Chan Master Huangbo | 2018-06-23 | Download | AI assisted translation
| 有大禅师，法讳希运，住洪州高安县黄檗山鹫峰下。乃曹溪六祖之嫡孙，西堂百丈之法侄。独佩最上乘离文字之印，唯传一心，更无别法；心体亦空，万缘俱寂；如大日轮升虚空中，光明照耀，净无纤埃。 | There was a great Chan master whose Dharma name was Xiyun. He resided beneath Vulture Peak on Huangbo Mountain in Gao’an County, Hongzhou. He was the direct Dharma grandson of the Sixth Patriarch of Caoxi and the Dharma nephew of Xitang and Baizhang. He alone bore the seal of the supreme vehicle, beyond words and letters, transmitting only the One Mind and no other Dharma. The substance of mind is itself empty, and the myriad conditions are all quiescent. It is like the great orb of the sun rising in the empty sky: its radiance shines forth, pure and without the slightest speck of dust. |
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| 证之者无新旧、无浅深，说之者不立义解、不立宗主、不开户牖，直下便是，运念即乖，然后为本佛。故其言简，其理直，其道峻，其行孤。四方学徒望山而趋，观相而悟，往来海众常千余人。 | For those who realize it, there is neither new nor old, neither shallow nor deep. In expounding it, he established no conceptual interpretations, no doctrinal school, and opened no gateway or window: directly and immediately, this is it; to stir a thought is already to go astray. Only then is one the original Buddha. Therefore, his words were concise, his principle direct, his Way lofty, and his conduct solitary. Students from the four quarters hastened toward the mountain, awakened upon beholding his countenance, and the assembly of those who came and went often numbered more than a thousand. |
| 予会昌二年廉于钟陵，自山迎至州，憩龙兴寺，旦夕问道。大中二年廉于宛陵，复去礼迎至所部，安居开元寺。旦夕受法，退而纪之，十得一、二，佩为心印，不敢发扬。今恐入神精义不闻于未来，遂出之，授门下僧太舟法建，归旧山之广唐寺。问长老法众，与往日常所亲闻，同异何如也？ | In the second year of Huichang, while serving at Zhongling, I invited him from the mountain to the prefectural seat, where he rested at Longxing Monastery, and morning and evening I inquired into the Way. In the second year of Dazhong, while serving at Wanling, I again respectfully invited him to my jurisdiction and had him reside at Kaiyuan Monastery. Morning and evening I received his teachings; afterward, I recorded them, obtaining perhaps one or two parts out of ten, which I have kept as a mind-seal and have not dared to circulate. Now, fearing that these subtle and essential meanings may not be heard in future times, I bring them forth and entrust them to my disciple, the monk Fajian of Taizhou, to return to Guangtang Monastery on the old mountain. I ask Elder Fajian and the Dharma assembly: how do they compare, in sameness and difference, with what you have customarily heard firsthand in former days? |
| 唐大中十一年十月初八日序 | Preface written on the eighth day of the tenth month, in the eleventh year of Dazhong of the Tang dynasty |
