金光明經文句 3.5

3.5

Next, explaining the place of confession: in the Great Sūtra [Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra], King Ajātaśatru's verse says: / "Coarse speech as well as gentle words / All return to the ultimate truth. / Therefore, this very day, / I take refuge in the World-Honoured One." / Also, the "Chapter on Pure Conduct" says: / "In the past, I along with you / Did not see the four noble truths; / Therefore we drifted for long / In the great ocean of the suffering of birth and death. / If one can see the four truths, / One is able to sever birth and death; / When birth and death are already exhausted, / One does not undergo further existences." / The Lotus Sūtra says: "Dwelling in the sphere of action and sphere of intimacy, in the ground of patience, neither acting nor differentiating." It also says: "The jewel repository is near; you may proceed forward. Extinguish the illusory city and arrive at the jewel repository." This sūtra states, "I shall make a refuge for them." The refuge is precisely the profound and immeasurable dharmatā. Dharmatā is simply the principle of the truths, and the principle of the truths is simply the wondrous realm. It is the secret treasury of tranquil suchness that is the teacher of all Buddhas, wherein all the nobles of the ten directions dwell peacefully. If one attains its root, when the root is established the Way arises; if one does not attain its place, one falls down on level ground. It is like a blind person entering a briar patch, hindered at every movement. For this reason, one must recognise the place of confession. Therefore the Samantabhadra Contemplation Sūtra says: "Sitting upright, mindfulness of the true mark: all sins are like frost and dew; the sun of wisdom is able to eliminate them. My own mind is inherently empty, sins and blessings have no master; this is called the great confession, this is called the adorned confession, this is called the confession without the mark of sin." "Without the mark of sin" considers emptiness as the place. "The adorned confession" considers conventional truth as the place. "The great confession" considers the Middle Way as the place. If there are three kinds of distinctions, this is merely discussing the place distinctly. That one is three and three are one is this perfect and wondrous confession, which all great bodhisattvas practice and learn in the Buddha Dharma as they confess. If one recognises this dharma and confesses, it is the most wondrous and supreme place of confession. The Great Sūtra says: "For example, if someone bathes in the great ocean, one should know that this person has already used the waters of all rivers." The Larger Prajñāpāramitā says: "Just as a debtor relies upon a king, and the creditor instead makes offerings to him, how would he dare to seek possessions from him?" A non-Buddhist text says: "Like the grass on a wall, it is not that its stalks and leaves can be high and tall, but that what it relies upon has found a place." If a practitioner relies on dharmatā as the place of confession, it stands high above all places. If the practitioner recognises this meaning, they should first seek the principle of dharmatā as the place of confession.