A Message for the Tiankuang Festival of the Dinghai Year 丁亥天贶节赠言
Master Wang Xianglu | 2018-06-23 | Download | AI assisted translation
| 凡欲见性，向外驰求固不是，即向内拟心思量亦不是。以此皆妄心，立影象故。经云：“如实知自心”，诚为见性成佛之总诀。行者当知我人本具如来无漏智性，一切现成。徒因久迷而忘其所以，斯沉沦六道。 |
Anyone who wishes to see their true nature will not succeed by racing outward in search of it; nor will they succeed by turning inward and trying to think it out. For both are the deluded mind, setting up images and shadows. As the sūtra says, “Know one’s own mind as it truly is.” This is indeed the fundamental key to seeing one’s true nature and attaining Buddhahood. Practitioners should know that we all inherently possess the Tathāgata’s undefiled wisdom-nature; everything is already complete. It is only because we have long been deluded and have forgotten the source that we sink and drift through the six realms. |
| 迷者乃自迷，以识神用事而迷，故不自见性。若心不起，则无影象，无影象则妄不立。此迷妄缘心息处便是真心，便是佛。同是此物，非有二也，故曰烦恼即是菩提。行者又莫看得容易，以为不过尔尔。 |
Those who are deluded delude themselves. Because the cognitive consciousness takes charge, they become deluded and therefore do not see their own true nature. If the mind does not arise, there are no images and shadows; where there are no images and shadows, delusion cannot take hold. Where this deluded, condition-dependent mind ceases is the true mind; it is Buddha. They are the same thing, not two. Thus it is said that afflictions are themselves bodhi. Yet practitioners must not take this lightly, thinking that it is nothing much. |
| 果信得及者，其人曾在千万佛所种诸善根，具无量福德方堪承受勿疑也。上期曾告诸仁：先从无心下手。静息时无事于心，动作时无心于事。如舟行大海，出没波涛中，指南定盘勿失其向，无分动静，而湛寂之真体本不动摇也。 |
Those who can truly believe and accept this have, in the presence of countless Buddhas, planted many wholesome roots and accumulated immeasurable merit and virtue; only then are they fit to receive it. Do not doubt this. In the previous installment, I told you all: begin with no-mind. When resting quietly, let the mind have no affairs; when active, let there be no clinging mind toward affairs. It is like a boat crossing the great ocean: though it rises and falls amid the waves, its fixed compass must not lose its direction. Whether in activity or stillness, the true essence, clear and quiescent, is fundamentally unmoved. |
| 上云一切现成，则无难易之可说。然灵慧者，不难在见，而难在见而能信得深，又难在信而敢于承当，尤难在勿看轻而草草忽过，更难在每日有二三十次勿忘记，以增其力。 |
Since everything is already complete, as stated above, there can be no question of difficulty or ease. Yet for those of spiritual intelligence, seeing is not difficult; what is difficult is to see and then be able to believe deeply. More difficult still is, having faith, to dare to take it up oneself. Harder yet is not to take it lightly and pass it over carelessly. Hardest of all is not to forget it twenty or thirty times each day, thereby increasing its power. |
| 人生大事，有过于此者乎？世人碌碌一生，不过为生活耳。纵得满足，亦不过似昙花一现。 |
Is there any matter in human life more important than this? Worldly people bustle through an entire lifetime for no more than a livelihood. Even if they obtain satisfaction, it is no more than the brief appearance of an udumbara flower. |
| 即尊贵如帝王，也不免与草木同腐，何如此事之一了百了，关系于生生世世者乎！金刚偈云：“三千七宝诚多，用尽终归生灭”，吾人苟于此处悟者，当下直证菩提，是何等意气！何等庆快！是以行人未见性者，如未脱火坑，三恶道早晚有份，安可不痛切惶怖。 |
Even those as exalted as emperors cannot avoid decaying along with the grasses and trees. How can this compare with this matter, which, once resolved, resolves all matters and bears upon life after life? A verse from the Diamond Sūtra says: “Though the seven treasures of the three thousand worlds are indeed abundant, once exhausted, they ultimately return to arising and ceasing.” If we awaken here, we directly realize bodhi at once. What spirit this is! What joy and exhilaration! Therefore, for practitioners who have not seen their true nature, it is as though they have not yet escaped a pit of fire; sooner or later, they will have a share in the three lower realms. How can they fail to feel deep urgency and fear? |
| 至人生贵贱穷通，早已前定，各有因缘，亦无不了之事。今因生活小事，误却此生大事，殊不值也。况一切人事无碍于道，正欲于烦忙恼乱时练功夫。 |
As for the high and low, poverty and prosperity, success and failure in human life, these were settled long ago by prior causes and conditions; there is nothing that cannot be resolved. Yet to miss the great matter of this life because of minor concerns of livelihood is truly not worthwhile. Moreover, none of the affairs of the world obstruct the Way; it is precisely amid busy, vexing, and disorderly circumstances that one should train. |
| 勿轻忽，是见性前之精进法；勿忘记，是见性后之保任法；勿着意，是入无功用地之随顺养道法。法门无量，一言以蔽之，曰见性。故离见性，即非佛法。真伪宜正，亟应取法乎最上，直下荐取，尤当老实而虚灵。岁不我予，毋自误也！ |
Do not take it lightly: this is the method of diligent practice before seeing one’s true nature. Do not forget it: this is the method of safeguarding realization after seeing one’s true nature. Do not deliberately attend to it: this is the method of following conditions and nurturing the Way upon entering the stage of effortless functioning. Dharma gates are immeasurable, but in a single phrase they may be summed up: see one’s true nature. Therefore, apart from seeing one’s true nature, it is not Buddhadharma. One must clearly distinguish the genuine from the false, urgently take up the supreme teaching, and directly recognize it. Above all, be honest, open, and spiritually alert. The years do not wait for us; do not mislead yourselves. |
