起信論疏筆削記 3.25

3.25

歸性門者，約真心以出體也。此識等者，則前門中已收差別之境，但唯能變識心。今又攝前識心但是一心，一心即真如性也，名為歸性，故云此識無體也。其猶人睡，作夢見種種物，物不離夢，夢不離人。即展轉推尋教法真實之體，極至於此。古人云心即是經，即斯義也。言一切者，即色心等法，非今方爾，故云從本已來。超過離名字相，離心緣相，故云乃至。然離言說則非前音聲，離名字則非前名句文，離心緣則非前唯識，一心真如則成此歸性門也。亦同《圓覺疏》云：生法本無，一切唯識。識如幻夢，但是一心。《楞嚴》云：見與見緣，似現前境，元我覺明也。

Regarding the approach of returning to nature, the substance is brought forth with respect to the true mind. In "This consciousness..." and so forth, the previous approach already subsumed differentiated objects, leaving only the transforming conscious mind. Now it further subsumes that prior conscious mind to be merely the One Mind, and the One Mind is the nature of tathatā, which is called "returning to nature"; hence it says that this consciousness has no substance. It is like a person who falls asleep and dreams of seeing various things: the things do not depart from the dream, and the dream does not depart from the person. Tracing and seeking the true substance of the teaching step by step reaches its culmination here. The ancients said that "mind is the sūtra," which is precisely this meaning. When it says "all," this refers to material and mental dharmas; it is not merely so at present, hence it says "from the beginningless past." It exceeds and departs from the mark of names and words, and departs from the mark of mental cognition, hence it says "and so forth." Now, being apart from speech, it is not the former sound; being apart from names, it is not the former names, sentences, and phonemes; being apart from mental cognition, it is not the former vijñaptimātra; the One Mind of tathatā constitutes this approach of returning to nature. This also accords with the Commentary on the Yuanjue jing, which states: "Sentient beings and dharmas are fundamentally nonexistent; everything is vijñaptimātra. Consciousness is like an illusion or dream, being merely the One Mind." The Śūraṅgama states: "The seeing and the conditions of seeing, seemingly manifesting as the objective realm before us, are originally my enlightened clarity."