Written by Patriarch Bodhidharma; Edited and Engraved by the Monastic Shi Zongjing of Huayan Temple, Yuzhou | 2018-07-28 | Download | AI assisted translation
| 原人之心，皆具佛性。泛观诸家禅说一切经文，原其至当之理，未有不言自己性中本来真佛。达磨西来，直指人心，见性成佛；盖谓自己真佛，不出一性之中。人人不自委信，所以向外驰求。 | Originally, the minds of all people possess Buddha-nature. Broadly surveying the Chan teachings of the various masters and all the scriptural texts, and tracing their most appropriate principle to its source, there is none that does not speak of the original true Buddha within one’s own nature. When Bodhidharma came from the West, he directly pointed to the human mind: see one’s nature and become a Buddha. This means that one’s own true Buddha does not lie outside one’s single intrinsic nature. Yet people do not trust themselves, and so they race about seeking outwardly. |
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| 将谓自性真佛外更有别佛，故诸佛诸祖师说法，要人省悟自己本来真佛，不假外求。又缘种种法语，泛滥不一，转使学人惑乱本性，无悟入处。惟有达磨血脉论，并黄檗传心法要二说，最为至论。可以即证自己佛性，使人易晓。比之求师访道，钻寻故纸，坐禅行脚，狂费工夫，相去万倍，此非小补。 | They suppose that, apart from the true Buddha of their own nature, there is another Buddha. Therefore, all Buddhas and patriarchs expound the Dharma in order to have people awaken to their own original true Buddha, which need not be sought externally. Yet because Dharma sayings of every kind are numerous and disparate, they instead cause students to become confused about their own intrinsic nature, leaving them with no point of entry into awakening. Only Bodhidharma’s Bloodstream Treatise and Huangbo’s Essentials of the Transmission of Mind are the most essential discourses. They can directly verify one’s own Buddha-nature and make it easy for people to understand. Compared with seeking teachers and visiting masters, searching through old papers, sitting in meditation, and traveling on foot, which wildly waste one’s effort, they differ by ten thousandfold. This is no small benefit. |
| 绍兴癸酉见独老人任哲序。 | Preface by Elder Jiandu, Ren Zhe, in the guiyou year of the Shaoxing era. |
