Introduction 绪说
Master Yuanyin, Serialized in Chan, Issues 1–4 (1991) | 1991-06-07 | Download | AI assisted translation
| 我等众生，从无始旷劫以来，迷失自己本来面目，认妄为真，唤奴作郎，妄起贪嗔，造业受报，如春蚕作茧，自缠自缚，无解脱时。愚者无知，安受困苦，不求解脱；智者虽知生死事大，苦海无边，欲求解脱而苦无其门。 |
We sentient beings, since beginningless kalpas, have lost sight of our own Original Face. Taking the false for the true and calling a servant master, we give rise to greed and anger, create karma, and undergo retribution. Like spring silkworms spinning cocoons, we bind ourselves and fetter ourselves, with no time of liberation. The foolish, being ignorant, quietly endure their hardship and do not seek liberation. Though the wise know that birth and death is a great matter and that the sea of suffering is boundless, they suffer from not knowing the gate through which liberation may be sought. |
| 如古之外道六师，探宇宙万有之缘起，不曰神我，即谓冥谛、断灭；今之科学、哲学，究人生万物之根源，不言二元，即言一元，虽各言之凿凿，极尽玄妙，然皆如盲人摸象，无有是处。 |
For example, the six ancient non-Buddhist teachers investigated the origin of the universe and all that exists. Some spoke of a divine self; others of primordial matter or annihilation. Modern science and philosophy, in probing the source of human life and all things, speak either of dualism or monism. Though each presents its claims with great certainty and elaborates them to the utmost subtlety, all are like blind people feeling an elephant: none is correct. |
| 释迦文佛，悲悯众生，出苦无由，应现世间，教化众生。四十九年随顺时节机宜，说大、说小，说偏、说圆，说顿、说渐，披肝沥胆，委曲开示二种根本：一者无始生死根本，二者菩提涅槃原清净体，以阐明人生宇宙之奥秘，揭示生死轮回之根由，俾众生识自本心，见自本性，回复真常，出离生死，息灭苦轮。 |
Śākyamuni Buddha, compassionating sentient beings who had no way to escape suffering, manifested in the world to teach and transform them. For forty-nine years, adapting to the times and to beings’ capacities, he taught the great and the lesser, the partial and the perfect, the sudden and the gradual. With utter sincerity, he expounded in various ways the two fundamental roots: first, the root of beginningless birth and death; second, the originally pure essence of bodhi and nirvāṇa. Thus he elucidated the mysteries of human life and the universe, revealed the causes of birth-and-death and rebirth, and enabled sentient beings to recognize their own original mind, see their own intrinsic nature, return to true permanence, leave birth and death behind, and bring the wheel of suffering to rest. |
| 我等众生，本具如来智慧德相，灵明空寂，与佛无殊。只因无明不觉，颠倒妄执，动乱不已，造业受报，才由共业感现山河大地，复由别业招来十二类生。由是周而复始，循环不已，故而生死轮回不息。今欲回复本来，出离生死，首须觉破无明。以无明不破，迷己逐物，见境生心，生死绝不能了。 |
We sentient beings inherently possess the Tathāgata’s wisdom and virtuous characteristics. Spiritually luminous and empty-quiescent, we are no different from the Buddha. Yet because ignorance leaves us unaware, we cling to inverted delusions, remain ceaselessly agitated, create karma, and undergo retribution. Through collective karma, mountains, rivers, and the great earth appear; through individual karma, we summon the twelve classes of living beings. Thus the cycle begins again and again without end, and birth-and-death and rebirth never cease. If we now wish to return to our original nature and leave birth and death behind, we must first awaken to and break through ignorance. Unless ignorance is broken through, we remain deluded about ourselves and pursue things; on encountering circumstances, thoughts arise, and birth and death can never be transcended. |
| 以是一切经论，所有法门，无不围绕着这一中心——明心见性——来阐扬发明，使人们得以觉破迷情，消除无明，离妄返真，就路归家。佛教之所以异于他教，超越外道者，其原因即在切中众生生死与还灭之根源，而此根源又在明心见性与否。故明心见性，实乃佛教之精髓，超生脱死之重要关键也。 |
