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不同程度的无我：无作者感、不二、无我、一法究尽以及应对误区

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《不同程度的无我》文章插图

《不同程度的无我》的可用译本

另见

有人写道：

无我

问题

朋友们好。

我有一个问题。

首先，我得简要交代一下背景。

几年前，我有过一次深刻的体验。就像一层帷幕被揭开，我忽然看见我并不存在。内在并不存在一个能够控制这个名为“身体”的有机体的大我（Self），也不存在自由意志。此后数年，我都从这个角度观察自己和他人。每天早上醒来时，它是我想到的第一件事；睡前，它也是我想到的最后一件事，直到内心变得空空荡荡。

我周围没有人有同样的体会；即使我谈起它，也没有人因此生气。我开始研究科学，想为我的想法寻找支持或反证。结果只是确认了：世界是命定的，而且每一刻的情形都复杂得令人无法理解。这又使我沿着这个方向走得更远。

所以现在，我的生活停摆了，里面也没有任何人去在乎。对于摆在感官面前的任何刺激，只剩下一些微弱而淡薄的情绪与心理反应。没有希望，没有志向，也没有目标。我不付账单，也不照顾自己。我的意思是，“我”为什么要这样做？

后来，大约三四年前，我偶然接触到一些“灵性”文献，其中提到了佛教的无我教义和轮回心识。

在这种情况下，佛教徒会建议怎么做？我的意思是，如果情况没有任何改变，我很快不是死掉就是进监狱。我能接受这个结果，不过我可不盼着身体受苦。

还有什么值得做的吗？这就是“道路”的终点吗？就是证悟到我并不存在？

……

你说得对。它一直非常失衡、不健康，因此变得令人疲惫，最后成了一个问题。但尽管有恐惧、疑惑，以及对所发生之事缺乏理解，其中也有深刻而美丽的体验。我现在到了一个需要指导与修法的关口，需要知道如何以正确、恰当的方式来实践，至少要以一种更好、更健康的方式去做。所以，我想我愿意接受纠正和指导。再次感谢你。

我（Soh）回复：

你好，

u/krodha（Kyle Dixon）把我引到这篇帖子……我想分享一点个人看法。

自我与大我有不同的程度。我可以对其中许多层面作很详细的阐述——你可以在我的博客和免费的指南中找到这些阐述：https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/2022/06/the-awakening-to-reality-practice-guide.html。不过在这篇回复里，我只作简要概述。

自我与大我，以及无我与无大我的体验，主要有三种程度或面向；不过每一种，在洞见与体验的深化程度上又有不同层次：

1）作为“无造作者性”（non-doership）的无我。你不再感觉有一个造作者或控制者，一切念头与行动都只是自然而然地发生。你看见甚至你的念头和情绪也不是出自一个造作者；你甚至不知道下一刻会生起什么念头，它就是发生。当你口渴时，手就自行拿起饮料，身体就自行大口喝下饮料。

无造作者性进一步深化的一层，是我所说的“非个人性”。非个人性不只是无造作者性的体验。它是“个人自我”这一建构的瓦解，由此清除了自我的影响，产生一种清净、纯粹、“非我所”的知觉转变；同时伴随着一种感觉：一切人与事都是同一种活力、智能与意识的表达。这很容易进一步被外推为某种“宇宙性本源”之感（但这只是外推，在后来的阶段会被解构），并且一个人也会体验到：自己正由这个更大的生命与智能所“活出”。

非个人性会帮助溶解自我感，但它也有一个危险：使人执著于某种形上学本质，或将宇宙意识人格化、实体化，并加以推衍。更深的无我与空性洞见会消解这种实体化和推衍的倾向。

另外，我还应当提到另一种洞见或证悟——这并不等同于无造作者性，而是证悟自己的光明本质为纯粹临在与明澈。一个体验过无造作者性的人，并不必然证悟自身那即使不涉入概念思考也依然在的存在性——临在-觉知，也就是 I AMness（“我是”感）。当某一刻不再涉入任何念头时，就在那个空隙中，忽然证悟到无可怀疑的存在本身：即使没有一个念头，也只是“我、存在、觉知”。你会认识到，这就是存在本身的光明核心。它是觉知、纯粹存在与喜乐。这个证悟常被实体化为 Atman（真我），但我认为这个证悟珍贵而重要，并且是超越单纯无造作者性的一种进展；不过在下面后续的证悟中，尤其是在无我的证悟中，它会得到进一步精炼。第三点的无我证悟看见这种临在-觉知的本性：不是否定它，而是正确地理解它——理解这种临在-觉知无自性、空而不二的本性（而且它的不二面向并不等于已经证悟它的空性，不过这里我暂时不展开太多）。基本上，如果你有这个证悟，你就不会显得那么虚无主义，因为你已经发现了存在中非常正面、光明的核心。并且，在这个证悟之后，你会感觉自己像是一个无限的存在之基，支撑着你所有念头，事实上也支撑着整个世界。当你在街上慢跑时，你不再把自己看成一个与外在对象相对的人；相反，所有对象、树木、人物、风景都在那个存在之基中显现与隐没，并且在其中“穿过”，就像电影投影只是在银幕上“掠过”一样。你不再觉得是自己从这些事物旁经过；相反，你的身心、风景与对象，只是从不动的存在性中“被投射出来”，并在其中“经过或穿过”。

关于这个证悟，John Tan 也曾写道：

“H 先生你好，

除了你所写的内容之外，我希望向你传达临在的另一个维度：初次直面临在时，它在寂静中纯粹无杂、全然呈现。

所以读完之后，就用你的整个身心去感受它，然后把这些话忘掉。不要让它们污染你的心。😝

临在、觉知、存在性（Beingness）、如是性（Isness），都是同义词。可以有各种各样的定义，但这些都不是通向它的道路。通向它的道路必须是非概念的、直接的。这是唯一的方式。

当参究“出生以前，我是谁？”这个公案时，思维心会试图在它的记忆库中寻找类似经验来得到答案。思维心就是这样运作的——比较、分类、衡量，以便理解。

然而，当我们遇到这样的公案时，心在试图穿透自身深处而得不到答案时，会走到它的极限。终有一刻，心会耗尽自己，完全停顿下来；而从那静止中，迸发出震天动地的“轰！”

我。只是我。

出生以前，是这个我；一千年前，是这个我；一千年后，还是这个我。我就是我（I AM I）。

其中没有任何人为造作的念头，也没有任何比较。它在清净、纯粹、直接而非概念的体认中，完全印证它自己的明澈、它自己的存在、它自己。没有为什么，也没有因为。

只是在静止中，它自己而已，没有别的。

直下体会毗婆舍那（观）与奢摩他（止）。直下体会一法究尽（ippō gūjin；Total Exertion）与证悟。这番话的要旨，必须保持未经加工、未经修饰，不受文字沾染。

希望有帮助！”——John Tan，2019

然而，一个证悟无造作者性的人，可能还没有证悟临在-觉知；所以修自我探究（问“我是谁、我是什么？”）可以帮助人朝那个方向前进。I AM 的证悟也很重要，并且可以作为进一步洞见的重要基础，这在《无我与纯粹临在》中有所解释。要证悟 I AM，最直接的方法是自我探究，问自己：“出生以前，我是谁？”或者只是问：“我是谁？”参见：《此刻你的本心是什么？》，以及《觉醒于现实修行指南》与 AtR 指南（节略版）中的自我探究章节。

直接证悟自己的光辉、自己的清净觉知或纯粹临在，其实非常重要。若没有这一点，一个人的无我体验就会偏向无造作者性，而不会体验到清澈明亮的不二光明。在 AtR 中，这并不被视为真正的无我（anatman）证悟。关于这个主题，可进一步阅读《清澈的无我与无造作者性》、《Yin Ling 与 Albert Hong 关于无我的良好建议与表达 + 什么是体验性洞见？》、《无我与纯粹临在》、《真实自由与无常中的即时光辉》、《无常宇宙有一颗心》。

2）在穿透并溶解主体与客体、感知者与被感知者之间的二分这一意义上的无我。这涉及一种感觉：好像有一个内在的主观感知者，通过感官感知对象世界。换句话说，一般人深深感觉自己是从自己的眼睛后面与世界相对，如同某个人在感知“外在世界”的树、人、对象等等；而那些树、桌子、物体的形状、颜色与特征，只是独立于观察者的外在对象“本身具有”的属性，他们只是从身体“内部”的某个观察位置，作为一个内在的感知者——主体——去观察它们。主体与客体。感知者与被感知者。这不仅在视觉上如此，在声音和其他感官知觉中也是如此；一般人听见声音时，好像声音在“外面”某处，而他们自己位于“这里面”某处，从身体内部听见声音（具体在哪里并不确定；若加以检视，有些人会说是在头部，有些人会指向心口。基本上，一般人并不会清楚检视这些，只是把自我感和二元性视为理所当然）。但对多数人来说，这种自我感和二元感是一种非常真实的体验，他们不加质疑地把它当作自己的现实。

应当理解并注意：一个已经体验到第一点中的无造作者性，甚至非个人性面向的人，未必会体验到第二点的不二。换言之，一个人仍然可以体验到一切都自发地发生，却仍然感觉自己像一个从事情发生中抽离出来的旁观者。某种意义上，身心的一切活动仿佛都是另一个人在做，就像在玩第三人称射击游戏：你仿佛在远处后方看着整个角色，只是在一种解离状态中，你甚至并不“控制”那个被人称作“你”的角色；相反，你只是观察这个被称为“你”的人或身心，按它自己的方式行动、思考、表现，而你只是这个角色或身心自行其是时，一个冷漠而疏离的观察者。有些人体验过这种解离，同时伴随着无造作者性的感觉。

这意味着：造作者感的溶解，并不等于主体与客体二分已经溶解。因此，我们可以把那种主体-客体二元性，或者感知者与被感知者之间的间隔，称为另一层可以在更深洞见中被穿透的“自我”。

主体与客体、感知者与被感知者的二分，可以作为一种经验而消融——这种经验是短暂、转瞬即逝的高峰体验；也可以作为一种证悟而消融，并导向不二经验的稳定。

作为经验，它相当常见，也常被人们描述。它往往在一个人单纯享受音乐、观看日落、欣赏美丽风景等等时自发发生：他们忽然如此投入、如此沉浸于感官经验，以至于完全忘了“自我”。在遗忘自我的当下，他们进入一种似乎不同的意识状态——格外鲜明而强烈的状态；他们不再是从远处“看见”日落，而是那日落本身。他们可能会说：“我与太阳合一了！”“我变成了树！”忽然不再有“我”在“这里面”、与“那边的太阳”分离的感觉；只有灿烂、鲜活、明亮的橙色光芒，在毫无距离中向自身显现——一种作为清澈鲜明觉知的色彩显现，极其鲜活、灿烂、生动。

在描述这样的高峰体验时，Michael Jackson 写道：

“觉知通过创造来表达自身。我们所生活的这个世界，是创造者之舞。舞者在眨眼之间来去，但舞蹈继续存在。许多时候，当我跳舞时，我感到被某种神圣之物触动。在那些时刻，我感到自己的灵性升腾，并与一切存在合而为一。

我成为星辰与月亮。我成为爱人与被爱者。我成为胜利者与被征服者。我成为主人与奴隶。我成为歌者与歌曲。我成为能知与所知。我继续跳舞，于是那便是永恒之舞，或是创造。创造者与创造融为一个充满喜悦的整体。我继续跳舞……一直跳……一直跳。直到只剩下……舞蹈。”

然而，这里所描述的仍然只是一种经验。不二的经验，但还不是证悟。这样的经验会来去。有些人通过危险运动进入“状态”并瞥见不二的喜乐；有些人通过舞蹈，有些人通过某些药物，有些人通过禅修。

但所有这些经验都会来去，直到觉知中发生一种范式转移：一个人忽然证悟到，关于实相或觉知的真相是，从来没有主体与客体的分裂；觉知从一开始事实上就从未被分裂为感知者与被感知者、觉知与其显现；它们从一开始就并非分离。在不二的洞见之后，人将不再倾向于从经验中解离出来，而会以一种无分割、无间隙的方式完全向经验敞开——在毫无距离中，把一切体验为鲜明的觉知。

然而，这种证悟可以分为两类：

a）实体主义或本质主义式的不二

b）非实体主义或非本质主义式的不二

后者，我称为严格意义上的无我证悟。

但先来概述 a）实体主义或本质主义式的不二：

这样的人也许已经证悟到，他们的觉知从未与显现分离，一切显现无非就是觉知本身。然而，把觉知构想为一个实有而不变的本源与现象基底的业习（深层制约）仍然存在——只是现在觉知被看成与其显现不可分，所以一个人把一切都摄归为纯粹觉知的变现。他看见一切现象都只是觉知以各种形式显现自身。然而，他并不把这些形式等同于觉知——这些形式就像在不变的银幕或镜子上显现的流动光影；投影与倒影虽与镜体不可分，并在没有主体与客体二分的情况下显现、流过，但作为底层基底的觉知仍然不变。印度教可以走到这一点。

3）在我所称的“无我证悟”这一意义上的无我

但是还有 b）：一个人证悟到：不只是一切形式都是觉知的变现；事实上，“觉知”或“意识”本身确确实实就只是这一切——换句话说，除了五蕴的光明显现本身——一切所见、所闻、所感、所触、所知、所嗅——并没有另一个“觉知”或“意识”。

