That Great Sleeping Dragon of Joy Teisho, by John Tarrant, Roshi

　　Someone asked Lin-chi, What is the Buddha-devil

　　 This question arose from a previous talk he gave about thrusting Buddhas and devils aside. As people will, someone must have fixed on one part of this talk and asked, Whats the Buddha-devil

　　 So he said,

　　If you have doubts in your mind for an instant, thats the Buddha-devil. If you can understand that the ten thousand phenomena were never born, that the mind is like a conjurors trick, then not one speck of dust, not one phenomenon, will exist. Everything will be clean and pure and this will be Buddha. Buddha and devil just refer to two states, one stained, one pure. As I see it, there is no Buddha, no living beings, no long ago, no now. If you want to get it, youve already got it. Its not something that requires time. Theres no religious practice, no enlightenment, no getting anything, no missing out on anything; at no time is there any other dharma than this. If anyone claims there is a dharma superior to this, I say it must be a dream.

　　All I have to say to you is simply this: followers of the Way, this lone brightness before my eyes now, this person plainly listening to me, this person is unimpeded at any point, but penetrates the ten directions, free to do as he or she pleases in the threefold world. No matter what environment you may encounter, with its peculiarities and differences, you cannot be swayed or pulled awry. In the space of an instant you make your way into the dharma realm. If you meet a Buddha, you preach to the Buddha; if you meet an ancestor, you preach to the ancestor; if you meet an arhat, you preach to the arhat; if you meet a hungry ghost, you preach to the hungry ghost. You go everywhere, wandering through many lands, teaching and converting living beings and never becoming separated from this single thought. Each place for such a one is clean and pure; the light pierces the ten directions, the ten thousand phenomena; a single thusness.

　　Followers of the Way, the really first-rate person knows right now that from the first theres never been anything that needed doing. Its because you dont have enough faith that you rush around moment by moment looking for something. You throw away your head and hunt for your head, and you cant seem to stop yourselves. You are like the bodhisattva of perfect and immediate enlightenment, who manifests his body in the dharma realm but who, in the midst of the pure land, still hates the state of common mortal and prays to become a sage. People like that have yet to forget about choices; their minds are still occupied with thoughts about purity and impurity. But the Chan school doesnt see things that way. What counts is this present moment; theres nothing that requires a lot of time. Everything I say to you is for the moment only, medicine to cure the disease. Ultimately it has no true reality. If you can see things in this way you will be true people who have left the household, free to spend ten thousand pieces of gold every day.

　　Followers of the Way, dont let just anyone put their stamp of approval on your face; dont say, I understand Zen; I understand the Way, spouting off like a waterfall. All that sort of thing is karma, leading to hell. If you are a person who honestly wants to learn the Way, dont go looking for the worlds mistakes, but set about as fast as you can looking for true and proper understanding. If you can acquire true and proper understanding thats clear and complete, then you can think about calling it quits.

　　Lin-chi speaks about as plainly as anybody does, I think. He says that when doubt is raised for an instant in your mind, thats the consciousness of hell, thats the demons world. Buddha and devil just refer to two states, one stained, on…

《That Great Sleeping Dragon of Joy Teisho》全文未完，請進入下頁繼續閱讀…