For this reason, all sūtras, treatises, and dharma gates expound and elucidate around this central point—realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature—so that people may awaken from deluded feelings, eliminate ignorance, leave falsity behind and return to truth, and return home by the direct path. What distinguishes Buddhism from other religions and enables it to surpass non-Buddhist paths is precisely that it directly addresses the root of sentient beings’ birth and death, and of their return to cessation. That root lies in whether or not one realizes the mind and sees one’s true nature. Thus, realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature is truly the essence of Buddhism and the crucial key to transcending birth and death. |
| 因是之故，经论虽多，阐述评唱，纵或有异，而宗旨是一；法门虽广，设施手段，容有不同，而目的无殊。所谓方便有多门，归元无二路也。 |
Therefore, although the sūtras and treatises are many, and their expositions and commentaries may differ, their fundamental purpose is one. Although dharma gates are extensive, and their methods and expedient means may vary, their aim is no different. As it is said, “Expedient means have many gates, but the return to the source has no second road.” |
| 奈何降及近世末法时代，教内学者大为走样，他们非但不敢提倡弘扬“明心见性”这一代时教的伟大宏深之旨与精髓之所在，反而有似谈虎色变，连“明心见性”一词也不敢形于口吻，见于著述，广为宣传了。细细推究起来，其原因不外下列数端： |
Yet in these recent times of the Dharma-ending age, Buddhist students have gone greatly astray. Not only do they not dare advocate or propagate the profound and far-reaching intent and essential meaning of realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature—the whole body of teachings delivered by the Buddha during his lifetime—they react to it as though speaking of a tiger. They do not even dare to utter the words “realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature,” mention them in their writings, or promote them widely. Upon close examination, the reasons are no more than the following several points: |
| （一）禅宗行人因缺乏师资，用功时无人指引，相机提示，痛下钳锤剿绝粘缚，于紧要关头更无人为之点开正眼，亲见本来。大都抱定一则千篇一律的死煞话头——念佛是谁，苦参几十年，了无消息。因而以见性为甚深难事，高不可攀，乃高推圣境，不敢企求，更不敢弘扬提倡了。 |
(I) Chan practitioners lack qualified teachers. When they apply themselves, no one guides them, gives them timely pointers, or forcefully cuts off their attachments and bonds; at critical junctures, no one opens their true eye so that they may directly see their original nature. Most cling to the same lifeless huatou—“Who is reciting the Buddha’s name?”—and struggle with it for decades without receiving any news. They therefore regard seeing one’s true nature as something exceedingly profound and difficult, beyond their reach. They exalt it as a state reserved for sages, dare not aspire to it, and still less dare to promote it. |
| （二）净宗行人绝大多数都说净土宗的修法与众不同，它是主张横超生西的，不用明心见性。殊不知净土是三根普摄的大教，对下根虽不明言明心见性，只强调横超生西，但事实上早将明心见性的要义，暗暗含藏在修法内了。 |
(II) The vast majority of Pure Land practitioners say that the Pure Land school’s practice is different from others: it advocates horizontal transcendence and rebirth in the Western Pure Land, without the need to realize the mind and see one’s true nature. They do not realize that the Pure Land school is a great teaching that universally embraces practitioners of all three capacities. Although it does not explicitly speak of realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature for those of lesser faculties, but only emphasizes horizontal transcendence and rebirth in the Western Pure Land, in fact it has already subtly contained the essential meaning of realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature within its practice. |
| 请试看它的修法：念佛时要“都摄六根，净念相继。 |
Consider its method of practice: when reciting the Buddha’s name, one must gather in the six sense faculties and sustain uninterrupted pure mindfulness. |
