Yongjia's Song of Realizing the Way

非色非心非行業。彈指圓成八萬門。剎那滅卻三祇劫。

and it is not form, not mind, and not the work of action. In a snap of the fingers one completes eighty thousand Dharma gates, and in an instant one extinguishes the labor of three great asamkhyeya kalpas.

一切數句非數句。與吾靈覺何交涉。

All words and phrases that can be counted, and even those that cannot, what have they to do with my spiritual, luminous awareness?

不可毀不可讚。體若虛空勿涯岸。不離當處常湛然。

It cannot be destroyed or praised; its substance is like space, without shore. It does not leave this very place, and is always clear and still;

覓即知君不可見。取不得捨不得。

the moment you go looking for it, you know you will not find it. It cannot be grasped, and it cannot be cast away,

不可得中只麼得。默時說說時默。大施門開無壅塞。

and in that very impossibility of grasping, it is just so attained. In silence one speaks, in speaking one is silent; the gate of great giving stands open, with nothing blocked.

有人問我解何宗。報道摩訶般若力。

If someone asks which school I understand, I answer: it is by the power of mahaprajna (great wisdom).

或是或非人不識。逆行順行天莫測。吾早曾經多劫修。

At times it seems right, at times wrong, and people cannot tell; acting against the grain or going with it, even heaven cannot fathom. I have already cultivated through many kalpas,

不是等閒相誑惑。建法幢立宗旨。

and it is by no means casual deception of others. I raise the banner of the Dharma and establish the principle,

明明佛勅曹溪是。第一迦葉首傳燈。二十八代西天記。

clearly and plainly: what the Buddha entrusted is precisely this Caoxi lineage. The first, Kashyapa, was the first to pass on the lamp, and the records of the Western Heaven say it passed through twenty-eight generations.

法東流入此土。菩提達磨為初祖。

The Dharma flowed east and entered this land, and Bodhidharma was the First Patriarch of China.

六代傳衣天下聞。後人得道何窮數。真不立妄本空。

That six generations of patriarchs passed on the robe is known to all under heaven, and those who attained the Way afterward are beyond counting. The true need not be established, the false is empty from the start,

有無俱遣不空空。二十空門元不著。

both being and non-being are cast off together, and not even the emptiness of "not empty" remains. The twenty kinds of emptiness need never be clung to,

一性如來體自同。心是根法是塵。兩種猶如鏡上痕。

and the one nature is naturally the same in substance as the Tathagata. Mind is the sense-root that cognizes, dharma is the object-dust that is cognized; these two are like marks on a mirror,

痕垢盡除光始現。心法雙忘性即真。

and when the marks and dirt are completely removed, the light appears. When both mind and dharma are forgotten, the nature is, right then, the true.

嗟末法惡時世。眾生福薄難調制。去聖遠兮邪見深。

Alas, in this evil, turbid Degenerate Age, beings have thin blessings and are hard to tame and teach. Far from the time of the sages, with deep wrong views,

魔強法弱多恐害。聞說如來頓教門。

demons strong and the Dharma weak, there is much terror and harm. On hearing the Tathagata's sudden-teaching Dharma gate,

恨不滅除令瓦碎。作在心殃在身。不須冤訴更尤人。

they wish only to destroy it, smashing it like a tile to pieces. The deed is done in the mind, but the disaster falls on the body; there is no need to cry out against injustice, still less to blame others.

欲得不招無間業。莫謗如來正法輪。

If you wish not to bring on the karma of the Unceasing Hell, do not slander the Tathagata's wheel of the true Dharma.

旃檀林無雜樹。欝密森沈師子住。境靜林間獨自遊。

In a grove of sandalwood there are no stray trees; thick and deep, it is where the lion dwells. In that pure place, walking alone in the grove,

走獸飛禽皆遠去。師子兒眾隨後。三歲便能大哮吼。

beasts that run and birds that fly all keep far away. The lion cubs follow behind, and at three years old they can roar aloud.

若是野幹逐法王。百年妖怪虛開口。

If a wild fox follows the Dharma King, though it may play the demon for a hundred years, it merely opens its mouth in vain.

圓頓教勿人情。有疑不決直須爭。不是山僧逞人我。

The perfect and sudden teaching makes no concession to human sentiment; if there is doubt that is not resolved, one should argue it out directly. It is not that I, this mountain monk, want to win a quarrel,

修行恐落斷常坑。非不非是不是。

but that I fear practitioners will fall into the pits of the views of annihilation and permanence. What is called "not right" is not really wrong, and what is called "right" is not really right;

差之毫釐失千里。是則龍女頓成佛。非則善星生陷墜。

a hair's breadth of error becomes a thousand li of distance. Go the right way, and like the Dragon Girl one becomes a Buddha on the spot; go the wrong way, and like the monk Sunakshatra one falls alive into hell.