无我并不只是一种摆脱人格束缚的经验；更确切地说，它是洞见：在刹那相续的显现之外，根本找不到自我、主宰者、造作者、思考者或观看者等。彻底看清不二本来如此：在不二中本就无勤作；并且一个人证悟到，看时永远只是景色（除了颜色之外，没有看者，甚至没有一个独立的“看”），听时永远只是声音（除了声音之外，从来没有听者，甚至没有一个独立的“听”）。这里非常重要的一点是：无我（Anatta）是法印，是实相在一切时候的本性——并不只是脱离人格、自我或“小我”的某种状态，也不是一个要获得的阶段。这意味着，体验无我并不依赖修行者的成就高低；实相一直都是无我的，关键在于对它作为诸法之本性与特征（法印）的直觉洞见。

为了进一步说明这个法印的重要性，我想借用《婆希耶经》（Bāhiya Sutta）中的一句话（《阿姜阿玛罗论不二与无我》）：

“见时，唯有所见，没有看者”；“闻时，唯有所闻，没有听者”……

如果一个修行者觉得自己已经从“我听见声音”的经验，超越到“成为声音”的阶段，或者认为“只有单纯的声音”，那么这个经验仍然是扭曲的。实际情况是：在听的时候，向来就只有声音；从来没有一个听者。没有获得任何新东西，因为它向来如此。这就是短暂的不二高峰体验（持续数分钟，最多一个小时）与一种使高峰体验成为持久感知模式的永久性“量子跃迁式”转变之间的主要差别。

这是无我的法印，可以在一切时刻被证悟并体验；它不只是一个概念。

总之，在 b）的无我证悟之后，不二便不再只是来去不定的高峰体验；在 a）的实体主义不二中，也会在一定程度上如此。这是因为整个觉知范式、感知之结、概念增益——不断投射“自我”或“主体与客体二分”的活动——在更根本的层面被切断了：我们据以感知世界的妄想框架被瓦解。我个人可以说，自从证悟无我之后，过去九年多以来，我再也没有体验到丝毫主体与客体之间的二元性或主宰感，连最细微的痕迹也没有。那已经永远消失了，对我而言并非只是一种高峰体验。

你在帖子中描述的，是我称为“无造作者性”的东西。是的，那是一种很好的洞见，但前方还有更美妙、真正以非常正面的方式改变生命的洞见，我再怎么推荐也不为过。

在无我证悟成熟之后，在自我与大我的所有面向全部溶解之后，所体验到的世界真是奇妙无比。以下是我在免费指南中对它的描述：

“这是一个没有任何东西能够玷污或损及那份纯净与圆满的世界。在这里，整个宇宙、整个心总是被鲜明地体验为那份纯净与圆满本身，没有任何形式的自我感或感知者，从某个视角、隔着距离去体验世界——没有‘自我’的生命，是一个远离烦恼与痛苦情绪的活生生的天堂；在那里，世界的每一种颜色、声音、气味、味道、触感与细节，皆鲜明呈现为清净觉知的无边场域本身，闪耀着灿烂光辉，色彩丰富、高饱和、高清、明亮，鲜明而强烈，洋溢着惊奇与不可思议的美妙；周遭的景象、声音、香气、感受、气味、念头都被如此清楚地看见和体验，细至最微小的细节，鲜活而自然，不只局限于六根中的一根，而是六根皆如此；世界如童话般的奇境，在每一刻都重新显露它最深的层次，仿佛你是一个初生婴儿，第一次体验生命，崭新而从未见过；生命充满安宁、喜悦与无畏，即使身处生活中看似的混乱与麻烦之中；通过所有感官所体验的一切，远远超过过去曾体验过的任何美，仿佛宇宙像由闪耀的黄金与宝石构成的天堂；它在完全无间隙的直接性中被体验，没有分离；生命与宇宙在体验中呈现出强烈的明澈、清明、鲜活，以及赋予生命力的临在；其中不仅没有中介与分离，也没有中心与边界——如无尽夜空般广阔的无限，在每一刻都得到全然体现；这种无限，无非是辽阔宇宙以空、无距离、无维度而有力的临现；地平线上的群山与星辰，并不比一个人的呼吸更遥远，并且像一个人的心跳一样亲密地照耀出来；即使在普通活动中，宇宙尺度的无限也得到全然体现，因为整个宇宙始终都以每一个普通活动本身的形式参与其中——包括行走、呼吸，乃至一个人的身体本身（没有一丝‘我’或‘我的’痕迹），都同样就是宇宙、就是缘起正在运作；在这无边的一法究尽——整个宇宙——之外，没有任何东西；经由一切知觉之门的净化所体验到的奇妙世界，其纯净与无限持续不断。（‘如果知觉之门被净化，那么每一样事物都会如其所是地向人显现：无限。因为人已经把自己关闭起来，直到他只通过洞穴的狭窄裂缝看见一切事物。’——William Blake）”

无造作者性只是无我的一个面向；它本身并不是无我证悟。（Thusness 第五阶段：“……第五阶段在‘无人’这一点上相当彻底，我会称之为三方面的无我——没有主体与客体的分裂、没有造作者感、没有主宰者……”）一个人可以在 I AM 阶段体验无造作者性；有些人甚至在 I AM 证悟之前就体验到。因此，无造作者性并不等同于无我证悟。

虽然无造作者性这一面向本身并不表示无我证悟，但这并不意味着它不重要。尤其是，当人真正参透并清楚证悟John Tan 的无我第一偈时，就会清楚体验到无造作者性。然而，无我第一偈并不只是无造作者性，正如这里的对话所解释的。无我第一偈同时传达“没有主宰者”与无造作者性，而不只是无造作者性。John Tan 在评论某人的突破时说：“比较偏向第二偈，无造作者性同样重要。”又对另一个人说：“不二，但不能清楚辨别世俗与究竟之间的差异。有没有谈到自然自发性？在无我的两偈中，无造作者性会导向自然自发。目前它谈的是从观察者与被观察者的二分中解脱出来，但尚未证悟第二部分，即‘显现只是空明’。因此，没有这两种洞见作为基础，就不可能有鲜明临在的无勤作。”

我的估计是，当有人说自己已经突破到无我时，在 95% 到 99% 的情况下，他们所指的其实是非个人性或无造作者性，甚至还不是不二，更不用说真正证悟无我（anatman，佛教的无我法印）了。对于那些声称洞见无我的人，我通常会请他们用以下内容来检验自己的经验：“《什么是体验性洞见？》

👍

Yin Ling：

当我们在佛教中说“体验性洞见”时，

它的意思是……

整个身心的能量取向真正发生转变，直透骨髓。

声音必须真的自己听自己。

没有听者。

干净。清楚。

从头部“这里”到“那里”的束缚，一夜之间被切断。

然后逐渐扩展到其余五种感官。

然后才谈得上无我。

所以，对你来说，

声音是否自己听自己？

如果没有，还没到。你必须继续！参究并禅修。

你还没有达到无我与空性等更深洞见的基本洞见要求！

Yin Ling：

Yin Ling：“所谓证悟，是指：

这个洞见深入骨髓，而你不需要哪怕一丁点努力，声音便自己听自己。

这就像你现在以二元感知生活一样，非常平常，不费力。

有无我证悟的人，是毫不费力地活在无我中，不需要用思维来调整方向。那就是他们的生活。

他们甚至无法回到二元感知，因为那只是一种妄加安立；它已经被连根拔起。

最初，你可能需要有意地、稍微用力地调整方向。

后来到了某一点，就不需要了……再往后，梦中也会如此无我。

那就是体验性证悟。

除非达到这个基准，否则就没有证悟！”

……

“Soh：

重要的是有一种体验性证悟，会导向能量向外扩展到一切形相、声音、光辉的宇宙……以至于并不是你在这里、在身体里，向外看着树、从这里听鸟鸣；而只有树木本身，鲜明而光明地自行摇曳，没有观察者。树木自己看见自己。声音自己听自己。体验并不从某个位置出发，也没有观察的立足点。能量向外扩展为鲜明显现，无边无际，但它并不是从一个中心扩展出来，因为根本没有中心。若没有这样的能量转向，就不是真正的无我经验。”——Soh（xabir），https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/2022/12/the-difference-between-experience-of.html

标签：， | ”

还有……“声音自己听自己，景象自己看见自己”等等，

那只是不二，是一种无心状态。这还不是无我（anatman）的证悟。

更重要的是作为法印的无我证悟，它看穿了自性见所执为实有的对象。

正如我之前所写：

“JD 先生，关于你的问题：

并非如此。最近我写给某人：

就在昨天，一个处于 I AM 阶段的人告诉我：‘我很难把前景［显现］看成“觉知”。也许我只是在心里把“觉知”和“背景”等同起来了。’我告诉他，那是因为他对觉知有某种定义，而这个定义正在阻挡他。他对我说：‘所以，忘掉对觉知的定义，只看“前景”那彻底鲜活的呈现。这样就够了，对吗？’我告诉他：‘不，不只是忘掉对觉知的定义。你需要深入观察、质疑并探究它。’我也把早前发给另一个人的一些文字发给他，并说：‘没有背景的经验［作为无心经验］，并不等同于证悟到从来没有一个背景主体、看者，或一个在所见之外或所见背后的“看”。后者必须作为一种证悟生起。所以你需要在直接经验中分析。’

Khamtrul Rinpoche 在大手印文本中论无我证悟：

“此时，观察者——觉知——是否不同于被观察者——静止与运动？还是它实际上就是静止与运动本身？以自身觉知直接观照、探究，你会明白，这个正在探究的觉知本身也无非就是静止与运动。一旦如此，你便会体验到清明的空性，也就是自然光明、自知的觉知。究竟而言，无论我们说本性与光辉、所断与对治、观察者与被观察者、正念与念头、静止与运动等等，你都应知道，每一对名相的两端彼此并无差别；依上师加持，正确确知它们不可分。究竟而言，抵达远离观察者与被观察者的广大开敞界域，就是证悟真实义，也是一切分析的究竟处。这称为‘超越概念之见’，远离概念化，或‘金刚心之见’。”

“果位毗婆舍那，是对观察者与被观察者不二的最终定解之正确证悟。”

Khamtrul Rinpoche 上面所说的不只是单纯经验。它看穿了世俗安立与分析，并证悟了这些安立的空性。

在佛教中，非择灭式的止息，例如无心与三摩地状态，并不能带来解脱。唯有基于智慧的择灭才能解脱；这种智慧能够穿透并看穿错误的自性见，也就是能证悟无我这一法印、缘起与空性的般若智慧。

许多年前，我曾多次拜访芽笼的一所禅中心。其导师是一位非常著名的韩国禅师，在世界各地建立了许多道场，于 2000 年代初圆寂。我发现他的著作很能引起我的共鸣，因为他能够简单而清晰地表达无心状态。我读过他的许多书。他甚至说过类似这样的话：“你的真我没有外面，也没有里面。声音是清明心，清明心就是声音。声音与听并不分离，只有声音。”等等。

然而，后来我沮丧地发现，他虽有无心经验，但知见却是一心知见；也就是说，他并没有生起能穿透自性见的无我（anatman）证悟。因此，尽管他有不二经验，他仍然不能超越“一种实有的一体实体变现为多”的知见，也就是实体化的不二（基于实体或本质知见的不二）。我是在更详细阅读他的知见与著作之后才意识到这一点；我发现一篇文章中，他表达说法性是构成宇宙万物的普遍实体，是一种无形而不变的实体，就像 H2O 可以显现为雨、雪、雾、蒸汽、河流、海洋、雨夹雪与冰，而一切都是同一个普遍而不变实体的不同形式。

在我看来很清楚：他体验到不二与无心，但他上面所说的仍然正是在把一个本体论上的、普遍的、唯一的、不可分割且不变的本源与基底实体化；这个本源与基底是“一而无二者”，显现为多。尽管这个形上学本源与基底被认为与现象不二，但把它视为实有，仍然是在执持自性见。

2018 年我把上述情况告诉 John Tan，他回复说：“对我来说，是的。由于缺乏知见而造成的错误经验。依我看，这是禅宗的问题。无心是一种经验。无我的洞见必须生起，然后进一步厘清自己的知见。”（这是一个普遍趋势，但也有许多禅师具有清楚的知见与深刻证悟。）

另一位美国禅宗作者，我也很喜欢读他的书，觉得很多地方颇有共鸣，因为他能够表达无心的经验，以及我所谓的“摩诃一法究尽”。他写道，佛心就是山河大地、日月星辰。他还说：“在真实修行与开悟的状态中，寒冷杀死你，整个宇宙中只有寒冷。炎热杀死你，整个宇宙中只有炎热。焚香的香气杀死你，整个宇宙中只有焚香的香气。钟声杀死你，整个宇宙中只有‘咚——’……”这是对无心的良好表达。

然而，后来进一步阅读后，我失望地发现，他仍然缺乏对无我（anatman）的证悟，因此虽有无心经验，却还没有超越一心知见。他继续主张：“心的对象在无尽的流动中来来去去，觉知的内容生起又止息——心或觉知是对象来去于其中的不变界域，是觉知内容生起与止息所依的不变维度。”并且虽然他把觉知看成不变，而一切现象都在变化，他仍坚持觉知与现象不二：“简而言之，实相是不二的（非二），因此实相中的一切都是那一个实相本身固有的面向或元素。”

很清楚，尽管他的不二经验已到无心，自性见仍然非常强，而且仍有微细的二元性。知见与经验之间的不协调仍然存在。这是一种真我见：把一个不变、实有的“一实相”视为 Atman（真我），却又说它与一切不二。我可以继续举出无数其他导师与修行者的例子，无论佛教或非佛教，都有这个问题，因为这非常普遍。

