Still the Frenzied Mind and See True Nature 息下狂心见真性
Master Yuanyin, Serialized in Chan, Issues 1–4 (1991) | 1991-06-07 | Download | AI assisted translation
| （一）明心见性者，明心虚妄不可得，息下狂心见真性也。 |
(I) To realize the mind and see one’s true nature is to realize that the deluded mind is unobtainable; when the frenzied mind comes to rest, one sees the true nature. |
| 我人欲了脱生死，先须知道生死之由来。如欲断其流者，先须识知源之所在，而后方可塞其源、断其流，逍遥于生死之外。 |
If we wish to be liberated from birth and death, we must first know their origin. If we wish to cut off a current, we must first identify its source; only then can we dam the source and cut off the current, wandering freely beyond birth and death. |
| 那么芸芸众生在六道内头出头没地轮回不已，究竟何由而起呢？释迦佛用两句简约的话告诉我们：“三界唯心，万法唯识。 |
Why do innumerable sentient beings endlessly cycle through the six realms, emerging and sinking again and again? Śākyamuni Buddha tells us in two succinct sentences: “The three realms are mind-only; all phenomena are consciousness-only.” |
| ”分析起来，乃是说，一切众生本具如来藏性，它是不生不灭、不垢不净、不来不去、无相灵敏之万能体；它不属迷悟，体绝凡圣。只以众生不觉，无有经验，不知妙体本明，而生一念认明，以本有之妙觉智光，幻为妄明所明。 |
all phenomena are consciousness-only. An analysis of this means that all sentient beings inherently possess the tathāgatagarbha nature. It neither arises nor ceases, is neither defiled nor pure, neither comes nor goes, and is a formless, numinously responsive, all-capable essence. It belongs neither to delusion nor awakening, and in its essence transcends both ordinary beings and sages. Yet because sentient beings are unaware and lack direct experience, they do not know that this wondrous essence is originally luminous. Thus a single thought of mistaking luminosity for an object arises, and the originally inherent wondrous light of awakened wisdom is illusorily transformed into a deluded luminosity and that which it illuminates. |
| 将原为一体之觉明——觉即明，明即觉，非有二致，分为觉明相对——觉外有明，明外有觉，觉为明所明，明为觉所觉，而成能所双立。即《楞严经》所谓“性觉必明，妄为明觉”也。 |
The luminosity of awareness, originally one—awareness is luminosity, and luminosity is awareness; they are not two—is divided into the opposition of awareness and luminosity: outside awareness there is luminosity, and outside luminosity there is awareness; awareness is illuminated by luminosity, and luminosity is apprehended by awareness. Thus subject and object are both established. This is what the Śūraṅgama Sūtra calls: “The nature of awareness necessarily seeks luminosity, and delusion makes luminosity into awareness.” |
| 由此无明故（此明觉即吾人通常所说的无明），迷本圆明，将本有无相之真如，转为阿赖耶识（如正常人吃醉了老酒相似）。 |
Because of this ignorance (this luminous awareness is what we ordinarily call ignorance), one loses sight of the originally perfect luminosity and transforms the originally formless suchness into ālaya consciousness—just as a normal person becomes intoxicated after drinking strong wine. |
| 于是灵明真空变为顽空，复于顽空中，无明妄动，凝结成四大妄色（如来藏性本具之性能地、水、火、风四大种因，因妄动而显相，世界即此四大所凝成）。此即《楞严经》所谓“迷妄有虚空，依空立世界”也。 |
Thus luminous true emptiness becomes inert emptiness. Then, within that inert emptiness, ignorance stirs delusively and congeals into the deluded forms of the four elements. The tathāgatagarbha nature inherently possesses the potential for the four great elements—earth, water, fire, and wind—which manifest as forms through this deluded stirring; the world itself is formed from the congealing of these four elements. This is what the Śūraṅgama Sūtra calls: “Deluded confusion gives rise to empty space; dependent on empty space, the world is established.” |
| 由有四大妄色，则本有之智光转为妄见，复以彼妄色为所见之境。妄见既久，更抟取少分四大为我，于是妄见托彼四大以为我身——即无明裹定八识潜入身根，四大本是无知，因妄见执受而有知。真心无量，今被无明封固，潜入四大以为心。即所谓色杂妄想，想相为身，是为五蕴之众生。亦《楞严经》所说“想澄成国土，知觉乃众生”也。 |
