注大乘入楞伽經 10.8

10.8

Question: The initial cause of the three realms and the primordial beginning of the four modes of birth cannot be traced to their roots and branches, nor can their origins be discerned. Zhuangzi and Laozi referred to them as spontaneity; the Duke of Zhou and Confucius called them chaos. Here the Buddha says: 'From the formless realm down to the hells, the dependent and proper environments are all made by mind-only.' How can one give guidance regarding their very first point of arising? Answer: If one wishes to know the true origin of the bodies and lands of sentient beings, nothing precedes our mind. As the Avataṃsaka Sūtra says: 'One should contemplate the nature of the dharma realm: all is made by mind alone.' And further: 'Mind is like a skilled painter, / able to paint all worlds; / the five aggregates all arise from it, / and there is no dharma it does not create.' Therefore it says: 'When bodhisattvas first abide on a ground, they should contemplate well; in accordance with all the dharma doors of their bodies, in accordance with all their profound wisdom, in accordance with the causes they cultivate, in accordance with the fruits they attain, in accordance with their realms of experience, in accordance with their powers and functions, in accordance with their manifestations, in accordance with their discriminations, and in accordance with what they attain, they contemplate them all thoroughly. They know that all dharmas are their own mind, and have no attachment.' The Śūraṅgama Sūtra also says: 'Through delusion and falsity there is empty space; relying on space, worlds are established; conceptualization crystallizing forms the lands, and awareness and perception are sentient beings.' As for the three continuous sequences of the world, sentient beings, and karmic retribution, they are all the cognitive nature of awakened brightness becoming clearly discerning; from discerning, characteristics are produced, and from false seeing arise the conditioned characteristics of mountains, rivers, and the great earth, progressively shifting and flowing, so that through this falsity they end and begin again. From this we know that where light has not yet issued forth, there is not even a name; when a thought is about to arise, its shadow is already cast. If there is perception and awareness, then the realm of sentient beings arises; if there is no conceptualization and no deliberation, then the conditions of the lands are produced. Through defiled dharmas there is transmigration in the six destinies; according to the purified mind there are the gradations of the four sages. It may be called the root of ordinary beings and sages, the origin of body and land. Therefore, when pointing to empty space and the world, all is our own mind—it is not merely saying that the Great Ultimate produces the two modes, or that the Mysterious Female is the root of Heaven and Earth; when examining the retribution of good and evil, all is our own karma—it is not merely saying that the High God is inconstant, or that the net of Heaven is vast. How could these be empty words?