这就是为什么无我并不只是无心经验，或不二经验，甚至也不只是证悟主体与客体、感知者与被感知者、听与声音之间没有分隔。许多修行者和导师不幸误以为它就是这样。它应当是一种证悟，能看穿并破除把本源、基底或觉知视为自性实有的知见。它是证悟：唯有鲜明的光明显现本身在知、在运转，从来不存在一个能知的主体或主宰者；就像没有一个“风”作为吹的主宰者，也没有一个“闪电”作为闪的主宰者（两者都只是缘起假立、只是名言），而且也没有任何以任何方式或形式存在的本体论或形上学本质。

所以，在从 I AM 突破到不二之后，关键是要走出“一体实体”知见，并经历无我（anatman）的证悟。即使这也只是开始。

近几周，我博客中有更多人证悟无我（anatman），而我一直在引导他们进入对缘起与空性的更深洞见。然而，若没有对我们的觉知、我们的空明有深刻理解，就无法理解真正的空性与缘起洞见。在他们通过两偈、无我的两个印证，对无我证悟完全清楚之前，我通常不会在缘起与空性上讲得太多，以免让他们太过困惑，因为那是基础。一切皆空于自性，但鲜明、清澈而光辉；一切之所以显现，是因为它全都是明澈的光辉。因此，要有深刻洞见，直接印证自己的光辉与明澈至关重要。无我（anatman）的证悟是关键。

在第一偈中，背景主体、主宰者、观看者、造作者被看穿，一切都是自发生起。在第二偈中，看只是所见；自己的光辉、明澈与临在-觉知，被直接印证为一切显现、为一切山河大地。

两偈同样重要。若缺少把光辉直接印证为一切鲜明显现，缺少对“一切无常即是临在-觉知”这一点的强烈亲证与洞见，那就不是我所称的真正的无我（anatman）证悟。它可能只是概念性理解，或仍然偏向无造作者性，尚未达到不二与无我。然而，即使一个人已将觉知直接印证为鲜明显现，仍然可能落入实体主义式不二；因此必须小心深化洞见，看穿任何残余知见，以及对一个实有而不变的觉知的任何残余感觉。

无我的两个印证，就像我之前所写：

第一偈

有思维，没有思维者

有听，没有听者

有看，没有看者

第二偈

思维时，只有念头

听时，只有声音

看时，只有形相、形状与色彩。

必须体认到，这就是法印。必须生起这样的洞见：“无我”不只是一个阶段，而是法印本身；如此才能进一步进入无勤作模式。换句话说，无我是所有经验的本性，并且一直如此——没有“我”。看时，只有所见；听时，只有声音；思维时，只有念头。无需勤作，而且从来没有一个“我”。

因此，重要的是强调：要把无我作为法印来证悟——看时，只有所见显现，背后并没有一个看者。这并不只是一个阶段，在那里看者感溶入单纯显现；这样的阶段可能发生，却没有般若智慧去穿透并看穿内在参照点这一虚幻建构——也就是对一个实有感知者的观念。体验无心并不特别困难或罕见，然而真正证悟无我则稀有得多——尽管它只是成佛之道的开始。许多人专注于经验，却错失了辨明差异所需的清明。真正证悟无我的修行者与导师并不多见。大多数有不二经验的人，把“见时，唯有所见”理解为一种无心状态，而不是更深刻的证悟：看见自我、感知者、任何独立主宰者、或一个离显现而有的终极觉知、感知作用或感知者的根本空性。事实上，从来就没有一个看者，也没有一个离所见、所感知、所知之外而存在的实有之看或觉知；这一事实必须被直接证悟：它向来如此，而不是一种短暂的经验阶段。”

时候很晚了，这篇帖子已经太长了。明天我会另发一篇，处理你关于无造作者性的一些问题。

发帖者回复：

哦，我的天……

我现在说不出话来。等这些都沉淀一下之后，我会试着好好回复。你的确理解。你也描述了我曾有过的其他体验，或一些瞥见，甚至一些隐约的“猜想”。我非常期待读到你关于无造作者性问题的进一步说明。你不知道我有多感激。或者……也许你其实知道。我已经读了两遍，还会再读。哇。

我想我也应该读你的指南。我刚浏览了一下目录，看起来非常有意思。

非常、非常感谢你！

第二天，我又写了更多：

进一步回复：

在描述了自我与大我，以及无我与无大我的不同面向之后，我会稍微深入谈谈无造作者性与无我的陷阱和误解。

经历无造作者性的人，会在某种程度上体验到自发性与自由感；然而它也常常伴随着大量困惑，而这些困惑只有借助更深的洞见或指点才能澄清。

1）一个可能的陷阱是：一个人可能会对无我与无我之行产生混乱的理解。

我曾在 Facebook 上回复朋友 Din Robinson 时写过以下内容。Thusness 在 2006 年所写的“体验的七阶段”（原为六阶段），就是写给他的：

Din：“只要你采取任何行动，或有任何训练的需要，那么你就是在延续一个存在于时间和空间中的‘你’的神话；倒不是说这有什么错！”

我的回复：

这不对。这就像以下说法一样荒谬：“只要你采取任何行动来保持健康，例如去健身房，那么你就是在延续一个存在于时间和空间中的‘你’的神话。”

或者：

“只要你采取任何行动来通过考试，例如努力学习，那么你就是在延续一个存在于时间和空间中的‘你’的神话。”

或者：

“只要你采取任何行动来生存，例如吃饭和睡觉，那么你就是在延续一个存在于时间和空间中的‘你’的神话。”

或者：

“只要你采取任何行动来治病，例如去看医生，那么你就是在延续一个存在于时间和空间中的‘你’的神话。”

无我（Anatta）不是否定思考、行动、挑水砍柴……这正是真正的无我洞见与二元概念理解之间的关键差异。认为“行动”和“意图”意味着、或必然需要一个“行为主体”，因此若要无我之行，意图与行动也必须停止，这恰恰是在用二元思维理解无我……

行动从不需要一个自我（事实上，从一开始就没有一个离行动而有的自我或造作者：只有对它的妄想），行动也不需要延续自我这一虚构。自我这一虚构并不真正依赖于行动或不行动。当然，从行为主体与行动的二元对立感中生起的行动——那里有一个“我”试图改变或达成“那个”——是一种由无明产生的行动。但并不是所有行动都必然从某种二元感中生起。如果所有行动都源于二元感，那么觉醒之后一个人就会死掉，因为他甚至无法自己吃饭。

当一个人以二元方式理解时，他会认为行动意味着有一个正在行事的自我；并且他认为无我之行意味着自我随着行动的终止而结束。但对无我之行的真正洞见，只是证悟：行动背后从来没有一个真实的行为主体，所以在行动中总是只有那个行动——整个存在就只是行动的一法究尽，而这本来如此，只是未被证悟。那才是真正的无我之行——没有一个主体（行为主体）去执行一个行为（客体）。

此外：自我这一虚构并不依赖于修行或不修行。（哦，但是，“正确修行”与“观照”确实大大有助于解构这一虚构！）自我这一虚构依赖的是无明，唯有智慧能结束那种无明；就像开灯会自然终止孩子在黑暗房间里对怪物的非理性恐惧与想象。

总是只有没有造作者的行动。没有造作者并不否定行动；它否定的是主宰性。而对这一点的证悟，导向对一法究尽，即全然行动的直接、即时体验；在其中，造作者与所作之间的分隔被消融至无，归于一个完整的活动。无我之行没有任何被动的意思。无我之行只是没有自我或大我的行动。凡是不带自我或大我感而做的行动，事实上都是无我之行。没有主体这一端（行为主体），与之相对的客体一端（受作用的一方）也就不再被立为对立的一方。然而很清楚，一法究尽——纯粹行动——仍在继续。

道元称之为修证一如。你并不是“为了”开悟而修行（仿佛开悟是与你分离的未来目标）。你在修行中使无我洞见当下现成，这本身就是修证一如。坐下即是修行，即是现成，即是佛性，即是开悟。拉屎也可以是修行，也是现成，而那个行为本身就是佛性、就是开悟。你只是坐着、听风吹、看风景、走在街上、砍柴挑水（没有任何自我或大我的妄想）；这一修行、现成与行动本身——就是修行—现成—开悟；这就是一法究尽：整个存在只是整个声音、整个风景、整个行动。这是不二修行和不二行动。

2）对无我的误解，会导向一种宿命论和决定论的观念，从而否定或误解因果与缘起。佛法中的无我是基于对缘起的理解。但是缘起不应被误解为宿命论，或误解为“什么都做不了，也无法成办任何事”。

如果一位医生因为证悟到没有自我，就告诉病人：所有疾病都是命中注定或预先决定的，所以人只应被动地顺流而行，看看会发生什么，那就是错误的。当然那很荒谬。疾病应当迅速、积极地处理；但处理疾病，并不是基于虚假的主宰性观念，试图施加控制或强硬意志（疾病不能仅仅靠意志或控制就被消除——其中牵涉太多因缘条件）；而是要看清其缘起，并以无自性的方式从缘起上加以处理。同样，佛陀就像一位大医王，完全辨明我们的疾病以及治愈疾病的方法；正是通过辨明缘起，佛陀教导了四圣谛：苦谛、集谛、灭谛和道谛（即导向苦灭的八正道）。

此外，正如 John Tan（Thusness）多年前所说：

“当无我的洞见偏斜到无造作者性这一面向时，就会生起虚无主义倾向。必须正确理解‘自行发生’。看起来事情似乎什么都不做就会完成，但实际上，事情之所以完成，是因为行动与因缘条件的成熟。

所以，无自性并不意味着不需要做任何事，或什么都不能做。这是一种极端。另一种极端，是认为有一种具有自性的完美控制：凡所欲求，皆可如愿。两者都可看出是错误的。行动 + 因缘条件，导致结果。”

3）你知道佛陀所教的七觉支吗？它们是念、择法、精进、喜、轻安、定、舍。这就是我们应当在修行中培养的内容，也可用来衡量修行处在何处。这些都是应当培养、并导向觉醒与解脱的因素。这意味着，我们的修行应当使我们更喜悦、光辉、明亮、有觉知、安宁、平静、专注、有能量、有更深洞见等等。随着修行，心的这些正面品质自然会日益增长。但如果我们反而变得越来越像僵尸，越来越昏沉、越来越没有动力，那说明方向上有问题，我们应该检视并纠正它。无我成熟之后，一个人会感觉强大的能量流经身体，甚至气色也会自然流露所体验到的喜悦与光明。

我记得许多年前，有人描述某种无我与无造作者性的洞见后，John Tan（Thusness）最先问他的事情之一就是：“炽盛的精进力生起了吗？”并评论说：“建议把无我的洞见带入主动模式。”

因此，知道无我有被动模式与主动模式，是有帮助的。

无造作者性的被动方式，是一个人只是让事情自行发生；但这常常伴随着解离感，因为一个人的洞见层次还没有达到不二层面。即使在无我的不二之后，通常也需要一段时间让洞见与体验成熟，使无我进入全然行动与一法究尽。你还记得我说 Michael Jackson 的例子吗？他一直跳舞，直到一切自我感都被忘却，只剩下“舞蹈本身”。请注意，他并不是结跏趺坐；他是完全投入。做危险运动的人也常常报告进入“状态”，并遗忘自我，进入与自己的行动和环境完全合一的状态；因为任何失误都可能意味着死亡，而在那种全然投入行动的当下，那种高度鲜活感与自我感消融的状态，也正是从事这类活动的吸引力本身。可惜，所有这些都只是短暂的高峰体验，因为他们尚未证悟无我。要达到这种高峰体验，并不需要从事非凡壮举；无我的证悟会把日常生活中普通而平凡的活动，转化为佛性与一法究尽的奇妙活动。

然而，上面描述的这些人，并不只是体验一种“无造作者性的被动经验”——他们的自我感却完全溶解了。区别在哪里？他们并不只是“被动地看着事情自行展开”。他们绝不是像某种解离的观看者那样，只从后方冷漠而被动地看着事情漂过……他们完全专注、完全进入“状态”，整个存在——也就是整个身心——连同行动中的意图，都完全投入其中，直到行为主体与行动、造作者与所作、观察者与被观察者之间的间隙被消融至无，融入那活动本身。这就像主体与客体二分的溶解，不只发生在被动地体验没有听者的声音、没有看者的景象时，也发生在完全投入行动、而没有一个分离的行为主体的当下。这才是真正的无我之行；它并非字面意义上的被动不动，而是不二行动、没有自我感的行动，或者说，一个人的整个存在就是行动。它是在没有自我感中全然投入行动，不仅没有造作者感，也没有成为一个被动观看者的感觉。

如我之前所说，一旦无我的证悟生起，不二就成为自然状态，人也会证悟到它本来如此。洞见初生起时，一个人可能仍倾向于在一种被动状态中体验不二——只是放松，让感官经验和事件在不二状态中生起，在一种被动状态中体验无我；比如只是欣赏风景，直到在风景、声音、感受、香气等的鲜明灿烂或光明中完全忘却自我。此时一切毫不费力、自然而然，也没有进入或退出可言——因为一个人证悟到：看时，看本身就只是颜色，并无看者；听时，听本身就只是声音，并无听者。

