禅七诲语

Chan Session Instructions

老修行为了要了生脱死，把话头抱得紧紧的，

没有一分一秒不是在用功。

Those old cultivators, seeking to end birth and death, held tightly to their meditation topic

and didn't stop applying effort for a single moment.

这次万佛圣城又打禅七、又打佛七，但还谈不到真正打禅七或打佛七，只是一个练习而已。为什么？因为习气毛病使然，旷劫以来人都懒散惯了，突然间叫他去真正修道，是很难办到的事。在中国高旻寺打禅七的家风，是谁也不能讲话，一分一秒也不能缺席懒惰。禅堂是不可以随便进出的，就算死了，尸体也不能往外抬，只往止单下边扔进去。

Once again, the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas is holding a Chan session and a Buddha recitation session, but they can't really be called a Chan session and a Buddha recitation session. They are only practice sessions. Why is that? Due to their bad habits and faults, people have been lazy and scattered for many long eons, and if you suddenly tell them to truly cultivate, it's not easy to do. During the Chan sessions at Gao Min Monastery in China, it was the rule that no one could talk, and no one could be lazy or absent for even one minute or second. People could not casually enter or leave the Chan hall, and even if someone died, his corpse couldn't be carried out. It would just be thrown under the meditation bench.

在这儿，你叫人突然这样用功，是不可能的。从前凡是在高旻寺的老修行，是真把性命交给了龙天了，真为了要了生脱死，所以拼命用功，克期取证，一刻也不放弃，把话头抱得紧紧的，由早起二点半到晚间十二点，没有一分一秒不是在用功，打七期间从不离开禅堂。

But if you asked people here to suddenly start working at that intensity, it would be impossible. In the past, those old cultivators at Gao Min Monastery really turned their lives over to the gods and dragons; seeking to end birth and death, they worked as if their lives were at stake and set a limited time in which to seek enlightenment. They didn't slack off for a single moment, and they always held tightly to their meditation topic. From two-thirty in the morning until midnight, they didn't stop applying effort for a single moment, and they didn't leave the Chan hall for the entire Chan session.

现在既然我们都是初学，能在此训练已经是很不错了。虽然念佛比较容易一点，但也不太容易，因为没有休息的时间，总是继续不断地念佛。我们打禅七、打佛七，都是引导大家一点一点地往前进步，慢慢训练得上路了，再努力用功。修到什么程度？修到如如不动，了了常明，在动中不动，静中不动，在不动中亦不动；静不碍动，动不碍静，静中有动，动中有静。行住坐卧不离这个，离了这个便是错过。「这个」是什么？就是中道了义，生佛、生菩萨、生圣、生天、生地、生仙，都是由它。

Since we are beginners, it's already commendable that we are here practicing. Although reciting the Buddha's name is somewhat easier, it's still not that easy, because there is no time for rest--you are constantly reciting the Buddha's name without break. In holding this Chan session and recitation session, we are leading everyone forward step by step, gradually easing into the practice, and then applying effort with diligence. What state will we reach in cultivation? We will cultivate until we reach the state of being "thus, thus, unmoving, clear and constantly bright"; unmoving in motion, unmoving in stillness, and unmoving in non-motion as well. Stillness doesn't obstruct movement, and movement doesn't obstruct stillness; within stillness there is movement, and within movement there is stillness. "Walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, don't be apart from this. Once you leave this, you've made a mistake." What is "this"? It's the ultimate meaning of the Middle Way. The Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, sages, heaven, earth, and immor-tals all originate from it.

用功的人要专心致志，不要被境界所转。参禅，要记住《金刚经》上的道理：「应无所住而生其心。」这是六祖大师开悟的一个基本道理。多少人听过、诵过这句话，可是有人开悟吗？所以当我解释《金刚经》时，我说：经文依然在，开悟是何人？

Cultivators must concentrate their minds and not be influenced by external states. In the investigation of Chan, you should remember the principle in the Vajra Sutra: "Produce the mind which dwells nowhere." The Great Master, the Sixth Patriarch, was enlightened to this principle. Countless people have heard and recited this sentence, but have any of them become enlightened? When I explained the Vajra Sutra, I asked, "The Sutra is still around, but who has become enlightened?"

六祖大师是个不识字的樵夫，天天只是上山砍柴，但他听了这句就开悟。因为六祖大师在多生多劫以前已认真修行过，所以一遇到《金刚经》就开悟，可是呢？为什么我们听了这么久，也没有开悟？这皆因往昔没有修行，只顾去看电影、看电视、开舞会、吃喝玩乐，不曾研究过经典。

The Sixth Patriarch was an illiterate woodcutter who chopped wood in the mountains every day, but he was enlightened as soon as he heard this sentence. Because the Sixth Patriarch had cultivated diligently for many lives in many past eons, he became enlightened as soon as he heard the Vajra Sutra. Why is it that after listening for so long, we still haven't become enlightened? It's because we didn't cultivate in the past; we only wanted to watch movies, watch TV, hold parties, and eat, drink, and be merry, and we never studied any sutras.

《金刚经》又说：「无我相、无人相、无众生相、无寿者相。」在坐禅时是不是无我相？无人相？无众生相？无寿者相？若没有，就要想办法扫四相，且要空三心，过去心、现在心、未来心，三心了不可得，又怎么会有四相呢？

The Vajra Sutra also says, "Be free of the mark of self, the mark of others, the mark of living beings, and the mark of a life span." When sitting in Chan, can you be free of the mark of self, the mark of others, the mark of living beings, and the mark of a life span? If not, then you must find a way to sweep away the four marks and empty the three minds of past, present and future. If the three minds cannot be obtained, how could the four marks exist?

《金刚经》又说：

一切有为法。如梦幻泡影。

如露亦如电。应作如是观。

若以色见我。以音声求我。

是人行邪道。不能见如来。

That Sutra also says,

All conditioned dharmas

Are like dreams, illusions, bubbles and shadows,

Like dew and like lightning.

You should contemplate them thus.

If one sees me in forms,

If one seeks me in sounds,

He practices a deviant way,

And cannot see the Tathagata.

我们坐禅时，不要被音声所转，不要随色相而转。有人修行很久，有境界了，但执着境界，这是错误的。应该「听而不闻，视而不见」，不闻不见，才叫不被境界所转。

When we sit in Chan, we should not be distracted by sights and sounds. Some people may experience states after long cultivation, but if they get attached to the states, they are making a mistake. You should "listen without hearing, and look without seeing." If we don't hear and we don't see, that's truly not being distracted by states.

一九八二年十二月十八日开示于

万佛圣城

A talk given at noon on December 18, 1982,

at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas