Composed by Chan Master Dadian Baotong of the Tang Dynasty | 2018-06-23 | Download | AI assisted translation
| 【摩诃】梵语，此翻为“大”，又云“平等”。 | [Mahā] is a Sanskrit term, translated here as “great”; it is also said to mean “equal.” |
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| 世间最大，莫过虚空。《金刚经》云：“南西北方，四维上下虚空，可思量不？须菩提言，不也，世尊。”所以灌溪道：“十方无壁落，四面亦无门，大道无边际，虚空难度量。” | Nothing in the world is greater than empty space. The Diamond Sūtra says: “Can the empty space to the south, west, north, the four intermediate directions, above, and below be measured by thought?” Subhūti replied, “No, World-Honored One.” Therefore Guanxi said: “In the ten directions there are no walls; on the four sides there are no gates. The great Way has no boundary; empty space is hard to measure.” |
| 雪峰道：“仰望不见天，低头不见地。”虽然恁么广大，谁知有一物，更过于此。且道是甚么物？还识这个◎么？太虚虽广，不能包其体；日月虽明，不能喻其光。达摩云：“宽则遍法界，窄也不容针。 | Xuefeng said: “Look up and you do not see the sky; lower your head and you do not see the earth.” Though it is so vast, who knows that there is one thing still greater than this? Tell me, what is it? Do you recognize it? Though the great void is vast, it cannot contain its body; though the sun and moon are bright, they cannot compare with its light. Bodhidharma said: “When broad, it pervades the dharma realm; when narrow, it does not admit even a needle.” |
| ”庵虽小，含法界，放开大者无外，收来小者无内。藏山于泽，藏舟于壑，藏天下于天下。若从这里会得，万象森罗，情与无情，皆同一体。方信道：“满目青山无寸树，极目绿水绝波澜。 | Though the hermitage is small, it contains the dharma realm. Released, the great has no outside; gathered in, the small has no inside. Mountains are hidden in marshes, boats are hidden in ravines, and the whole world is hidden within the world. If you awaken here, the myriad forms in their profusion, sentient and insentient alike, are all of one body. Only then will you trust the saying: “Before the eyes, green mountains without a single tree; as far as the gaze reaches, green waters without a ripple.” |
| ”光明洞耀，照彻十方，譬如千日，放大光明。古人道：“尽大地是沙门一只眼，尽大地是个法身王。”经云：“父母所生眼，悉见三千界，出广长舌相，遍覆三千大千世界岂不见。 | Its light shines brilliantly, illuminating the ten directions, like a thousand suns emitting great radiance. The ancients said: “The whole great earth is but one eye of a śramaṇa; the whole great earth is a Dharma-body King.” A sūtra says: “The eyes born of one’s parents see throughout the three-thousand worlds; extending the mark of the broad, long tongue, it covers the entire great trichiliocosm.” Is this not seeing? |
| ”云门道：“一条柱杖子，化为龙，吞却乾坤去了也。”山河大地从什么处得来？若从这里，一一明得便了。芥子纳于须弥，须弥纳于芥子。藏身处，没踪迹，没踪迹处莫藏身。神通自在，出没自由。或现大身，满虚空界；或现小身，微中极微，细中极细。抛向诸人面前，打鼓普请看不见！ | Yunmen said: “A single staff turns into a dragon and swallows heaven and earth whole.” From where do the mountains, rivers, and great earth arise? If you understand each and every one of these here, that is enough. A mustard seed contains Mount Sumeru, and Mount Sumeru contains a mustard seed. Where the body is hidden, there are no traces; where there are no traces, do not hide the body. With spiritual powers one is at ease, appearing and disappearing freely. One may manifest a great body that fills the realm of empty space, or a small body, infinitesimal within the minute and subtle within the subtle. It is thrown before all of you, yet even when the drum is beaten to summon everyone, you do not see it! |
| 会么？海底金乌天上日，眼中童子面前人。 | Do you understand? The golden crow beneath the sea, the sun in the sky; the pupil in the eye, the person before you. |
| 【般若】梵语，此翻“智慧”。 | [Prajñā] is a Sanskrit term, translated here as “wisdom.” |
| 愚痴之人，不见自性，造作粗恶，用事无智，生遭王法，死堕阿鼻。若能转愚为智，用事聪明，具大福德，知因识果，令人恭敬，不受贫苦。 | Foolish and deluded people do not see their own nature. They commit coarse evils, act without wisdom, encounter the king’s law while alive, and fall into Avīci hell after death. If they can transform delusion into wisdom, act intelligently, possess great merit and virtue, know causes and recognize effects, they will earn others’ respect and not suffer poverty and hardship. |
| 若有人反思从前，所做过恶，逐日忙忙，不觉不知，愚痴颠倒，忽然自醒，念念生死，末后何归，有大苦恼。爱别离苦、求不得苦、舍不得苦。杳杳冥冥，前路暗黑，魂识纷飞，无家可归。 | If someone reflects on past wrongs—busy day after day, unaware and unknowing, foolish and confused—and suddenly awakens, each thought concerns birth and death: where will one finally return? Great anguish arises: the suffering of separation from those one loves, the suffering of not obtaining what one seeks, and the suffering of being unable to let go. In dim obscurity, the road ahead is dark; consciousnesses scatter in disorder, with no home to which to return. |
| 依草附木，饥渴苦恼，亲戚不睹，莽莽荡荡，忧愁之苦。或在地狱，一日一夜，千死万生。或堕畜生，久受困苦，无人救济。长劫受苦，忽能自觉，昼夜反思。尘劫以来，前种种苦，但受无常。 | Clinging to grasses and trees, one suffers hunger, thirst, and distress. One’s relatives cannot see one; one wanders desolately, suffering worry and sorrow. Or one is in hell, dying a thousand times and being reborn ten thousand times in a single day and night. Or one falls among animals and suffers hardship for a long time, with no one to rescue or aid one. After suffering through long kalpas, one may suddenly awaken and reflect day and night. Since beginningless kalpas, all the various sufferings previously planted have merely undergone impermanence. |
| 亲近知识，发大智慧，见自本性，顿悟无生。反前愚痴，智慧福德，皆归空寂。神通妙用，治生产业，治世语言，同归般若。转凡成圣，自知当作佛，是心是佛，生极乐国。念念慈，常谈般若，济诸贫苦。 | Draw near to wise teachers, develop great wisdom, see your own original nature, and suddenly awaken to the unborn. Then the former delusion, wisdom, and merit and virtue all return to empty quiescence. Spiritual powers and wondrous functioning, the management of livelihood and occupations, and speech for governing the world all return to prajñā. Transform the ordinary into the noble; know for yourself that you will become a Buddha. This mind is Buddha, and one is born in the Land of Utmost Bliss. Let every thought be compassionate; always speak of prajñā and relieve all who suffer poverty and hardship. |
| 变大地作黄金，搅长江为酥酪。一切诸法，无非佛法。平等真法界，佛不度众生。方信道：“无众生可度，无三界可出，无涅槃可证，本来具足。”佛子住此地，则是佛受用。经行及坐卧，常在于其中，为人自肯，决定无疑。说此难信之法，稀有之事，悟者方知。 | Transform the great earth into gold and churn the Yangtze River into cream. All dharmas are none other than Buddhadharma. In the equal, true dharma realm, there are no sentient beings for the Buddha to liberate. Only then will you trust the saying: “There are no sentient beings to liberate, no three realms from which to escape, and no nirvāṇa to realize; it is originally complete.” When a child of the Buddha abides in this ground, this is the Buddha’s own enjoyment. Whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, one is always within it. When one affirms this for oneself, one is decisively free of doubt. This Dharma is hard to believe, and this is a rare matter; only one who awakens knows. |
| 更参末后一句，始到牢关。如何是末后一句？ | Investigate further the final phrase; only then will you reach the firmly guarded pass. What is the final phrase? |
| 何须待零落，然后始知空。 | Why wait until things have withered and fallen before first knowing emptiness? |
| 【波罗】梵语，此翻“到彼岸”。 | [Pāra] is a Sanskrit term, translated here as “reaching the other shore.” |
| 迷者此岸，悟者彼岸。经云：“渡河须用筏，到岸不须船。”若迷本性，三业昏暗，六根内盲，妄认四大、六根为己。此是众生颠倒，认贼为子，迷自本性，轮转生死，即在此岸。出壳入壳，辗转不觉。 | The deluded are on this shore; the awakened are on the other shore. A sūtra says: “To cross a river, one needs a raft; once ashore, one needs no boat.” If one is deluded about one’s original nature, the three karmas are darkened and the six sense faculties are inwardly blind. One mistakenly takes the four elements and six sense faculties to be oneself. This is the inversion of sentient beings: taking a thief for one’s child. Deluded about their own original nature, they revolve through birth and death and remain on this shore. They emerge from one shell and enter another, turning about without awakening. |
| 改头换面，长劫受苦，无有休息。若一人反真归源，穷理尽性，亲见本来面目，顿悟无生，便登彼岸。一得永得，一悟永悟，更不复生，轮回永息，生死永断，做一个物外闲人。任性逍遥，寂然快乐，名曰“极乐”。 | They change heads and faces and suffer through long kalpas without rest. But if a person returns from falsity to the source, exhausts principle and fully realizes nature, directly sees the Original Face, and suddenly awakens to the unborn, that person immediately ascends to the other shore. Once attained, it is attained forever; once awakened, one is awakened forever. One is no longer reborn, the round of rebirth ceases forever, and birth and death are cut off forever. One becomes an untrammeled person beyond things, freely following one’s nature, at peace and joyful. This is called “utmost bliss.” |
| 如何是极乐？ | What is utmost bliss? |
| 除是我家亲弟子，谁人肯向里头行。 | Unless they are my own intimate disciples, who would be willing to walk this path within? |
| 【密多】梵语，此翻“极则”也。 | [Mita] is a Sanskrit term, translated here as “the ultimate standard.” |
| “密”者，和也；“多”者，诸法也。“密”之一字，喻于太虚，能包于万法，万法尽在太虚之内。众生一性放开，亦能包于太虚，太虚亦能合于种性。太虚为体，万法为用。太虚之中，森罗万象，情与无情，总在太虚之内。 | Mi means harmony, and ta means the many dharmas. The single word mi is likened to the great void, which can contain all dharmas; all dharmas are entirely within the great void. When the one nature of sentient beings is opened out, it too can contain the great void, and the great void can also merge with this nature. The great void is the essence, and the myriad dharmas are its function. Within the great void are the myriad forms in their profusion; sentient and insentient alike are all within it. |
| 众生佛性，亦能包合于太虚。太虚之内，有八万四千恒河沙异类种性，俱不可说，尽在众生一性之内。一性喻于密，密能均和，和合为一；一性为密，种性为多，故曰“密多”。 | The Buddha-nature of sentient beings can likewise encompass the great void. Within the great void are eighty-four thousand Ganges-sand-like varieties of natures, all beyond description, and all contained within the one nature of sentient beings. The one nature is likened to mi: mi can make things equal and harmonious, joining them into one. The one nature is mi, and the many natures are ta; therefore it is called mita. |
| 【心】“心”者，是众生之本源。一切诸法，同归于心。万法是心之异名，分为八万四千，广则无穷无尽。心生，种种法生；心灭，种种法灭。所以道：“众星皆拱北，无水不朝东。” | [Heart] The heart is the source of sentient beings. All dharmas return to the heart. The myriad dharmas are different names for the heart; divided, they become eighty-four thousand, and in their breadth they are inexhaustible. When the heart arises, all kinds of dharmas arise; when the heart ceases, all kinds of dharmas cease. Therefore it is said: “All the stars revolve around the north; all waters flow eastward.” |
| 又道：“现前一心，本具千法，举心动念，具大总持。”从上祖师，以心传心，以心印心。五千四十八卷，八万四千法门，多种方便，皆从此个字流出。将须弥做笔，海水为墨，书这一个字，犹不能尽。 | It is also said: “The one mind present before us inherently contains a thousand dharmas; whenever the mind is raised and a thought stirred, it possesses the great dhāraṇī.” The patriarchs of old transmitted mind to mind and sealed mind with mind. The five thousand and forty-eight scrolls, the eighty-four thousand dharma gates, and their many expedient means all flow forth from this single character. Even if Mount Sumeru were made into a brush and the ocean into ink, one still could not finish writing this one character. |
| 人人尽有这一个字，所以不能自见，说亦不信，须是亲见，方能信也，唤做一字法门。众生不信“是心是佛”，佛有多种方便指众生见自本性，未能见者，须是一一分明指出。 | Everyone possesses this one character, yet cannot see it for themselves; even when it is spoken of, they do not believe it. One must see it personally before one can believe. This is called the one-character dharma gate. Sentient beings do not believe that this mind is Buddha, so the Buddha employs many expedient means to point them toward seeing their own original nature. For those unable to see it, it must be pointed out clearly, one by one. |
| 教中道：“青青翠竹，尽是真如。”须是亲见真如。“郁郁黄花，无非般若。”须是亲见般若。 | The teachings say: “The verdant bamboo is wholly suchness.” One must personally see suchness. “The luxuriant yellow flowers are nothing but prajñā.” One must personally see prajñā. |
| 夹山道：“明明百草头，明明祖师意。”须是亲见祖师意。 | Jia Shan said: “Brightly, brightly, at the tips of the hundred grasses; brightly, brightly, the patriarchs’ intent.” One must personally see the patriarchs’ intent. |
| 又道：“目前无法，意在目前。” | It is also said: “Before the eyes there is no dharma; the intent is right before the eyes.” |
| 又道：“道在瓦砾，道在尿屎，道无乎不在。” | It is also said: “The Way is in tiles and pebbles; the Way is in urine and excrement; there is nowhere the Way is not.” |
| 又云：“唯一紧密身，一切尘中现。” | It is also said: “The one intimate body appears amid every mote of dust.” |
| 又道：“见色便见心。”众生只见色，不见心。为何不见？只为识性昏暗，六根内盲，不觉不知。若能穷究，步步行行念兹在兹，磕着碰着，忽然亲见，名曰“见性”。 | It is also said: “When you see form, you see mind.” Sentient beings see only form and do not see mind. Why do they not see it? Only because the knowing nature is darkened and the six sense faculties are inwardly blind; they are unaware and unknowing. If one can investigate to the end, keeping it in mind with every step and in every action, then, in a sudden collision or encounter, one directly sees it. This is called “seeing one’s nature.” |
| 此性，不可以智知，不可以识识，须是左顾右盼，回头转脑。瞻之在前，忽然在后。处处逢渠，渠今正是我，我今不是渠。若能如是会，方得契如如。此性无形无相，于不见之上亲见，于亲见之上不见。离种种相，见自本性，是名“妙道”。 | This nature cannot be known by intellect or recognized by consciousness. One must look left and right, turn one’s head and shift one’s gaze. Look for it before you, and suddenly it is behind you. Everywhere you meet it; it is now precisely I, yet I am not it. If you can understand in this way, only then will you accord with suchness. This nature has neither form nor appearance. Directly see it in non-seeing, and do not see it in direct seeing. To leave all appearances and see one’s own original nature is called the “wondrous Way.” |