然而，对无我的成熟洞见，也让我们能够完全且无间隙地投入行动，直到一切自我感在那活动中溶解。禅宗十牛图的最后阶段叫“入廛垂手”。全然行动、无我之行与不二行动的经验，基本上有点像上面所说的“进入状态”；但关键在于证悟这一点，并使之在一切活动中自然体现，而这只有在证悟无我之后才可能。证悟无我之后（而不只是无造作者性之后），完全投入活动，直到不留自我痕迹，使你的真性完全体现为那活动本身，是非常自然且毫不费力的。这在禅宗中被高度强调；但即使是基本的上座部教法，如果理解得好，也能把你带到那里——https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/2012/10/total-exertion_20.html——我在其中讨论了与一位禅师的对话，你可能会感兴趣。

这种不二行动最终会成熟为一法究尽；这一点在某些教法中被强调，例如曹洞禅与道元禅师。一法究尽就像：你在吃饭时，整个宇宙在吃饭。你行走时，整个天空与群山与你同走。在这一点上，每一个平凡经验和活动中，你都体验到宇宙的无限正作为那一活动本身而全然展现。

Thusness：“［一法究尽］是在证悟全无间隙的相互依存之后，修行者感到宇宙正在尽其所能使这一刻成为可能。读道元关于划船的那段。”

道元：“生就像乘船。你扬起帆，用桨划船，并掌舵。虽然是你在划，但船载着你；没有船，你就无法乘坐。但你乘在船中，而你的乘坐使船成为船……当你乘船时，你的身心与周遭环境，共同成为船的不可分割的活动。整个大地与整个天空，都是船的不可分割的活动。”

“去时无边虚空同去，来时整个大地同来。这是平常心。”

现在，如果你让洞见成熟到真正的无我之行与一法究尽的程度，你就不会落入解离、被动和昏沉的状态。相反，一个人会真正把生命活到最充分——在生命的各个领域中都完全鲜活、完全投入，却又不执著。

从你的帖子来看，我的印象是：你正在体验无造作者性，但伴随着某种解离感，以及一些困惑。但如果你按照 AtR 指南在洞见与修行上进步，或者找到一位好的禅师（尤其在曹洞禅或道元传承中有许多好老师）能够引导你进入一法究尽，你的问题就会解决。你会亲身体验我在这个帖子中所说的一切。

正如 John Tan（Thusness）以前所说：

“当无我成熟时，一个人会完全、彻底地融入任何生起之物，直到不留差别与分隔。

当声音生起时，完全而彻底地与声音相拥，却不执著。同样，在生活中，我们必须完全投入，却不执著。”——John Tan（Thusness）

“其实并不需要刻意用力。我告诉过你，I AMness（“我是”感）中的四个面向，在无我中都得到充分表达。如果活力无处不在，人又如何不投入呢……在各种领域中探索、并在商业、家庭、灵性修行中享受，是一种自然［倾向］……我参与金融、商业、社会、自然、灵性、瑜伽……🤣🤣🤣。我并不觉得其中有什么刻意用力……你只是不必炫耀这个那个，只要不二、敞开就好。”——John Tan（Thusness），2019

“昨天刚见到一位朋友，他最近开始禅修。他的女朋友开玩笑说他可能要出家了。我告诉他，除了每天静坐禅修之外（即使在无我（anatman）证悟之后也非常重要，更不用说之前了——https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/2018/12/how-silent-meditation-helped-me-with.html），修行很大程度上就在日常生活与实际参与中进行，而不是在山中某个偏远地区；它意味着活在市井中，自然而然地利益自己与周围的人，活得喜悦而非痛苦；这样的生活是完全投入而自在的。

禅师 Bernie Glassman 说：

“在最深、最基本的层面上，禅——或任何灵性道路——远不只是一张列出我们能从中得到什么的清单。事实上，禅是证悟生命在所有面向上的一体性。它不只是生命中纯净或‘灵性’的部分：它是整个生命。它是花、山、河流、溪水，也包括市中心城区和第四十二街上的无家可归儿童。它是空旷的天空、多云的天空，也同样是烟雾弥漫的天空。它是鸽子在空中飞，是鸽子在空中拉屎，也是你走过人行道上的鸽粪。它是花园里生长的玫瑰，是客厅花瓶中闪耀的切花玫瑰，是我们丢弃玫瑰的垃圾堆，也是我们用来堆放垃圾的堆肥处。禅就是生命——我们的生命。这就是证悟到：一切事物无非是我的表达。而我自己，无非是一切事物的完整表达。这是一种没有界限的生命。对这样一种生命，有许多不同隐喻。但我发现最有用、也最有意义的一个，来自厨房。禅师把一种活得完全、彻底、毫无保留的生命，称为‘至上之餐’。而一个活出这种生命的人——一个懂得如何筹划、烹调、品味、端上并供养生命这顿至上之餐的人，被称为典座。”

“可是像您这样一位德高望重的长老，为什么把时间浪费在典座的辛苦工作上呢？”道元坚持问道。“为什么不把时间用在坐禅或研读祖师语录上？”那位典座大笑起来，仿佛道元说了什么很好笑的话。“我亲爱的外国朋友，”他说，“很明显你还不了解禅修究竟是什么。有机会的时候，请来我的寺院拜访我，这样我们可以更充分地讨论这些事。”说完，他收起蘑菇，踏上返回寺院的漫长路程。后来道元确实前往寺院拜访这位典座并随其参学，也跟随许多其他大师学习。最终回到日本后，道元成为著名禅师。但他从未忘记在中国从那位典座那里学到的教导。”

——禅师 Bernie Glassman——Soh，2019

“在禅中，开悟意味着完全融入活动。若缺少这样的洞见，就不是‘禅中的开悟’。”——John Tan，2010

“日用事无别，唯吾自偶谐。
头头非取舍，处处没张乖。
朱紫谁为号，丘山绝点埃。
神通并妙用，运水与搬柴。”——庞居士

［译注：此偈直接恢复中文来源原文，仅将繁体字转为简体，并非依据英文译文回译。参见中台禅寺《中台山月刊》第256期〈庞蕴居士〉。］

一句古老禅语说：“开悟前，砍柴挑水。开悟后，砍柴挑水。”

另见：我在 2012 年与一位禅师的对话《一法究尽》：https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/2012/10/total-exertion_20.html

“你说得很好。我想起刚和 Thusness 讨论 Tony Parsons 的一本新书《This Freedom》。

我问 Thusness 自由是什么。自由不是做自己喜欢的事，那仍然是我见。它也不只是简单地不受主体与客体、生命与死亡这些二元划分的束缚。

证悟无我与空性，会舍离自我与实体化的建构；因此，人为边界和障碍也随之溶解。

当人为建构消解时，自然、本初、无染也会在每一次参与中自发显现。若不是这样，人就仍有执著于某种不二的究竟境界、淹没在死水中的危险。因此，理解不受二元框架束缚的不二，与让不二证悟体现为充满能量与慈悲的自发行动，两者之间是有差异的。

因此，正如 Thusness 向我指出的，必须证悟到：自由不只是不执著，也是充满生命与力量的无边表达。

所以，不仅要清楚看见不执著之道，也必须直接感受并活出无边慈悲与强大的精进力（viriya）之道。不被人为建构与二元性所阻滞，行动自然且自发；没有自我，就没有犹豫与障碍。

如果一个人只把自由看成不执著，那么他就错过了无我体验性洞见中极大的一部分，也不会理解为什么 Mipham 如此坚持谈论佛陀的正面功德，却又不落入他空见。

例如，当 Thusness 问我恐惧是什么时，我的回答主要与心理层面的因素及执著有关。然而 Thusness 要我看见的是：克服恐惧，不仅靠不执著，也靠对无边生命与能量的感受。

顺便问一句，你有做瑜伽或任何形式的能量练习吗？”——Soh，2016

“而当一个人有这种体验时，他会显得光辉明亮。意思是，当你看见他时，你会发现他有一种明亮的光辉，明白吗？因为一旦一个人体验不二，就没有抓持，只有光明。只有对存在、清明与一切事物的纯粹感受。不知怎的，有一种至极的喜悦与能量从各处流出，支撑一个人。这就是它的本性。”——John Tan，2007，https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/p/normal-0-false-false-false-en-sg-zh-cn.html

我记得许多年前，有人描述某种无我与无造作者性的洞见后，John Tan（Thusness）最先问他的事情之一就是：“炽盛的精进力生起了吗？”并评论说：“建议把无我的洞见带入主动模式。”

2025 年更新：

考虑到本文所回应的那个人的具体处境，我刻意没有详述最初无我突破之后更进一步的洞见。在那一阶段提供更多信息，会使一个尚处在修行起步阶段的人难以承受。

然而，我想强调：上文所描述的洞见，即使是在真正证悟无我（anatman）之后，也仍然只是开始。随着时间推移，进一步的洞见会自然展开。为了进一步说明，我将引用 John Tan 分享的一些想法：

“无我使人能够认出显现即是自己的光辉。但如果没有认出缘起，那仍然不是严格意义上的无我。

所以，一个人可以在这一面向上证悟无我：主宰性只是一个世俗建构，在“经验者在经验”“听者在听声音”或“看者在看风景”……等等之中并不存在；但他仍可能没有证悟缘起及其意涵，反过来也一样。

所以，无我，

缘起与空性，

然后两者，

然后是缘起，以及名言施设与因果效用之间的关系，

然后是缘起与自然临在，

以及自然圆成。

这些都必须清楚。”

“它［Soh：对某些无我面向的初步突破，但还不是佛陀所教导的究竟无我智慧］也可以是将无我归结为一元论。

也可以是无我与无自性，却没有洞见缘起远离八边。”

Soh 关于相关的“八不”与“八不中道”：

原文出自星云大师《佛光教科书》第二册《佛教的真理》第十七课〈中道〉：

［译注：以下引文直接采用星云大师中文原文，仅将繁体字转为简体，并省略原网页的脚注序号；并非依据英文译文回译。］

所谓「八不」，即：不生、不灭、不常、不断、不一、不异、不来、不出。八不，主要在破众生的自性执，也就是说，缘起的诸法，其当体性空、不可得，但是凡夫、外道及有所得的行者不能体认一切法空，总执有实在性的法，从常识上的实在，到形而上的实在，不能超脱自性妄见。

此自性见，在时间上，即有常见、断见；在空间上，则有一见、异见；在时空的运动上，则有「去、来执」；在法的当体上，则有「生、灭执」。此生灭等八计是众生迷失的根本，和离一切妄见戏论不可得的中道不相应，于是龙树菩萨开立「八不」，以破除一切有所得的迷执，而彰显无所得的中道。因此，古人说：「八不妙理之风，拂妄想戏论之尘；无得正观之月，浮一实中道之水。」

另见：《灵魂暗夜、人格解体、解离与现实感丧失》

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Samādhi of the Treasury of Luminosity (Kōmyōzō Zanmai)

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Sōtō Zen · Received colophon dated 1278

Kōmyōzō Zanmai

Samādhi of the Treasury of Luminosity · Received T2590 attribution: Kōun Ejō (孤雲懷奘)

Original Japanese / Sino-Japanese text (CBETA electronic files): XML file 1 · XML file 2 · XML file 3

About Kōun Ejō and Dōgen

Kōun Ejō (孤雲懷奘, 1198–1280) was one of the central figures in the first generation of Japanese Sōtō Zen and Dōgen’s leading disciple and eventual successor. According to the ancient biographical traditions surveyed in recent Sōtō scholarship, Ejō is believed to have been born in the capital—present-day Kyoto—in 1198 and to have belonged to the Fujiwara clan. The early ordination chronology is not completely uniform: the Denkōroku says that he had his head shaved at eighteen, while other old records place his reception of the bodhisattva precepts at Enryakuji on Mount Hiei in 1218, when he was twenty-one. After leaving Mount Hiei he studied Pure Land Buddhism and then Zen in the Daruma-school milieu under Kakuan at Tōnomine. After Eihei Dōgen (1200–1253) returned from China in 1227, Ejō went to Kenninji and engaged him in doctrinal questioning. He joined Dōgen’s community at Kōshōji in 1234, received precepts from him in 1235, and served as Kōshōji’s first shuso (head monk) in 1236.

Ejō became Dōgen’s close attendant and recorder. During the mid-1230s he recorded Dōgen’s informal talks at Kōshōji; those records form the basis of the Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki, whose surviving form SOTOZEN.COM notes was probably edited by Ejō’s disciples after his death. Official Sōtō materials give slightly different spans for the recording activity, so this panel does not force a narrower year range. After Dōgen’s death in 1253, Ejō succeeded him as the second abbot of Eiheiji. In 1267 he retired from the abbacy and named Tettsū Gikai as his successor; after Gikai stepped down five years later amid conflict in the assembly, Ejō became abbot again. The line Dōgen → Ejō → Tettsū Gikai → Keizan Jōkin became the principal transmission through which Dōgen’s lineage continued into later Sōtō generations.

Dōgen → Ejō → Tettsū Gikai → Keizan Jōkin

The received T2590 text attributes Kōmyōzō Zanmai to Ejō and preserves a colophon dated the twenty-eighth day of the eighth month of Kōan 1 (1278), two years before his death. The attribution is longstanding and continues to appear in Sōtō institutional publications and library catalogues, but it has also been seriously challenged in modern source-critical scholarship. Kiyotaka Kimura’s 2002 study concludes that the work is not by Ejō and hypothesizes a later Sōtō monastic author between Keizan and Menzan; Ryōbun Hirose’s 2025 research explicitly revisits the authenticity problem. This page therefore follows the controlling T2590 witness for attribution and translation while treating 1278 specifically as the date preserved by the received colophon, not as independent proof that Ejō wrote the work. A recent scholarly biography published by the Sōtō Zen Buddhism International Center also notes an important naming point: the ancient biographies it surveys call him simply Ejō; Kōun, although standard in modern Sōtō usage and retained on this page, appears only in relatively recent biographies from the Edo period onward.

