buddha. One single pure path, equal—with no equality or inequality at all. All are the ordinary functioning of your own mind—not borrowed from any external art. Having arrived at such a state, this too is spoken only because of necessity. Don't take it as real. If you take it as real, then again you don't recognize expedient means—you cling to dead words, adding more illusion, increasingly confused and deluded, with no end. When you get here, there's no place for you to apply the mind. Better to know such a matter, set it aside for a moment, then turn around and look: Ma Dizu's "Mind is Buddha," "Not mind, not Buddha," "Not mind, not Buddha, not thing." Zhaozhou's "cypress tree in the courtyard." Yunmen's "Mount Sumeru." Da Yu's "saw cutting a scale weight." Yanyang's "clod of earth." Fenzhou's "don't have delusive thoughts." Juzhi's "raised finger." What principle, after all, is this? This is Yunmen's expedient means. Miaodao, ponder it. <note>Instruction to Meditation Student Miaodao</note> This very flurry of busyness—that's exactly the news of New Year's Eve. "What is Buddha?" "A dry shit-stick." If you can't penetrate this, how are you any different from facing New Year's Eve? <note>Reply to Lü Longli</note> You wrote that you can practice Buddha's work but can't understand Zen phrases. Can and can't—no difference, no sameness. Just know: what can practice is itself Zen phrases. Understanding Zen phrases without practicing Buddha's work—how is that different from sitting at the bottom of water and crying "thirsty," or sitting in a rice basket and crying "hungry"! Know that Zen phrases are Buddha's work; Buddha's work is Zen phrases. Whether you can practice or understand lies with the person, not the Dharma. <note>Reply to Fan Maoshi</note> Shouldering this great matter of cause and conditions requires resolute determination. If you're half believing and half doubting, you'll never connect. The ancients said: "Studying the path is like drilling for fire—when you see smoke, don't stop. Wait until sparks of gold appear—that's when you return home and reach the end." If you want to know where the end is: self-realm and other-realm are one and the same. <note>Instruction to Li Xianchen</note> He also said: Chan Master Zhaozhou said: "In the twelve hours of the day, apart from the two periods of porridge and rice which are mixed-mindedness, I have no other place of scattered mind." This is where this old master truly walked. Don't interpret it as Buddhist teaching or Zen path. Impermanence is swift; birth and death are the great matter. Within the realm of sentient beings, matters that follow birth and death are numerous as hemp seeds and millet. You clear away one batch, and another batch arrives. If you don't paste the two words "birth and death" on the tip of your nose as your opponent in combat, then when New Year's Eve finally arrives, you'll be flustered, like a crab dropped in boiling water—and only then will you know regret, but it'll be too late. If you want it direct, cut it off from this very moment. <note>Instruction to Nie Sizheng</note> To study this path, you must possess resolute faith. When facing favorable and adverse circumstances, if the mind doesn't waver, only then do you have a share in heading toward it. The Buddha said: "Faith can forever extinguish the root of affliction. Faith can single-mindedly direct you toward Buddha's merit. Faith is unattached to realms. Far from all difficulties, you attain the difficulty-free." And: "Faith can transcend all Mara's paths, revealing the supreme path of liberation." As cited above, the teachings have clear text. Does the Buddha deceive people? If you're half clear and half dark, half believing and half doubting, then when touching circumstances and meeting conditions, doubts arise in the mind. This is being attached to realms, unable to be decisively without doubt in this path, to extinguish the root of affliction, and to distance yourself from all difficulties. What are "all difficulties"? It's lacking decisive faith and being disturbed by your own inner Mara of the aggregates. If you can in one thought see dependent origination as unborn, then without going beyond this thought you immediately transcend Mara's path. What's called "Mara's path" is nothing other than being oblivious to this mind and, outside this mind, vainly generating various discriminating views. Then this mind follows those discriminating delusive thoughts and flows along—thus accomplishing Mara's realm. If you can directly trust this mind, decisively originally accomplished as Buddha, suddenly dropping all views—then this very Mara's path becomes the road of enlightenment, the road beyond birth and death. <note>Instruction to Deng Zili</note> Followers of the Daoist tradition, entirely relying on delusive thinking and imagination—absorbing the sun's essence and moon's radiance, swallowing clouds and breathing air—can still preserve their bodies and dwell in the world, untouched by cold and heat. How much more so when you turn this mind and these thoughts entirely into Prajñā! The ancient sages clearly said: "Like the fine dust worm that can alight everywhere except on flame—the minds of sentient beings are likewise: they can connect with everything except Prajñā." If with every thought you don't retreat from your original intention—taking the mind that connects with worldly defilements and turning it to rest solely on Prajñā—then even if you don't break through in this lifetime, at the moment of death you certainly won't be dragged by evil karma into the lower realms. In your next life, following the power of this lifetime's vow, you'll certainly be in Prajñā, enjoying its ready benefits. This is a decided matter—nothing to doubt. <note>Reply to Zeng Tianyou</note> When New Year's Eve arrives: loved ones won't help. Power won't help. Wealth won't help. Temperament won't help. Official position won't help. Riches and honor won't help. When your eyes lose their light, only the two paths of good and evil you've created through the years appear one by one before you. If you've done more evil than good, you'll drift along with evil karma. If you've done more good than evil, you'll be born into the human and heavenly realms, into families practicing the ten good deeds. Once you know both these paths belong to illusion, then summon brave diligence and an unretreating, firm mind, determined to transcend emotions and leave views behind, to penetrate liberation from birth and death. Then on New Year's Eve, the two roads of good and evil won't be able to confine you. <note>Instruction to the Deng Liangfu household</note>

## 指月錄卷之三十一

> Volume 31 of the Pointing to the Moon Record