| 二祖问达摩：“乞师安心？”达摩云：“将心来，我为汝安。”二祖云：“觅心了不可得。”达摩云：“为汝安心竟。”二祖于此大悟，得无心之道。 | The Second Patriarch asked Bodhidharma, “I beg the Master to pacify my mind.” Bodhidharma said, “Bring me your mind, and I will pacify it for you.” The Second Patriarch said, “I have sought for the mind, but cannot find it.” Bodhidharma said, “I have already pacified your mind for you.” At this, the Second Patriarch greatly awakened and attained the Way of no-mind. |
| 会么？若得心空皆及第，凡圣原来共一家。 | Do you understand? When the mind is empty, all pass the examination; ordinary beings and sages have always belonged to one family. |
| 【经】“经”者，径也，是众生修行之径路。蓦直便行，向万里无寸草处去。切忌当头，举心动念，便堕泥犁。 | [Sūtra] Sūtra means a path; it is the path by which sentient beings cultivate themselves. Go straight ahead, toward the place ten thousand miles away where not a blade of grass grows. Be especially careful: when a thought is raised or the mind stirred right before you, you fall into hell. |
| 要识此经么？五千四十八卷，皆从此经出。岂不见，僧问云门：“如何是学人一卷经？”云门答曰：“举起甚分明。”又问：“僧念什么经？”僧云：“念《维摩经》。 | Do you wish to recognize this sūtra? All five thousand and forty-eight scrolls come forth from this sūtra. Is it not recorded that a monk asked Yunmen, “What is a single scroll of sūtra for a student?” Yunmen replied, “Raise it up—what could be clearer?” Another asked, “What sūtra does a monk recite?” The monk said, “I recite the Vimalakīrti Sūtra.” |
| ”云门云：“我不问你念《维摩经》！念的是什么？”若从这里会得，出息不涉万缘，入息不居阴界，常转如是经，百千万亿卷。这一卷经，人人本有，亘古亘今，只为众生不悟，所以信之不及。 | Yunmen said, “I am not asking which Vimalakīrti Sūtra you recite. What is it that recites?” If you understand here, the outgoing breath does not engage with the myriad conditions, and the incoming breath does not abide in the realms of the aggregates. You constantly turn such a sūtra, in hundreds of millions of scrolls. Everyone inherently possesses this one scroll of sūtra; from ancient times until now, sentient beings have failed to awaken to it, and thus have not been able to trust it. |
| 何也？此一卷经，流浪多劫，迷背此经。忽然有人，一言下顿悟，方信道：此经不从外得，自知从己流出，声声不绝。“默时说，说时默，大施门开无壅塞。”然虽如此是，不可依样画猫儿。何也？须亲见此经始得。 | Why is this so? This one scroll of sūtra has wandered through many kalpas, and one has been deluded and turned one’s back on it. Suddenly, someone awakens at a single word and only then trusts: this sūtra is not obtained from outside; one knows for oneself that it flows forth from within, its sound unceasing. “Silent when speaking, speaking when silent; the gate of great giving stands open, without obstruction.” Yet although this is so, one must not imitate a cat by copying its shape. Why? One must personally see this sūtra before it is attained. |
| 【观自在菩萨】若信于此，但去静坐。坐令极静，举心动念，有一无位真人，常在赤肉团上，出出入入。这里亲见此菩萨，悠游自在。十方诸国土，无刹不现身。一刹那间，周遍沙界。十方游历遍，不见佛行踪。 | [Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva] If you have faith in this, simply sit quietly. Sit until utmost stillness is reached. Whenever the mind is raised and a thought stirred, there is a True Person of No Rank, always within this lump of red flesh, coming and going. Here, directly see this bodhisattva, at leisure and at ease. In all lands of the ten directions, there is no realm in which this bodhisattva does not manifest. In a single instant, this bodhisattva pervades worlds as numerous as sand grains. Traveling throughout the ten directions, one does not see the Buddha’s tracks. |
| 不离当处常湛然，觅即知君不可见。于不见中亲见，于亲见中不见。若从这里见得观音菩萨，应物并随形，何曾欠少。起坐镇相随，同起复同倒。同欢同笑，同叫同闹。 | Never leaving this very place, it is always limpid and still; seek it, and you will know that it cannot be seen. Directly see it in non-seeing, and do not see it in direct seeing. If you see Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva here, this bodhisattva responds to things and manifests in accordance with forms, never lacking in the least. When you rise or sit, it is constantly with you; it rises with you and falls with you. It rejoices and laughs with you, cries and makes noise with you. |
| 会么？眼里闻声方始知。 | Do you understand? Only when you hear sound within the eyes do you begin to know. |
| 【行】“行”者，修行也。欲行千里，一步为初，看这一步从何而起。若知起处，便知生死之根源。 | [Practice] Practice means cultivation. To travel a thousand miles, one step is the beginning. Look into where this step arises. If you know where it arises, you know the root source of birth and death. |
| 古人道：“行到水穷处，坐看云起时。”岂不见，石霜问石头：“举念不停时如何？”石头：“咄！云是谁举念？”石霜于此大悟。但如此体究，念念不离于当处。凡举心动念，语言、三昧，自观从何而出。 | An ancient said, “Walk to where the waters end; sit and watch the clouds arise.” Have you not seen how Shishuang asked Shitou, “What is it like when thoughts keep arising without cease?” Shitou replied, “Bah! Who is it that gives rise to thoughts?” At these words, Shishuang was greatly awakened. Investigate in this way, never departing, thought after thought, from the present place. Whenever a thought is raised or stirred—whether in speech or samādhi—observe for yourself where it arises from. |
| 古云：“何不自闻闻。”方信道，从佛口生，从佛口出。 | An ancient said, “Why not hear with your own hearing?” Only then can one trust the saying, “Born from the Buddha’s mouth, spoken from the Buddha’s mouth.” |
| 古云：“欲识佛去处，只这语声是。” | An ancient said, “If you wish to know where the Buddha has gone, it is simply this voice.” |
| 宝公云：“未了之人，听一言。只如今，谁动口。” | Bao Gong said, “Those who have not yet understood, listen to one word: right now, who is moving the mouth?” |
| 经云：“有世界，名曰极乐。其土有佛，号阿弥陀，今现在说法。”谛观声声，从自己流出。念念不绝，十二时中，常读是经。叫佛一声应一声，本来面目太分明。若能如是，唤做返本还源。 | A sūtra says, “There is a world called Utmost Bliss. In that land is a Buddha named Amitābha, who is now teaching the Dharma.” Closely observe: every sound flows forth from oneself. With thoughts unceasing throughout the twelve periods of the day, constantly recite this sūtra. Call the Buddha once, and there is one response; the Original Face is utterly clear. If one can do this, it is called returning to the root and reverting to the source. |
| 如何是源？水流源在海，月落不离天。 | What is the source? Flowing water has its source in the ocean; the setting moon never leaves the sky. |
| 【深】“深”者，彻骨彻髓处也。 | [Depth] “Depth” means the place that penetrates to the bones and marrow. |
| 古云：“为道损之又损。”但去静坐，日夜反照，照尽髑髅，五蕴顿彻，丝毫不挂，如父母未生相似，烧了一般，贴体汗衫都脱却。反求诸己，廓然无我，自然到家。 | An ancient said, “For the Way, diminish and diminish again.” Simply go and sit quietly; day and night turn the light back upon yourself. Illuminate until the skull is exhausted and the five aggregates are penetrated at once, with not the slightest thing hanging on—like before one’s parents gave one birth, as though one had been burned away, with even the undershirt next to one’s skin removed. Turn back and seek within yourself: vast and open, without a self, one naturally arrives home. |
| 古云：“不是不归家，家贫归不得。”谷幽深远，无人能到。 | An ancient said, “It is not that one does not wish to return home; the home is too poor to return to.” The valley is secluded, deep, and remote; no one can reach it. |
| 古云：“去年穷未是穷，今年穷始是穷。去年穷无卓锥之地，今年穷，锥也无。”若能如是，方知“无舌人能解语，无手人能行拳”。 | An ancient said, “Last year’s poverty was not yet poverty; this year’s poverty is true poverty. Last year’s poverty left not even ground on which to stand an awl; this year’s poverty does not even have an awl.” If one can be like this, then one knows that “a tongueless person can speak, and a handless person can box.” |
| 【般若】“般若”者，梵语“智慧”。 | [Prajñā] “Prajñā” is a Sanskrit word meaning “wisdom.” |
| 大凡为人，须有智慧。若无智慧，只知事逐眼前过，不觉老从头上来。不信此语，外道聪明，无智慧。若是大智之人，知有生，便知有死。当自坐观，生从何来，死从何往。若有人，发此一念，便能亲近知识，抉择生死之法。若不如此，但信此语：“世间将不去，唯有业随身。” | In dealing with people, one must have wisdom. Without wisdom, one knows only that affairs pass before one’s eyes, unaware that old age is coming upon one’s head. Do not doubt these words: non-Buddhists may be clever, but they lack wisdom. A person of great wisdom knows that where there is birth, there is death. One should sit and contemplate: Where does birth come from? Where does death go? If someone gives rise to this single thought, that person can draw near to a good teacher and discern the Dharma of birth and death. Otherwise, simply believe these words: “Nothing in this world can be taken away; only karma follows one.” |
| 古云：“若一人反真归源，十方虚空悉皆消殒。”若要明末后一着，但将《龙牙颂》仔细冷观。学道先须且学贫，学贫贫后道方亲，一朝体得成贫道，道用还如贫的人。如此悟去，世间将不去，唯有一空身，是大安乐。 | An ancient said, “If one person returns from delusion to truth and returns to the source, all the empty space of the ten directions vanishes utterly.” If you wish to understand the final move, carefully and coolly contemplate Longya’s verse: “Those who study the Way must first learn poverty; only after learning poverty does the Way become intimate. One day, upon realizing the Way of poverty, one’s use of the Way is still like that of a poor person.” Awaken in this way: nothing in this world can be taken away; there is only this empty body, which is great peace and bliss. |
| 会么？撒手到家人不识，更无一物献尊堂。 | Do you understand? When one lets go and arrives home, no one recognizes one; there is not a single thing left to offer before the honored hall. |
| 【波罗】梵语，此翻“到彼岸”。 | [Pāra] This is Sanskrit, translated here as “reaching the other shore.” |
| 迷者轮回转，悟者轮回恝。若要到彼岸，须是自生智慧。譬如渡河人，河深难得渡，须用桥道、船车、木排、竹筏多种方便，布置盛载，过此深河，前多种方便之物都无用处。见性悟道亦复如是。 | The deluded revolve in saṃsāra; the awakened bring saṃsāra to rest. If you wish to reach the other shore, you must give rise to wisdom yourself. It is like a person crossing a river: when the river is deep and difficult to cross, one must use many expedient means—bridges, boats, carts, rafts of wood, and bamboo rafts—arranging them to carry one across the deep river. Once one has crossed it, all those former expedient means are of no further use. Realizing one’s nature and awakening to the Way are just the same. |
| 又譬如盲人求医，路远不能自行，须假人牵，兼手中有杖。无此二物，终不能到。既到医师处，为他点开眼目，便见光明，其杖与牵人，都无用处。顿悟涅槃正路，亦复如是。 | Again, it is like a blind person seeking a physician. Because the road is far, the person cannot travel alone and must rely on someone to lead them, while also holding a staff. Without these two things, the person can never arrive. But once at the physician’s place, when the physician opens the person’s eyes, the person sees the light; the staff and the guide are then of no use. Suddenly awakening to the right road of nirvāṇa is just the same. |
| 未得见性悟道，须用作福，福至心灵，须假坐禅行道，看读圣教，看话下语，一切顿悟。从前多种方便，有为之法，尽是闲家具，留与后人看。目开之人，渡河之者，来去自在，一过永远，一悟永悟，更不复迷。 | Before realizing one’s nature and awakening to the Way, one must cultivate blessings. When blessings arrive, the mind becomes efficacious. One must rely on sitting in Chan, practicing the Way, reading the sacred teachings, and contemplating huatou and sayings, until one suddenly awakens. All the former various expedient means and conditioned dharmas are merely idle furnishings, left for later people to see. Those whose eyes are open, and those who have crossed the river, come and go freely. Having crossed once, they are forever across; having awakened once, they are forever awakened and never again become deluded. |
| 得兔忘睇，得鱼忘筌，得意忘言，做一个物外闲人，十二时中，诸圣鬼神，要见无由。一切圣贤觅踪迹，皆不可得。此是已到岸者。故云“波罗”。 | Having caught the rabbit, forget the snare; having caught the fish, forget the fish trap; having grasped the meaning, forget the words. Become an untrammeled person beyond things. Throughout the twelve periods of the day, all sages, ghosts, and spirits have no way to see you. Even if all sages and worthies seek your traces, they cannot be found. This is one who has already reached the shore. Therefore it is called “pāra.” |
| 会么？及尽玄微妙，回程月下行。 | Do you understand? Having exhausted the profound subtlety and wonder, one walks the returning path beneath the moon. |
| 【蜜多】梵语“无极”，又云“究竟”。 | [Mitā] This is Sanskrit for “boundless,” also called “ultimate.” |
| 故“蜜”之一字，喻于太虚能包万法。譬如众药，其味不同，用蜜匀和，同归一味。诸佛性空，亦能充满于法界，包含一切。异类种性，会源归一。识得一，万事毕。如何是一？吾道以一贯之。 | Therefore, the single character mi is likened to the great void, which can contain all dharmas. It is like many medicines with different flavors: when blended evenly with honey, they all return to one flavor. The empty nature of all Buddhas can likewise fill the dharma realm and encompass all things. The natures of different kinds of beings converge at the source and return to one. Recognize the one, and the myriad affairs are complete. What is the one? My Way is threaded through by one. |
| 洞山道：“二十年要打成一片不能。”得到这里，方知佛法平等，无有高下，回归一体，无佛可做，无众生可度，一体同观，故曰“蜜多”。 | Dongshan said, “For twenty years I have tried to become continuous and undivided, yet could not.” Upon reaching this point, one knows that the Buddhadharma is equal, without high or low; it returns to one essence. There is no Buddha to become and no sentient being to liberate. Contemplating as one body, it is therefore called “mitā.” |
| 【时】“时”者，正见之时，一无可见。亦无过去、未来、现在，与虚空平等。上无攀仰，下绝已躬，圆顿之位，皆不可得，玄之又玄，等无有二，共归一时。 - | [Time] “Time” means the time of right view, when there is not a single thing to see. There is also no past, future, or present; it is equal to empty space. Above, there is nothing to look up to; below, even oneself is cut off. The stage of perfect and sudden awakening cannot be attained. Profound beyond profundity, without the slightest duality, all return together to one time. |