Research and further reading: Sōtō Zen Journal: Biography of Ejō, Part 1 · Part 2 · Sōtō Zen history · CiNii bibliographic record for Kōmyōzō Zanmai · Kimura’s 2002 authorship study · 2025 study on the authenticity question

Context note. This biographical panel is editorial background added for readers; it is not part of the translated T2590 text below.

Preface to the Recut Edition of Kōmyōzō Zanmai

This book, Kōmyōzō Zanmai, is a ray from the white curl between the brows of our Ancestor Ejō. The Ancestor used it to illuminate and break through; those who come after use it to turn the light back and illuminate themselves. The World-Honored One’s teaching throughout the five periods and the Founding Ancestor’s instructions throughout his lifetime—could they have had any other purpose?

About a hundred years ago, in an autumn commemorating half a millennium since Ancestor Ejō’s death, the elder Menzan, together with Genryō of Eikeiji, joined their efforts to carve printing blocks and make this work public. Then the dark chamber of beginningless time suddenly opened and the luminosity of Dharma-nature shone again. But many years passed, the original blocks wore away, and copies of the book became rare. For years I anxiously sought one and could not find it.

Historical-textual note. T2590 reads 在祖半千諱景之秋. Here 諱景 is memorial/death-anniversary language, although it is not the more specific 遠忌 wording used a few lines later for the 1878 six-hundredth grand memorial. The received preface contains a chronological tension: the 1766 publication colophons below precede Ejō’s formal five-hundredth memorial, which Komazawa University Museum’s chronology places in An’ei 8 (1779). The body therefore preserves the commemorative force of 諱景 without identifying the 1766 recut with that independently attested formal 1779 observance.

Textual note. Before 面山 (Menzan), T2590 reads 命福老人. Menzan Zuihō is independently documented under the sobriquet 永福老人 (Eifuku Rōjin). Because the controlling witness has 命 rather than 永, the body preserves only the secure title “elder” and does not silently normalize or romanize the uncertain epithet.

In the autumn of Meiji 11, on the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, it happened to coincide with the Ancestor’s six-hundredth grand memorial observance. My Dharma brother Kōan, formerly of Buttokuji, brought this book, making a special journey up the mountain. I swept my room, burned incense, and received it with great joy. This was more than finding a ring in a neighbor’s grounds and seeing the pearls return to Hepu: it was a great blessing for the Ancestor’s descendants, and a great luminosity in this degenerate age. I therefore sent it to the former west-hall elder Teizan and arranged to have it recut. The carving is now complete.

Historical note. T2590 itself dates this observance to Meiji 11 (1878) and calls it the Ancestor’s 六百遠忌 (“six-hundredth grand memorial”). Ejō’s death is traditionally dated to Kōan 3 (1280), but independent historical research likewise records Eiheiji holding Ejō’s six-hundredth grand memorial in September 1878. The English therefore preserves the historical observance-name found in the source rather than recalculating it from the standard biographical death date.

Textual note. At 得環隣揃, the direct Taishō/SAT wording is unusual. It appears to compress the classical Yang Hu ring-recovery allusion; the English therefore renders only the secure allusive sense and does not emend the local text.

Alas! If the tens of thousands of distant descendants in our latter branches know only how to dwell in the residual light left by the Ancestor, yet never turn the illumination back upon themselves, who knows whether the Ancestor’s luminosity may not finally fall to the ground? Can we fail to take warning?

An auspicious day in the sixth month of Meiji 12 (1879)
Eiheiji, sixty-first generation — the unworthy Mitsuun, respectfully prefacing

Preface to Kōmyōzō Zanmai

The Buddha said that the luminosity of wisdom is like the shining of the sun: it is the illuminating contemplation of prajñā, what is meant by “clearly seeing that the five aggregates are all empty.” In the Zen school this is called “turning the light around and shining back.” The whole lifetime of the Founding Ancestor Eihei’s teaching never departed from this. Ancestor Ejō inherited it and set forth this fascicle; one may indeed say that the son followed the father.

In my prime, I was reading through the canon at Sannōrin in Fusa. An elder practitioner named Tōkai from Kōzuke entrusted this fascicle to me, saying that he himself had obtained it twenty years earlier at the ancestral mountain in Echizen. I accepted and treasured it with great joy.

Historical-geographical note. T2590 reads 總之山王林, literally “Sannōrin in Fusa.” Modern scholarship identifies this Sannōrin with Tōshōji in Shimōsa; historical-geographical records place Tōshōji’s Sannōyama village in Shimōsa Province. The body therefore retains the source’s compact Fusa rather than expanding it to the broader modern label “Sōshū,” which can denote Kazusa and Shimōsa collectively.

I find in Zen Master Keizan’s words: “Zazen is the Dharma gate of ease and joy, the wondrous Dharma of great liberation; the mind-seal of transmitting mind to mind for each person, the standard of receiving Dharma through Dharma for each person. There is no distinction between wise and foolish, no separation between ordinary and sage. All abide in the samādhi of self-enjoyment and together realize and enter the Samādhi of the Treasury of Luminosity. It is originally apart from the operations of mind, thought, and consciousness and is never measured by thinking, imagining, or contemplation. Have you recognized it yet?” After a long pause he said, “It appears through nonthinking; it is accomplished without intermingling.” Keizan may truly be said to have inherited it directly and exactly, without changing a hair’s breadth.

The ancient temple Eikeiji on Great Dragon Mountain in Bungo was founded by Ancestor Ejō in the Hōji era. Its present abbot, Genryō, whose sobriquet is written 大津 in the source, gave up money intended for robes in order to have this text engraved. I rejoice in his deed and add the following verse of praise as my preface:

When the season ripens, the wondrous teaching is encountered;
beyond measureless kalpas, an excellent affinity.
A golden-winged garuḍa is hard to bind with a golden snare-line;
even a jade horse is urged on with a white-jade whip.
The sound of wind striking bamboo clears the morning mist;
water holding the moon’s reflection brightens the autumn sky.
The Samādhi of Luminosity stands openly revealed,
shining throughout the three-thousandfold Sahā world.

— Menzan Zuihō
Twenty-third day of the eighth month, Meiwa 3 (1766)
The eighty-four-year-old Menzan, distant descendant in the twenty-eighth generation, respectfully inscribed this

Kōmyōzō Zanmai — Samādhi of the Treasury of Luminosity

Recorded by Ejō

Within the Shōbōgenzō there is a fascicle entitled “Luminosity.” I now present this further piece solely to enable thorough realization that the face of the Buddha family is the Samādhi of the Treasury of Luminosity. It is the hidden practice and secret functioning by which those long in training, who have entered the Master’s room, engage in their own practice and guide others.

What is called the Treasury of Luminosity is the source of all buddhas, what sentient beings inherently possess, and the totality of the myriad dharmas: the great Treasury of Luminosity of the spiritual power of complete awakening. The three bodies, the four wisdoms, and the samādhis of the universal gate, countless as dust motes, all manifest from within it.

Dīpaṃkara Buddha and the Light of the Sūtras

“Dīpaṃkara Tathāgata’s great radiance is supreme among all auspicious things. That Buddha once entered this palace; therefore this place is most auspicious.”

— Avataṃsaka Sūtra, fascicle 16, “Ascending the Summit of Mount Sumeru”

The great luminosity of Dīpaṃkara Buddha pervades the Dharma-realm. Because within it there is no difference between ordinary and sage, “that Buddha once entered this palace.” To hear “Thus” once and take it up is itself to enter this palace. And because “this place is most auspicious,” when Śākyamuni Tathāgata received the prediction of buddhahood from Dīpaṃkara Buddha, he said that there was nothing attained. Precisely because there was nothing attained, he received Dīpaṃkara’s prediction. This is because one seamless field of luminosity spans ancient and present. If there were even the slightest thing attained, it would already be split in two.

Textual note. T2590 reads 如是一聞ノ承當. The wording makes 如是 (“Thus”) explicit and, in this sūtra-quotation context, likely plays on the conventional opening 如是我聞 (“Thus have I heard”). The body therefore keeps the locally present “Thus” visible without silently expanding T2590 to the full canonical formula.

At that time the Bhagavān addressed Vajrapāṇi, saying: “The mind of bodhi is the cause; great compassion is the root; skillful means are the culmination. Lord of Mysteries, what is bodhi? It is to know one’s own mind as it really is. Lord of Mysteries, this is unsurpassed complete awakening. In that Dharma not even the slightest portion can be obtained. Why? Because bodhi has the characteristic of empty space. There is no one who comprehends it, nor is there any understanding of it. Why? Because bodhi is without characteristics. Lord of Mysteries, the dharmas are without characteristics: this is the characteristic of empty space.”

— Mahāvairocana Sūtra, chapter 1, “The Stations of the Mind When Entering the Mantra Gateway”

“Lord of Mysteries, in the practice of the Great Vehicle one gives rise to the mind of the vehicle without any object [of cognition] and comprehends the selflessness of phenomena. Why? Like those who practiced in this way in former times, one contemplates the ālaya—the abode of the aggregates—knowing its own nature to be like an illusion, a mirage, a reflection, an echo, a whirling wheel of fire, or a gandharva city. Lord of Mysteries, having thus relinquished the notion of no-self, with the mind-lord free, one awakens to one’s own mind as fundamentally unborn. Why? Lord of Mysteries, because the mind’s former and latter limits cannot be obtained. By thus knowing the nature of one’s own mind, this is the yogic practice of transcending the second eon.”

— Mahāvairocana Sūtra, chapter 1, “The Stations of the Mind When Entering the Mantra Gateway”

“Former and latter limits cannot be obtained” means that one’s own mind is fundamentally unborn. Such is Vairocana’s great wisdom-luminosity.

“The Buddha-body universally emits great radiance;
its forms are boundless, utterly pure.
Like clouds it fills every land;
everywhere the Buddha’s virtues are proclaimed.
All whom the radiance illumines rejoice;
all the suffering of sentient beings is entirely extinguished.
Each is caused to arouse reverence and a mind of loving-kindness:
this is the Tathāgata’s sovereign functioning.”

— Avataṃsaka Sūtra, fascicle 11

“At that time the radiance passed beyond a hundred thousand worlds and universally illumined a million worlds in the east. South, west, north, the four intermediate directions, above and below were likewise. In each of those worlds were a hundred koṭis of Jambudvīpas, and so on up to a hundred koṭis of Akaniṣṭha heavens; everything within them became clearly manifest. … Then Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva, in every place and before each Buddha, simultaneously raised his voice and spoke this verse:

‘The Tathāgata is supremely sovereign,
transcending the world, relying on nothing.
Possessing every virtue,
liberated from all that exists,
undefiled and unattached,
without thought and without reliance,
his essential nature cannot be measured;
all who behold him praise him.
Luminosity pervades, entirely pure;
all dusty defilements are cleansed away.
Unmoving, apart from the two extremes—
this is the Tathāgata’s wisdom.’”

— Avataṃsaka Sūtra, chapter 9, “Awakening through Luminosity”

Thus the Tathāgata’s wisdom is luminosity: the samādhi of the luminosity of unmoving wisdom that casts off the two extremes of ordinary and sage, ultimate and conventional. It is the luminosity of the non-discriminating wisdom of Great Wisdom Mañjuśrī. It manifests in just sitting, without contrivance. Hence Vairocana tells the Lord of Mysteries, “In the practice of the Great Vehicle one gives rise to the mind of the vehicle without any object [of cognition] and comprehends the selflessness of phenomena.” The Third Ancestor says, “Do not seek the true; only cease holding views.” Know clearly, therefore, that within the Treasury of Luminosity of this vehicle without any object [of cognition] there is neither selfhood nor any view. The terms “self” and “view” are merely other names for spirit heads and demon faces. From the initial self-view all the way through views of Buddha and Dharma, establish none of them. There is only this luminosity. Listen carefully: prajñāpāramitā is like a great mass of fire.

“At that time the Buddha emitted from the white curl between his brows a ray that illumined eighteen thousand worlds to the east, pervading them all, downward to the Avīci hell and upward to the Akaniṣṭha heaven.”

— Lotus Sūtra

Therefore this luminous sign is the supremely rare numinous radiance accomplished by a Buddha. In answer to Maitreya’s question, the great being Mañjuśrī says: “This original luminous sign appeared in the past when Sun-Moon-Lamp Buddha, while teaching a Great Vehicle scripture, entered the Samādhi of the Abode of Immeasurable Meanings. Now Śākyamuni Buddha is about to teach the Wondrous Dharma Lotus—the Dharma that instructs bodhisattvas and is protected and kept in mind by buddhas.” Know, therefore, that this luminosity fulfills immeasurable meanings: a great universal illumination with no second or third.

Mañjuśrī at that time was Bodhisattva Wondrous Light. He became the teacher of Sun-Moon-Lamp Buddha’s eight sons and established them firmly in the unsurpassed Way; the last to become Buddha was named Dīpaṃkara. Know from this that the zazen of our gate is precisely the Samādhi of the Treasury of Luminosity directly transmitted from Dīpaṃkara to Śākyamuni. What further meaning could there be? It is the luminosity in which ordinary and sage are not two, the One Vehicle of present and past. It does not issue from within and it does not enter from without. Why needlessly become discouraged over distinctions of high and low, intimate and distant? It cannot be grasped and cannot be cast away. Why suffer under discriminative feelings of grasping and rejecting, hatred and attachment?

