趙州狗子
Zhaozhou's Dog
趙州和尚因僧問。狗子還有佛性。也無。州云無。
The monk asked Master Zhaozhou, "Does a dog have Buddha-nature or not?" Zhaozhou replied, "No."
無門曰。參禪須透祖師關。妙悟要窮心路絕。祖關不透。心路不絕。盡是依草附木精靈。且道。如何是祖師關。只者一箇無字。乃宗門一關也。遂目之曰禪宗無門關。透得過者。非但親見趙州。便可與歷代祖師。把手共行。眉毛廝結。同一眼見。同一耳聞。豈不慶快。莫有要透關底。麼將三百六十骨節八萬四千毫竅。通身起箇疑團。參箇無字。晝夜提撕。莫作虛無會。莫作有無會。如吞了箇熱鐵丸。相似吐又吐不出。蕩盡從前惡知惡覺。久久純熟。自然內外打成。一片如啞子得夢。只許自知。驀然打發。驚天動地。如奪得關將軍大刀入手。逢佛殺佛。逢祖殺祖。於生死岸頭得大自在。向六道四生中。遊戲三昧。且作麼生提撕。盡平生氣力。舉箇無字。若不間斷好。似法燭一點便著。
Wumen said: In Chan practice, you must penetrate the ancestral masters' barrier. True awakening requires cutting off all mental pathways. If you haven't broken through the ancestral barrier, if mental pathways haven't been severed, you're just a spirit clinging to grass and trees. So tell me—what is this ancestral barrier? It's just this one word: "No." This is the single barrier of our tradition, hence named "The Gateless Barrier of Chan."
If you pass through it, you won't just personally meet Zhaozhou—you'll walk hand in hand with all the ancestral masters, eyebrows touching, seeing with the same eyes, hearing with the same ears. Wouldn't that be a cause for celebration?
Is there anyone who wants to break through this barrier? Then take your three hundred sixty bones and joints, your eighty-four thousand pores, and form a single mass of doubt with your entire body. Practice with this word "No," day and night. Don't interpret it as nothingness, don't interpret it as existence or non-existence. It should feel like swallowing a red-hot iron ball that you can't spit out. Cast away all your former wrong knowledge and wrong perceptions. When this practice matures over time, naturally inner and outer will become one—like a mute who has a dream, known only to themselves.
Then suddenly it bursts forth, shaking heaven and earth. It's like seizing General Guan's great sword: meet a buddha, kill the buddha; meet an ancestor, kill the ancestor. At the shore of birth and death, you gain great freedom. Among the six realms and four modes of birth, you play in samadhi.
So how should you practice? Use the full force of your entire life to raise this word "No." If you never let it break, it's like a Dharma candle that ignites as soon as lit.
頌曰。
The verse says:
狗子佛性 全提正令 纔涉有無 喪身失命
A dog's Buddha-nature— The master raises the true teaching directly. The moment you touch upon "existence" or "non-existence," You lose your body and your life.