| 【照见五蕴皆空】“五蕴”者，色、受、想、行、识。此五蕴因执色身有我，故长劫轮回。若就今生人身，依此修行，常自返照，照见五蕴净尽，清净本然。净裸裸、赤洒洒，没可把。四大五蕴，名字皆不可得。古人到此，名曰“蕴空法”。 | [Seeing That the Five Aggregates Are All Empty] The “five aggregates” are form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness. Because of attachment to the physical body as a self, these five aggregates cause saṃsāric wandering through long kalpas. If, in this present human body, one relies on this for practice and constantly turns the light back upon oneself, one sees the five aggregates utterly purified and originally pure. Pure, naked, and bare, there is nothing to grasp. The four great elements and five aggregates—even their names—cannot be found. When the ancients reached this point, they called it the “Dharma of the emptiness of the aggregates.” |
| 西天宾王问师子尊者曰：“在此做什么？”尊者答曰：“在此蕴空。”王问：“得蕴空法否？”尊者答曰：“已得蕴空法。”王曰：“求师头得否？”尊者答曰：“身非我有。岂况头乎！” | The King of the Western Heaven asked Venerable Siṃha, “What are you doing here?” The Venerable replied, “Here I empty the aggregates.” The king asked, “Have you attained the Dharma of emptying the aggregates?” The Venerable replied, “I have attained the Dharma of emptying the aggregates.” The king said, “May I have your head?” The Venerable replied, “This body is not mine. How much less so is the head!” |
| 僧问岑和尚：“二鼠侵藤，如何淘汰？”岑曰：“今时人须是隐身去。”僧云：“如何隐身？”答曰：“道者还见奴家么？” | A monk asked Master Cen, “Two rats gnaw at a vine. How are they eliminated?” Cen said, “People nowadays must conceal their bodies.” The monk said, “How does one conceal one’s body?” He replied, “Does the person of the Way still see this servant girl?” |
| 肇法师云：“将头临白刃，犹如斩春风。” | Dharma Master Zhao said, “To place one’s head before a white blade is like cutting the spring wind.” |
| 舍利弗见天女，问：“何不变却女身去？”天女答曰：“我十二年觅女身，了不可得。教我变个什么？”祖师到此田地，皆得蕴空之法。 | Śāriputra saw a goddess and asked, “Why do you not transform your female body away?” The goddess replied, “For twelve years I have sought for a female body, but it cannot be found at all. What, then, would you have me transform?” When patriarchs reach this state, they all attain the Dharma of the emptiness of the aggregates. |
| 镜清和尚住院三年，本院土地，要见师颜不能得。 | Master Jingqing resided at a monastery for three years. The local earth deity wished to see the master’s face but could not do so. |
| 弘觉和尚住庵，天厨常送食。及再参洞山后归庵，天神三日送饭到庵，不见庵主。庵主只在庵中，为甚未见？参！ | Master Hongjue lived in a hermitage, and the celestial kitchen regularly sent him food. After he returned to his hermitage following a second visit to Dongshan, a deity brought food to the hermitage for three days but did not see its master. The hermitage master was only inside the hermitage—why was he not seen? Investigate! |
| 从上祖师皆得圆顿之法。这里一一透得荆棘过，万象之中独露身。为人自肯，乃方亲到这田地，自然休歇，自然放下，如红炉上一点雪。 | All the patriarchs of old attained the Dharma of perfect and sudden awakening. Here, one penetrates each and every thorny barrier and passes through, revealing oneself alone amid the myriad forms. Only when one personally assents can one truly arrive at this state. One naturally comes to rest and naturally lets go, like a speck of snow on a red-hot furnace. |
| 良久，云：会么？只见六龙争戏舞，谁知丹凤入云霄。 | After a long pause, he said: Do you understand? One sees only the six dragons vying and dancing; who knows that the cinnabar phoenix has entered the clouds? |
| 【度一切苦厄】若不得五蕴空，依旧堕落生死界。既堕生死界，再受轮回苦。 | [Liberating All Suffering and Adversity] If one has not realized the emptiness of the five aggregates, one still falls into the realm of birth and death. Having fallen into the realm of birth and death, one undergoes once more the suffering of saṃsāra. |
| 老子曰：“吾有大患，为吾有身，有身皆是苦。” | Laozi said, “I have a great affliction because I have a body; having a body is itself suffering.” |
| 经云：“三界无安，犹如火宅。”众苦充满，甚可怖畏。若要无苦，直须返己自照，照尽髑髅本来清净，须是亲见本来面孔。 | A sūtra says, “The three realms have no safety; they are like a burning house.” They are filled with every kind of suffering and are greatly terrifying. If you wish to be free from suffering, you must directly turn back and illuminate yourself. Illuminate until the skull is exhausted and originally pure; you must personally see your Original Face. |
| 要见本来面孔么？今古应无坠，分明在目前。 | Do you wish to see your Original Face? From ancient times to the present, it has never fallen away; plainly, it is before your eyes. |
| 会么？举头鹞子过新罗。 | Do you understand? Raise your head: a kite flies past Silla. |
| 【舍利子】“舍”者，离也。“利子”者，舍中之主也。 | [Śāriputra] “She” means to leave behind. “Lizi” means the master within what is left behind. |
| 四大五蕴，身如客店，主人暂住。主人既离，屋舍倒坏，利子常存。 | The four great elements and five aggregates make the body like a guesthouse, in which the master temporarily resides. Once the master departs, the house collapses and decays, but the lizi always remains. |
| 药山道：“皮肤脱落尽，唯有一真实。”又道，“大千俱坏，这个不坏。” | Yaoshan said, “When skin and flesh have entirely fallen away, only one reality remains.” He also said, “Though the great thousandfold world is destroyed, this is not destroyed.” |
| 还识这个么？独超三界外，更不恋娑婆。 | Do you recognize this? Alone, it transcends the three realms and no longer clings to Sahā. |
| 【色不异空】以心观境，境上有空，见色便见空，心即是空。 | [Form Is Not Different from Emptiness] Observe objects with the mind: within objects there is emptiness. Seeing form, one sees emptiness; mind itself is emptiness. |
| 众生法性只在目前。应物显形，长者长形，短者短形。方者方空，圆者圆空，白者白空，黄者黄空，小者小空，大者大空，远者远空，近者近空。反观自己，是色，色即是空，应现种种相。种种相，即是空幻化。空身即法身，“法身觉了无一物，本源自性天真佛”。 | The dharma nature of sentient beings is only right before one. In responding to things, it manifests forms: with what is long, it manifests a long form; with what is short, a short form. A square is square emptiness; a circle is round emptiness; white is white emptiness; yellow is yellow emptiness; small is small emptiness; great is great emptiness; distant is distant emptiness; near is near emptiness. Turn back and observe yourself: this is form, and form is emptiness, manifesting all kinds of appearances. All kinds of appearances are transformations of emptiness, illusory forms. The empty body is the dharmakāya: “The awakened dharmakāya contains not a single thing; the original source and intrinsic nature are the naturally genuine Buddha.” |
| 宝公道：“有相身中无相身。” | Bao Gong said, “Within the body of appearances is the body without appearances.” |
| 会么？雨洗淡红桃萼嫩，风摇浅碧柳丝轻。 | Do you understand? Rain washes the tender pale-red peach blossoms; wind stirs the light-green willow strands. |
| 【空不异色】色与空一种，凡夫见两般。诸佛菩萨，常行平等智，不生分别相。三世诸佛、菩萨亦是空，二十八祖、六代祖师亦是空，四圣、六凡亦是空。上至诸佛，下至蝼蚁，各各本来总是空。只为众生执著，不知是空。 | [Emptiness Is Not Different from Form] Form and emptiness are one kind, but ordinary beings see them as two. All Buddhas and bodhisattvas constantly practice the wisdom of equality and do not give rise to discriminating appearances. The Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the three times are also empty; the twenty-eight patriarchs and six generations of patriarchs are also empty; the four noble realms and six ordinary realms are also empty. From all Buddhas above down to ants below, each and every one is originally altogether empty. It is only because sentient beings cling that they do not know this is emptiness. |
| 迷己逐物，随物流转，不能归一。机见不同，有色有空，堕落二见。若人于此，廓彻悟空，平等身心，内外无余，不见空色，不被物转，平等法界，何更有二。 | Deluded about themselves, they pursue things and are carried along by things in continual flow, unable to return to the one. Capacities and views differ; thus there is form and emptiness, and they fall into the two views. If a person here thoroughly awakens to emptiness, body and mind are equal, inside and outside without remainder; seeing neither emptiness nor form and not being turned by things, the dharma realm is equal. How could there be two any longer? |
| 会么？不见一法即如来，方得名为观自在。 | Do you understand? Not seeing a single dharma is the Tathāgata; only then may one be called Avalokiteśvara. |
| 【色即是空】眼是色不能见，只是真空能见。耳是色不能闻，只是真空能闻。鼻是色不能嗅，只是真空能嗅。舌是色不能说，只是真空能说。身是色不能觉触，只是真空能觉触。脚是色不能行，只是真空能行。 | [Form Is Emptiness] The eye is form and cannot see; only true emptiness can see. The ear is form and cannot hear; only true emptiness can hear. The nose is form and cannot smell; only true emptiness can smell. The tongue is form and cannot speak; only true emptiness can speak. The body is form and cannot feel touch; only true emptiness can feel touch. The feet are form and cannot walk; only true emptiness can walk. |
| 手是色不能行拳，只是真空能行拳。无眼能见，无耳能听，无鼻能嗅，无舌能谈，无脚能行，无手能行拳。意根有名无形，分为八万四千。见闻觉知，总归六根，遍身互换，神通妙用。 | The hand is form and cannot clench a fist; only true emptiness can clench a fist. Without eyes, it can see; without ears, it can hear; without a nose, it can smell; without a tongue, it can speak; without feet, it can walk; without hands, it can clench a fist. The mind faculty has a name but no form and divides into eighty-four thousand [aspects]. Seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing all return to the six sense faculties, which interchange throughout the whole body in wondrous functioning and spiritual powers. |
| 古云：“通身是，遍身是。”会得色即是空，空即是色，色空不异，真空妙理。所以道：“色可色，非真色；空可空，非真空。”总归大空、毕竟空、自性空、本性空、空空、不可得空……，二十空门原不有。 | The ancients said: “The whole body is it; the entire body is it.” Understand that form is emptiness, emptiness is form, and form and emptiness are not different: this is the wondrous principle of true emptiness. Therefore it is said: “What may be called form is not true form; what may be called emptiness is not true emptiness.” All return to great emptiness, ultimate emptiness, emptiness of self-nature, emptiness of intrinsic nature, emptiness of emptiness, unobtainable emptiness … the twenty gateways of emptiness were never inherently existent. |
| 且道到这里，似个什么？常忆江南三月里，鹧鸪啼处百花新。 | Now tell me: when one reaches this point, what is it like? I often recall the third month in Jiangnan: where partridges call, a hundred flowers are fresh. |
| 【空即是色】诸佛菩萨，见十方世界，只是一空界，平等无二。有情、无情，著相分别，见种种相，随声逐色，出胎入胎，不知不觉。圣贤不见有色有空，内外无分别，常自寂灭相，光明动耀，遍周沙界。安色空二字，俱不可得。 | [Emptiness Is Form] The Buddhas and bodhisattvas see the worlds of the ten directions as a single realm of emptiness, equal and without duality. Sentient and insentient beings cling to appearances and discriminate, seeing all kinds of forms; they follow sounds and pursue forms, leave the womb and enter the womb, all without awareness. Sages do not see form or emptiness as existing. Within and without, there is no discrimination; they constantly abide in the mark of quiescent cessation. Luminosity shines and moves, pervading worlds as numerous as grains of sand. The very words “form” and “emptiness” cannot be established. |
| 会么？亦无空，亦无色，布袋和尚逢拾得。 | Do you understand? There is neither emptiness nor form: Budai Heshang encounters Shide. |
| 【受想行识】因有眼故，便受其色。因有色故，便受其想。因有想故，便受其行。因有行故，便受其识。因有识故，便有六根。因有六根，便有六尘。因有六尘，便有六识。因有六识，共成十八界。 | Because there are eyes, one receives forms. Because there are forms, one receives perceptions. Because there are perceptions, one receives formations. Because there are formations, one receives consciousness. Because there is consciousness, there are the six sense faculties. Because there are the six sense faculties, there are the six sense objects. Because there are the six sense objects, there are the six consciousnesses. The six consciousnesses together constitute the eighteen realms. |
| 因有十八界，便有四大、五蕴。因有四大、五蕴，便起六十二见，便起八万四千差别相。随声逐色，流浪生死，终无止住。若要生死断、轮回息，但从一根照破，令四大、五蕴净尽，廓然无我，当下空寂，直下承当。 | Because there are the eighteen realms, there are the four great elements and the five aggregates. Because there are the four great elements and the five aggregates, the sixty-two views arise, and eighty-four thousand differentiated appearances arise. Following sounds and pursuing forms, one drifts through birth and death without end or rest. If you wish to cut off birth and death and bring cyclic rebirth to rest, simply illuminate and break through one faculty. Make the four great elements and five aggregates wholly pure; then, vast and open, there is no self. Immediately there is empty quiescence—directly take this up. |
| 空劫以前自己，寂而常照，照而常寂，寂无所寂，唯见于空，空无所空，八万四千，尘劳妄想，一时顿息。此时，人亦空，法亦空，二相本来同。 | Yourself before the empty kalpa: quiescent yet ever illuminating, illuminating yet ever quiescent. In quiescence there is nothing to be quiescent; one sees only emptiness. In emptiness there is nothing to be empty. The eighty-four thousand dusty toils and deluded thoughts all suddenly cease at once. At this time, persons too are empty, dharmas too are empty; the two aspects have always been the same. |
| 会么？佛祖位中留不住，夜来依旧宿芦花。 | Do you understand? One cannot remain in the stations of Buddhas and patriarchs; last night one still slept among the reed blossoms. |
| 【亦复如是】既无我故，万法皆无，总归于空，唤做万法归一，不落第二见。到这里，言语道断，心行处灭，动念即乖，安排即错。文殊与净名，对谈不二。如何是不二？不得动着！动则三十棒。 | [Likewise] Since there is no self, the myriad dharmas are all nonexistent and return entirely to emptiness. This is called “the myriad dharmas return to the One,” without falling into the second view. At this point, the way of words is cut off and the activity of mind ceases. To stir a thought is already to go astray; to make arrangements is already wrong. Mañjuśrī and Vimalakīrti spoke together of nonduality. What is nonduality? Do not make the slightest move! Move, and you get thirty blows. |
| 会么？百舌未休枝上语，凤凰那肯共同栖。 | Do you understand? The hundred-tongued bird has not ceased its chatter on the branches; how could the phoenix consent to roost with it? |