Once the deluded forms of the four elements exist, the originally inherent light of wisdom turns into deluded seeing, and those deluded forms become the objects seen. Once deluded seeing has persisted for a long time, it further appropriates a small portion of the four elements as a self. Deluded seeing then relies on those four elements as one’s body—that is, ignorance encloses and fixes the eight consciousnesses, which enter covertly into the bodily faculties. The four elements are originally insentient, but through their appropriation by deluded seeing they become sentient. The true mind is immeasurable, but is now sealed and confined by ignorance, entering the four elements and taking them as mind. This is what is meant by “form mingled with deluded thought, with thought and form constituting the body”: this is a sentient being of the five aggregates. It is also what the Śūraṅgama Sūtra describes: “Thought, clarified and settled, becomes lands; conscious awareness becomes sentient beings.” |
| 由此可见，身心世界之所妄起，实系一念认明（即无明）之过咎。众生既迷失本性，而认物为己，于是追逐物境，迷著不舍，造业受报，轮回不息！经云：“心生则种种法生，法生则种种心生。 |
From this we can see that the deluded arising of body, mind, and world is truly the fault of a single thought that mistakes luminosity for an object—that is, ignorance. Once sentient beings have lost their original nature and mistake things for themselves, they pursue external objects, cling to them in delusion, create karma and undergo karmic retribution, and cycle endlessly through rebirth. A sutra says that when mind arises, all kinds of dharmas arise; when dharmas arise, all kinds of minds arise. |
| ”种子起现行，现行复熏种子，由因成果，果复感因，因因果果，果果因因，周而复始，循环不已。因是众生从无生死中，枉受生死轮回之苦，不得停息！ |
Karmic seeds give rise to manifest activity, and manifest activity in turn perfumes karmic seeds. Causes produce results, and results in turn condition causes; causes and results, results and causes, revolve again and again without cease. Thus sentient beings, though originally without birth and death, vainly undergo the suffering of cyclic birth and death without respite. |
| 所以说，我人的心是虚幻不实的。它只是六尘落谢的影子，而六尘（即世界万物）又由无明妄结而幻现，本不可得。佛经所谓不自生，不他生，不共生，不无因生。那么，由它生起的妄心，更是虚幻中之虚幻了。 |
Therefore, our minds are illusory and unreal. They are merely shadows left behind by the six sense objects, while the six sense objects—the myriad things of the world—are themselves illusorily manifested through the deluded congealing of ignorance and are originally unobtainable. As the Buddhist scriptures say, they do not arise from themselves, from another, from both together, or without a cause. The deluded mind that arises from them is therefore an illusion within illusion. |
| 现代的哲学家们也说“心”是客观物质的反映，但他们只说心由物产生，没有道出物何由而产生，不及佛经说得全面。佛说：“心不自心，因物故心；物不自物，因心故物。”这就将心物互为因果而虚幻生起的道理，说得一清二楚了。 |
Modern philosophers likewise say that the “mind” is a reflection of objective matter. Yet they say only that mind arises from matter; they do not explain how matter itself arises, and thus their account is less comprehensive than that of the Buddhist scriptures. The Buddha said: “Mind is not mind in itself; because of things, there is mind. Things are not things in themselves; because of mind, there are things.” This makes perfectly clear the principle that mind and matter are mutually cause and effect and arise illusorily. |
| 心物既俱虚幻而不可得，我人一旦梦醒了得身心世界本空，这就是明心。于本空处，非如木石不知无觉，而是虚明了了，虽了了虚明而寂然不动，一念不生，这是什么？这奇伟而又平淡的景象，非吾人不生不灭，亘古长存之真如自体，又是何物！当此自体豁然显露时一把擒来，即谓之亲证本来面目，亦谓之见性。 |
