Pai-chang Huai-hai
Translated by Gary Snyder
Pai Chang's Big Lecture:
A comrade asked "What about the Dharma-gate of Mahayana Sudden Enlightenment?" The Master said: "All of you: first stop all causal relationships, and bring the ten thousand affairs to rest. Good or not good, out of the world or in the world—don't keep any of these dharmas in mind. Don't have causally conditioned thoughts. Relinquish both body and mind and make yourself free, with a mind like wood or stone—making no discriminations. Then the mind is without action, and the mind-ground is like the empty sky.
Then the sun of wisdom will appear by itself, like clouds opening and the sun coming out. Completely stop all involving causes: greed, anger, lust, attachment. Feelings of purity or impurity should be extinguished. As for the five desires and the eight lusts, one need not be bound by seeing, hearing, perceiving or knowing; or be deluded under any circumstance. Then you will be endowed with supernatural and mysterious power. Thus is the liberated man. As for all kinds of circumstances, the mind of such a man is without either tranquillity or disorder—neither concentrated nor scattered. Then there is no obstruction to the complete comprehension of Sound and Form. Such may be called a man of Tao. He is bound in no way by good or bad, purity or impurity, or the uses of worldly happiness and wisdom. This is what we call Buddha-Wisdom. Right and wrong, pretty and ugly, reasonable and unreasonable—all intellectual discriminations are completely exhausted. Being unbound, his mental condition is free. Such a man may be called a Bodhisattva whose Bodhi-mind arrives the instant it sets out. Such can ascend directly to the Buddha lands. All the dharmas, basically, are not of themselves empty. They do not, themselves, speak of form; also they say nothing of right and wrong or purity and impurity; and they have no intention of binding men. The fact is that men themselves deludedly speculate and make several kinds of understanding and bring forth several kinds of intellectual discrimination.
If feelings of purity and impurity could be exhausted, if one didn't dwell in attachments and didn't dwell in liberation— if there were absolutely no drawing-of-lines between conditioned and unconditioned—if the mind analyzed without making choices—THEN THAT MIND WOULD BE FREE. One would not be tangled up with illusion, suffering, the skandhas, samsara or the twelve links of the chain. Remote, unattached, completely without clinging. Going or staying without obstruction; entering into or coming out of Birth-and-Death is like going through opening gates. Even when that mind meets with various sorts of suffering and things that go wrong, that mind does not retreat groveling.
Such a one is not concerned with fame, clothing or food. He doesn't covet merit or profit; he is not obstructed by social things. Though he may be brought up against pleasure or pain, he doesn't get involved. Coarse food sustains his life, patched clothes resist the weather. He is vacant, like a complete idiot or deaf man. If one has the least inclination toward broadly studying Understanding within samsara—seeking fortune and wisdom— it will add nothing to the Principle. Instead one will be hung up by the circumstances of understanding; and return to the sea of samsara. Buddha is an unseekable One: if you seek it you go astray. The Principle is an unseekable Principle; if you seek it you lose it. And if you manage not to seek, it turns to seeking. This Dharma has neither substance or emptiness. If you are able to flow through life with a mind as open and complete as wood or stone— then you will not be swept away and drowned by the skandhas, the five desires and the eight lusts. Then the source of Birth-and-Death will be cut off, and you will go and come freely.
You will not in the least be bound by the conditions of karma. With an unfettered body you can
share your benefits with all things. With an unfettered mind you can respond to all minds. With an
unfettered wisdom you can loosen all bonds. You are able to give the medicine according to the
disease.
Translated by Gary Snyder
Pai Chang's Big Lecture:
A comrade asked "What about the Dharma-gate of Mahayana Sudden Enlightenment?" The Master said: "All of you: first stop all causal relationships, and bring the ten thousand affairs to rest. Good or not good, out of the world or in the world—don't keep any of these dharmas in mind. Don't have causally conditioned thoughts. Relinquish both body and mind and make yourself free, with a mind like wood or stone—making no discriminations. Then the mind is without action, and the mind-ground is like the empty sky.
Then the sun of wisdom will appear by itself, like clouds opening and the sun coming out. Completely stop all involving causes: greed, anger, lust, attachment. Feelings of purity or impurity should be extinguished. As for the five desires and the eight lusts, one need not be bound by seeing, hearing, perceiving or knowing; or be deluded under any circumstance. Then you will be endowed with supernatural and mysterious power. Thus is the liberated man. As for all kinds of circumstances, the mind of such a man is without either tranquillity or disorder—neither concentrated nor scattered. Then there is no obstruction to the complete comprehension of Sound and Form. Such may be called a man of Tao. He is bound in no way by good or bad, purity or impurity, or the uses of worldly happiness and wisdom. This is what we call Buddha-Wisdom. Right and wrong, pretty and ugly, reasonable and unreasonable—all intellectual discriminations are completely exhausted. Being unbound, his mental condition is free. Such a man may be called a Bodhisattva whose Bodhi-mind arrives the instant it sets out. Such can ascend directly to the Buddha lands. All the dharmas, basically, are not of themselves empty. They do not, themselves, speak of form; also they say nothing of right and wrong or purity and impurity; and they have no intention of binding men. The fact is that men themselves deludedly speculate and make several kinds of understanding and bring forth several kinds of intellectual discrimination.
If feelings of purity and impurity could be exhausted, if one didn't dwell in attachments and didn't dwell in liberation— if there were absolutely no drawing-of-lines between conditioned and unconditioned—if the mind analyzed without making choices—THEN THAT MIND WOULD BE FREE. One would not be tangled up with illusion, suffering, the skandhas, samsara or the twelve links of the chain. Remote, unattached, completely without clinging. Going or staying without obstruction; entering into or coming out of Birth-and-Death is like going through opening gates. Even when that mind meets with various sorts of suffering and things that go wrong, that mind does not retreat groveling.
Such a one is not concerned with fame, clothing or food. He doesn't covet merit or profit; he is not obstructed by social things. Though he may be brought up against pleasure or pain, he doesn't get involved. Coarse food sustains his life, patched clothes resist the weather. He is vacant, like a complete idiot or deaf man. If one has the least inclination toward broadly studying Understanding within samsara—seeking fortune and wisdom— it will add nothing to the Principle. Instead one will be hung up by the circumstances of understanding; and return to the sea of samsara. Buddha is an unseekable One: if you seek it you go astray. The Principle is an unseekable Principle; if you seek it you lose it. And if you manage not to seek, it turns to seeking. This Dharma has neither substance or emptiness. If you are able to flow through life with a mind as open and complete as wood or stone— then you will not be swept away and drowned by the skandhas, the five desires and the eight lusts. Then the source of Birth-and-Death will be cut off, and you will go and come freely.
You will not in the least be bound by the conditions of karma. With an unfettered body you can
share your benefits with all things. With an unfettered mind you can respond to all minds. With an
unfettered wisdom you can loosen all bonds. You are able to give the medicine according to the
disease.
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