| 【舍利子】诸漏已尽，已归寂灭。求出三界，天地不能拘。迥超法界外，自在更无忧。名曰“舍利子”。前解释竟。 | [Śāriputra] All outflows have been exhausted, and one has returned to quiescent cessation. Seeking to leave the three realms, one cannot be confined by heaven and earth. Far beyond the dharma realm, one is free and without further care. This is called “Śāriputra.” The preceding explanation is complete. |
| 【是诸法空相】从上诸佛，一味谈空，只为众生，直下是空担负不行，起百种方便，种种假名，引导有情、无情，皆归空寂。若信未及，但去静坐，反照照见，五蕴实无所有，自然人空。既得人空，其法亦空，人法俱空，自然休去歇去。 | [The Mark of Emptiness of All Dharmas] All Buddhas throughout the ages speak solely of emptiness. But because sentient beings cannot directly take up the burden of emptiness, they establish a hundred skillful means and various provisional names, guiding sentient and insentient beings alike to return to empty quiescence. If your faith has not yet reached this, simply sit quietly and turn the light back upon yourself. See that the five aggregates truly possess nothing at all, and the personal self will naturally be empty. Once the personal self is empty, dharmas too are empty. When both person and dharmas are empty, one naturally rests and ceases. |
| 经云：“我身本不有，憎爱何由生。”到这里，自然放下，无佛可做，无生死可断，无涅槃可证。圆顿之位，等觉、妙觉之地。若更有丝毫可证可修，则堕生死界，永劫受沉沦。若能彻底无依无倚，直下承当空劫，圆陀陀，光烁烁。 | The sūtra says: “My body was never inherently existent; how could hatred and attachment arise?” At this point, one naturally lets go. There is no Buddha to become, no birth and death to cut off, and no nirvāṇa to realize. This is the stage of perfect and sudden awakening, the ground of equal enlightenment and wondrous enlightenment. If there remains even the slightest thing to realize or cultivate, one falls into the realm of birth and death and sinks for kalpas without end. If one can be thoroughly without reliance or support, directly take up the empty kalpa: perfectly round and radiant. |
| 会么？亦无人，亦无佛，大千沙界海中沤，一切圣贤如电拂。 | Do you understand? There are neither persons nor Buddhas; in the ocean of worlds as vast as the great thousandfold cosmos, all sages and worthies are like flashes of lightning. |
| 【不生不灭】“不生不灭”者，全谈理性。有生有灭，全谈事相。此语直言直说众生具足法身。虚空之体，亘古亘今，不曾生、不曾灭，不变、不移，无去、无来，无旧、无新，湛然常寂。四大五蕴从他虚生虚设，于自己法身，总无交涉。和光尘不染，三界独尊。此是长劫虚空不坏之身。经云：“云何得长寿？金刚不坏身。” | [Neither Arising nor Ceasing] “Neither arising nor ceasing” speaks entirely of principle and intrinsic nature. Arising and ceasing speak entirely of phenomenal appearances. This statement directly declares that sentient beings fully possess the dharmakāya. The nature of empty space extends from ancient times to the present: it has never arisen or ceased, does not change or move, neither goes nor comes, is neither old nor new, and is limpidly and ever quiescent. Let the four great elements and five aggregates arise and be provisionally established in vain; they have no connection whatever with one’s own dharmakāya. It blends with the light, yet is unstained by dust; alone it is honored throughout the three realms. This is the body of empty space, indestructible throughout long kalpas. The sūtra says: “How does one attain long life? The adamantine, indestructible body.” |
| 会么？竹影扫阶尘不动，月轮穿海水无痕。 | Do you understand? Bamboo shadows sweep the stairs, yet the dust does not move; the moon passes through the sea, leaving no trace in the water. |
| 【不垢不净】亦说众生本来具足法身。众生法身清净，无瑕、无染、无污，不长、不短，不方、不圆，无浊、无净。坏不得，烧不得，染污不得，如世界如虚空，如莲花不着水。心清净，不垢不净，长劫如然，如水中月。 | [Neither Defiled nor Pure] This too says that sentient beings originally fully possess the dharmakāya. The dharmakāya of sentient beings is pure, without flaw, stain, or defilement; neither long nor short, neither square nor round, neither turbid nor pure. It cannot be destroyed, burned, or defiled. Like the world and like empty space, it is like a lotus unstained by water. The mind is pure, neither defiled nor pure, remaining so throughout long kalpas, like the moon in water. |
| 要见么？佛面犹如净满月，亦如千日放光明。 | Do you wish to see it? The Buddha’s face is like a pure full moon, and like a thousand suns emitting light. |
| 【不增不减】虚空之体，迢迢空劫之身，增不得、减不得、坏不得。在圣而不增，在凡而不减，如如不动。上乘菩萨信无疑，中下之士闻之必生怪。 | [Neither Increasing nor Decreasing] The nature of empty space, the body extending through distant empty kalpas, cannot be increased, diminished, or destroyed. Among sages it does not increase; among ordinary beings it does not decrease. Thusness remains unmoving. Bodhisattvas of the highest vehicle believe this without doubt; people of middling and lesser capacities will surely find it strange when they hear it. |
| 会么？唤作一物即不中。 | Do you understand? To call it a thing is already to miss it. |
| 【是故空中】清净本然。棒打虚空空不痛，刀斫虚空空不断，绳缚虚空空不住，火烧虚空空不着，箭射虚空空不穿，雨打虚空空不湿，典卖虚空不值钱。 | [Therefore, in Emptiness] It is originally pure. Strike empty space with a stick, and it feels no pain; cut empty space with a knife, and it is not severed; bind empty space with a rope, and it cannot be held; burn empty space with fire, and it does not catch fire; shoot empty space with an arrow, and it is not pierced; beat empty space with rain, and it is not wetted; pawn or sell empty space, and it is worth no money. |
| 会么？欲言言不及，山东河北好商量。 | Do you understand? When one wishes to speak, words cannot reach it; Shandong and Hebei may be discussed at leisure. |
| 【无色受想行识】虚空之体，安色空不受色，安声空不受声，安受空不受受，安想空不受想，安行空不受行，安识空不受识。六道四生，一切假名，都无所受，纤尘不立。清虚之理，毕竟无身，行如鸟道，坐若太虚。十二时中，佛眼觑不见。 | [No Form, Feeling, Perception, Formation, or Consciousness] In the nature of empty space, place form within it and it does not receive form; place sound within it and it does not receive sound; place feeling within it and it does not receive feeling; place perception within it and it does not receive perception; place formation within it and it does not receive formation; place consciousness within it and it does not receive consciousness. The six realms, the four modes of birth, and all provisional names receive nothing at all; not even a mote of dust is established. In the principle of pure emptiness, there is ultimately no body. One walks like a bird’s track and sits like vast empty space. Throughout the twelve periods of the day, even the Buddha-eye cannot see it. |
| 为甚觑不见？锦鳞在深处，白鹭不知踪。 | Why can it not be seen? Brocaded fish are in the depths; the white egret knows not their trace. |
| 【无眼耳鼻舌身意】有此六根，随顺众生之说。诸佛具大慈悲，现三十二相，八十种好，以幻灭幻，非幻不灭。不灭者，是众生本来具足法身。“法身即非法身，是名法身。” | [No Eye, Ear, Nose, Tongue, Body, or Mind] The existence of these six sense faculties is spoken of in accordance with sentient beings. The Buddhas, endowed with great compassion, manifest the thirty-two marks and eighty excellent characteristics, using illusion to extinguish illusion. What is not illusory does not perish. What does not perish is the dharmakāya that sentient beings originally fully possess. “The dharmakāya is not dharmakāya; this is called dharmakāya.” |
| 法身有名无形，要见法身么？在眼曰见，在耳曰闻，在鼻曰嗅，在舌谈论，在手执捉，在足运奔。全体起用，全体法身，非是六根、四大、五蕴。见闻觉知，切忌妄认。四大、六根，凡所有相，皆是虚妄，尽是假名。引导众生，须是亲见法身，若得亲见，转凡成圣。 | The dharmakāya has a name but no form. Do you wish to see the dharmakāya? In the eyes it is called seeing; in the ears, hearing; in the nose, smelling; in the tongue, speaking; in the hands, grasping; in the feet, moving and running. The whole body functions in its entirety; the whole body is dharmakāya. It is not the six sense faculties, the four great elements, or the five aggregates. As for seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing, be careful never to mistake them for it. The four great elements and six sense faculties—whatever has an appearance—is all illusory, entirely provisional names. To guide sentient beings, one must personally see the dharmakāya. If one attains direct vision of it, one turns from ordinary being to sage. |
| 岂不见僧问云门：“如何是清净法身？”云门曰：“花药栏。”僧云：“便凭么去时如何？”云门云：“金毛狮子。”雪窦颂云：“花药栏莫颟顸，星在秤方不在盘。便凭么太无端，金毛狮子大家看。” | Have you not seen this? A monk asked Yunmen, “What is the pure dharmakāya?” Yunmen said, “A flower-and-herb fence.” The monk said, “What if one goes on in this way?” Yunmen said, “A golden-maned lion.” Xuedou praised it in verse: “Do not be muddled over the flower-and-herb fence; the star is on the scale but not on the weighing pan. ‘What if one goes on in this way?’—how utterly uncalled for! A golden-maned lion: everyone, look!” |
| 僧问大龙：“色身败坏，如何是坚固法身？”龙曰：“山花开似锦，涧水湛如蓝。”祖师一一为众生指出，若亲见自己法身，万劫不受轮回。 | A monk asked Dalong, “The physical body decays. What is the firm and indestructible dharmakāya?” Dalong said, “Mountain flowers bloom like brocade; stream water is clear as indigo.” The patriarchs pointed this out to sentient beings one by one. If you personally see your own dharmakāya, you will not undergo cyclic rebirth for ten thousand kalpas. |
| 要见法身么？是何颜，剔起眉毛著眼看，拟议之间隔千山。 | Do you wish to see the dharmakāya? What countenance is it? Raise your eyebrows and open your eyes to look. In the very interval of deliberation, a thousand mountains intervene. |
| 【无色声香味触法】此六尘，皆从一根上起，但去一根，反照从何而起？若识得起处，知根本生。反照根本身，非我有我身。既无十八界，顿然清净。观身无身，观法亦然，总归空寂。 | [No Forms, Sounds, Smells, Tastes, Tangibles, or Dharmas] These six sense objects all arise from a single faculty. Simply let go of that one faculty and turn the light back: from where does it arise? If you recognize its point of arising, you will know the root from which it is born. Turn the light back upon the root body: it is not that I possess a body. Once the eighteen realms are absent, there is sudden purity. Contemplate the body as no body; contemplate dharmas in the same way. All return to empty quiescence. |
| 更去静坐，观过去所作，现在所作，多种声色香味触法，安顿何在？既无所有，犹如昨梦。我心本空，罪福无主。何者是罪，何者是福？谛观心是本来空，是则名为真忏悔。 | Moreover, sit quietly and contemplate what you have done in the past and what you are doing now. Where are the many forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangibles, and dharmas placed? Since they possess nothing at all, they are like last night’s dream. My mind is originally empty; offenses and blessings have no master. What is offense? What is blessing? Thoroughly contemplate that the mind is originally empty: this is called true repentance. |
| 三祖乞二祖忏罪，二祖云：“将罪来，我与你忏。”三祖云：“觅罪了不可得。”二祖云：“忏罪已竟。”三祖于此大悟。 | The Third Patriarch asked the Second Patriarch to repent of his offenses for him. The Second Patriarch said, “Bring me your offenses, and I will repent of them for you.” The Third Patriarch said, “When I seek the offenses, they cannot be found.” The Second Patriarch said, “Your repentance is complete.” At this, the Third Patriarch greatly awakened. |
| 会么？对坐不相见，光影照驴面。静坐绝纤尘，虚空不通线。 | Do you understand? Sitting face-to-face, they do not see one another; light and shadow shine upon the donkey’s face. Sitting quietly, not a mote of dust remains; not even a thread passes through empty space. |
| 【无眼界乃至无意识界】此十八界，因执有眼界，而连累十八界，是诸恶业。但去眼根，反究虚假，六根皆归败坏，总无真实。静观四大，都无实义，为虚空之体，长劫不坏之身，湛然常寂，亦无修证。 | [No Eye Realm up to No Mind-Consciousness Realm] These eighteen realms arise from clinging to the existence of an eye realm, thereby entangling the eighteen realms in all kinds of evil karma. Simply relinquish the eye faculty and turn back to investigate its falsity. The six sense faculties all return to decay and destruction; none possesses any reality. Quietly contemplate the four great elements: they have no real meaning. [One realizes] the nature of empty space, the body indestructible throughout long kalpas, limpidly and ever quiescent, with no cultivation or realization either. |
| 那伽常在定，无有不定时。无散无乱，孤明独照，犹同秋月。圆陀陀，光烁烁，普天匝地照彻十方，山河大地不能隔碍。灵光独耀，迥脱根尘，体露真常，不拘文字。心性无染，本自圆成，但离妄缘，即如如佛。 | The nāga is always in samādhi; there is never a time when it is not in samādhi. Without distraction or confusion, solitary luminosity shines alone, like the autumn moon. Perfectly round and radiant, it illuminates all heaven and earth, thoroughly shining through the ten directions; mountains, rivers, and the great earth cannot obstruct it. The numinous light shines alone, far transcending faculties and objects. Its essence reveals true permanence, unconfined by words and letters. The nature of mind is unstained and originally complete; simply leave behind deluded conditions, and you are the thusness Buddha. |
| 【无无明】开发众生，人人尽有无明，起多种差别，百种烦恼。常取六根，起十八界。心处六情，如鸟投网，造众恶业，如蛾赴灯。出壳入壳，辗转不觉，流浪经劫，皆因无明而起。 | [No Ignorance] To instruct sentient beings: everyone has ignorance, which gives rise to many distinctions and a hundred kinds of afflictions. They constantly grasp at the six sense faculties, giving rise to the eighteen realms. The mind dwells amid the six emotions, like a bird caught in a net, creating every kind of evil karma like a moth rushing into a lamp. Leaving one shell and entering another, they turn about without awareness, wandering through kalpas; all this arises because of ignorance. |
| 因有无明，无明缘行，行缘识，识缘名色，名色缘六入，六入缘触，触缘受，受缘爱，爱缘取，取缘有，有缘生，生缘老死。忧悲苦恼，皆由无明为始。于此忽然亲见无明，降伏令死，死中更死，万缘俱息。 | Because there is ignorance, ignorance conditions formations; formations condition consciousness; consciousness conditions name and form; name and form condition the six entrances; the six entrances condition contact; contact conditions feeling; feeling conditions craving; craving conditions grasping; grasping conditions becoming; becoming conditions birth; and birth conditions aging and death. Sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress all begin with ignorance. If at this point one suddenly sees ignorance directly, subdues it, and makes it die—dying within death yet again—then all conditions cease together. |
