這次萬佛聖城又打禪七、又打佛七，但還談不到真正打禪七或打佛七，只是一個練習而已。為什麼？因為習氣毛病使然，曠劫以來人都懶散慣了，突然間叫他去真正修道，是很難辦到的事。在中國高旻寺打禪七的家風，是誰也不能講話，一分一秒也不能缺席懶惰。禪堂是不可以隨便進出的，就算死了，屍體也不能往外抬，只往止單下邊扔進去。

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

在這兒，你叫人突然這樣用功，是不可能的。從前凡是在高旻寺的老修行，是真把性命交給了龍天了，真為了要了生脫死，所以拼命用功，剋期取證，一刻也不放棄，把話頭抱得緊緊的，由早起二點半到晚間十二點，沒有一分一秒不是在用功，打七期間從不離開禪堂。

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

現在既然我們都是初學，能在此訓練已經是很不錯了。雖然念佛比較容易一點，但也不太容易，因為沒有休息的時間，總是繼續不斷地念佛。我們打禪七、打佛七，都是引導大家一點一點地往前進步，慢慢訓練得上路了，再努力用功。修到什麼程度？修到如如不動，了了常明，在動中不動，靜中不動，在不動中亦不動；靜不礙動，動不礙靜，靜中有動，動中有靜。行住坐臥不離這個，離了這個便是錯過。「這個」是什麼？就是中道了義，生佛、生菩薩、生聖、生天、生地、生仙，都是由它。

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

用功的人要專心致志，不要被境界所轉。參禪，要記住《金剛經》上的道理：「應無所住而生其心。」這是六祖大師開悟的一個基本道理。多少人聽過、誦過這句話，可是有人開悟嗎？所以當我解釋《金剛經》時，我說：經文依然在，開悟是何人？

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

六祖大師是個不識字的樵夫，天天只是上山砍柴，但他聽了這句就開悟。因為六祖大師在多生多劫以前已認真修行過，所以一遇到《金剛經》就開悟，可是呢？為什麼我們聽了這麼久，也沒有開悟？這皆因往昔沒有修行，只顧去看電影、看電視、開舞會、吃喝玩樂，不曾研究過經典。

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

《金剛經》又說：「無我相、無人相、無眾生相、無壽者相。」在坐禪時是不是無我相？無人相？無眾生相？無壽者相？若沒有，就要想辦法掃四相，且要空三心，過去心、現在心、未來心，三心了不可得，又怎麼會有四相呢？

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

《金剛經》又說：

一切有為法。如夢幻泡影。
如露亦如電。應作如是觀。

若以色見我。以音聲求我。
是人行邪道。不能見如來。

That Sutra also says,

All conditioned dharmas
Are like dreams, illusions, bubbles and shadows,
Like dew and like lightning.
You should contemplate them thus.

If one sees me in forms,
If one seeks me in sounds,
He practices a deviant way,
And cannot see the Tathagata.

我們坐禪時，不要被音聲所轉，不要隨色相而轉。有人修行很久，有境界了，但執著境界，這是錯誤的。應該「聽而不聞，視而不見」，不聞不見，才叫不被境界所轉。

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

一九八二年十二月十八日開示於
萬佛聖城