阿彌陀經要解 1.5

1.5

Second, discerning the substance: All Mahāyāna sūtras take dharmatā as their correct substance. What is meant by dharmatā? It is the self-nature of the present single thought of the mind. The nature of the mind of our present single thought is not inside, not outside, not in between; it is not past, not present, not future; it is not blue, yellow, red, or white; not long, short, square, or round; not scent, not flavor, not touch, not mental datum. Seeking it, it is completely unobtainable, yet one cannot say it does not exist; it fully generates the hundred realms and thousand suchnesses, yet one cannot say it exists. It is free from all marks of conceptual thought and discrimination, yet conceptual thought and discrimination also do not have a separate self-nature apart from this dharmatā; it is free from all marks of words and writing, yet words and writing also do not have a separate self-nature apart from this dharmatā. In brief, it is free from all marks and yet is all phenomena. Only because it is free from all marks is it without marks; only because it is all phenomena is it without anything that is not a mark. Because it is without marks and without anything that is not a mark, having no other choice, it is forcedly named 'dharmatā.' The substance of dharmatā is neither quiescent nor illuminating, yet it is quiescent and constantly illuminating, illuminating and constantly quiescent. Illuminating and constantly quiescent is forcedly named the land of eternally quiescent light; quiescent and constantly illuminating is forcedly named the pure dharmakāya. Again, illuminating and constantly quiescent is forcedly named the dharmakāya; quiescent and constantly illuminating is forcedly named the saṃbhogakāya. Again, the innate virtue of quiescence and illumination is forcedly named the dharmakāya; the cultivated virtue of quiescence and illumination is named the saṃbhogakāya. Again, cultivated virtue that is illuminating and constantly quiescent is named the enjoyment body; cultivated virtue that is quiescent and constantly illuminating is forcedly named the nirmāṇakāya. One should know that quiescence and illumination are not two, innate and cultivated are not two, and body and land are not two: there is nothing that is not dharmatā. Dharmatā is not two, nor is it not not-two. Therefore, taking the substance in its entirety, it constitutes the circumstantial, constitutes the direct, constitutes the Dharma, constitutes retribution, constitutes self, constitutes other, and even constitutes the speaker and the spoken, the deliverer and the delivered, the believer and the believed, the aspirer and the aspired, the upholder and the upheld, the reborn and the rebirth, the praiser and the praised—none of these is not sealed by the correct seal of dharmatā.