The Thirty-First Letter 第三十一封
| 2022-10-21 | Download | AI assisted translation
| 第三十一封 |
Letter Thirty-One |
| 恭敬顶礼师尊： |
Reverently bowing in homage to the Venerable Master: |
| 顶礼佛，顶礼法，顶礼僧。 |
I bow in homage to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha. |
| 师已拂袖归方丈，禅本心会勿需说。 即知虚空无一物，不再频频喻水波。【文案已彰】 师之《论明心见性》节要，胡聊译为现代语，题为“净土宗的证成”。发表于《台州佛教通讯》。 |
The Master has brushed aside his sleeves and returned to the abbot’s quarters; Chan is fundamentally a meeting of minds and needs no words. Once one knows that empty space contains not a single thing, there is no need repeatedly to use water and waves as a metaphor. [The literary brilliance is already manifest.] The essential points of the Master’s On Realizing the Mind and Seeing One’s True Nature were rendered into modern language by Hu Liao under the title “The Establishment of the Pure Land School” and published in Taizhou Buddhist Bulletin. |
| 【《略论明心见性》一文已是白话，再要译为现代语，恐怕变成小学生的作文了。】我虽窥一斑，也已知“临命终时”的精意。“彼佛现前”便亲睹无量光、无量寿了，彼即是我，我即是彼，我、人、寿等相便消陨无余了。 |
[The article “A Brief Discussion of Realizing the Mind and Seeing One’s True Nature” is already in the vernacular. If it were further translated into modern language, I fear it would become an elementary school composition.] Although I have seen only a glimpse, I now understand the essential meaning of “at the time of death.” When “that Buddha appears before one,” one directly beholds immeasurable light and immeasurable life. That one is I, and I am that one; the marks of self, person, and life span then vanish without remainder. |
| 象心恋师父法照一样。我也心恋《略论明心见性》原文。恋就是恋，不管是否着相，我不说假话。八识转四智，第六识先转，分别不执着，便是妙观察。 |
Just as Xinlian longed for Master Fazhao, so I long for the original text of A Brief Discussion of Realizing the Mind and Seeing One’s True Nature. Longing is longing; whether or not it is attachment to marks, I do not speak falsely. When the eight consciousnesses are transformed into the four wisdoms, the sixth consciousness is transformed first. Discriminating without attachment is wondrous observing wisdom. |
| 【正是！】【《略论明心见性》已加整理补充，由温州弟子交《禅》刊发行。你已订阅《禅》，不再寄给你了。】 同期《台佛》还刊载了河北临济寺传戒的消息。我发心去受菩萨戒，特禀告师父。 |
[Precisely so! “A Brief Discussion of Realizing the Mind and Seeing One’s True Nature” has been revised and supplemented, and disciples in Wenzhou have submitted it to the magazine Chan for publication. Since you already subscribe to Chan, I will not send it to you again.] The same issue of Taizhou Buddhist Bulletin also carried news of the conferral of precepts at Linji Temple in Hebei. I have resolved to go and receive the bodhisattva precepts, and respectfully report this to the Master. |
| 传戒期间时间安排紧凑，每日两小时的修法未必能抽出时间，这怎么办呢？俟接到师父信示，再去临济寺联系。【传戒时，不是毫无时间修法。近闻诸受戒佛子，不守清规，乱成一团，很不象样。 |
During the precept-conferral period, the schedule is tightly packed, and I may not be able to find time for the daily two-hour practice session. What should I do? I shall wait for the Master’s instructions by letter before contacting Linji Temple. [During the conferral of precepts, it is not as though there is no time at all for practice. Recently I have heard that some Buddhist disciples receiving precepts do not observe the monastic rules, but behave in complete disorder; it is most unseemly. |
| 可叹！你如无暇修持，稍停一两日也无妨。】圆彻师因“禅学研究班”云云，叹法门之敝，书十六偈投于《广东佛教》，题为“南华一夕谈”。 |
Alas! If you have no time to practice, it does no harm to pause for a day or two.] Because of talk about a “Chan Studies Research Class,” Master Yuanche lamented the decline of the Dharma gate and submitted sixteen verses to Guangdong Buddhism under the title “An Evening Talk at Nanhua.” |
| 有感于此，步其句做八偈如次： 禅者离言离相，当念离念如如，学者执理立论，推求寻思卜度。 学禅泯我弃慢，渐入真证实悟，禅学执著成相，又落世俗诸书。 |
Moved by this, I followed his rhymes and composed the following eight verses:
Those who practice Chan transcend words and marks;
In the very thought, free of thought, they abide in suchness.