Since both mind and matter are illusory and unobtainable, when we awaken from the dream and realize that body, mind, and world are originally empty, this is realizing the mind. Yet this original emptiness is not like wood or stone, devoid of awareness and knowing; rather, it is empty and luminous, with clear knowing ever present. Though empty and luminous with clear knowing, it remains still and unmoving, and not a single thought arises. What is this? What else could this extraordinary yet ordinary scene be but the suchness itself of our unborn and undying nature, enduring from time without beginning? When this self-nature suddenly reveals itself and one seizes it directly, this is called directly realizing the Original Face; it is also called seeing one’s true nature. |
| 所谓见性，并不是用眼睛去看见什么东西，而是心地法眼亲切深彻的体会与神领。经云：“见见之时，见非是见。”故明心见性，乃于打破妄知妄见，狂心息处，身心消殒时，彻见真性也。 |
What is called seeing one’s true nature does not mean seeing some object with one’s eyes. It is the intimate, profound realization and intuitive apprehension of the dharma eye of the mind-ground. A sutra says: “When seeing sees seeing, that seeing is not true seeing.” Thus, realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature means thoroughly seeing the true nature where deluded knowledge and deluded views have been shattered, the frenzied mind has come to rest, and body and mind have dissolved. |
| 如二祖神光大师，见初祖达摩曰：“学人心不安，乞师安心。”祖曰：“将心来，与汝安。”师良久曰：“觅心了不可得。”祖乃顺水推舟曰：“与汝安心竟！”师于言下大悟。 |
For example, Chan Master Shenguang, the Second Patriarch, went to Bodhidharma, the First Patriarch, and said, “This student’s mind is not at peace. I beg the Master to pacify it for me.” The Patriarch said, “Bring me your mind, and I will pacify it for you.” After a long while, Shenguang said, “I have searched for the mind, but cannot find it.” The Patriarch then followed the course of events and said, “I have already pacified your mind for you!” Shenguang was greatly awakened at these words. |
| 此即于觅心了不可得处（前念断，后念未起时）而彻见这不落断灭（当时念虽断，但非如木石无知）了了灵知的性。这则公案的妙处，即在心是集起虚妄的，并无真实来处，一经追问，即便化为乌有。 |
Here, precisely where the mind cannot be found—when the preceding thought has ceased and the following thought has not yet arisen—one thoroughly sees this nature of clear, numinous knowing, which does not fall into annihilation. Although the thought has ceased at that moment, it is not, like wood or stone, devoid of awareness. The wonder of this koan lies in the fact that mind is an accumulated delusion and has no real point of origin; once it is investigated, it immediately vanishes into nothing. |
| 但念虽息空而能（即性）不灭，会者即于此际，猛著精彩，回光荐取，即为见性。关于能量不灭，现代科学家都承认。而能量最大者，莫过于性能。 |
Yet although thoughts cease, the empty yet capable nature—that is, one’s true nature—does not perish. Those who understand seize this very moment with full vigor, turn the light inward, and directly recognize it; this is seeing one’s true nature. Modern scientists all acknowledge that energy is indestructible. But no energy is greater than the innate capacity of one’s true nature. |
| 因性无形无相，至大至坚，大而无外，小而无内，能摧一切，一切不能摧它，故无法衡量，无可比度。投生六道，受罪享福的是它，了生脱死，逍遥化外的也是它，所以要了脱生死，必须明心见性也。 |
Because this nature is formless and without characteristics, supremely vast and supremely firm—so great that nothing lies outside it, so small that nothing lies within it—it can overcome everything, while nothing can overcome it. Therefore it cannot be measured or compared. It is this that takes birth in the six realms, undergoes suffering, and enjoys blessings; it is also this that transcends birth and death and wanders freely beyond all conditioned realms. Therefore, to be liberated from birth and death, one must realize the mind and see one’s true nature. |