吾早年來積學問。亦曾討疏尋經論。

In my early years I too accumulated learning, I too studied commentaries and searched through sutras and treatises,

分別名相不知休。入海算沙徒自困。

distinguishing names and concepts without end, like going down to the sea to count grains of sand, only wearing myself out in vain.

卻被如來苦訶責。數他珍寶有何益。從來蹭蹬覺虛行。

For this I was sternly rebuked by the Tathagata: what use is it to count other people's treasures? Stumbling along the way, I came to feel that it had all been wasted effort,

多年枉作風塵客。種性邪錯知解。

and that for years I had been only a dusty wanderer. When one's capacity is lopsided, one's views go wrong,

不達如來圓頓制。二乘精進勿道心。外道聰明無智慧。

and one cannot penetrate the Tathagata's perfect and sudden teaching. The followers of the Two Vehicles are diligent but lack the great-vehicle mind of the Way; heretics are clever but lack true wisdom.

亦愚痴亦小騃。空拳指上生實解。

Foolish and dull, they look at an empty fist and at a pointing finger, and take them to be real,

執指為月枉施功。根境法中虛揑怪。不見一法即如來。

mistaking the finger for the moon and wasting their effort, inventing strange images out of the senses, their objects and dharmas. If one can see that not a single dharma is to be found, then that is the Tathagata,

方得名為觀自在。了即業障本來空。

and only then may one be called Avalokitesvara, the Sovereign Observer. When one awakens, karmic obstacles are empty from the start;

未了應須還夙債。饑逢王饍不能飡。

when one does not awaken, one must still repay old debts. A starving man who meets an imperial banquet cannot eat,

病遇醫王爭得瘥。在欲行禪知見力。火中生蓮終不壞。

and a sick man who meets the King of Physicians, how could he be cured? To practice Zen while living amid desire is possible through the power of insight; like a lotus growing in fire, it will never be destroyed.

勇施犯重悟無生。早時成佛於今在。

The monk Yongshi broke a grave precept yet realized non-birth; he became a Buddha long ago and is still one today.

師子吼無畏說。深嗟懵懂頑皮靼。秖知犯重障菩提。

Fearless as a lion's roar, the teaching deeply laments those muddled and obstinate people who know only that breaking a grave precept obstructs bodhi,

不見如來開秘訣。有二比丘犯婬殺。

and do not see that the Tathagata opened another secret way. Two monks had committed sexual misconduct and murder,

波離螢光增罪結。維摩大士頓除疑。猶如赫日銷霜雪。

and Upali, with the small wisdom of a firefly, judged them and only made their guilt heavier; the great layman Vimalakirti dispelled their doubts with a single word, like a blazing sun melting frost and snow.

不思議解脫力。妙用恆沙也無極。

The power of this inconceivable liberation has wondrous uses as countless as the sands of the Ganges, without end.

四事供養敢辭勞。萬兩黃金亦銷得。粉骨碎身未足酬。

The four offerings of clothing, food, bedding and medicine: how could one dare to find them burdensome? Even ten thousand taels of gold could be received. Though one ground one's bones to powder, it would not be enough to repay them,

一句瞭然超百億。法中王最高勝。

and a single sentence, upon which one is thoroughly awakened, surpasses a hundred billion gifts. The Buddha is the king of the Dharma, supreme and most excellent,

恆沙如來同共證。我今解此如意珠。信受之者皆相應。

as certified together by Tathagatas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. I have now understood this wish-fulfilling jewel, and all who believe and accept it can accord with it.

了了見無一物。亦無人亦無佛。

Seeing clearly that there is not a single thing, there is no person and there is no Buddha.

大千沙界海中漚。一切聖賢如電拂。假使鐵輪頂上旋。

A great-chiliocosm of worlds like sand is only a bubble on the sea, and all the sages are like flashes of lightning. Even if an iron wheel spun above one's head,

定慧圓明終不失。日可冷月可熱。

concentration and wisdom, perfectly clear, would still never be lost. The sun may turn cold and the moon may turn hot,

眾魔不能壞真說。象駕崢嶸謾進途。誰見螗蜋能拒轍。

but the host of demons cannot undo this true teaching. The elephant-drawn cart rolls on, tall and majestic; who has ever seen a praying mantis stop a cart's wheel track?

大象不遊於兔徑。大悟不拘於小節。

The great elephant does not walk the rabbit's small path, and one greatly awakened is not bound by petty details.