Not only that. In the “Peaceful Practices” chapter, the Buddha tells Mañjuśrī:

“If a bodhisattva mahāsattva dwells on the ground of patience, gentle, harmonious, and compliant, neither rash nor violent, with mind also unafraid; and further, with regard to dharmas, engages in nothing, yet contemplates all dharmas according to their true characteristic—neither acting upon them nor discriminating.”

— Lotus Sūtra, “Peaceful Practices”

This is just sitting; this is just walking meditation. In neither acting upon them nor discriminating, one proceeds in accord with the great luminosity.

The same chapter says in verse:

“Rather than making inverted discriminations—saying that dharmas exist or do not exist, are real or unreal, arise or do not arise—dwell in a secluded place, gather and regulate the mind, and abide stable and unmoving like Mount Sumeru. Contemplate all dharmas as being without substance, like empty space, without solidity: not arising, not emerging, unmoving, not retreating, constantly abiding in a single characteristic. This is called the place of approach.”

— Lotus Sūtra, “Peaceful Practices”

This is a direct indication of “straightforwardly abandon expedient means and preach only the unsurpassed Way.”

Bodhidharma, Yunmen, and the Luminosity of the Whole Body

In China, when Emperor Wu of Liang asked Bodhidharma about the ultimate meaning of the holy truths, Bodhidharma said, “Vast emptiness—nothing holy.” This is the great mass of fire of luminosity in ancestral Zen, transparent in every direction, with not a single thing. Outside luminosity there is no separate practice and no different Dharma—how much less cognition and its object. How could there be practice and realization, antidotal treatment, or contrivance? The emperor asked, “Who is facing me?” Bodhidharma replied, “I don’t know.” It is nothing but one seamless expanse of luminosity. Later Xuedou praised this exchange: “The holy truth—vast emptiness; how could one discern the point? ‘Who faces me?’ Again he says, ‘I don’t know.’” If you penetrate this encounter and drop away, your whole body is luminosity; the whole world is luminosity.

The thirty-ninth generation from the World-Honored One, Great Master Kuangzhen of Mount Yunmen, ascended the hall and instructed the assembly:

“Everyone has luminosity. When you look for it, you do not see it: all is dark and murky. What is everyone’s luminosity?” No one answered. Yunmen himself answered on their behalf: “The monks’ hall, the Buddha hall, the kitchen and storehouse, the mountain gate.”

— Yunmen

When Yunmen says that everyone has luminosity, he does not say that it will appear later, nor that it existed only in the past, nor that it manifests before an onlooker. He says: everyone has luminosity. This is the precise import of great wisdom-luminosity. Hear and uphold it in your skin, flesh, bones, and marrow; rejoice and put it into practice. Luminosity is each and every person; Śākyamuni and Maitreya are servants of that one. “It does not increase in buddhas or decrease in sentient beings” is precisely this numinous luminosity. Therefore it is whole-being. The great earth is one mass of fire.

Yunmen asked, “What is everyone’s luminosity?” The assembly had no answer. Even if there were hundreds and thousands of ways to express it, there would still be no answer. Yunmen answered for them: “The monks’ hall, the Buddha hall, the kitchen and storehouse, the mountain gate.” His answering for them answers for every person, for luminosity, for the darkness, and for the assembly’s silence. It is the Samādhi of the Treasury of Luminosity in which luminosity opens forth.

Therefore it does not inquire whether one is a sentient being or a buddha and does not discriminate between sentient and insentient. Luminosity has long shone everywhere; it has no beginning and no location. Therefore it is dark and murky. It is the “How?” It is walking in the night. For countless koṭis of kalpas, it is inconceivable.

Textual note. 作麼生 is a Chan interrogative expression (“how?” / “what?”), but T2590 here has the predicative form 作麼生ナリ, placed between 暗昏昏ナリ and 夜裡行ナリ. “It is the ‘How?’” preserves both the interrogative expression and Ejō’s parallel predication.

A monk once began asking Yunmen, “Luminosity, quiescently illuminating, pervades worlds as countless as the sands of the Ganges…” Before he had finished, Yunmen abruptly asked, “Isn’t that a saying of the scholar Zhang Zhuo?” The monk said yes. Yunmen said, “You have fallen into words.” Homage to the ancient Buddha Yunmen! His eyes shoot like meteors, his functioning flashes like lightning. The monk had no word. Who would not know shame at that point?

Xuefeng told the assembly, “The buddhas of the three times turn the great Dharma wheel within flames.” Yunmen said, “The flames preach the Dharma for the buddhas of the three times; the buddhas of the three times stand there and listen.” Thus the luminosity of the flames is the bodhimaṇḍa of the buddhas of the three times and the teacher of all buddhas. Therefore all tathāgatas abide in the fundamental bodhimaṇḍa of the Great Light of Quiescent Extinction and ceaselessly preach Dharma amid the myriad forms. Value what you hear, but do not disparage what you see. This mass of flame is neither before nor after; it is nothing but total manifestation through and through.

Yet people generate discrimination for themselves and belittle and confine themselves: “From the beginning I am an obscure sentient being, an ignorant ordinary person.” This slandering of the Tathāgata’s wheel of true Dharma is in truth karma leading to Avīci hell. Xuefeng’s words and Yunmen’s “flames preach the Dharma” directly abandon expedients and proclaim only the unsurpassed Way; they raise up the teaching of the Buddha’s whole lifetime. Xuefeng’s very words have already been burned away in these flames. Do you intend to escape them? Reciting sūtras and bowing, lifting a foot and setting it down—each and every one is the great functioning of luminosity manifesting before you. Why study it as though it depended on someone else’s beneficent power?

Some fail to know this profound intent and exhaust themselves trying to quiet thoughts. Others, doubting that it can really be so, make their livelihood in a ghost cave. Some are like people entering the sea to count grains of sand; some like mosquitoes and gadflies trying to pierce a paper window. Leave aside “falling into words.” Great worthies, what is it? Though there is no time to waste washing a clod of earth in mud, practitioners of Zen, when posing a question, should first know the saying they are taking up. It already says “quiescently illuminating” and “pervades worlds as countless as the sands of the Ganges.” How could these be merely Zhang Zhuo’s words? How could they be merely the World-Honored One’s? How could they be yours? Ultimately, whose words are they? Monks’ hall, Buddha hall, kitchen and storehouse, mountain gate—listen carefully, listen carefully.

Great Master Zhaoxian of Changsha ascended the hall and instructed the assembly:

“The entire world of the ten directions is the eye of the monk. The entire world of the ten directions is the everyday speech of the monk. The entire world of the ten directions is the monk’s whole body. The entire world of the ten directions is one’s own luminosity. In the entire world of the ten directions there is not a single person who is not oneself.”

— Changsha

In studying the Buddha Way, one must study diligently and come to trust and understand it. Unless through life after life one has formed affinities with the Buddha family, how could one hear such instruction? Again and again, do not become increasingly distant from it. The “entire world of the ten directions” spoken by Changsha is the single eye of the very person who studies; it is the whole realm of empty space and the entire body-mind. It neither grasps the sacred nor discards the ordinary; it does not say, “Deluded people are not thus; awakened people are thus.” It directly points: this is your own luminosity. Do not hand it over to Master Changsha.

This Dharma talk is free-ranging exposition within your own nostrils and free, unhindered use within each person’s eyes. Yet some take up ancient-case kōans as something separate and, until death, never turn the light back upon themselves and remain unaware. Each is a rich man’s child without trousers. Again, when foolish people hear the word “luminosity,” they imagine something like the glow of fireflies, lamps, sun and moon, gold or jewels. They grope and calculate, trying to see some brightness; they make it an object of mind and speculate about it through the faculty of thought, aiming toward a realm that is empty, vacant, and still. Thus they stop movement and return to stillness. Some cannot cast away a view of real existence or the deluded view that there is something to attain. Some continually entertain thoughts of something inconceivably mysterious and subtle, dwelling excessively on how rare and difficult it is to encounter. There are many such rice-bags dozing with their eyes open.

If it were truly the inconceivable and subtle great matter, why fantasize that thought could reach it? Such people are of the demonic kind: they take the meditative contemplation of the consciousness-spirit to be Buddha-sitting. For this reason our First Ancestor revealed: “Vast emptiness—nothing holy. I don’t know.” To meet such a revelation is indeed difficult and rare.

“Students of the Way do not know the real
because all along they have taken the consciousness-spirit for the real.
The root of birth-and-death through measureless kalpas—
fools call it the original person.”

— Changsha

Thus to measure one’s own mind, establish something attained, and then undertake practice and realization on that basis is to nourish the root of birth-and-death. What is now called “the real” and indicated as “the original person” is the vast openness of luminosity, inherently present and perfectly complete. Outside this vast luminosity, what could you even think of craving or seeking? Therefore: nothing holy; I don’t know. It is only an iron hammerhead without a hole for a handle, only a great mass of fire.

Ordinary Mind Is the Way

Zhaozhou asked Nanquan, “What is the Way?” Nanquan said, “Ordinary mind is the Way.” Zhaozhou asked, “Should I direct myself toward it?” Nanquan said, “The moment you intend to head toward it, you turn away.” Zhaozhou asked, “If I do not intend, how can I know the Way?” Nanquan said, “The Way does not belong to knowing and does not belong to not-knowing. Knowing is deluded awareness; not-knowing is blankness. If you truly reach the Way beyond doubt, it is like the great empty sky, vast and open. How could it be forced into right and wrong?”

— Nanquan and Zhaozhou, as cited by Ejō

Ancients therefore pitied those who, relying on cultivated effort and contrivance, take a mistaken direction, and carefully guided them: “The Way cannot be attained by having mind; it cannot be attained by having no mind. It cannot be reached through words; it cannot be arrived at through silent stillness. As soon as deliberation is involved, you are separated by a thousand or ten thousand leagues.” In all supramundane matters and principles, what notion of practicing the mind could there be outside this “having mind” and “having no mind”? Since it is already said to be unattainable either with mind or with no-mind, why not quickly put down the fantasies of seeking mind and discarding mind?

Ordinary people who do not even reach this point because of disbelief and laziness greedily cling to the illusory mark of self, rush about with an air of importance through a world like dream, illusion, bubble, and shadow, and do not know that they have been possessed by the demon of worldly cleverness and eloquence. Their cleverness never rests. Hearing secondhand only the word “luminosity,” they speculate that perhaps sparks shoot from the Buddha’s brow. They interpret meaning according to written phrases but never resolve to penetrate the reality of the sages. Even when seasoned adepts appear in the world, they do not go to them for instruction. How then could they settle decisively that the whole body is luminosity, the Dharma-realm is luminosity, covering heaven and covering earth? They are corrupt monks attached to marks, not worth pitying.

“Each light is not blue, yellow, red, white, or black; not form and not mind; not existence and not nonexistence; not a dharma of cause and effect. It is the source of all buddhas, the root of practicing the bodhisattva Way, the root of the whole assembly of Buddha-children.”

— Brahmā’s Net Sūtra, as cited by Ejō

Textual note. T2590 begins this quotation with 光光. In the wider Brahmā’s Net Sūtra commentarial tradition, interpreters disagreed over whether the two graphs should be divided between adjacent clauses or read together; among those reading them together, explanations include innumerable lights and the multiplicity of the precepts themselves. Here Ejō’s excerpt begins with both graphs, so both remain semantically visible. The body therefore uses the deliberately less physical “Each light.” BDK has “Each ray of light,” while Cleary has “the light of lights”; these are useful comparators but do not control T2590. Ejō’s immediately following gloss shifts to singular 此光明 (“this luminosity”), and that singular remains visible below.

Thus the Tathāgata, whose essential nature is empty space, emerges from the Flower-Radiance Samādhi, sits upon the adamantine thousand-light royal throne, and expounds this luminosity of the single precept. Know clearly that this luminosity is not blue, yellow, red, white, or black. It is simply “the fire boy, red through and through”; the mud ox running on the ocean floor; the iron ox with neither hide nor bones. Since it is neither form nor mind, why lodge a seeking mind in your chest and keep panting inwardly? Nor is it a dharma of cause and effect. How could it be fabricated by practice and realization? It is truly the source of the buddhas and the root of all Buddha-children. Rocana Buddha has upheld this luminosity of the single precept from the first arousing of the mind. Therefore it is called the “Mind-Ground” chapter. It is free from all names and characteristics; this is called the precept-light of the mind-ground.

Textual note. The Brahmā’s Net Sūtra parallel treats 體性虛空華光三昧 as a single samādhi name. T2590, however, explicitly reads 如來既ニ體性虚空。華光三昧ヨリ出デタマヒテ, separating “the Tathāgata, whose essential nature is empty space” from “emerges from the Flower-Radiance Samādhi.” Because T2590 is the controlling witness, this translation preserves that split rather than silently restoring the canonical compound. The same T2590 line reads 金剛千光王座; “adamantine thousand-light royal throne” preserves the 王 element.

“If one who teaches Dharma is alone in a quiet and empty place, still and without human voices, reading and reciting this scripture, then at that time I will manifest my pure body of luminosity for that person. If a chapter or verse is forgotten, I will explain it so that the recitation becomes fluent.”

— Lotus Sūtra, “Teacher of the Dharma,” as cited by Ejō

Thus at the time of reading and reciting this scripture, “I will then manifest my pure body of luminosity.” The body and mind of the buddhas are luminosity. The lands of all tathāgatas are Eternally Quiescent Light. Pure Lands, bodies, and minds are all luminosity. Therefore the teachings speak of eighty-four thousand, even immeasurable, rays of luminosity.