Scholars cling to principles and establish theories,
Seeking, pondering, speculating, and calculating.
Those who study Chan extinguish self and abandon arrogance,
Gradually entering genuine realization and actual awakening.
Chan scholarship, clinging, becomes another mark,
And again falls into the common run of books. |
| 参究一心向上，我人寿者皆除，参至湛然无念，就连参究也无。 研究妄心分别，法尘意识碌碌，若遇恶缘成果，破见妄堕三途。 古有前车之鉴，可做后世之烛，一个落字言错，五百世堕野狐。 |
Investigate with one mind what lies beyond;
The marks of self, person, and life span are all removed.
Investigate until serene and without thought;
Then even investigation itself is gone.
Research gives rise to the deluded discriminations of mind,
As dharma objects and consciousness busily revolve.
Should adverse conditions ripen,
One’s views may collapse, and one falls deluded into the three lower realms.
The ancients provide precedents for warning;
They may serve as lamps for later ages.
One mistaken word, “fall,”
And one falls among wild foxes for five hundred lifetimes. |
| 虽然时值末世，后学何敢轻忽，纵使不能顿证，尚有戒律解缚。 管他精金顽铁，投入大冶洪炉，只要生死心切，缘熟堪作丈夫。 禅学学禅不论，参究研究排除，千念万念一念，南无阿弥陀佛。 |
Although this is the degenerate age,
How dare later students be careless?
Even if sudden realization cannot be attained,
The precepts can still free us from bondage.
Whether fine gold or stubborn iron,
Cast into the great smelting furnace;
So long as one is earnest about birth and death,
When conditions ripen, one can become a worthy person.
Do not speak of Chan scholarship or studying Chan;
Cast aside investigation and research.
A thousand thoughts, ten thousand thoughts, a single thought:
Namo Amitābha Buddha. |
| 【此偈作来，不无是处，但现在还是用功要紧，不要在偈颂上玩味，耽误了自己开悟的时节。】我父病久，褥疮颇大，睹之骇然。隔日换药，故医生有“口头病危”之嘱。 |
[These verses are not without merit, but for now diligent practice is what matters. Do not savor and play with verse, thereby delaying the time of your own awakening.] My father has long been ill, and his bedsore is quite large; I was alarmed when I saw it. The dressing is changed every other day, so the doctor has given a verbal warning that his condition is critical. |
| 我不为言动，每日“坐茶”，虔心求佛加持，业尽我父当愈。【褥疮大，有危险。需用好药医治，不可疏忽，以免发生意外，可先用茶汁冲洗，后再敷药。】蒙师寄来三咒注音，我当习熟，届时与师感应道交，圆满遥灌传法。 |
I do not let this move me in word or action. Each day I practice tea-sitting, sincerely praying for the Buddha’s blessing. When his karma is exhausted, my father should recover. [A large bedsore is dangerous. It must be treated with good medicine and must not be neglected, lest something unforeseen occur. First wash it with tea infusion, then apply the medicine.] The Master has kindly sent phonetic annotations for three mantras. I shall learn them thoroughly, so that in due course I may commune responsively with the Master and complete the remote empowerment and Dharma transmission. |
| 【咒须读熟，方能运用自如。】本当供养恩师，奈何恩师不受。如何是好？我若“不受不碍受”，竟自寄去；师若再耗资寄回，又如何是好？【我现在不须供养，请勿为此事操心。】 |
[The mantras must be recited fluently before they can be used with ease.] I ought to make an offering to my beneficent Master, but the Master will not accept it. What should I do? If I were to say, “Not accepting does not hinder accepting,” and simply send it anyway, what then if the Master again spent money to send it back? [I have no need of offerings at present. Please do not concern yourself with this matter.] |
| 弟子志明顶礼 |
Disciple Zhiming bows in homage |
| 1991年元月3日 |
January 3, 1991 |
| 【永寿童子】老师，何谓“文案已彰”？ |
[Yongshou Tongzi] Teacher, what does “the literary brilliance is already manifest” mean? |
| 【LVM】哦！那是老人的手写体“文采已彰”。 |
[LVM] Oh! In the elder’s handwriting, it reads “the literary brilliance is already manifest.” |
