金剛般若經疏論纂要 1.3

1.3

The mirror-mind is fundamentally pure, and forms and appearances are originally empty; yet dreaming consciousness has no beginning, and objective realms come to exist. Consequently, delusions and karmas are repeated and reinforced, retribution wheels round in cycles, and across kalpas as numerous as dust and sand it never ceases. Therefore our fully and purely Awakened One manifested his marks among humans, first expounding the causes and conditions of arising and ceasing so as to bring about the realization of suffering, origination, cessation, and the path. Although grasping at self was eliminated, emptiness of dharmas was not yet realized; wishing to extinguish the very roots of the disease, he then expounded prajñā. When mind and realm both vanish, that is the true mind; when defilement and purity are both extinguished, all is pure. Three thousand auspicious omens shone brilliantly, and sixteen assemblies were made manifest; that which is transmitted now is the ninth assembly. Its sentences and verses are concise and abbreviated, its doctrinal purport deep and subtle: its wisdom penetrates the three emptinesses, its generosity encompasses the myriad practices; abiding in eighteen stations, it secretly indicates the stages of advancement; severing twenty-seven doubts, it latently connects the doctrinal lineage. If one does not first discard the discards, how can one accord with tathatā? Thus, though one is spurred to cultivation, from beginning to end there are no characteristics. Because of this, both teaching and principle are esoteric, and practice and fruit are alike profound, so that those chanting it with their mouths are as many as cow hairs, while those who comprehend it in their minds are as rare as unicorn horns. Some match it to names and characteristics, clinging to phenomena and running counter to the ultimate principle; or others merely speak of the One Reality, looking toward the source while losing sight of its streams; as for the rest, their arbitrary discussions and subjective commentaries are not even worth addressing. That treasures as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, or giving up body and life across the three periods of the day, do not match it in metaphor—how could this be in vain?