金剛經纂要刊定記 1.26

1.26

1. Ultimate Emptiness. Regarding the phrase "mirror, mind, and so forth": in short, the upper clause means the true nature transcends conditioning, and the lower clause means conditions lack intrinsic nature; this is the broad outline. If one is to explain it in detail, one should first assign [the terms] briefly and afterwards explain them at length. Regarding the brief assignment: in these two clauses, mirror and image are the vehicle of the metaphor, and mind and form are the Dharma; "originally pure" and "fundamentally empty" apply to both the Dharma and the metaphor. Using the mirror to metaphorize the mind and the image to metaphorize form, just as the image is manifested by the mirror, so form is manifested by the mind. Although the mirror manifests images, those images are fundamentally empty, which precisely reveals that the mirror is originally pure. Although the mind manifests form, that form is fundamentally empty, which precisely reveals that the mind is originally pure. "Originally pure" means purity of nature, because it pervades cause and effect, ordinary beings and nobles. Therefore, the *Avataṃsaka Sūtra* states: "It is not what consciousness can cognize, nor is it the sphere of the mind; its nature is originally pure, which is revealed to all living beings." This is the brief assignment. As for the extensive explanation: the mirror is the mirror used in the human realm; yet there are those buried in dust and unfit for use, there are those that are pure yet kept in a box, and there are those pure and free from defiling dust, hung upon a high terrace to mirror myriad images. Here we take the latter as the metaphor. As for the mind, what is explained by the Nature and Characteristics traditions differs. When the Characteristics tradition explains it, they either take "aggregating and arising" as mind, because only the eighth consciousness aggregates all seeds to give rise to active manifestations; or they take "object-directed cognitive deliberation" as mind, which pervades all eight consciousnesses because all are capable of cognizing and deliberating upon their respective objective spheres. However, what is explained in this way is merely saṃskṛta arising and ceasing, and is not what is metaphorized here. When the Nature tradition explains it, it is the tathāgatagarbha, the original, intrinsically pure mind. What is clarified here is precisely this mind, because it is the root of delusion and awakening, upon which both ordinary beings and nobles universally depend, and neither the mundane nor the supramundane departs from it. Therefore, in the *Treatise on the Awakening of Faith*, it is established as the body of the Mahāyāna Dharma. Hence the treatise states: "The Mahāyāna consists of one Dharma and two meanings." What is called the "Dharma" refers to the mind of sentient beings; this mind subsumes all mundane and supramundane dharmas, and based on this mind, the meaning of Mahāyāna is revealed. It also states that based on the Dharma of the One Mind there are two gates: the first is the gate of the mind as tathatā, and the second is the gate of the mind as arising and ceasing. These two gates each subsume all dharmas. What is the meaning of this? Because these two gates are inseparable: the gate of tathatā is the universal characteristic and therefore subsumes all; although the gate of arising and ceasing is the particular characteristic, because it is the arising and ceasing that is identical to tathatā, it also subsumes all. Since these two gates identically take the One Mind as their source, one knows that the myriad dharmas do not fall outside this mind.