三祖僧璨大師者
Third Patriarch, Great Master Sengcan
不知何許人也。初以白衣謁二祖。既受度傳法。隱於舒州之皖公山。屬後周武帝破滅佛法。祖往來太湖縣司空山。居無常處。積十餘載。時人無能知者。至隋開皇十二年壬子歲。有沙彌道信。年始十四。來禮祖曰。願和尚慈悲。乞與解脫法門。祖曰。誰縛汝。曰。無人縛。祖曰。何更求解脫乎。信於言下大悟。服勞九載。後於吉州受戒。侍奉尤謹。祖屢試以玄微。知其緣熟。乃付衣法。偈曰。華種雖因地。從地種華生。若無人下種。華地盡無生。祖又曰。昔可大師付吾法。後往鄴都行化。三十年方終。今吾得汝。何滯此乎。即適羅浮山。優游二載。却還舊址。逾月士民奔趨。大設檀供。祖為四眾廣宣心要訖。於法會大樹下合掌立終。即隋煬帝大業二年丙寅十月十五日也。唐玄宗諡鑑智禪師．覺寂之塔。師信心銘曰。至道無難。唯嫌揀擇。但莫憎愛。洞然明白。毫𨤲有差。天地懸隔。欲得現前。莫存順逆。違順相爭。是為心病。不識玄旨。徒勞念靜。圓同太虗。無欠無餘。良由取捨。所以不如。莫逐有緣。勿住空忍。一種平懷。泯然自盡。止動歸止。止更彌動。唯滯兩邊。寧知一種。一種不通。兩處失功。遣有沒有。從空背空。多言多慮。轉不相應。絕言絕慮。無處不通。歸根得旨。隨照失宗。須臾返照。勝却前空。前空轉變。皆由妄見。不用求真。唯須息見。二見不住。慎莫追尋。纔有是非。紛然失心。二由一有。一亦莫守。一心不生。萬法無咎。無咎無法。不生不心。能由境滅。境逐能沉。境由能境。能由境能。欲知兩段。元是一空。一空同兩。齊含萬象。不見精麤。寧有偏黨。大道體寬。無易無難。小見狐疑。轉急轉遲。執之失度。必入邪路。放之自然。體無去住。任性合道。逍遙絕惱。繫念乖真。昏沉不好。不好勞神。何用疎親。欲取一乘。勿惡六塵。六塵不惡。還同正覺。智者無為。愚人自縛。法無異法。妄自愛著。將心用心。豈非大錯。迷生寂亂。悟無好惡。一切二邊。良由斟酌。夢幻空華。何勞把捉。得失是非。一時放却。眼若不睡。諸夢自除。心若不異。萬法一如。一如體玄。兀爾忘緣。萬法齊觀。歸復自然。泯其所以。不可方比。止動無動。動止無止。兩既不成。一何有爾。究竟窮極。不存軌則。契心平等。所作俱息。狐疑盡淨。正信調直。一切不留。無可記憶。虗明自照。不勞心力。非思量處。識情難測。真如法界。無他無自。要急相應。唯言不二。不二皆同。無不包容。十方智者。皆入此宗。宗非促延。一念萬年。無在不在。十方目前。極小同大。忘絕境界。極大同小。不見邊表。有即是無。無即是有。若不如是。必不須守。一即一切。一切即一。但能如是。何慮不畢。信心不二。不二信心。言語道斷。非去來今。
We do not know where he came from. He first came as a layman in white robes to pay respects to the Second Patriarch. After being ordained and receiving the transmission of the Dharma, he hid himself on Mount Wangong in Shuzhou. It happened that Emperor Wu of the Later Zhou persecuted and destroyed Buddhism. The Patriarch traveled back and forth between Lake Taihu and Mount Sikong, with no fixed dwelling place. He lived this way for more than ten years, and no one of his time knew who he was.
In the twelfth year of the Kaihuang era of the Sui Dynasty, the year of Renzi, there was a novice monk named Daoxin, only fourteen years old, who came to pay homage to the Patriarch and said: "I beg you, venerable sir, in your compassion, to grant me the Dharma gate of liberation."
The Patriarch said: "Who has bound you?"
He replied: "No one has bound me."
The Patriarch said: "Then why seek liberation?"
At these words, Daoxin had a great awakening. He served and labored for nine years. Later he received the precepts in Jizhou and attended the Patriarch with even greater care. The Patriarch repeatedly tested him with profound and subtle questions, and knowing that his conditions had ripened, he transmitted to him the robe and the Dharma, with this verse:
The flower seed, though it depends on the ground, From the ground the flower is born. If no one plants the seed, The flower and ground alike yield no growth.