莫將管見謗蒼蒼。未了吾今為君訣。

Do not use the narrow view seen through a bamboo tube to slander the vast sky. If you have not yet awakened, I will now settle it clearly for you.

無相大師行狀

What follows is the appendix, the "Biography of Master Wuxiang", the life of Chan Master Xuanjue. (A "biography" here is a form of writing that records the events of a person's life.)

翰林學士朝散大夫行左司諫知制誥同修國史判史判館事柱國南陽郡開國侯食邑一千一百戶賜紫金魚袋楊億述

Composed by Yang Yi. His full title at the time was: Hanlin Academician, Grand Master for Court Audience, Acting Left Remonstrator, Drafter of Edicts, Concurrent Compiler of the National History, Administrator of the Historiography Office, Pillar of the State, Marquis of Nanyang Commandery, with a fief of 1,100 households, granted the purple robe and golden fish-pouch. (This is the full form of a Song-dynasty official's title, listing in order his office name, honorary rank, substantive post, commission, merit rank, noble title, fief and imperial gifts; it is not the names of several people. The base text repeats the character for "administer" in "administer the historiography" by mistake, and it should read "Administrator of the Historiography Office".)

溫州永嘉玄覺禪師者。永嘉人也。姓戴氏。丱歲出家。遍探三藏精天台旨。觀圓妙法門。於四威儀中。常冥禪觀。後因左谿朗禪師激勵。與東陽策禪師。同詣曹谿。初到振錫攜瓶。繞祖三匝。祖曰。夫沙門者。具三千威儀八萬細行。大德自何方而來生大我慢。師曰。生死事大無常迅速。祖曰。何以體取無生。了無速乎。曰體即無生。了本無速。祖雲。如是如是。於時大眾。無不愕然。師方具威儀參禮。須臾告辭。祖曰。返太速乎。師曰。本自非動豈有速耶。祖曰。誰知非動。曰仁者自生分別。祖曰。汝甚得無生之意。曰無生豈有意耶。祖曰。無意誰當分別。曰分別亦非意。祖歎曰。善哉善哉。少留一宿。時謂一宿覺矣。策公乃留師。翌日下山迴溫江。學者輻湊。號真覺大師。著禪宗悟修圓旨。自淺之深。慶州刺史魏靜。緝而成十篇。目為永嘉集。及證道歌一首。並盛行於世雲爾。

Chan Master Xuanjue of Yongjia in Wenzhou was a native of Yongjia, whose family name was Dai. He left home in childhood, read widely in the Three Baskets of scripture, mastered the aims of the Tiantai school, and practiced the perfect and wondrous contemplation, always resting his mind in meditation in all four postures of walking, standing, sitting and lying down. Later, spurred on by Chan Master Xuanlang of Zuoxi, he went to Caoxi together with Chan Master Xuance of Dongyang. On arriving, he shook his staff, held his water bottle, and walked three times around the Sixth Patriarch. The Sixth Patriarch said: "A renunciant should possess the three thousand dignified manners and the eighty thousand fine practices. Virtuous one, where do you come from, that you have such great pride?" Xuanjue said: "Birth and death are the great matter, and impermanence comes swiftly." The Patriarch said: "Then why not embody the unborn and realize that which has no swiftness or slowness?" Xuanjue said: "To embody it is itself non-birth, and to realize it is to find that there was never any swiftness or slowness." The Patriarch said: "So it is, so it is." The whole assembly was astonished. Only then did Xuanjue bow with full ceremony, and after a moment he took his leave. The Patriarch said: "Are you not leaving too quickly?" Xuanjue said: "Originally there was no movement, so how can there be speed?" The Patriarch said: "Who knows that there is no movement?" Xuanjue said: "It is you, sir, who give rise to discrimination." The Patriarch said: "You have truly grasped the meaning of non-birth." Xuanjue said: "How can non-birth have any meaning?" The Patriarch said: "If there is no meaning, who is it that discriminates?" Xuanjue said: "Discrimination itself is not a meaning either." The Patriarch praised him: "Excellent, excellent! Stay one night." People of the time therefore called him "the Overnight Awakened One". Master Xuance then kept him there. The next day Xuanjue went down the mountain and returned to Wenjiang, where students gathered to him like spokes to a hub, and he was known as Great Master Zhenjue. He wrote "The Perfect Aim of Awakening and Practice in the Chan School", proceeding from the shallow to the deep; Wei Jing, Prefect of Qingzhou, compiled it into ten chapters under the title "The Yongjia Collection", and together with a single "Song of Realizing the Way" it circulated widely in the world.