| 诸漏已尽，永断烦恼，根本既除，三毒自灭。一切众生，不识无明恶毒缘起，因被所累，历劫受苦，忽然自觉，无明起处。朝打三千，暮打八百，直教大死一回，末后再苏，欺君不得。 | All outflows are exhausted and afflictions are forever cut off. Once the root has been removed, the three poisons naturally perish. All sentient beings do not recognize the arising of ignorance, this poisonous condition; burdened by it, they suffer throughout kalpas. Suddenly awaken for yourself to the point at which ignorance arises. Strike it three thousand times in the morning and eight hundred times at dusk, until it dies a great death once and for all; only afterward may it revive. It cannot deceive you. |
| 一僧问投子：“大死的人，却活时如何？”投云：“不许夜行，投明须到。”于此直截根源，扫除心地，不见有身。身尽无明尽，尘垢尽除，万劫尘沙之罪一时顿消，轮转生死一时顿脱。 | A monk asked Touzi, “When one who has undergone the great death comes back to life, how is it?” Touzi said, “Night travel is not permitted; you must arrive by daylight.” Here one goes directly to the source, clearing away the mind-ground, and sees that there is no body. When the body is exhausted, ignorance is exhausted; when the defilements are wholly removed, the sins accumulated through dust-mote kalpas are suddenly eradicated, and the round of birth and death is suddenly cast off. |
| 古云：“刹那灭却阿鼻业，了得万法本来空。”如何是本来空？“无明实性即佛性，幻化空身即法身。”法身觉了无一物，于此一一明得，转凡成圣，转无明作佛。 | An ancient said, “In an instant, the karma of Avīci is extinguished, and one realizes that all dharmas are originally empty.” What is this original emptiness? “The real nature of ignorance is itself Buddha-nature; this illusory empty body is itself the dharmakāya.” When the dharmakāya awakens, there is not a single thing. If one clearly understands each of these, one turns from ordinary to sagehood and transforms ignorance into Buddhahood. |
| 【亦无无明尽】有身即有无明，有无明即有三毒。因有三毒，起三恶业，三业昏暗，背觉合尘，不觉不知。若能转三毒作三德，转六根作六神通。于此一一转得，转凡成圣，凡夫即是圣人，圣人即是凡夫。 | [And Also No Extinction of Ignorance] Where there is a body, there is ignorance; where there is ignorance, there are the three poisons. Because there are the three poisons, the three unwholesome karmas arise. The three karmas darken the mind; turning away from awakening and joining with the dust of sensory objects, one neither awakens nor knows. If one can transform the three poisons into the three virtues and transform the six sense faculties into the six spiritual powers, then, by transforming each of these, one turns from ordinary to sagehood: ordinary beings are sages, and sages are ordinary beings. |
| 若转不得，凡夫被物所转，百姓日用而不知，终日忙忙，无本可据。若能转得，会万物归于自己，终日忙忙，那事无妨。终日吃饭，不曾咬破一粒米，终日着衣，不挂一缕丝。终日为，未尝为。 | If one cannot transform them, an ordinary being is turned by things. People use them every day without knowing; they remain busy all day, with no foundation on which to rely. If one can transform them, one gathers the myriad things back into oneself. Though busy all day, this does no harm. One eats all day without ever biting through a single grain of rice; one wears clothes all day without a single thread hanging upon one. One acts all day, yet has never acted. |
| 如此转得，混融魔界，居尘不染尘，在欲而无欲。身心一如，内外无余。须是打成一片，与空劫齐，形影不存，纤毫不立，体露堂堂。才有纤尘，遍界空生，即堕生死。但去反观自己，不见有身。我身既无，无明亦无。 | When one can transform in this way, one intermingles freely with the realm of Māra; dwelling amid dust, one is unstained by dust; being amid desire, one is without desire. Body and mind are one suchness; within and without, nothing remains. One must become continuous and undivided with the empty kalpa itself, so that form and shadow do not remain, not the slightest thing is established, and the whole essence stands openly revealed. As soon as there is the slightest mote of dust, empty space is born throughout the realm, and one falls into birth and death. Simply turn the light back and contemplate yourself: no body can be found. Since my body is absent, ignorance too is absent. |
| 经云：“永断无明，方成佛道。”只这“佛”之一字，亦不可得，觅元字脚，亦不可得。 | The sūtra says, “Only when ignorance is forever cut off can the Buddha Way be accomplished.” Yet even this single word “Buddha” cannot be obtained; searching for even the root of the word, it too cannot be obtained. |
| 古云：无卓锥之地，唤做了事的人，唤做无心道人。“莫道无心云是道，无心犹隔一重关。”且道隔那一重关？ | An ancient said, “One who has not even enough ground on which to set an awl is called a person who has finished the matter, a person of the Way without mind.” “Do not say that no-mind is the Way; no-mind still stands separated by one barrier.” Tell me, what is that barrier? |
| 会么？一片白云横谷口，几多归鸟尽迷巢。 | Do you understand? A single white cloud stretches across the valley mouth; how many returning birds have lost their nests. |
| 【乃至无老死】 | [And Thus No Aging and Death] |
| 既得无明尽，便无老死。诸佛修行，只到无身处。身既无，生死何有？佛不见身，是佛见。 | Once the extinction of ignorance is attained, there is no aging and death. The cultivation of all Buddhas reaches only the place where there is no body. Once the body is absent, how can birth and death exist? Not seeing a body is the Buddha’s seeing. |
| 经云：“若无我相、人相、众生相、寿者相，即是菩萨。若有我相、人相、众生相、寿者相，不名菩萨。”众生颠倒，被目前幻景所惑。行影变动，随物流转，因执人我，妄心不灭。 | The sūtra says, “If there is no mark of self, mark of person, mark of sentient being, or mark of life span, one is a bodhisattva. If there are marks of self, person, sentient being, or life span, one cannot be called a bodhisattva.” Sentient beings are inverted and deluded, deceived by the illusory scenes before their eyes. Their movements and shadows change; following things, they drift and turn. Because they cling to self and person, their deluded minds do not cease. |
| 迢迢尘劫，人我不除，执著声色，堕落生死，对治目前，亦有生灭。若是见性之人，目前无法，亦无众生。心、佛及众生，是三无差别，平等真法界，佛不度众生。一体同观，万法归一。到这里，生则从它生，老则从它老，病则从他病，死则从他死。若是到家的人，不见有生死，亦无生灭。 | Through distant kalpas as numerous as dust motes, self and person have not been eliminated. Clinging to sounds and forms, one falls into birth and death; even counteracting what lies before one involves arising and ceasing. But for one who sees the nature, there is no dharma before one and no sentient being either. Mind, Buddha, and sentient beings—these three are without distinction: the equal, true Dharma Realm. The Buddha does not liberate sentient beings. Viewing all as one body, the myriad dharmas return to the One. Upon reaching this point, let birth be born, aging grow old, illness become ill, and death die. One who has returned home does not see birth and death, nor arising and ceasing. |
| 古云：“不见一法即如来，方得名为观自在。”天堂地狱，六道四生，一切幻化，于大彻底人，总无交涉，自然全身放下。“诸行无常一切空，即是如来大圆觉。” | An ancient said, “Not seeing a single dharma is the Tathāgata; only then may one be called Avalokiteśvara.” Heaven and hell, the six realms and four modes of birth—all are illusory transformations. For one who has awakened completely and thoroughly, they have no connection at all; naturally, the whole body is let go. “All conditioned phenomena are impermanent and all is empty: this is the Tathāgata’s great perfect enlightenment.” |
| 且道死了烧了，向甚么处去？ | Tell me: once one has died and been cremated, where does one go? |
| 会么？无影树下，啸月吟风。无缝塔前，安身立命！ | Do you understand? Beneath the shadowless tree, one whistles at the moon and chants to the wind. Before the seamless stūpa, one settles one’s body and establishes one’s life! |
| 【亦无老死尽】学道之人，如剥芭蕉，去一重又去一重，直得去尽，无下手处，反本还原，得五蕴空，如未生相似，烧了一般。到空不空处，脱体全忘，不存踪迹，通身手眼，不立纤尘。名字不可得，十二因缘、六度万行、头陀苦行，一时顿脱。如枯木，如死灰百不会的人。 | [And Also No Extinction of Aging and Death] Those who study the Way are like someone peeling a banana plant: stripping away one layer and then another, until everything has been stripped away and there is nowhere to begin. Returning to the source and reverting to the origin, they attain the emptiness of the five aggregates, as though unborn, as though burned away. At the place where emptiness is not emptiness, the entire body is forgotten; no trace remains. The whole body is hands and eyes, and not the slightest mote of dust is established. Even the name cannot be obtained. The twelve links of dependent origination, the six perfections and myriad practices, and the ascetic practices of the dhūta are all suddenly cast off. One becomes like withered wood, like dead ashes—someone who understands nothing whatsoever. |
| 古云：“不是息心除妄想，只缘无事可思量。”若更说生、说死、说因、说果、说心、说性。“心是根，法是尘，两种犹如镜上痕，痕垢尽除光始现。”心法双忘，方到无生死之地。人法俱忘，复是何物？ | An ancient said, “It is not a matter of stilling the mind or eliminating deluded thoughts; it is simply that there is nothing to deliberate.” If one still speaks of birth, death, cause, effect, mind, or nature: “Mind is the faculty, dharmas are the dust; the two are like marks upon a mirror. Only when the marks and grime are entirely removed does the light first appear.” Only when mind and dharmas are both forgotten does one reach the ground where there is no birth and death. When both person and dharma are forgotten, what is there then? |
| 会么？木人半夜穿靴去，石女天明戴帽归。 | Do you understand? At midnight, a wooden man puts on his boots and goes away; at dawn, a stone woman returns wearing a hat. |
| 【无苦集灭道】小乘之人，日夜精进，六度万行，心外求法。免此四谛，出三界，免轮回，无有是处。诸佛为大事因缘出现于世，不以小乘法济度于群生。大乘之者，学无为法，端坐念实相，“众罪如霜露，慧日能消除”。 | [No Suffering, Origination, Cessation, or Path] Those of the Lesser Vehicle strive diligently day and night, practicing the six perfections and myriad practices while seeking dharmas outside the mind. To escape the four noble truths, leave the three realms, and avoid rebirth—this is impossible. The Buddhas appear in the world for the great cause and condition; they do not use the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle to liberate the multitude of beings. Those of the Mahāyāna learn the Dharma of non-contrivance, sit upright contemplating true reality: “The many sins are like frost and dew; the sun of wisdom can dispel them.” |
| 在于闲处，收摄其心，端然不动，观一切法，皆无所有。反观四大，有身非觉体，无相乃明真，自知空寂。今知空寂，顿脱净尽，无功之功，长劫不坏，如如不动，湛然常寂。诸法从本来，常自寂灭相。 | In a quiet place, gather in the mind, sit upright and unmoving, and contemplate all dharmas as having nothing whatsoever. Turn the light back upon the four great elements: though there is a body, it is not the essence of awareness; being without marks is what reveals the true. Know for oneself the empty quiescence. Now, knowing this empty quiescence, one suddenly becomes utterly free and pure. This is effort without effort, indestructible through long kalpas, suchness unmoved, clear and ever quiescent. All dharmas, from the very beginning, have always been marked by quiescent cessation. |
| 佛子行道己，来世得做佛。定慧力庄严，无迷无悟，无苦无药，无集无灭，无道无德，无慧无痴，“本来无一物，明镜亦非台”。到这里修证即不悟，染污即不得，一直超入如来地。 | When the Buddha’s disciples have completed the practice of the Way, they will become Buddhas in future lives. Adorned by the powers of samādhi and wisdom, there is neither delusion nor awakening, neither suffering nor medicine, neither origination nor cessation, neither path nor virtue, neither wisdom nor ignorance: “Originally there is not a single thing; the bright mirror is not a stand either.” Upon reaching this point, cultivation and realization do not yield awakening, and defilement cannot be found. One directly transcends into the ground of the Tathāgata. |
| 要见如来么？竹密不妨流水过，山高岂碍白云飞。 | Do you wish to see the Tathāgata? Dense bamboo does not obstruct the flowing stream; high mountains cannot hinder white clouds from flying. |
| 【无智亦无得】此句反照自身，常不可得，岂有得乎？亦无人亦无佛，不是心，不是佛，不是物，一切圣贤如电拂。到这里如贼入空屋，得无所得。离种种见，脱体无依，自性清净，实无一法可当情。 | [No Wisdom and Also No Attainment] This line turns the light back upon oneself: it is always unobtainable, so how could there be attainment? There is neither person nor Buddha; it is not mind, not Buddha, not a thing. All sages and worthies are like lightning flashing past. At this point, it is like a thief entering an empty house: there is nothing to gain. Free from all kinds of views, with the whole body having nothing on which to depend, one’s own nature is pure; truly, there is not a single dharma that can engage the mind. |
| “本来付有法，付了言无法，各各须自悟，悟了无无法。”无得无失，无进无修，燃灯佛无一法授记。胸次才有丝毫有得有失，我能我会，我悟我达，我聪明我智慧，有道有德，尽是增上慢的人。我不除，皆随生死。若是真实的人，总不如此，自有出身之路。 | “Originally, a dharma was entrusted; once it was entrusted, it was said that there was no dharma. Each must awaken for oneself; once awakened, there is no dharma that is not absent.” There is no gain or loss, no advancing or cultivating. Dīpaṅkara Buddha conferred no prediction through any dharma. The moment there is even the slightest sense in one’s breast of gain or loss—‘I can,’ ‘I understand,’ ‘I have awakened,’ ‘I have comprehended,’ ‘I am clever,’ ‘I have wisdom,’ ‘I possess the Way,’ ‘I possess virtue’—one is a person of overbearing pride. So long as the “I” is not eliminated, one follows birth and death. But one who is genuine is never like this; there is naturally a path of emergence. |
| 如何是出身之路？昨日有人从天台来，却过南岳去。 | What is the path of emergence? Yesterday someone came from Tiantai, then passed on toward Nanyue. |
| 【以无所得故】修行人到这里，入圆顿之位。众生因何流浪？不能出期只为不曾见性，鲜于智慧，不能广知无量空义。胸次学解，误却本心。从门入者，不是家珍。众生被其干慧，广览义理，蛊毒人心。蕴在胸怀，成增上慢。 | [Because There Is Nothing to Attain] When practitioners reach this point, they enter the stage of perfect and sudden teaching. Why do sentient beings wander? Unable to escape within a fixed time, it is only because they have never seen their nature. They are deficient in wisdom and cannot broadly know the immeasurable meanings of emptiness. Learning and intellectual understanding held in the breast mislead the original mind. What enters through the gate is not a family treasure. Sentient beings are harmed by this dry wisdom: they broadly peruse meanings and principles, poisoning the human mind. Stored within the breast, it becomes overbearing pride. |
