法界圖記叢髓錄 1.75

1.75

道身章云：如一夜中夢，已過父及未生子各三有九。覺時見之，但在一念心中。非此心中片分為父、片分為我、片分為子，總在一心，隨舉即攝。九人無所相知，而非絕無九人之別。又非一念之外立三為有、立六為無，有無同處一念而非有無之別（已上）。是故但其無我報心，全為父、全為我、全為子故，如九世別，法亦別也。問：現在一念簡餘八世之別義，與於九世中無偏當之總義何別？答：儼尊者以喻示相和尚云：如人夢見父及祖父登上蓋屋，子與孫子在下輸瓦，自處中間傳次而授也。祖父是過去，過去故唯一位；父是過去現在、現在過去故具二位；中間身則是過去未來現在、現在未來過去，故具三位；子是現在未來、未來現在，故具二位；孫子是未來，故唯一位也。其在中間傳瓦之人，約當體則簡餘八世，故現在現在也。通夢五人，則於九世中無偏當也。故此人上具有二義，是故以總別時隔法也。

The Daoshen zhang says: 'For example, in a dream during a single night, the already deceased father and the yet unborn son each have three, making nine. When awakening and viewing them, they are only within the mind of a single thought-moment. It is not that this mind is partially divided into the father, partially divided into oneself, and partially divided into the son; they are entirely within the One Mind, and whichever is raised subsumes [the others]. The nine persons have no mutual awareness, yet it is not that there is utterly no distinction among the nine persons. Furthermore, it is not that outside of the single thought-moment three are established as existent and six are established as non-existent; existence and non-existence share the same place in a single thought-moment, yet it is not that there is no distinction between existence and non-existence.' (End of quote). Therefore, simply because its selfless retribution-mind is entirely the father, entirely oneself, and entirely the son, just as the nine periods are distinct, phenomena are also distinct. Question: What is the difference between the particular meaning of the present single thought-moment excluding the remaining eight periods, and the universal meaning of having no biased correspondence among the nine periods? Answer: Venerable Yan used a metaphor to show Master Xiang, saying: 'It is like a person who dreams of seeing his father and grandfather climbing up to roof a house, his son and grandson below transporting tiles, while he himself stays in the middle, passing them along in succession. The grandfather is the past; being past, it is only one position. The father is past-present and present-past, so he possesses two positions. The central person is past-future-present and present-future-past, so he possesses three positions. The son is present-future and future-present, so he possesses two positions. The grandson is the future, so he is only one position. As for the person passing tiles in the middle, in terms of his own essence he excludes the remaining eight periods, and is therefore present-present. Comprehensively dreaming of the five persons, there is no biased correspondence among the nine periods. Therefore, on this person both meanings are fully present; for this reason, time as universal and particular separates phenomena.'