The Great Mass of Flame

Zen Master Baoning Renyong raised the case of the flames preaching the Dharma and presented this verse:

“A mass of fierce flame reddens the sky;
the tathāgatas of the three times are within it.
The turning of the great Dharma wheel is now complete;
above the eyebrows rises a pure breeze.”

— Zen Master Baoning Renyong

When one studies in the innermost chamber of the Buddha family, one naturally penetrates the preaching of the flames in just this way. A single mass of fierce flame blazes through the three times, with no place from which it is born, no appearance, and no differentiation; therefore it ultimately has no place where it is extinguished. Because all is without differentiation, this is the scenery of the original ground of the myriad phenomena, sentient beings, and buddhas.

Why do students today fail to keep this in mind and to have faith and understanding? Because they lack faith and understanding, they become the most foolish of ordinary beings and cannot escape the cycle of rebirth in the evil destinies. Turn back to yourself and thoroughly see where the fault lies. People carried along by worldly convention take illusory and impermanent dharmas to be genuinely permanent and get no respite from worldly gain and loss. They place deep and lasting reliance on this body—a lamp before the wind that can hardly be guaranteed until tomorrow, whose outgoing breath may not wait for the incoming breath—and rejoice or grieve according to favorable and adverse conditions.

Even your four elements and five aggregates will vanish like dew on Mount Tai and North Mount Mang, leaving not a dust mote that can be grasped as “mine,” yet you pass your days at ease as if a real “I” were here. How much more shameful to retain as “mine” things outside the body—countries and cities, wives and children, fields and houses, gardens and estates, gold and jewels, clothing. Those who fail to truly believe that this is how things are, and instead devote themselves to accumulation, seeking, and attachment, will all disappear without remainder until not a trace remains—how sad. This does not require scriptural instruction; it is the principle before your very eyes.

It is already one mass of fierce flame. Therefore the tathāgatas of the three times are within it, and all beings born in the four modes are within it. Why, then, is there a difference between beings and buddhas here? It is said: one who falsely clings to “I” does not trust luminosity and floats and sinks with that “I” in birth-and-death within this very field. For one who thoroughly sees luminosity, the great, equal, unobstructed wisdom manifests within this same field.

“Without leaving this very place, it is always clear and still. If you seek it, you will find that it cannot be seen. You cannot grasp it; you cannot discard it. Within the unattainable, just thus attain it.”

— Yongjia

Nāgārjuna praised prajñā: “Prajñāpāramitā is like a great mass of fire; it cannot be grasped from any of the four sides.” Yet although people hear and see such a great teaching, they study it merely as someone else’s realm. They do not let the whole body drop away, nor do they penetrate it in its entirety. Instead they say, “I am not a vessel for this; I am a beginner; I began late; I am an ordinary person who has not cut off even one delusion.” They refuse to put down old views and self-views.

All day and all night they live within prajñā’s great Treasury of Luminosity yet make themselves hired laborers of low status, becoming the poor son who wanders in hardship for more than fifty years. This is the conceit of self-abasement: though originally the child of a wealthy man, one forgets the father’s command. How sad—clinging to the dung-removing vessel, becoming the lowly worker forever ordered to remove filth, and imagining the pure body of luminosity to be an impure body that is the fruit of suffering. This is grief within grief; nothing could be sadder. Quickly correct the private bias of self-view.

Exhausting Self-View

Even if you discuss the principles of Great and Small Vehicles, provisional and real teachings, exoteric and esoteric, or the wondrous purports of the Five Houses and Seven Schools, so long as self-view remains, all of it finally returns to arising and ceasing. Thus it is said: if you understand true reality with a mind of arising and ceasing, true reality itself becomes arising and ceasing. The views of self, person, sentient being, and life-span are self-view. The view of personal identity, one-sided views, wrong views, and attachment to views are self-view. Even from equal awakening up to wondrous awakening, what is called ignorance—countless as dust and sand and thin as gauze—is also self-view.

At first it is called “self-view”; later it may be called habitual intellectual understanding, attachment to Dharma, traces of awakening, the “nothing-to-do” view, or the view of standing on level ground. These are only different names substituted according to how much self-view remains and how light or heavy it is. Why? From the gravely evil and perverse view at the outset down to a single point of gauze-thin ignorance, when there is no self-view, what thing could be called a Buddha-view or Dharma-view? Who would there be to retain even that gauze veil?

Textual note. In the displayed T2590 text, 塵沙 carries the standard Buddhist “dust-and-sand” image of innumerability, while 羅縠 denotes fine silk gauze and supplies the image of an extremely subtle remaining veil. The apparatus records 沙羅縠ノ無明＝無品羅薄無明イ＜原＞ and 縠＝薄イ＜原＞. The body follows the displayed T2590 text; these variants are disclosed because they directly affect the image being translated.

Therefore our Founding Ancestor said, “First of all, you should exhaust the ‘I’. If you wish to exhaust the ‘I’, contemplate impermanence.” This is a direct indication from a mind of utmost sincerity. The Master of Shaolin’s Teaching on Pacifying the Mind says: “Question: People in the world study many things; why do they not attain the Way? Answer: Because they see a self, they do not attain the Way. Here, ‘self’ means ‘I’. The consummate person meets suffering without anxiety and meets pleasure without delight because no self is seen.”

An ancient Buddha’s verse says: “The Buddha does not see a body; wisdom is Buddha. If there truly is wisdom, there is no Buddha apart from it. The wise one knows that karmic obstructions are empty and rests at ease without fearing birth-and-death.” Not fearing birth-and-death is because no body is seen. Not seeing a body is the absence of self-view. Great wisdom-luminosity is thus free of private bias; hence it is said, “Wisdom is Buddha.”

Textual note. The controlling T2590 witness here reads 佛不見身智是佛。若實有智別無佛。智者能知罪障空, which the body follows as “wisdom … wisdom … karmic obstructions.” The parallel verse in the Zongjing lu (T2016) reads 佛不見身知是佛。若實有知別無佛。智者能知罪性空, with 知 (“knowing”) and 罪性 (“the nature of wrongdoing”). Because those substitutions materially change the English, they are recorded here rather than silently imported into T2590.

Yet you cherish this body, like dew on grass or a floating bubble, while treating the great luminosity that is your original body as though you were passing judgment on someone else’s affair. You imagine there must be yet another grand thing beyond this, and uselessly discuss whether the country is peaceful or chaotic and whether offerings are good or poor, while this very body passes away in vain; yet you have established no course of practice with regard to how this body will finally come to rest. If you had even the slightest share of trusting and practicing within this Treasury of Luminosity, how could it concern only the liberation of this single body called “me”? Above, it repays the four debts of gratitude; below, it benefits the three realms of existence. Mountains, rivers, the great earth, one’s own body and others’ bodies—all will be boundlessly illuminated by the luminosity of suchness.

“The nature of awakening, perfectly luminous, is the body without characteristics.
Do not, within knowing and views, force distinctions of distance and intimacy.
When thoughts diverge, the mysterious essence is obscured;
when mind deviates, it does not neighbor the Way.
When feeling divides the myriad dharmas, one sinks into objects before one;
when discernment branches in many directions, original truth is lost.
If you completely understand what these lines say,
you are clearly the person of old, with nothing to do.”

— Caoshan Benji

This is a direct pointing and direct explanation within the Treasury of Luminosity, and at the same time it reveals wondrous practice and original realization. It does not ask whether one is monk or layperson, beginner or advanced. It does not choose sharp faculties over dull ones and makes no distinction according to how learned or knowledgeable one is. It simply points directly: the nature of awakening, perfectly luminous, is the body without characteristics. There is no second or third.

“The nature of awakening” means Buddha-nature. “Perfectly luminous” is one seamless great luminosity. This very illusory body of yours right now is the Quiescent Light without characteristics. Therefore an ancient worthy said, “Throughout the whole body there is no image or reflection; throughout the entire world it is nowhere concealed.” If you have not yet understood, I will ask you further: shatter the four elements of your whole body right now; burn away skin, flesh, bones, and marrow—then bring me one thing. At precisely such a time, buddhas and sentient beings of past and present, ordinary and sage throughout the three realms, all phenomena—none is other than the body without characteristics.

Linji Yixuan said, “The four elements cannot preach Dharma or listen to Dharma. Spleen, stomach, liver, and gallbladder cannot preach or listen. Empty space cannot preach or listen. Tell me: what is it that can preach and listen?” This is the numinous luminosity that listens to the Dharma without reliance—the body without characteristics. For the sake of people, the ancients provisionally gave it a name: “the person of the Way who listens to Dharma without reliance.” Here Caoshan says, “The nature of awakening, perfectly luminous, is the body without characteristics.” In this one line the matter is stated distinctly and completely.

Out of grandmotherly kindness he then shows wondrous practice: “Do not force distinctions of distance and intimacy within knowing and views.” Those who draw close to bad teachers study interpretations and soon say, “Through the power gained in my training I have obtained a Zen that surpasses buddhas and ancestors. No one else can know it. Who besides me could be intimate with the pivotal function of Zen?” This is a crooked mind possessed by the demon king, an outsider who has not attained yet claims attainment.

Another group, positing a self and clinging to marks, becomes discouraged and says, “I am dull, not suited to study; learning is beyond me.” This too is a fabricated view. When these two sorts of views arise, producing liking and dislike and judgments of right and wrong, all turn into the four mental activities—mind, thought, feeling, and consciousness. So Caoshan cuts them in two with one stroke: “When thoughts diverge, the mysterious essence is obscured; when mind deviates, it does not become a neighbor of the Way.” Truly one should abandon bad teachers and draw near to good friends. To learn views from a false teacher and then think “this is close” and “that is distant” is merely to generate views without basis.

The Way and the mysterious essence are the sun-face and moon-face of the luminous nature of awakening. Yet from within this luminosity a single thought of non-awakening arises, and false mind and distorted imagination grow. These are floating clouds obstructing the moon of the perfectly luminous mind. Thus it says, “it does not become a neighbor.”

Textual note. T2590 writes 相隣 in Caoshan’s verse (心差不與道相隣), but 成隣 when Ejō requotes the line and then explicitly glosses it as 不成隣. The English therefore distinguishes “does not neighbor the Way” from “does not become a neighbor of the Way” rather than silently normalizing the two graphs.

“When feeling divides the myriad dharmas, one sinks into objects before one.” The Tathāgata has already taught that there is no distinction among these three—mind, Buddha, and sentient beings; he has also said that there is only the One Vehicle. Yet although you hear and see such a great teaching, on your own side you recklessly raise distinctions of self and other, noble and low, ordinary and sage; because of beautiful and ugly sights and sounds, poverty and wealth, benefit and loss, you are carried away by objects before you. This is what comes of relying on your own views and thereby defiling practice-realization; it is the doing of the arrogant and unbelieving.

“When discernment branches in many directions, original truth is lost.” The Buddhadharma responds to vastly different capacities, and so there are many approaches: Great and Small Vehicles, provisional and real, half and full, partial and complete, exoteric and esoteric, Zen and doctrinal teaching, realization of the Way and Pure Land. But when the faculty of thought clings to conditions, original truth is finally lost. “If you completely understand what these lines say, you are clearly the person of old, with nothing to do.” This “person of old” is the body without characteristics, simply sitting upright without doubt and without contrivance of practice, realization, or mental effort. If even a hair’s breadth of intellectual understanding is kept in mind, then there is still something to do, and one is not the person of old.

Textual note. T2590 here prints 證道淨土. The standard East Asian Buddhist classification is 聖道 / 淨土 (“Path of Sages / Pure Land”), and both Cleary and White Wind normalize this passage in that direction. Because the controlling witness has 證 rather than 聖, the body retains the literal “realization of the Way and Pure Land” instead of silently emending the received text.

Nothing Attained

Śākyamuni Tathāgata said in the Diamond Sūtra, “When I was with Dīpaṃkara Buddha, there was no Dharma by which I attained unsurpassed complete awakening.” This is the single phrase of meeting Dīpaṃkara Buddha. A single phrase, clearly understood, surpasses a hundred koṭis. Study this luminosity of nothing attained.

Those today who shave their heads and dye their robes as descendants of the Tathāgata spend days and months illuminated by Dīpaṃkara, yet never even question what Dīpaṃkara Buddha actually is; therefore they have no share in genuine study. They merely borrow the appearance of leaving home while greedily receiving offerings of the four requisites—truly idlers. If you say this is not so, I ask you: what are the marks and features of Dīpaṃkara Buddha? You may not answer with words, and you may not answer without words. Speak quickly! Speak quickly!

How sad that people study Dīpaṃkara only as a Buddha of the past and do not know the shining that spans antiquity and illuminates the present. How then could you trust that preaching Dharma and entering nirvāṇa are taking place within your own nostrils and eyes?

There is a group of inferior śrāvakas who intensely despise birth-and-death and urgently seek nirvāṇa. Those of you in this group rouse a fierce resolve premised on real existence and attainment, adding craving for Dharma on top of your self-conceit; your seeking mind never stops until death. Blind teachers praise you as good people of faith, so you become proud that this self-clinging and acquisitiveness make you diligent practitioners of the Way, and in the end you attain the hungry-ghost realm. But the “constant diligence” studied in the Buddha family and the great samādhi, blazing and steadfast, that has been singly transmitted do not mean your distorted concentration, in which practice and realization are set up as two stages and intellectual understanding is pursued.

“Numinous luminosity shines alone,
far removed from sense faculties and their objects.
The essence stands exposed, true and constant,
unrestricted by words and letters.
Mind-nature is unstained,
originally complete.
Simply depart from delusive conditions,
and you are a Buddha of suchness.”