| 古云：“才有纤毫，即是尘。一翳在眼，遍界空生翳。”若不销，不出门知天下事。翳若消尽，始知庵内人，不见庵外事。须是参究到空劫齐，不落第二见，归根得旨。才有所得，执著人我，我慢不除，生陷地狱。 | An ancient said, “As soon as there is the slightest trace, it is dust. A single speck in the eye, and throughout the realm empty space gives rise to blemishes.” If the speck is not removed, one can know the affairs of the world without leaving the door. Only when the speck has been completely removed does one know the person in the hut and not see the affairs outside the hut. One must investigate until one is equal to the empty kalpa, not falling into a second view, returning to the root and attaining the essential meaning. As soon as there is attainment, one clings to self and person; if self-conceit is not eliminated, one falls alive into hell. |
| 云光法师讲得天花乱坠，贪嗔不改，堕落堰牛。西天长爪梵志，讲得天帝释、阎老来听法，免地狱苦，不得腾空，见佛请益，闻佛方悟。若要超佛越祖，须是念念空寂。世间幻化，一切客尘、太虚之体，声色不存，如世界如虚空，是了事安乐清净道人。 | Dharma Master Yunguang expounded so brilliantly that heavenly flowers fell in profusion, yet he did not change his greed and anger and fell into rebirth as a penned ox. In India, the Long-Clawed Brahmin expounded so well that Śakra, lord of the gods, and King Yama came to hear the Dharma. Though he was spared the sufferings of hell, he could not rise into the air. He went to see the Buddha and seek instruction; only upon hearing the Buddha did he awaken. If one wishes to transcend Buddhas and surpass patriarchs, one must be empty and quiescent in thought after thought. The world is illusory transformation; all adventitious defilements, the substance of vast empty space, sounds, and forms do not remain. One is like the world and like empty space—a person of the Way who has finished the matter, at ease and pure. |
| 要见清净道人么？因我得礼你，衲僧眼见鬼。朗州山，澧州水。 | Do you wish to see a pure person of the Way? Because of me, you are able to bow to yourself; this patch-robed monk sees a ghost. Langzhou’s mountains, Lizhou’s waters. |
| 【菩提萨埵】了得人空，名曰“菩提”。了得法空，名曰“萨埵”，人法俱空，名曰妙觉。四果小乘，著相修行，精进苦行，修无漏，断尘沙惑，果行圆满，得四果阿罗汉。如独跳，神通狭劣，堕在声闻辟支佛，不能接物利生。 | [Bodhisattva] To realize the emptiness of persons is called “bodhi.” To realize the emptiness of dharmas is called “sattva.” To realize both persons and dharmas as empty is called wondrous awakening. Those of the Lesser Vehicle who attain the four fruits practice while clinging to marks, striving in ascetic practices, cultivating the undefiled, and cutting off dust-like delusions. When the fruition of their practice is complete, they attain the four fruits of arhatship. Like one who leaps alone, their spiritual powers are narrow and inferior; they fall within the śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha vehicles and cannot respond to circumstances and benefit sentient beings. |
| 若不见性，万劫不能成佛。若要入圆顿之位，须是见性。若得见性，反掌之间，转凡成圣，自然机缘，悟佛三昧。无师智、自然智，多种方便，度诸迷悟，同到彼岸，更不受生。教外别传，不劳寸刃，入圆觉无碍法门。 | Without seeing one’s nature, one cannot become a Buddha through ten thousand kalpas. To enter the stage of perfect and sudden teaching, one must see one’s nature. If one sees one’s nature, then within the turning of a hand one transforms from ordinary to sagehood; through natural circumstances, one awakens to the Buddha’s samādhi. With wisdom without a teacher and natural wisdom, one employs many skillful means to liberate all those lost in delusion and awakening, bringing them together to the other shore so that they no longer undergo rebirth. This is a special transmission outside the teachings: without the labor of a single inch of blade, one enters the unobstructed Dharma gate of perfect enlightenment. |
| 如何是无碍法门？此去西天十万余。 | What is the unobstructed Dharma gate? From here to India is more than a hundred thousand li. |
| 【依般若波罗蜜多故】此中间六个字，依此前种种解说，得大智慧，最尊最胜。悟性般若，天上天下，无有及之。 | [Because of Prajñāpāramitā] Through the explanations above of these six characters, one attains great wisdom, the most honored and supreme. Awakening to the prajñā of one’s nature, nothing in heaven or on earth can equal it. |
| 古云：“千日学慧，不如一日学般若。”般若通透，大光明藏，如人入海，转入转深。开佛知见，入佛知见，悟佛知见。有大神通，种种变化，种种方便，应现种种相。随机利物，引导群迷，同到彼岸。 | An ancient said, “A thousand days of studying wisdom do not equal one day of studying prajñā.” Prajñā penetrates thoroughly; it is the great light treasury. It is like a person entering the sea: the farther one enters, the deeper it becomes. One opens to the Buddha’s knowledge and vision, enters the Buddha’s knowledge and vision, and awakens to the Buddha’s knowledge and vision. One possesses great spiritual powers, various transformations, and many skillful means, manifesting different forms in response to circumstances. Adapting to circumstances to benefit beings, one guides the deluded multitude together to the other shore. |
| 三界唯心，万法唯识，体用双行，浑融归一。无二亦无三，唯有一乘法。动静言谈，句句平等，不落第二。一体同观，平等真法界，无众生可度，岂有差别？脱体无依，果行圆满，名曰“蜜多”。三世诸佛，被思大和尚，一口吞尽了也。 | The three realms are mind-only; all phenomena are consciousness-only. Essence and function operate together, merging completely and returning to the One. There are neither two nor three; there is only the One Vehicle Dharma. In movement and stillness, speech and conversation, every phrase is equal and does not fall into a second. Viewing all as one body, this is the equal, true Dharma Realm. There are no sentient beings to liberate, so how could there be distinctions? With the whole body having nothing on which to depend and the fruition of practice complete, this is called “pāramitā.” Master Si has swallowed all the Buddhas of the three times in a single mouthful. |
| 会么？破镜不重照，落花难上枝。 | Do you understand? A broken mirror does not shine again; fallen flowers are hard to return to their branches. |
| 【心无挂碍】到此悟真空妙理，廓彻太空，清净本然。如来与一切众生，平等性空，于诸修行，实无有二，超过碍无碍境。 | [The Mind Is Without Hindrance] At this point, one awakens to the wondrous principle of true emptiness: vast and penetrating as empty space, pure in its original nature. The Tathāgata and all sentient beings are equally empty in nature. In all cultivation, there are truly no two; one transcends the states of obstruction and nonobstruction. |
| 古云：“心同虚空界，示得虚空法，证得虚空持。”无是无非法，外清净、内清净、内外清净，外空、内空、内外空，当体即空。天地未有，先有此空。有物混成，先天地生。无名天地之始，有名万物之母。太始太初，太微太极，视之不见，听之不闻，搏之不得，迎之不见其首，随之不见其后，五目不睹其踪，二听绝闻其响。 | An ancient said: “The mind is one with the realm of empty space; it reveals the Dharma of empty space and realizes the sustaining of empty space.” There is neither is nor is-not: outer purity, inner purity, and purity both within and without; outer emptiness, inner emptiness, and emptiness both within and without. In its very substance, it is emptiness. Before heaven and earth existed, this emptiness already existed. There was something undifferentiated, born before heaven and earth. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth; the named is the mother of the myriad things. In the Great Beginning and Great Origin, the Great Subtlety and Great Ultimate: look for it and it cannot be seen; listen for it and it cannot be heard; grasp for it and it cannot be obtained. Meet it and its head cannot be seen; follow it and its rear cannot be seen. Even five eyes cannot discern its trace, and two kinds of hearing cannot hear its sound. |
| 六祖云：“我有一物，上拄天下拄地，无人识得，若亲见一回，超过佛祖。出三界，不轮回，为人自肯、自信，自能保任，得无碍法，决定无疑。” | The Sixth Patriarch said: “I have one thing: above, it supports heaven; below, it supports earth. No one recognizes it. If you see it directly even once, you surpass the Buddhas and patriarchs. You leave the three realms and do not revolve in rebirth. One must personally acknowledge and trust it, be able to safeguard realization, attain the unobstructed Dharma, and be utterly free of doubt.” |
| 会么？三岁孩儿抱花鼓，八十老翁滚绣球。 | Do you understand? A three-year-old child carries a flower drum; an eighty-year-old man rolls an embroidered ball. |
| 【无挂碍】经云：“汝何不见吾不见之地，若不见吾不见之地，自然非物。”云何非吾？达诸法相，稽首如空，无依无倚。如百千灯，光照一室，其光遍蒲。一切幻化，虚妄境界，于此总无障碍。东去无穷，西去无极，纵横自在，无去无来。幻景不能所拘，本源自性天真。长劫不坏，清净之体，无去无来，无变无异，故曰如来。 | [Without Hindrance] A sūtra says: “Why do you not see the place where I do not see? If you do not see the place where I do not see, it is naturally not a thing.” How can it be other than oneself? Realize the characteristics of all dharmas; bow before them as before empty space, relying on nothing and supported by nothing. It is like hundreds and thousands of lamps illuminating one room, their light spreading everywhere. All transformations and illusory realms present no hindrance here. Going east, there is no end; going west, there is no limit. Freely extending in all directions, there is neither going nor coming. Illusory scenes cannot confine it; its original source and intrinsic nature are naturally genuine. Through long kalpas it is not destroyed. Its pure substance has neither coming nor going, neither change nor difference; therefore it is called the Tathāgata. |
| 要见如来么？南有天台，北有五台。 | Do you wish to see the Tathāgata? To the south is Tiantai; to the north is Wutai. |
| 【故】“故”之一字，圆满极则。不可说，不可说。说亦不得，因说不得，故曰“故”。即无法可说，是名说法。 | [Therefore] The single word “therefore” is complete and ultimate. It cannot be spoken of, cannot be spoken of. Even when spoken, it cannot be expressed; because it cannot be expressed, it is called “therefore.” That is, there is no Dharma that can be spoken; this is called teaching the Dharma. |
| 【无有恐怖】悟得性空，东西不辨，南北不分，不受明暗之所拘，不与万法为侣。来去无伴侣，佛眼不能睹。常独行，常独步，达者同游涅槃路。上天之仰无穷，入地去之无极。山河石壁，地水火风，于此来往，总无隔碍。 | [Without Fear] Realize the emptiness of intrinsic nature, and east and west cannot be distinguished, north and south cannot be divided. One is not confined by brightness or darkness and does not make companions of the myriad dharmas. One comes and goes without companions, beyond the sight even of the Buddha-eye. Ever walking alone, ever proceeding alone, those who realize it travel together on the road to nirvāṇa. Looking up to heaven, there is no end; entering the earth, there is no limit. Mountains, rivers, stone walls, earth, water, fire, and wind—coming and going among them, there is no obstruction at all. |
| 不动道场，一刹那间，周游法界。侧掌行千里，回程转似飞，阴阳不能迁变。四圣六凡，拘系不能得，千圣不奈何。无挂、无碍，长劫如然，唤做自在大觉金仙。格外超佛越祖之久，决定无疑。究竟圆觉，遍十方故。 | Without moving from the bodhimaṇḍa, in a single instant one travels throughout the dharma realm. With a turn of the palm, one goes a thousand li; on the return journey, one turns as though flying. Yin and yang cannot alter one. The four noble and six ordinary realms cannot bind one; a thousand sages can do nothing about it. Without attachment and without hindrance, it remains thus through long kalpas. This is called the freely self-mastering Great Awakened Golden Immortal. For ages it has transcended Buddhas and surpassed patriarchs, beyond all doubt. It is ultimate perfect enlightenment, pervading the ten directions. |
| 要见此人么？白头童子智犹长，半夜三更渡渺茫，任运往来无间断，不须船子与浮囊。 | Do you wish to see this person? The white-haired child’s wisdom still grows; in the dead of night, he crosses the vastness. He comes and goes spontaneously without interruption, needing neither boat nor float. |
| 【远离颠倒梦想】若要远离，先断贪欲，及除爱渴，爱为根本。发心修行，先取见性，爱欲自除。众生轮回，颠倒不息，从过去劫中，不信般若，流浪生死。至于今日，被幻境所惑，贪著五欲，业识茫茫，日夜颠倒，被此幻身，三业昏暗，不觉不知。忽然自觉无常，知此过幻，念念变灭，顿然觉悟，即知此身，毕竟无体。 | [Far from Inverted Deluded Thoughts] If you wish to be far from them, first cut off greed and desire and eliminate the thirst of attachment, for attachment is the root. When arousing the resolve for cultivation, first realize your true nature; attachment and desire will naturally cease. Sentient beings revolve in rebirth, their inversions never stopping. Since kalpas past, lacking faith in prajñā, they have wandered through birth and death. Even today, deluded by illusory circumstances, they cling to the five desires. Their karmic consciousness is vast and confused; day and night they remain inverted. Bound by this illusory body, their three karmas are darkened, and they neither awaken nor know. Suddenly realizing impermanence, they know this to be a passing illusion. Thought after thought changes and perishes. With sudden awakening, they know that this body ultimately has no substance. |
| 古云：“圣人无己无固，无必无我，无依无倚，无晦无明，无名无相，无强无弱，无净无秽，无立无作，无生无灭，无住无默，无言无说，绝思绝虑。”一切语言道断，心行处灭。实无可得，得无所得，其道常存。 | An ancient said: “The sage has no self and no fixed attachment; no necessity and no ego; no reliance and no support; no obscurity and no brightness; no name and no form; no strength and no weakness; no purity and no defilement; no establishment and no action; no arising and no ceasing; no abiding and no silence; no words and no speech; no thought and no deliberation.” Every path of language is cut off, and the activity of mind ceases. Truly, there is nothing to attain; attainment is non-attainment, yet the Way ever remains. |
| 朝闻道，夕死可矣！死了烧了，无饥无渴，无寒无热，无起无倒，无睡无眠，无六根无九窍，无四百四病，无八万四千虫，永无颠倒梦想。若不如此悟去，清净界中，才一念阎浮，早过八千年。会即刹那间，不会尘沙劫。 | If one hears the Way in the morning, one may die content in the evening! Once dead and cremated, there is no hunger or thirst, no cold or heat, no rising or falling, no sleep or waking, no six sense faculties or nine apertures, no four hundred and four illnesses, no eighty-four thousand worms, and never again any inverted deluded thoughts. If one does not awaken in this way, then in the pure realm, as soon as a single thought turns toward Jambudvīpa, eight thousand years have already passed. Understanding occurs in an instant; failure to understand lasts kalpas as numerous as dust motes. |