| ”请问这都摄六根，不即是一切放下吗？一切不放下，能六根门头紧闭，将见闻觉知都摄在一句佛号上吗？这净念相继四字，含义深广，留待下面来详加解释，今只从文字的表面来讲，以清净心，继续不断地念佛，不就是教人用 |
Does gathering in the six sense faculties not mean letting go of everything? Unless one lets go of everything, can one tightly close the gates of the six sense faculties and gather seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing into a single Buddha-name? The four words “uninterrupted pure mindfulness” have deep and broad significance, which will be explained in detail below. For now, speaking only from the surface meaning of the words, does not reciting the Buddha’s name continuously with a pure mind teach people to use |
| 佛念来密密转移妄念吗？因为人不能无念，不念佛法僧，即念贪嗔痴，今善巧方便地用一句佛号来代替妄念，使人于不知不觉中将妄心转换为佛心。所谓“佛号投于乱心，乱心不得不佛！”请问佛是什么？不是明心见性又是什么？ |
Buddha-remembrance to steadily redirect deluded thoughts? For people cannot be without thoughts: if they are not mindful of Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha, they are thinking of greed, anger, and ignorance. Thus, by skillfully using a single Buddha-name to replace deluded thoughts, people imperceptibly transform their deluded mind into Buddha-mind. As it is said, “When the Buddha-name is cast into a confused mind, that confused mind cannot but become Buddha!” What is Buddha? What else is it but realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature? |
| 该宗更进一步说：“入三摩地，斯为第一。”请问什么是三摩地？三摩地即三昧也。念佛证到三昧，即能念之心与所念之佛，一时脱落，也即是根尘脱落、能所双亡的时节。念佛念到这步田地，即是宗下桶底脱落，明心见性的时节。到这里还有什么净和禅呢？所以说净就是禅，禅就是净，禅净不分家也。 |
This school further says, “Entering samādhi is foremost.” What is samādhi? Samādhi is the same as the term sanmei. When Buddha-recitation reaches samādhi, the mind that recites and the Buddha who is recited both fall away at once. This is also the time when the sense faculties and their objects fall away, and subject and object both vanish. When Buddha-recitation reaches this point, it is the time when, in the Chan school, the bottom drops out of the bucket—the time of realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature. At that point, what Pure Land and Chan remain? Therefore, Pure Land is Chan, Chan is Pure Land, and Chan and Pure Land are not separate families. |
| 对下根人，不须和他多说甚深禅理，只教他放舍身心，秉直念去，念到情亡心空，自然证得。若上根人一闻即悟，更不消多说。故净宗唯下根与上根人最容易成就也。盖中根人似聪明而非真聪明，似愚笨而又非真愚笨。非真聪明，不易看破世情，一切放下；非真愚笨，又不肯脚踏实地，恳恳切切地老实念佛，所以不易成就也。 |
For those of lesser faculties, there is no need to speak much of profound Chan principles. Simply teach them to relinquish body and mind and recite straightforwardly. When emotional attachment vanishes and the mind becomes empty, realization naturally follows. Those of superior faculties awaken as soon as they hear, and need no further explanation. Thus, practitioners of lesser and superior faculties in the Pure Land school most readily attain accomplishment. Those of middling faculties seem intelligent but are not truly intelligent; they seem foolish but are not truly foolish. Because they are not truly intelligent, they cannot easily see through worldly affairs and let go of everything; because they are not truly foolish, they are unwilling to recite the Buddha’s name honestly, earnestly, and with their feet firmly on the ground. Therefore, they do not easily attain accomplishment. |
| 复次，晚近净宗行人，大都只图省力，单独依靠阿弥陀佛接引生西。自己不肯努力用念佛功夫扫荡妄心习染，改造自己，而美其名曰：“我们是他力法门，靠他力修行。 |
Furthermore, most recent Pure Land practitioners seek only to spare themselves effort, relying solely on Amitābha Buddha to guide them to rebirth in the Western Pure Land. They are unwilling to apply themselves in Buddha-recitation to sweep away their deluded minds and habitual defilements and to transform themselves, yet they call this “a dharma gate of other-power, relying on other-power for practice.” |
