法界圖記叢髓錄 1.75

1.75

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.'