---
title: "憨山老人夢遊全集 · 示離際肇禪人"
description: "憨山老人梦游全集是明代高僧憨山德清所著的文集由弟子福善等编录憨山德清是明末四大高僧之一身处佛教复兴时期其著作涵盖经论注疏法语书信及诗文等内容涉及禅教性相诸宗融合儒释道三家思想体系博大精深该书不仅是研究憨山大师佛学思想的重要文献也是了解晚明佛教史与思想史的珍贵资料在汉传佛教中具有崇高地位对后世禅宗及佛教义理发展影响深远"
url: "https://rushiwowen.co/en/r/cmgmzo19706rjl404hbusai7n"
---

### 示離際肇禪人

若論此事本無向上向下，纔涉思惟便成剩法，何況以有所得心入離言之實際乎？禪人果能決定以生死為大事，試將從前厭俗心念，乃至出家已來所有一切聞見知識，及發參求本分事上日用工夫，著衣喫飯、折旋俯仰、動靜閒忙，凡所經歷目前種種境界微細推求，畢竟以何為向上事？再將推求的心諦實觀察，畢竟落在甚麼處？凡有落處便成窠臼，即是生死窟穴，皆妄想邊事，非實際也。《經》云：「縱滅一切見聞覺知，內守幽閒，猶為法塵分別影事。」古人目為黑山鬼窟，正是參禪大忌諱處，何況以生滅粗浮想像入究竟際？遠之遠矣！所謂舉心即錯，動念即乖。直若將不舉心、不動念處當作玄妙，又落玄妙窠臼。昔有僧問趙州：「如何是玄中玄？」州云：「汝玄來多少時也？」僧云：「玄之久矣。」州云：「若不是老僧，幾乎玄殺。」你看古人一語如金剛王寶劍，斷盡凡聖知見。如是觀之，此事豈可以唇吻能道、紙墨文字可能形容？只在學人日用舉心念處諦實觀察，但有絲毫情見乃至玄妙見解粘滯處，便是妄想影子，都落生死邊際，非離際也。離際之際名為實際。實際無際，無際則不落聖凡邊際。聖凡不落，生死情忘，古人所謂：「一念不生，前後際斷。」斷則無事矣！方名無事道人。事既無，又向甚麼處求玄求妙？所謂：「但盡凡情，別無聖解。」到此如人飲水泠暖自知，大似啞子喫黃柏，難以吐露向人。禪人但辦一片生鐵心腸，如此一直行將去，不必將心待悟，亦不必計其歲月日時，只須將前後無量劫數直下拈在目前，任他生死、去來、起滅，即此現前一念，決定不為他浮光幻影遷移；縱是刀山火聚，淨土天宮亦任頭出頭沒，而此一念孤光畢竟不被他搖奪。如此可稱大力量人，方纔是真正出家兒。不被生死籠罩、不被聖凡埋沒、不被三途遷訛，如此始得名實相應，乃是真實離際也。

> Concerning this matter, there is fundamentally no "above" or "below." The moment you engage in thinking, it becomes surplus. How much less can you enter the true reality beyond words with a mind that seeks attainment? If you, as a practitioner, are truly resolute in treating birth and death as the great matter, then try to examine—from the worldly thoughts you once wished to abandon, to all the knowledge, views, and experiences you have gathered since becoming a monk, including the daily efforts in pursuing your fundamental task, wearing clothes, eating meals, turning and bowing, moving and resting—every situation before you, and investigate it subtly. After all, what is this "upward matter"? Then, with that very mind of inquiry, observe honestly: where does it ultimately land? Wherever it lands, it becomes a nest, a den of birth and death, all belonging to deluded thinking, not to true reality. The sutra says: "Even if you extinguish all seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing, and inwardly abide in serene stillness, it is still the discriminating shadows of mental objects." The ancients called this the "ghost cave of the black mountain"—precisely the greatest taboo in meditative practice. How much less can you approach the ultimate realm with coarse, arising-and-perishing imagination? You are far, far off! It is said: "Raise the mind and you are wrong; stir a thought and you have deviated." But if you take the place where you neither raise the mind nor stir thoughts as something mysterious and wonderful, you have fallen into another nest of mystery. Once, a monk asked Master Zhaozhou: "What is the mystery within mystery?" Zhaozhou said: "How long have you been mystified?" The monk replied: "A long time." Zhaozhou said: "If it weren't for this old monk, you would have been mystified to death." Look how the ancients' words were like the vajra king's precious sword, severing all ordinary and sage knowledge. Viewing it this way, can this matter be expressed by speech or captured by written words? It only rests in the practitioner's honest examination of the arising moment of thought in daily life. Wherever there is the slightest emotional view, even a view of mystery or wonder that clings, it is a phantom of delusion, all falling within the bounds of birth and death, not the transcendence of limits. The limit that transcends limits is called true reality. True reality has no limits. Without limits, it does not fall into the bounds of ordinary or sage. Not falling into ordinary or sage, thoughts of birth and death dissolve. The ancients said: "When not a single thought arises, the boundary of before and after is severed." Once severed, there is nothing further—this is called the "person of no affairs." With no affairs, where then do you seek mystery or wonder? As it is said: "Simply exhaust the ordinary mind; there is no separate sage understanding." At this point, it is like a person drinking water, knowing for themselves whether it is cold or warm—like a mute person tasting bitter herb, unable to express it to others. Practitioner, just forge an iron-like resolve and keep walking this path directly. Do not wait with the mind for enlightenment, and do not count the days or months. Just take the countless eons of past and future and place them directly before you. Let birth and death come and go, arise and cease—this present thought, determined, will not be moved by their fleeting illusions. Even before swords and flames, in pure lands or heavenly palaces, sinking and surfacing freely, this solitary light of one thought remains unshaken. Only then can you be called a person of great strength, a true renunciant. Not shrouded by birth and death, not buried by ordinary or sage, not dragged astray by the three lower realms—only then is your name and reality in accord, and this is truly the transcendence of all limits.