..续本文上一页 the Way, true buddha has no figure, true dharma has no form. All you”re doing is devising models and patterns out of phantoms. Anything you may find through seeking will be nothing more than a wild fox-spirit; it certainly won”t be the true buddha. It will be the understanding of a heretic.

　　“The true student of the Way has nothing to do with buddhas and nothing to do with bodhisattvas or arhats. Nor has he anything to do with the good things of the triple world. Having transcended these, solitary and free, he is not bound by things. Heaven and earth could turn upside down and he wouldn”t have a doubt; the buddhas of the ten directions could appear before him and he wouldn”t feel an instant of joy; the three hells could suddenly yawn at his feet and he wouldn”t feel an instant of fear. Why is this so

　　 Because, as I see it, all dharmas are empty forms—when transformation takes place they are existent, when transformation does not take place they are nonexistent. The three realms are mind-only, the ten thousand dharmas are consciousness-only. Hence,

　　Illusory dreams, flowers in the sky,

　　Why trouble to grasp at them!

　　“Only you, the follower of the Way right now before my eyes listening to my discourse, [only you] enter fire and are not burned, enter water and are not drowned, enter the three hells as though strolling in a pleasure garden, enter the realms of the hungry ghosts and the beasts without suffering their fate. How can this be

　　 There are no dharmas to be disliked.

　　If you love the sacred and hate the secular

　　You”ll fl oat and sink in the birth-and-death sea.

　　The passions exist dependent on mind;

　　Have no-mind, and how can they bind you

　　Without troubling to discriminate or cling to forms

　　You”ll attain the Way naturally in a moment of time.

　　 “But if you try to get understanding by hurrying down this byway and that, you”ll still be in the round of samsara after three asakhyeya kalpas. Better take your ease sitting cross-legged on a meditation platform in the monastery.

　　“Followers of the Way, students come from every quarter, and after host and guest have met the student will test the teacher with a phrase. Some tricky words are chosen by the student and flung at the corner of the teacher”s mouth. “Let”s see if you can understand this!” he says. If you teachers recognize it as a device, you seize it and throw it into a pit. Whereupon the student quiets down and asks the teacher to say something. As before, the teacher robs him of his attitude. The student says, “What superlative wisdom! A great teacher, indeed!” To which you teachers instantly retort, “You can”t even tell good from bad.”

　　“Or a teacher may take out a bunch of stuff and play with it in front of a student. The latter, seeing through this, makes himself master in every case and doesn”t fall for the humbug. Now the teacher reveals half of his body, whereupon the student gives a shout. Again the teacher tries to rattle the student by using all sorts of expressions having to do with differentiation. “You can”t tell good from bad, you old shavepate!” exclaims the student. And the teacher, with a sigh of admiration, says, “Ah, a true follower of the Way!”

　　“There are teachers all around who can”t distinguish the false from the true. When students come asking about bodhi, nirvana, the trikāya, or the [objective] surroundings and the [subjective] mind, the blind old teachers immediately start explaining to them. When they”re railed at by the students they grab their sticks and hit them, [shouting,] “What insolent talk!” Obviously you teachers yourselves are without an eye so you”ve no right to get angry with them.

　　“And then there”re a bunch of shavepates who, not knowing good from bad, point to the east and point to the west, delight in fair weather, delight in…

《镇州临济慧照禅师语录 The Recorded Sayings of Chan Master Linji Huizhao of Zhenzhou》全文未完，请进入下页继续阅读…