| 死死生生，转转不觉，睡长梦而不醒，万劫颠倒而无止。颠颠倒倒，死了又生，生了又死，梦醒又梦，如梦幻泡影，流转世间，梦中说梦，终无了期。若有人打得彻，透得过，永免颠倒，梦幻顿断。 | Dying and being born, turning and turning without awakening, they sleep through a long dream without waking. For myriad kalpas, inversion continues without end. Inverted and confused, they die and are born again, are born and die again; waking from one dream, they enter another. Like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows, they circulate through the world, speaking of dreams within dreams, with no end in sight. If someone breaks through completely and penetrates beyond, they are forever freed from inversion, and dreams and illusions are suddenly cut off. |
| 且道向甚么处去？千圣觅他踪不见，全身隐在太虚中。 | But tell me, where do they go? A thousand sages seek their traces and cannot find them; their whole body is hidden within the great void. |
| 【究竟涅槃】反究此身，本来无此四大，迷己逐物，认贼为子，妄认四大六根为自己。一切众生，从无始以来，妄想执有我、人、众生及与寿者，认四颠倒，自不觉知，不能解脱。 | [Ultimate Nirvāṇa] Examine this body in reverse: originally, these four great elements did not exist. Deluded about oneself and pursuing things, one takes a thief for one’s son, mistakenly regarding the four great elements and six sense faculties as oneself. Since beginningless time, all sentient beings have falsely imagined and clung to self, person, sentient being, and life span. They take up the four inversions, remain unaware, and cannot be liberated. |
| 忽然自醒，于此日夜不离当念，自觉自照，照尽五蕴，从尘劫以来，本自无有，廓然顿空，实无我相，如圆觉性。本无菩提及与涅槃，亦无成佛及不成佛。古云：“若悟无人我，逍遥出六尘。” | Suddenly awakening, one never departs from the present thought, day or night. One becomes self-aware and self-illuminating, illuminating the five aggregates until, from dust-mote kalpas onward, they are seen to have been originally nonexistent. Vastly open, all is suddenly empty. There truly is no mark of self, just as with the nature of perfect enlightenment. Originally there is neither bodhi nor nirvāṇa, neither becoming a Buddha nor not becoming a Buddha. An ancient said: “If one realizes that there is no self or person, one wanders freely beyond the six sense objects.” |
| “竟”者，尽也。穷尽之法，廓彻无己，万缘顿息，内外无余，湛然常寂。“生灭灭已，寂灭为乐。”全身放下，离四句，绝百非，知见无见，斯即涅槃，故曰“涅槃”。 | “Ultimate” means exhaustion. When dharmas are exhausted, one is utterly open and without self; the myriad conditions suddenly cease, leaving nothing within or without, clear and ever quiescent. “When arising and ceasing have ceased, quiescent extinction is bliss.” Let the whole body go; leave behind the four propositions and cut off the hundred negations. Knowing and views become non-knowing and non-seeing. This is nirvāṇa; hence it is called “nirvāṇa.” |
| 如何是涅槃？咫尺之间，不睹师颜。 | What is nirvāṇa? At arm’s length, one does not see the master’s face. |
| 【三世诸佛】过去、未来、现在。过去庄严劫，一千佛。三世三千佛，更有穷劫佛，不可说，不可说。数量不可穷，但去静坐，观过去、现在、未来皆同一体，如虚空。 | [The Buddhas of the Three Times] Past, future, and present. In the past Adornment Kalpa there were one thousand Buddhas. There are three thousand Buddhas of the three times, and also Buddhas throughout limitless kalpas—unspeakably many, unspeakably many. Their number cannot be exhausted. Simply sit quietly and contemplate that past, present, and future are all of one substance, like empty space. |
| 不异相，不自相、不他相，非无相、非取相；不此岸、不彼岸，不中流。观身寂灭，永不断灭。若人于此顿悟，直下承当，迢迢空劫，尽在如今。于光动地，人法皆忘，不见过去、未来、现在，究竟到尽、无尽地，即是空空。我、无我、我我尚不可得，空色亦无，三世自空。非识灭空，识性自空。前际后际空，故中际亦空，不落空。 | It is not a differentiated characteristic, not its own characteristic, and not another’s characteristic; it is neither without characteristics nor grasped as a characteristic. It is not this shore, not the other shore, and not midstream. Contemplate the body as quiescent extinction, never annihilated. If a person suddenly awakens to this and directly takes it up, the far-reaching empty kalpas are all contained in the present moment. When light moves and the earth shakes, self and dharmas are both forgotten. One does not see past, future, or present. Reaching the ultimate ground of exhaustion and inexhaustibility, this is emptiness of emptiness. Self, no-self, and self-self are all unobtainable; emptiness and form too are absent, and the three times are naturally empty. It is not that consciousness is extinguished into emptiness; the nature of consciousness is itself empty. The former limit and latter limit are empty; therefore the middle limit too is empty, yet one does not fall into emptiness. |
| 要见三世诸佛么？镇州萝卜犹自可，青州布衫更愁人。 | Do you wish to see the Buddhas of the three times? Zhenzhou radishes are still manageable, but Qingzhou cloth shirts are even more vexing. |
| 【依般若波罗蜜多故】此句是三世诸佛之母，从此流出十方诸佛。依此句修行，果行圆满，成等正觉。离此句修行，虽经多劫，又守勤苦，有希望成道，属小乘法，堕在声闻、缘觉、辟支佛。有为之法，终不成就一切圣果。 | [Therefore, Relying on Prajñāpāramitā] This phrase is the mother of the Buddhas of the three times; from it flow the Buddhas of the ten directions. Relying on this phrase in cultivation, one perfects the fruition of practice and attains unsurpassed perfect awakening. Cultivating apart from this phrase, even through many kalpas and with diligent hardship, one may hope to realize the Way, but this belongs to the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle and falls within the sphere of śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and solitary realizers. Conditioned dharmas can never accomplish all the noble fruits. |
| 须常精进，存有所能，依般若波罗蜜多法，得阿耨多罗三藐三菩提，即非阿耨多罗三藐三菩提，是名阿耨多罗三藐三菩提。修行更无过此，最上极则，果位无上正真。唯此一事实，余二则非真，圆顿上乘。若外别修行，过此法者，无有是处。此是教外别传，世尊最后拈花，迦叶微笑，正法眼藏②，吩咐于摩诃大迦叶。 | One must always be diligent, yet so long as one retains a sense of personal ability, one should rely on the Dharma of prajñāpāramitā. To attain anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi is not to attain anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi; this is called anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. There is no practice beyond this; it is the supreme and ultimate standard, the unsurpassed, right, and true fruition. This alone is the one great matter; the other two are not true—the perfect and sudden supreme vehicle. If one seeks another practice outside this, one cannot go beyond this Dharma. This is a special transmission outside the teachings. When the World-Honored One finally held up a flower and Mahākāśyapa smiled, the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye② was entrusted to Mahākāśyapa. |
| 此法亲见自性，不容授记，圆顿之位，独孤标法。参善知识，凭师指示，有缘契悟圆顿，教没人情。若有思心传授，是外道法。有吩咐，有传授，有得有失，有教有授，尽是外道邪见，生死根本。 | This Dharma directly sees one’s own nature and admits of no prediction of Buddhahood. The position of perfect and sudden awakening stands alone as the Dharma standard. One consults a good spiritual friend and relies on the teacher’s instructions; when conditions are ripe, one accords with awakening to perfect and sudden realization. The teaching allows no personal favoritism. If there is a deliberating mind that transmits and receives, it is the dharma of non-Buddhist paths. Entrusting, transmitting, gaining, losing, teaching, and receiving are all heterodox views of non-Buddhist paths, the root of birth and death. |
| 三世诸佛、六代祖师，自修自证。我宗无语句，亦无一法与人。若有一法授记，不名释迦。若被人教坏，急需吐却，大凡为人须从自己流出，无价珍用无尽，利物应机终不吝。上根之人，一闻千悟，具大总持。中下之机，多闻多不信。说此难信之法，稀有之事。 | The Buddhas of the three times and the six generations of patriarchs cultivated and realized for themselves. In our school there are no verbal formulations, nor is there a single dharma given to anyone. If there were a dharma to bestow as a prediction, it could not be called Śākyamuni. If you have been misled by others’ teachings, you must quickly spit them out. In general, whatever one does for others must flow forth from oneself. The priceless treasure functions without exhaustion; benefiting beings and responding to their capacities, one is never miserly. Those of superior capacity hear once and awaken a thousand times, possessing great dhāraṇī. Those of middling and lesser capacity hear much yet believe little. This Dharma, difficult to believe, is a rare matter. |
| 会么？月下树无影，日午打三更。 | Do you understand? Beneath the moon, trees cast no shadows; at noon, the third watch of the night is struck. |
| 【得阿耨多罗三藐三菩提】此是梵语，“阿”之言无；“耨多罗”言上；“三藐”言正；“三菩提”言真。此名无上正真，又云成等正觉。此四个字须是亲见，见道方修道。五千四十八卷，说此四个字，穷不能尽。 | [Attaining Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi] This is Sanskrit: “a” means without; “anuttara” means higher; “samyak” means right; and “sambodhi” means true awakening. It is called unsurpassed right truth, and is also called attaining perfect awakening. These four words must be directly seen; only after seeing the Way does one cultivate the Way. The five thousand and forty-eight volumes expound these four words, yet can never exhaust them. |
| 过去诸佛，说亦不能尽。三世诸佛一切贤圣，皆依此四个字，修证尽归圣果。三世诸佛、初发心，求此四个字，各得果位，圆成等觉、妙觉。末代众生若依此修行，般若波罗蜜多三藐三菩提法，廓然顿悟，亲见无上正真，自知当作佛，直超圣果。 | The Buddhas of the past could not exhaust it even in speaking of it. All the worthy and noble ones, and the Buddhas of the three times, rely on these four words; through cultivation and realization, all return to the noble fruits. The Buddhas of the three times, from their first arousal of the resolve, sought these four words and each attained the fruition, perfectly accomplishing equal and wondrous enlightenment. If sentient beings of the latter age cultivate according to this Dharma of prajñāpāramitā and samyak-saṃbodhi, they will awaken suddenly and openly, directly see unsurpassed right truth, know for themselves that they will become Buddhas, and directly transcend the noble fruits. |
| 要见无上正真么？山河大地，全露法王身。 | Do you wish to see unsurpassed right truth? Mountains, rivers, and the great earth wholly reveal the Dharma King’s body. |
| 【故知般若波罗蜜多】过去诸佛慈愍众生，百种智慧方便，随机利物。泥龛塑像，黄卷赤轴，一切语言，说因说果，但以假名字引导于有情。天堂地狱，诸佛位次，三贤十圣，缘觉声闻，四圣六凡，次第接引。忽然自悟，见自本性，超过诸佛位，一直超入如来地圆顿之位，不立名字。若不见性，向外驰求，终不成就。 | [Therefore Know Prajñāpāramitā] The Buddhas of the past, compassionate toward sentient beings, employed a hundred kinds of wisdom and skillful means, benefiting beings according to their capacities. Clay shrines and molded images, yellow scrolls and red rollers, all language, teachings of cause and teachings of fruition—all employ provisional names to guide sentient beings. Heavens and hells, the ranks of Buddhas, the three worthy and ten noble stages, pratyekabuddhas and śrāvakas, the four noble and six ordinary realms—all are guides arranged in sequence. Suddenly awakening and seeing one’s own intrinsic nature, one surpasses the ranks of the Buddhas and directly enters the perfectly sudden stage of the Tathāgata, where no name is established. If one does not see one’s nature and instead seeks outwardly, one will never succeed. |
| 悟，有年有月有日有时，因甚么事，发明此事？学道先须有悟，由若不如此，离文字外，行住坐卧，火急自究。一旦顿悟，同修同学，同悟同证，同契同道，诸善上人，同归一处。若自学解，就人驰求，各执外道邪见，生死各路，随业受报，不可共语。 | Awakening may have its year, month, day, and hour—through what event was this matter illuminated? Those who study the Way must first have awakening. If not, then apart from written words, while walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, they must urgently investigate for themselves. Once they suddenly awaken, fellow cultivators and fellow students cultivate and awaken together, realize and verify together, accord together and share the Way together; all good and noble persons return to one place. But if one merely studies intellectual understanding and runs about seeking from others, each clings to the heterodox views of non-Buddhist paths. Their paths through birth and death differ, and they undergo retribution according to karma; they cannot speak together. |
| 岂不见须菩提，尘沙劫前修行，直至释迦会下，只得解空。第一方等会中，《金刚经》请问“四句偈”，廓然顿悟，涕泪悲泣，自叹云：“前所慧眼，未曾闻此经。”三世诸佛皆从此经出。如何是此经？ | Have you not seen Subhūti? He cultivated for kalpas as numerous as dust motes, yet until he came before Śākyamuni’s assembly, he had attained only an understanding of emptiness. At the first Vaipulya assembly, when the Diamond Sūtra asked about the “four-line verse,” he suddenly awakened completely. With tears and sobs, he lamented: “With the wisdom-eye I had before, I had never heard this sūtra.” The Buddhas of the three times all emerge from this sūtra. What is this sūtra? |
| 要识此经么？西瞿耶尼，北郁单越。 | Do you wish to recognize this sūtra? To the west, Aparagodānīya; to the north, Uttarakuru. |
| 【是大神咒】此咒亦是众生具足心咒，亦是众生心地法门。得此法门，有大神通，拘邪立正，变大地作黄金，搅长江为酥酪。一毫端上，显宝王刹，一微尘里，转大法轮。信手拈来，亦能杀人，亦能活人。此神咒，举心动念，外道魂惊。反真归源，魔宫震动。如来秘密神咒！ | [It Is the Great Spiritual Mantra] This mantra is also the mind-mantra fully possessed by sentient beings, and also the Mind-Ground Dharma Gate of sentient beings. Having obtained this Dharma gate, one possesses great spiritual powers: restraining what is deviant and establishing what is right, transforming the great earth into gold, and churning the Yangtze River into clarified butter. Upon the tip of a single hair, one manifests jeweled Buddha lands; within a single mote of dust, one turns the great Dharma wheel. Taken up freely at hand, it can kill people and bring people to life. When this spiritual mantra gives rise to a thought or stirs a thought, non-Buddhist paths are terrified to the core. When one turns back to the truth and returns to the source, the palaces of Māra tremble. It is the Tathāgata’s secret spiritual mantra! |
