大毘盧遮那成佛經疏 3.18

3.18

The sūtra says: 'Furthermore, Secret Lord, just as in the sky there are no sentient beings, no life-span, and their maker cannot be found, yet because the mind is deluded and confused, such various false views arise,' on which the *Treatise* says: 'Being "like space" means that there is only a name but no real entity. Space is not an object that can be seen; because one looks from afar, the light of the eyes turns back and perceives a pale blue colour. All phenomena are likewise empty and nonexistent. Because people are far from the taintless, real wisdom, they discard dharmatā and perceive varied external things such as "other" and "self", men and women, houses, cities, and walls. Their minds become attached, just as a young child looks up at the blue sky, claiming it has a real colour, whereas if someone flies up extremely far, there is nothing to be seen. Furthermore, just as the nature of space is constantly pure, yet people claim it is impure because of clouds and gloom, all phenomena are also like this: their nature is constantly pure, yet because of the gloom of lust, anger, and so forth, people claim they are impure.' When this sūtra says 'deluded and confused minds', it is like someone who, through various conditions such as illness or non-human beings, has a deluded and confused mind and falsely perceives various forms of figures and things in pure space, which are either terrifying or enticing. When one recovers one's fundamental mind, one realizes that when these things arose they did not defile space, and when they perished they did not restore its purity; originally they did not obstruct space, nor were they different from space. When practitioners cultivate meditative practice, if various demonic events or various realms of karmic afflictions occur, they should all settle their minds in this simile of being like pure space. Even if they abide in hell for immeasurable kalpas, at that time their minds will be free of hindrance, like someone who has attained supernormal powers flying freely within the single manifest colour of space, unsoiled by the dust of false conceptualizations of persons and phenomena.