維摩經玄疏 2.106

2.106

Answer: This sūtra clarifies the inconceivable: Mount Sumeru enters a mustard seed without mutually obstructing each other. If insentient objects can even be like this, why doubt that a single thought-moment of the subtle and wonderful mental spirit possesses all minds and all phenomena of the three periods of time! For example, when the phenomenon of sleep covers the mind, within a single thought-moment one dreams of all minds and all events. When one is directly dreaming in sleep, it seems as though immeasurable kalpas have elapsed. As the Lotus Sūtra says, 'One dreams of first giving rise to the mind [for bodhi], up to the immeasurable events of attaining buddhahood. When awakening, turning back to reflect, it was merely a single thought-moment of the sleeping mind.' The 'mind' is a metaphor for the intrinsically pure mind; 'the phenomenon of sleep covering the mind' is a metaphor for ignorance; the 'immeasurable dream events' are a metaphor for the unknowing numerous as the sands of the Ganges covering all the Buddha-dharmas numerous as the sands of the Ganges; 'the dream events not being real, the good, evil, sorrow, and joy' are metaphors for the delusions of view and thought covering true emptiness. If one does not examine the dream metaphor in detail, doubt concerning the inconceivable will never be resolved. Therefore, Mahāyāna sūtras often speak of the ten metaphors, but the Dharma masters do not comprehensively grasp the intent of the metaphors, only exclusively grasping the aspect of falsity and emptiness, failing to see the aspect of the metaphor representing immeasurable ignorance and Dharma-nature! Therefore, the object of the three truths is not theoretically established.