| 要识此咒么？神通并妙用，运水及搬柴。 | Do you wish to know this mantra? Spiritual powers and wondrous functioning: carrying water and hauling firewood. |
| 【是大明咒】心光发现！此咒照天照地，烁破乾坤。此咒遍覆三千大千世界，光明洞耀，普照十方，包含法界。大光明藏过于日月，无处不照，是大明咒。 | [It Is the Great Bright Mantra] The mind’s intrinsic luminosity manifests! This mantra illuminates heaven and earth, blazing through the cosmos. It pervades and covers the three-thousand great-thousand world system; its light shines everywhere, universally illuminating the ten directions and encompassing the dharma realm. The great light treasury surpasses the sun and moon; there is nowhere it does not illuminate. This is the great bright mantra. |
| 要识此咒么？凿池不待月，池成月自来。 | Do you wish to know this mantra? There is no need to await the moon before digging a pond; once the pond is complete, the moon comes of itself. |
| 【是无上咒】此咒最上，更无过者，是诸咒之王。此咒第一，将别神咒过于此咒，终不能及。一切万法，无不出于心咒。无能越者，是无上咒。 | [It Is the Unsurpassed Mantra] This mantra is supreme; none surpasses it. It is the king of all mantras. This mantra is foremost. Even if other spiritual mantras are placed above this mantra, they can never equal it. All myriad dharmas issue from the mind-mantra. Nothing can transcend it; thus, it is the unsurpassed mantra. |
| 要见此咒么？杖林山下竹根鞭。 | Do you wish to see this mantra? A bamboo-root whip beneath Mount Staff Grove. |
| 【是无等等咒】此咒无边际，不可比。况将诸咒，比并此咒，终不能得。此咒世间稀有，说此难信之咒，须是亲见此咒。为人自肯，不可说，不可说。 | [It Is the Unequaled Mantra] This mantra is boundless and incomparable. How much less can any other mantras, when compared with this mind-mantra, ever equal it. This mantra is rare in the world. To speak of this mantra, which is difficult to believe, one must personally see this mantra. Each person must acknowledge it for themselves. It cannot be spoken of, cannot be spoken of. |
| 要见此咒么？麻三斤，两脚骆驼藏北斗。 | Do you wish to see this mantra? Three pounds of flax; a two-legged camel conceals the Northern Dipper. |
| 【能除一切苦】佛意慈愍众生，堕在娑婆，流浪经劫，受苦无穷，种种方便，救度众生，同归极乐。世尊自叹云：“吾过去劫中，曾作大身，积骨如须弥，吃娘乳如大海水，未说种种身。 | [It Can Remove All Suffering] The Buddha, in his compassionate concern for sentient beings who have fallen into the Sahā world, wander through kalpa after kalpa, and suffer without end, employs various skillful means to rescue and liberate sentient beings, leading them all to return to the Land of Ultimate Bliss. The World-Honored One himself lamented: “In past kalpas, I once assumed great bodies; my accumulated bones were like Mount Sumeru, and the milk I drank from my mother was like the waters of the great ocean—not to mention the bodies of every kind.” |
| ”佛大慈悲，出现于世，救度群迷同出火宅，为众生贪著五欲，无有出期。若有人谛信达摩西来，直指人心，见性成佛，念兹在兹，忽然见性，自知当作佛，是心是佛。求出火宅，永免轮回，更不受生。 | The Buddha, in his great compassion, appeared in the world to rescue the bewildered multitudes and lead them all out of the burning house. Yet sentient beings cling greedily to the five desires and have no prospect of escape. If someone truly believes that Bodhidharma came from the West to point directly to the mind and enable people to see their nature and become Buddhas, keeps this constantly in mind, and suddenly sees their nature, they will know for themselves that they are to become a Buddha: this mind is Buddha. They will seek to leave the burning house, forever escape rebirth in saṃsāra, and no longer undergo birth. |
| 自信一去不回头，直待弥勒下生，随机利物，应现种种相，种种方便，化度群生。从上诸圣，久受勤苦，方得见自本性。心心念念，处处逢渠，且道末后向甚么处去？ | Trusting in oneself, one goes on without turning back, awaiting only Maitreya’s descent into the world; then, according to circumstances, one benefits beings, manifests various forms, employs various skillful means, and transforms and liberates the multitudes. The sages of old endured diligent hardship for a long time before they could see their own original nature. Thought after thought, everywhere, one encounters it. Tell me: in the end, where does one go? |
| 会么？处处逢归路，时时复故乡。古今成现事，何必待商量。 | Do you understand? Everywhere one encounters the road home; at every moment one returns to one’s native place. Throughout past and present, this has become an evident fact. Why wait for further deliberation? |
| 【真实不虚】一切诸佛，说此神咒，度脱有情，真实不虚。不异语、不诳语，“证实相、无人法，刹那灭却阿鼻业”。“凡所有相，皆是虚妄”。唯此无相之相，是真实之相。大千俱坏，此相不坏。为甚不坏？为同大千。坏与不坏主元在，欲识庵中不死人，岂离而今这皮袋。皮袋定坏，此主不坏。古云：“古骸俱溃散，一物镇长灵。” | [True and Not False] All Buddhas speak this spiritual mantra to liberate sentient beings; it is true and not false. It is not inconsistent speech or deceptive speech: “Realize the true characteristic, where there is neither self nor dharmas, and in an instant extinguish the karma of Avīci.” “All appearances are illusory.” Only this appearance of no appearance is the true appearance. Though the great thousandfold world system should utterly perish, this appearance does not perish. Why does it not perish? Because it is one with the great thousandfold world system. The master of perishing and not perishing is originally present. If you wish to know the deathless person within this hermitage, how could it be apart from this very bag of skin? The bag of skin will certainly perish, but this master will not perish. An ancient said: “Ancient bones all crumble and scatter, but one thing remains ever numinous.” |
| 经云：“我有无价宝珠，系在衣里。日夜推究，忽然而见摩尼珠。”人不识，如来藏里亲收得。然虽如此，见道易，守道难。 | The sūtra says: “I have a priceless maṇi jewel tied within my garment. Investigating day and night, I suddenly see the maṇi jewel.” People do not recognize that they have personally received it within the treasury of the Tathāgata. Yet even so, seeing the Way is easy, while guarding the Way is difficult. |
| 要见此珠么？朝看云片片，暮听水潺潺。 | Do you wish to see this jewel? In the morning, watch the clouds drift in sheets; at dusk, hear the water murmuring. |
| 【故说般若波罗蜜多咒】此句结前，多种方便。语言总归于一，具大总持，同归一心之法。 | [Therefore He Spoke the Prajñāpāramitā Mantra] This sentence concludes the preceding various skillful means. All words return to one; endowed with the great dhāraṇī, they return together to the Dharma of one mind. |
| 经云：“应观法界性，一切唯心造。”迷者呼为情识，死后受轮回。悟者为秘密神咒，得无生法。如来有密语，迦叶有密藏。悟此神咒，若人专心受持，功行圆满。常持此咒，鬼神远离，诸天寂听常欢喜。 | The sūtra says: “One should contemplate the nature of the dharma realm: all is made by mind alone.” The deluded call it emotional consciousness and undergo rebirth in saṃsāra after death. The awakened know it as the secret spiritual mantra and attain the Dharma of the unborn. The Tathāgata has secret words; Kāśyapa has the secret treasury. If one awakens to this spiritual mantra and single-mindedly receives and upholds it, one’s merit and practice will be fulfilled. Constantly uphold this mantra, and ghosts and spirits will stay far away; the devas will listen in stillness and always rejoice. |
| 要见此咒么？不在外，不在内，不在中间与内外。且道在什么处？ | Do you wish to see this mantra? It is not outside, not inside, not in between, nor within or without. Tell me, where is it? |
| 会么？上大人，丘乙已，谛听谛听！ | Do you understand? Shang da ren, qiu yi ji—listen closely, listen closely! |
| 【即说咒曰】重举四揭谛，维护持经人，不离其侧。四揭谛顺念逆念，世间一切，所求无不果遂。 | [Then He Spoke the Mantra, Saying] The four “gate”s are repeated, protecting those who uphold the sūtra and never leaving their side. Whether recited forward or backward, these four “gate”s bring fulfillment to every worldly aspiration. |
| 会么？雨过莓苔润，春来草自生。 | Do you understand? After rain, the moss is moist; when spring arrives, the grass grows of itself. |
| 【揭谛揭谛】反观自己顿空，空中更空。不见有空，万缘顿息。过去所作一切善恶，幻化五蕴荡然净尽。尘劳妄念一时顿除，太虚之中丝毫不挂。“揭谛”者，人空。又“揭谛”者，法空。人法俱空，二空全忘。故曰“揭谛、揭谛”。 | [Gate, Gate] Turn the light back upon yourself, and suddenly emptiness is realized; within emptiness, there is further emptiness. When emptiness itself is no longer seen, all conditioned relations suddenly cease. All good and evil done in the past, together with the illusory five aggregates, are swept clean away. The toil of worldly dust and deluded thoughts are all suddenly removed, leaving not the slightest thread hanging in vast empty space. The first “gate” means the emptiness of persons. The second “gate” means the emptiness of dharmas. Persons and dharmas are both empty, and the two emptinesses are entirely forgotten. Therefore it is said, “Gate, gate.” |
| 会么？不劳悬石镜，天晓自分明。 | Do you understand? There is no need to hang up a stone mirror; when day breaks, all becomes clear of itself. |
| 【波罗揭谛】到空无所空，生死永断，同到彼岸，永不受生。故曰“波罗揭谛”。 | [Pāragate] One arrives at emptiness in which there is nothing that can be called empty; birth and death are forever cut off, and one arrives together at the other shore, never again to undergo birth. Therefore it is said, “Pāragate.” |
| 会么？月上中峰顶，还应过别山。 | Do you understand? When the moon rises above the central peak, it must still pass over other mountains. |
| 【波罗僧揭谛】此是诸佛清净境界。五欲尘劳，污染不得。混融魔界，异类中行，龙蛇混杂，凡圣同居。逆行顺行，圣贤莫测，反本其源，归根得旨。故曰“波罗僧揭谛”。 | [Pārasaṃgate] This is the pure realm of all Buddhas. The toil and defilement of the five desires cannot stain it. One mingles freely in Māra’s realm, walks among beings of other kinds, where dragons and snakes are intermingled and ordinary beings and sages dwell together. Whether proceeding against the current or with the current, even sages cannot fathom it. Returning to the root and source, one attains the essential purport. Therefore it is said, “Pārasaṃgate.” |
| 会么？自从泥牛斗入海，直到如今不见踪。 | Do you understand? Since the clay ox fought its way into the sea, no trace of it has been seen to this day. |
| 【菩提萨婆诃】“菩提”是初，“萨婆诃”是末。 | [Bodhi Svāhā] “Bodhi” is the beginning; “svāhā” is the end. |
| 发菩提心，勇猛修行，日夜为道，行头陀行，精进苦行，渐渐修进，永无退转。久守勤苦，忽然悟道，达本性空，即是菩提。超出三界，了无所了，得无所得，荡然清净，极乐之所，善说无穷，故曰“萨婆诃”。 | Arouse bodhicitta and practice courageously; devote yourself to the Way day and night, undertake ascetic practices, diligently cultivate hardship, and gradually advance in cultivation without ever regressing. After long upholding diligent hardship, one suddenly awakens to the Way and realizes that intrinsic nature is empty: this is bodhi. Transcending the three realms, there is nothing to be understood and nothing to be attained; all is utterly pure. In the realm of ultimate bliss, wholesome teachings are spoken without end. Therefore it is said, “Svāhā.” |
| 看读至此，廓然顿悟！涕泪悲泣，喜极则悲。若能如此，欲报佛恩，广开印施，续佛慧命。若不醒悟，不遇知音者，徒劳话岁寒。 | Having read to this point, may you suddenly awaken with an open and expansive mind! Tears may flow in sorrowful weeping, for extreme joy turns into sorrow. If you can be thus, then, wishing to repay the Buddha’s kindness, widely print and distribute this text, thereby continuing the Buddha’s wisdom-life. If you do not awaken and fail to encounter one who understands, it is futile merely to speak of the year’s cold. |
| 更有末后一句，未敢分付！鸳鸯绣出从君看，不把金针度与人。 | There is one final sentence that I dare not impart: “The mandarin ducks are embroidered for you to see, but the golden needle is not passed on to another.” |
| 大颠和尚解心经全文完 | Complete Text of Chan Master Dadian’s Commentary on the Heart Sūtra |
| 附：大颠禅师（732～824），俗姓陈，讳宝通，祖籍河南颖川。 | Appendix: Chan Master Dadian (732–824), whose lay surname was Chen and whose Dharma name was Baotong, was originally from Yingchuan, Henan. |
| 唐开元末年，大颠出生于潮州（今潮阳市）。幼年时即志慕云林。大历中，与信丰人药山、惟俨同到潮阳城西郊的西岩，拜惠照和尚为师。不久与师弟惟俨同游南岳衡山，参拜石头和尚，悟禅机。 | Near the end of the Kaiyuan era of the Tang dynasty, Dadian was born in Chaozhou (present-day Chaoyang). From childhood, he aspired to the life of clouds and forests. During the Dali era, together with Yaoshan Weiyan, a native of Xinfeng, he went to Xiyan, west of Chaoyang City, and took Master Huizhao as his teacher. Not long afterward, he and his Dharma brother Weiyan traveled to Mount Heng in Nanyue, paid respects to Master Shitou, and awakened to the Chan essential point. |
| 贞元初前往龙川罗浮瀑布严禅居。到了唐德宗贞元五年（789年），大颠才移居潮阳，带领门人善觉、玄应、智高等在潮阳县动山开辟白牛岩。 | At the beginning of the Zhenyuan era, he went to reside in Chan retreat at Waterfall Cliff on Luofu Mountain in Longchuan. In the fifth year of Zhenyuan under Emperor Dezong of the Tang (789), Dadian moved to Chaoyang and led disciples including Shanjue, Xuanying, and Zhigao in opening up White Ox Cliff on Dong Mountain in Chaoyang County. |
| 后因远近各地前来求为门徒的人越来越多，白牛岩太浅窄，容纳不下众多徒众，便在贞元七年（791年）到距离潮阳县城25公里的幽岭下，新建灵山寺，弘扬曹溪六世禅风，弟子千余人，自号大颠和尚。 | Later, as more and more people came from near and far to seek discipleship, White Ox Cliff proved too shallow and narrow to accommodate the numerous followers. Thus, in the seventh year of Zhenyuan (791), he built Lingshan Monastery below Youling, 25 kilometers from the seat of Chaoyang County. There he propagated the Chan tradition of Caoxi’s sixth generation, had more than a thousand disciples, and called himself Monk Dadian. |
| 长庆四年（824年），大颠圆寂。他的墓塔就在灵山寺左边。 | In the fourth year of Changqing (824), Dadian passed away. His stūpa stands to the left of Lingshan Monastery. |
| 大颠著作有《般若波罗蜜多心经义释》及《金刚经释义》，又曾自写《金刚经》一千五百卷，《法华》、《维摩诘经》各三十部，藏之山中。《金刚经释义》及自写经已无存。仅《般若波罗蜜多心经释义》有日本续藏经本和商务印书馆影印本。 | Dadian’s writings include An Exposition of the Meaning of the Prajñāpāramitā Heart Sūtra and An Explanation of the Diamond Sūtra. He also personally copied 1,500 scrolls of the Diamond Sūtra, as well as thirty copies each of the Lotus Sūtra and the Vimalakīrti Sūtra, which he stored in the mountains. An Explanation of the Diamond Sūtra and his personally copied sūtras no longer survive. Only An Explanation of the Meaning of the Prajñāpāramitā Heart Sūtra remains, in an edition of the Japanese Supplementary Buddhist Canon and a facsimile edition published by the Commercial Press. |