The Patriarch also said: "Long ago, Great Master Ke transmitted the Dharma to me, and afterward went to the capital of Ye to carry out his teaching. Thirty years passed before he passed away. Now that I have found you, why should I remain here?"
He then went to Mount Luofu, where he wandered freely for two years, and then returned to his former dwelling. After a month, scholars and common people rushed to him in great numbers and made generous offerings. When the Patriarch had finished widely proclaiming the essential mind to the four assemblies, he stood beneath a great tree at the Dharma gathering, joined his palms, and passed away standing. It was the fifteenth day of the tenth month in the second year of the Daye era of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, the year of Bingyin. Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang later gave him the posthumous title Chan Master Jianzhi and the name of his stupa Jueji.
The Master's Faith-Mind Maxim says:
The ultimate Way is without difficulty, It only dislikes picking and choosing. Just do not hate or love, And it will be perfectly clear. A hair's breadth of difference, And heaven and earth are set apart. If you wish to have it appear before you, Do not hold to either favorable or unfavorable. The struggle between agreement and opposition Is a sickness of the mind. Not understanding the profound meaning, You vainly labor to quiet your thoughts. It is round like vast emptiness, Lacking nothing, having nothing extra. It is only because of grasping and rejecting That it is not thus. Do not chase after conditions, Do not dwell in empty forbearance. With a single peaceful mind, It naturally comes to an end. Stop movement to return to stillness; But in stopping, movement becomes even stronger. If you remain stuck on either side, How can you know the single kind? If the single kind is not understood, Both places lose their function. Denying existence, you sink into existence; Turning toward emptiness, you turn away from emptiness. Much speech and much thinking Only make you less attuned. Cut off speech and cut off thinking, And nowhere will you fail to penetrate. Return to the root and you attain the meaning; Following appearances, you lose the essence. In an instant, turn the light around, And you surpass the emptiness before. The transformations of the emptiness before All come from deluded views. Do not seek the true; Only cease your views. When the two views do not abide, Be careful not to pursue them. As soon as there is right and wrong, You are confused and lose your mind. The two exist because of the one; Do not cling even to the one. When the single mind is not born, The ten thousand dharmas are without fault. Without fault, there are no dharmas; Not born, there is no mind. When the capable ceases because of the object, The object follows and the capable sinks. The object becomes object because of the capable; The capable becomes capable because of the object. If you wish to know these two aspects, They are originally one emptiness. One emptiness contains both, Together embracing all phenomena. Not seeing coarse or fine, How could there be partiality? The great Way is broad in substance, Without ease and without difficulty. Small views are full of doubt; The more urgent, the slower. Clinging to it, you lose measure, And surely enter a wrong path. Let it go and follow nature; The substance has no going or staying. Let your nature accord with the Way, Carefree and free of affliction. Fixating the mind betrays the truth; Dullness and sinking are not good. Not good, it tires the spirit; What use are distance and closeness? If you wish to grasp the One Vehicle, Do not despise the six dusts. When the six dusts are not despised, They are the same as perfect awakening. The wise are without doing; The foolish bind themselves. Dharmas are not different dharmas; You falsely love and cling to them. Using mind to use mind— Is this not a great mistake? Delusion gives rise to stillness and turmoil; Awakening has no liking or disliking. All dualities Come only from weighing and judging. Dreams, illusions, empty flowers— What need is there to grasp them? Gain and loss, right and wrong— Let them all go at once. If the eye does not sleep, All dreams naturally disappear. If the mind does not differ, The ten thousand dharmas are one suchness. The substance of one suchness is profound; Suddenly you forget conditions. Viewing the ten thousand dharmas equally, You return to nature. Erasing its causes, It cannot be compared to anything. Stopping movement, there is no movement; Moving and stopping, there is no stopping. Since the two are not established, What can the one be? In the final ultimate reaching, No rules or standards remain. When the mind is in accord with equality, All that is done comes to rest. Doubt is completely purified; Right faith is balanced and straight. Nothing at all is retained; There is nothing to remember. Empty and bright, it shines by itself, Without labor of mind or effort. It is not a place of thought; Consciousness and emotion cannot fathom it. True suchness, the Dharma realm, Has no other and no self. If you urgently wish to be attuned, Simply speak of non-duality. Non-duality is all the same, Nothing is not included. The wise of the ten directions All enter this teaching. The teaching is not short or long; One thought is ten thousand years. It is neither present nor absent; The ten directions are before your eyes. The extremely small is the same as the great, Beyond all boundaries. The extremely great is the same as the small, With no edges or surface seen. Existence is precisely emptiness; Emptiness is precisely existence. If it is not so, You surely need not cling to it. The one is all; The all is the one. If you can be thus, What worry is there that it will not be complete? Faith is non-dual; Non-dual is faith. The path of words is cut off, It is not past, future, or present.