金剛經纂要刊定記 1.32

1.32

This directly corresponds to the gate of the mind as arising and ceasing in the *Treatise on the Awakening of Faith*. Yet this also possesses both Dharma and metaphor: using dreams to metaphorize consciousness, and using the objects manifested in dreams to metaphorize the objective sphere. Just as a person, after falling asleep, dreams and sees things where there are no things, which metaphorizes the mind deludedly becoming consciousness, seeing objective spheres where there are no objective spheres. Yet although things are manifested based on dreams, both the dreams and the things are unreal; although the objective sphere arises from consciousness, both consciousness and the objective sphere are delusive. "Dream" refers to the ordinary situation where a person is covered by the hindrance of sleep, and the mental consciousness becomes dim and obscure, indistinctly forming a dream. According to the *Qieyun*, a dream is the appearance of a disordered mind; it is also said that seeing while asleep is called dreaming. The intention is to clarify that when the mental consciousness is confounded and sees extraordinary matters, it is named a dream. "Consciousness" refers to the originally pure One Mind suddenly experiencing non-enlightenment; non-enlightenment is delusive, while the mind-nature is real. The fusion of the real and the delusive is designated as consciousness, which is the eighth consciousness, the ālayavijñāna. Hence the *Awakening of Faith* states: "Based on the tathāgatagarbha, there is the mind of arising and ceasing; what is called that which is neither arising nor ceasing, fused with arising and ceasing, neither identical nor different, is named the ālayavijñāna." "Without beginning" means the initial point. The intention is to clarify that this consciousness has no prior limit. Yet although the true mind and the delusive consciousness differ as real and unreal, if one examines their source, both lack a beginning point. However, there are two meanings: first, as the *Śūraṅgama Sūtra* states, "Affliction and bodhi are both without beginning." This means that since this true mind has existed, there has been this delusive consciousness; it does not mean the true is first and the delusive is after, nor that the delusive is first and the true is after. If one said the true is first and the delusive is after, then the Buddhas would give rise to ignorance anew. If one said the delusive is first and the true is after, how could there be a delusion without the true standing independently? From this, one knows that both are without beginning. In this, the metaphor of a dream does not fully correspond; it is rather like gold and ore. If one said the ore is first and the gold is after, then the discarded ore, upon being smelted, should produce gold. If one said the gold is first and the ore is after, then a pure vessel of gold should be able to turn back into ore. From this, the two things both lack a beginning point, which can be understood in the Dharma.