| ”及闻“一心不乱”，便连连摇首，说：“不消不消！净土只须有信愿，自有弥陀接引，行得力与不得力无关重要。”他们哪里需要什么“明心见性”哩！又哪里知道“一心不乱，花开见佛悟无生”乃是明心见性的同义词哩！ |
When they hear “one-pointedness of mind without distraction,” they repeatedly shake their heads and say, “No need, no need! Pure Land practice requires only faith and vows; Amitābha will naturally guide us. Whether one’s practice is effective or ineffective is unimportant.” Why would they need “realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature”? And how could they know that “one-pointedness of mind without distraction; when the lotus opens, one sees the Buddha and awakens to the unborn” is simply another expression for realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature? |
| （三）密宗行人又大都趋向神通玄妙，有的还炫耀于世人而满足其名闻利养，根本不注重证体悟道、了生脱死的功夫。把个大好密宗弄得妖气十足。密宗所标榜的即生或即身成佛——即明心见性，早抛到九霄云外去了。 |
(III) Esoteric Buddhist practitioners, for the most part, incline toward spiritual powers and mysterious marvels. Some even display these before the world, thereby satisfying their desire for fame and profit. They pay no attention at all to the work of realizing the essence, awakening to the Way, and transcending birth and death. They have turned this excellent Esoteric Buddhism into something steeped in a sinister and superstitious air. Its proclaimed attainment of Buddhahood in this very life or in this very body—that is, realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature—has long been cast beyond the clouds. |
| 我国现有三大宗派萎靡凌乱如此，其他有名无实的宗派，也就不言而喻，可想而知了。以是整个辉煌灿烂的佛教，被它不长进的后代子孙糟蹋得如此乌烟瘴气，狼狈不堪，后进者哪里知道佛教的精神所在！又哪里能修身养性，回复天真，了脱生死呢？言之，怎不令人痛心疾首！ |
The three major schools now existing in our country are so dispirited and disordered; as for the other schools that have name but no substance, their condition is self-evident and readily imagined. Thus the whole splendid and radiant Buddhist tradition has been so ruined by its unprogressive descendants that it has become a scene of smoke and chaos, utterly wretched. How could later learners know where the spirit of Buddhism lies? How could they cultivate themselves and nurture their nature, recover their natural innocence, and be liberated from birth and death? How can one speak of this without profound grief and indignation? |
| 尤有进者，佛教是教育人们明白真理，舍弃妄见，改恶向善，去邪归正，改造人类的大教；是使人们从迷梦中觉醒，不贪著，不自私，尽一己之力为大众服务，为群生谋福利——普利群生的善法；更是使众生去惑证真，卸下重担（心中所粘附的事物），生活得轻松愉快，有意义，有价值，得真实受用的妙法。 |
What is more, Buddhism is a great teaching that educates people to understand truth, abandon false views, turn from evil toward good, leave the deviant and return to the right, and transform humanity. It is a wholesome dharma that awakens people from deluded dreams, teaches them not to cling or be selfish, and encourages them to use all their strength to serve the public and seek the welfare of all living beings—benefiting all sentient beings universally. More than this, it is a wondrous dharma that enables sentient beings to leave delusion behind and realize truth, lay down their heavy burdens—the things to which their minds cling—and live with ease, joy, meaning, value, and genuine benefit. |
| 因之，它是对社会和国家具有莫大现实积极意义的伟大宗教。因为举凡社会的不安和国家的动乱，莫不由人们的贪、嗔、痴这三大劣根性在作祟。人由于物欲炽盛，贪心高涨，才不择手段地去干那贪赃枉法，投机倒把，走私受贿，甚至阴谋叛乱，结党营私等等的罪行。而佛教正是向这三大毒根——贪、嗔、痴开刀的。 |