— Baizhang

This numinous luminosity has not been interrupted from kalpas of the distant past through the furthest reach of the future; this is called constant diligence. Being far removed from sense faculties and their objects, with the essence exposed as true and constant, is called blazing and ever steadfast. Entrusting yourself to this numinous luminosity and abiding without movement is called the samādhi of just sitting, the Samādhi That Is King of Samādhis.

Even within “having something to attain,” there are differences of depth and shallowness, lightness and heaviness. “Having something to attain” is not limited to those who cling to phenomenal aspects, engage in practices with characteristics, seek outside themselves, distinguish true from false on the basis of words and phrases, give while abiding in marks, misunderstand “accumulating merit and virtue,” and afflict body and mind to extinguish sins and generate goodness while boasting that this is diligence. Even if you put down brush and inkstone, cut off human affairs, sit alone in an empty valley, live on fruits and nuts and wear grass garments, sit continuously without lying down—if in your mind you stop movement in order to return to stillness, seek to cut off delusion completely and abide one-sidedly in “truth,” grasping and rejecting, hating birth-and-death and loving nirvāṇa, all of this is still having something to attain.

“Abandoning existence and clinging to emptiness is the same disease—like avoiding drowning only to leap into fire. Discarding delusion to seize the true, the mind of grasping and rejecting becomes artifice. Students who do not understand use this as practice; truly they take a thief for their own child. The loss of Dharma-wealth and destruction of merit all come from this mind, thought, and consciousness.”

— Yongjia

Therefore students should cast body and mind into the Treasury of Luminosity, let the whole body drop away in Buddha-luminosity, and sit, lie down, and walk within it. The World-Honored One said, “A Buddha-child dwells on this ground; this is precisely the Buddha’s enjoyment—always within it, whether walking, sitting, or lying down.” As Buddha-children, do not forget these golden words even for a moment. “This ground” is the Treasury of Luminosity; it is the single Buddha Vehicle.

Do not, by one thought that turns away from awakening and joins the dust, suddenly transform this Buddha-enjoyment into the enjoyment of animals or hungry ghosts. Tell me: what of the marks and features of Dīpaṃkara Buddha, Śākyamuni, and the succession of lamps whose flames have continued through the Seven Buddhas and the ancestral lineage? And as for the bodhimaṇḍa in which they enter nirvāṇa, do you study it as belonging to remote antiquity? Do you hear of it and think of it as eternally abiding and never extinguished? Will you say they dwell in a jeweled city of Quiescent Light? Will you understand “the Buddha’s true Dharma-body is like empty space”? If you remain at such a level and never break free of the cave of learned calculation, how could you be called a teacher who inherits Buddha-luminosity? It is the cry of a jackal wearing a lion’s skin.

If you have no share in investigating within your own eye, then even if you shave your head and dye your robes, you are a pitiable sentient being. To explain a thousand scriptures and ten thousand treatises is only to count the treasures in the house next door—like a seafarer who knows that a treasure is precious but does not know its price. Tell me: right now, when you shit and piss, put on clothes and eat food, ultimately whose enjoyment is it?

Not only that: the color of water and the light of mountains, heat departing and cold arriving, spring flowers and the autumn moon, a thousand changes and ten thousand transformations—what brings all this forth? Truly, “the countenance is exceedingly wondrous; luminosity shines through the ten directions.” Birth-and-death and nirvāṇa are like last night’s dream. Existence itself is nonexistence; nonexistence itself is existence. If it is not thus, then to say “always on Vulture Peak” is a false teaching, a false theory; to hear “unborn, undying, Eternally Quiescent Light” is mere speech, entirely without real meaning.

Do Not Polish Darkness in Order to Produce Luminosity

Śākyamuni Tathāgata says in his golden words on the luminosity of the single precept:

“Those who posit a self and cling to marks cannot believe this Dharma. Those who extinguish their lifespan in the course of practice and realization are likewise no ground in which the seed can be planted.† If you wish the sprouts of bodhi to grow and luminosity to illuminate the world, you should quietly contemplate the true characteristic of dharmas: neither arising nor ceasing, neither eternal nor annihilated, neither one nor different, neither coming nor going … toward those in training and those beyond training, do not give rise to discriminatory thought.”

— Śākyamuni Tathāgata, as cited by Ejō; parallel in the Brahmā’s Net Sūtra

Textual note. T2590/SAT reads 滅壽修證者 at this point. The body preserves its distinctive components—滅壽 as “extinguish their lifespan” and 修證 as “practice and realization”—rather than smoothing the phrase into a better-known parallel. The parallel precept verse in T1484 reads 計我著相者　不能信是法　滅盡取證者, differing both in word order around “cannot believe this Dharma” and in 滅盡取證者. Some later Brahmā’s Net commentarial witnesses instead read 滅壽取證者 and explain it polemically of the Two Vehicles’ extinction of body and cognition and attainment of quiescent nirvāṇa. That parallel tradition helps clarify the force of 滅壽, but it does not justify replacing T2590’s 修證 with 取證.

Hear these golden words, “luminosity shines upon the world,” through to the bones and marrow. It is the wondrous body in which the great functioning of the buddhas of the three times is manifest. Reverently receive it and put it into practice, and how could you not rejoice greatly?

Yet when I look at practitioners today, they place themselves at a causal stage of ignorance and darkness and polish themselves morning and evening, waiting for some later time when they will finally see through luminosity. Or they mistake the blazing pure luminosity itself for a flurry of miscellaneous thoughts, repeatedly brush away every flame, and try to see “Eternally Quiescent Light.” If the absence of all arising were correct, then wood, stone, and clods of earth would be it. All such practitioners flee fire only to plunge into drowning; they are inferior śrāvakas.

How foolish to cling to the sitting of the Two Vehicles and the inclinations of ordinary people while wanting to awaken to the supreme great Way. There is no duller or more distorted practice than this. Therefore it is said: “The Two Vehicles are diligent but have no mind of the Way; outsiders are clever but have no wisdom. Foolish and deluded, childishly ignorant, they form a substantial understanding on the basis of an empty fist and a pointing finger.”

Textual note. T2590/SAT prints 小駭 in the quoted line 又愚又痴又小駭. The underlying Yongjia Zhengdao Ge in T2014 instead reads 亦愚癡亦小騃. The English “childishly ignorant” follows the transmitted quotation-family sense of 小騃; the discrepancy with the controlling T2590 witness is disclosed here rather than silently normalized.

Such efforts to cultivate and seek the mind are obstructed by calculation and conjecture; they not only bury the luminosity originally present and complete but also slander the Tathāgata’s wheel of true Dharma. This is karma leading to Avīci hell. Moreover, it is only ignorant people with little wisdom who become heads of monasteries and guide crowds of blind people clinging to self and attainment. From the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties of China down to the present they have been as numerous as rice, hemp, bamboo, and reeds. How could one not pity this? How could one not grieve?

Even those who occasionally emerge from that nest see spirits and ghosts; the “thieving mind” has not yet died. Some recklessly confer the seal of approval on a once-in-a-lifetime burst of courage. Others generate a fierce resolve for a time, sit long without lying down, and exhaust mind and consciousness until all things become one piece; activity has only just come to a stop, thought has grown quiet, and there is a vacant, vividly alert state like solitary brightness. They falsely understand this “inside and outside made one piece” to be their own original ground. They present this view to a blind Zen teacher. The teacher lacks the eye that sees people and therefore responds according to the visitor’s words, granting a winter-melon seal; the person then calls himself a monk who has finished training. Practitioners of shallow understanding and little learning who fall into this poison are too many to count. Even if we call this the Final Dharma age, is it not altogether lamentable?

Ejō’s Direct Instruction to Those Who Truly Practice

I respectfully say to companions who genuinely practice: do not seize upon any particular inner response or outward situation. Do not rely on interpretations or cleverness. Do not carry around what you have learned on the communal sitting platform of the monks’ hall. Cast body and mind completely into the great Treasury of Luminosity spoken of above and never look back a second time.

Do not seek awakening. Do not sweep away delusion. Do not dislike thoughts as they arise; nor cherish and continue them. Sit fully and solidly, right here. If you do not continue thoughts, they do not arise by themselves. Be simply like a single expanse of empty sky, like one mass of fire. Entrust yourself to exhalation and inhalation. Do not get involved in any of the myriad affairs. Sit decisively.

Even if eighty-four thousand miscellaneous thoughts arise and cease, when you do not get involved with them but let them go completely, each and every thought will become the luminosity of the spiritual power of prajñā. Nor is this limited to sitting. Step after step is the walking of luminosity; step by step, there is no discriminative thinking.

Throughout the twelve periods of the day, you are like a great dead person, without any self-view or discrimination. Yet exhalation and inhalation, hearing-nature and touch-nature, without knowing or discrimination, are the luminosity of quiescent illumination in which body and mind are one. Therefore, when called, there is an immediate response. This is the luminosity in which ordinary and sage, delusion and awakening, are one.

Even in the midst of activity, it is not obstructed by activity. Forest flowers and blades of grass, humans and animals, large and small, long and short, square and round—all manifest at once without relying on the discriminations of your mind, thoughts, or attention. This is manifest evidence that luminosity is unobstructed by functioning: empty and bright, self-illuminating, without expenditure of mental effort.

From the beginning, this luminosity has no abiding place. Although buddhas appear in the world, luminosity does not “appear in the world.” Although buddhas enter nirvāṇa, luminosity does not “enter nirvāṇa.” When you are born, luminosity is not born. When you die, luminosity is not extinguished. In a buddha it does not increase; in a sentient being it is not extinguished. Even when deluded, it is not deluded; even when awakened, it does not awaken. It has no location, no characteristic, and no name. It is the totality of the myriad phenomena.

Textual note. At this later locus, T2590 and the 1909 printed edition both read 佛ニ在テモ増サズ。衆生ニ在テモ滅ゼズ (“in a buddha it does not increase; in a sentient being it is not extinguished”). Earlier in the same work, however, T2590 gives the paired formula 在諸佛不増。在衆生不減 (“does not increase in buddhas; does not decrease in sentient beings”). The translation follows each local witness and does not silently normalize the later 滅 to 減.

It cannot be grasped. It cannot be discarded. It cannot be attained. Yet though unattainable, it is enacted throughout the whole body. From the Peak of Existence above down to Avīci Hell below, it is perfectly luminous just so—numinous luminosity, wondrous and inconceivable.

If you trust and receive this profound intent, there is no need to turn to another and ask what is true or false. It will be like meeting your own father in the marketplace. Do not seek another good teacher’s certification or delight in receiving predictions and attaining fruition. How much less should you cling to clothing, food, or dwelling, or indulge in sensual desire and attachment—the conduct of animals.

From the very beginning this samādhi is the bodhimaṇḍa of the fruit-ocean of all buddhas. Therefore it is the singly transmitted Buddha-sitting and Buddha-practice. Since you are already a Buddha-child, sit securely only upon the Buddha-seat. You need not necessarily practice the sitting of hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, asuras, humans and devas, śrāvakas, or pratyekabuddhas.‡

Textual note. T2590/SAT reads 聲聞縁覺坐ニカナラズシモ坐スべカラズ. The カナラズシモ construction with the negative predicate gives a partial-negation reading (“not necessarily”), which the translation follows. A 1909 printed edition reads カナラズ without シモ, yielding a stronger prohibition; because T2590/SAT is the controlling witness here, that variant is recorded rather than silently adopted.

Just sit in this way and do not let time pass in vain. This is called the bodhimaṇḍa of straightforward mind and the Samādhi of the Treasury of Luminosity of inconceivable liberation.

Do not show this writing to anyone but disciples who have entered the Master’s room. This is a single-minded concern to protect the Dharma, so that distorted and deviant views do not arise in one’s own practice or in guiding others.

Respectfully recorded by Ejō
Twenty-eighth day of the eighth month, Kōan 1 (1278)

Kōmyōzō Zanmai — End

Postscript by Genryō

The ancients said: “Causes, conditions, and the ripening of the time—quiescent, yet clearly manifest.” I therefore reflect: that our Ancestor Ejō first set forth this teaching was the cause; that my old teacher was fortunately able to obtain it was the condition; that it awaited the present, half a millennium later, was the ripening of the time. That we have therefore carved blocks and circulated it throughout the realm—how could this not be “quiescent, yet clearly manifest”? Deeply moved, this unworthy one respectfully adds these humble words as a postscript.

Twenty-eighth day of the eighth month, Meiwa 3 (1766)
Genryō, humble junior student at Eikeiji in Bungo Province, respectfully written

Textual note. Immediately before this date T2590 prints 維持; the earlier preface above has the conventional dating formula 維時. The English gives the date without silently emending the later witness.

Verse for the Recut Edition

Earlier, on the occasion of Ancestor Ejō’s six-hundredth grand memorial observance, I respectfully offered the fascicle of Kōmyōzō Zanmai that he had revealed, attaching an unworthy verse. Now I am informed that the recut edition has been completed, and so I record the verse at the end of the volume:

Six hundred years ago, that rotten staff—
swallowing seas and mountains whole, where could it coil?
Reed flowers, bright moon, the autumn wind clear and bracing;
a reflection moves in the cold pool—[reading uncertain] one mass.*

— Kōan

Textual note. At the final phrase, the direct Taishō/SAT witness reads 王一團. Because the initial graph 王 of this phrase does not yield a secure English reading in this context, the translation marks that portion unresolved rather than adopting an unverified emendation from a secondary transcription.

Middle ten days of the sixth month, Meiji 12 (1879)
Kōan, formerly of Buttokuji, respectfully bowed and inscribed this
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