大乘起信論義記 2.89

2.89

Question: Since the ālayavijñāna pervades both motion and stillness, it should not reside solely in the gate of arising and ceasing. Answer: Because it stirs stillness to constitute motion, and there is no separate entity of motion, the nature of stillness accords with motion and is therefore also within arising and ceasing. Not only does the ālayavijñāna, possessing both motion and stillness, reside within this [gate of] arising and ceasing, but even the tathāgatagarbha, which is purely unmoving, also resides within this gate. Why is this? Because that arising and ceasing has no separate dharmas. You should contemplate and reflect on this. Furthermore, if they were one, when the marks of the arising-and-ceasing consciousness are extinguished, the true mind should also be extinguished, thus falling into the error of annihilationism. If they were different, when it is perfumed and stirred by the wind of avidyā, the substance of the quiet mind should not accord with conditions, thus falling into the error of eternalism. Being free from these two extremes, they are therefore neither one nor different. Furthermore, if they were one, there would be no union; if they were different, there would also be no union. Because they are neither one nor different, union is obtained. As the sūtra says: "Just as a lump of clay and its fine particles of dust are neither different nor not different, and gold ornaments are also like this: if the lump of clay were different, it would not be formed of them, yet in fact it is formed of them, and is therefore not different; if it were not different, the lump of clay and the fine particles of dust should have no distinction. In this way, if the evolving consciousness, the storehouse consciousness, and the true mark were different, the storehouse consciousness would not be the cause; if they were not different, when the evolving consciousness ceases, the storehouse consciousness should also cease, yet its own true mark is in fact not extinguished. Therefore, it is not that its own true-mark consciousness ceases, but only that the karmic mark ceases." In explanation: here, the "true mark" is the tathāgatagarbha; the "evolving consciousness" refers to the seven consciousnesses; and the "storehouse consciousness" is the ālayavijñāna. Now, the author of this treatise summarises the context and meaning of that Laṅkāvatārasūtra to establish this; therefore he says they are neither one nor different.