Consequently, it is a great religion of immense practical and positive significance for society and the nation. For every social unrest and national upheaval is caused by the mischief of greed, anger, and ignorance, the three great evil dispositions in people. Because material desires blaze fiercely and greed rises high, people resort to every means to commit such crimes as corruption, violation of the law, profiteering, smuggling, bribery, even plotting rebellion and forming factions for private gain. Buddhism is precisely directed against these three poisonous roots—greed, anger, and ignorance. |
| 至如世界的运行和人类的遭遇，都是由于人们自己无明妄动，著境造业所感召的果报。换句话说，都是人们自作自受，非干鬼神之事。而且只要人们迅猛觉醒，识自本心，见自本性，人人都能成佛。佛是主张一切平等，无有阶级差别的广博大教。因之，很多人主张佛教是非宗教的。 |
As for the operation of the world and the circumstances encountered by humankind, they are all karmic results summoned by people’s own ignorant and deluded activity, their attachment to circumstances, and their creation of karma. In other words, people bring them upon themselves and undergo them themselves; they are not the work of ghosts or spirits. Moreover, as soon as people swiftly awaken, recognize their own original mind, and see their own intrinsic nature, everyone can become a Buddha. Buddhism is a broad and great teaching that advocates complete equality and admits no distinctions of class. For this reason, many people maintain that Buddhism is not a religion. |
| 复次，从佛教的宗旨来看，圆顿教从最究竟处着眼，说无生死可了，无涅槃可证，无佛无众生，法法皆空。起心动念，即乖自宗。所谓“举心即错，动念即乖”，它是以无所宗为宗的。 |
Furthermore, viewed from Buddhism’s fundamental purpose, the perfect and sudden teaching takes its standpoint from the most ultimate level. It says that there is no birth and death to be transcended, no nirvāṇa to be realized, no Buddhas and no sentient beings, and that all dharmas are empty. To raise the mind or stir a thought is already to depart from its own tenet. As it is said, “Raise the mind and you are already wrong; stir a thought and you have already gone astray.” It takes non-adherence as its tenet. |
| 无所宗为宗是佛教的真宗，以有所宗，即落偏见故。所以也有很多人以此称佛教为非宗教者。但他们似乎忘记了佛教虽以无所宗为宗，但非无主，还有个无宗之宗在，所以又非不宗教者。 |
Taking non-adherence as its tenet is Buddhism’s true tenet, for to adhere to some tenet is to fall into a biased view. Therefore, many people also call Buddhism nonreligious on this basis. Yet they seem to forget that although Buddhism takes non-adherence as its tenet, it is not without a guiding principle: there still remains the tenet of having no tenet. Thus it is not nonreligious either. |
| 佛教所讲的是辩证的真理，以无所宗故，不应言是宗教；以无所宗为宗故，不应言非宗教。非空非有，非有非空，乃佛教不立二边中道之的旨，要会此的旨，非明心见性不可！由此可见，明心见性是学佛者至关重要的课题了。 |
Buddhism teaches dialectical truth. Because it takes non-adherence as its tenet, it should not be called a religion; because it takes non-adherence as its tenet, it should not be called nonreligious. Neither empty nor existent, neither existent nor empty: this is Buddhism’s essential meaning of the Middle Way, which does not establish the two extremes. To comprehend this essential meaning, one cannot do without realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature. From this it is clear that realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature is a matter of utmost importance for Buddhist practitioners. |
| 明心见性对学佛者如此重要，那末，明心见性的内容究竟是怎么回事？怎样才能证取它？证到时是什么境象（界）？证到后又有什么功用？这许多问题，都是学佛者所想（应）明白，而亟待研究的问题，兹为能明白易晓，以便于读者证取起见，分别略述于后。 |
Since realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature is so important for Buddhist practitioners, what exactly does it mean? How can it be realized? What state is experienced when it is realized? And what functions does it have after realization? These are all questions that Buddhist practitioners wish, and ought, to understand, and that urgently require investigation. In order to make them clear and easy to understand, and to facilitate readers’ realization, they will be briefly set forth separately below. |
