釋門歸敬儀 1.62

1.62

但以無始倒凡，隨情妄執，約相猶迷邪正，何能頓遣見聞？所以大聖觀機，未得垂道，權說福業，用接愚心。故舉淨方之勝相，發動迷心之背向，且攝邪心，令從正法。漸漬既久，心性轉明，方示非真，令行理觀。據此修捨，實是知機。若彼下愚，未聞真道，即為化說，色聲非真，心路蒼茫，莫知投寄，福業不行，道心無涉，遂即雙廢，長處罪流。由此方便，引令出有，故示西方極樂世界，令心翹注，不得轉移。但此下愚，貪滯難拔，縱任想像，何時通悟？故行事福，漸行理觀。身本頑癡，不可繩持，心是道因，從緣便悟。謂此形儀，本唯識有，迷於本習，妄見我人。故須徵研，令行敬養，令見我身，俯仰上下，唯塵生滅，來往屈申，此隨俗也。重觀此身，但塵非我，妄謂我所，能有行敬，據此一理，名通真也。真本非心，今隨心起，名隨俗也。知真非心，名道真也。如是念念，以後奪前，漸漸增明，久而明利。若隨故習，忽此不修，還同無始生死輪轉。是以力勵隨念剋思，一一科程，令其升進。然則聖凡之道，自古相傳，凡非定凡，故有逆流返本之迹；聖非自聖，終因漸悟觀達之功。故凡可為聖，以佛性為宗元；聖不為凡，以悟解為歸敬。是知理事行務，且隔形心，至於動用，真俗竝觀。所以隨其發足，畢約兩緣，知無顯真，知識是俗，種從緣起，方可有階。若身心兩分，真俗二路，三倒常行，革凡何日？

However, because inverted ordinary persons from beginningless time falsely cling in accordance with their passions, and remain confused about the heterodox and the orthodox with regard to signs, how could they abruptly dispel seeing and hearing? Therefore, the Great Sage, observing the capacities, could not yet bestow the true path, but provisionally preached the karma of merit to receive foolish minds. Thus, he presented the supreme signs of the pure lands to stir the orientation of deluded minds, temporarily gathering in heterodox minds and making them follow the correct Dharma. After long, gradual steeping, their mental nature becomes clearer, and only then did he reveal that these are not ultimate, causing them to practice the contemplation of principle. Cultivating and renouncing according to this is truly knowing the capacities. If, to those inferior fools who have not yet heard the true path, one were to preach transformations and say that form and sound are not real, their mental path would be vast and vacant, having nowhere to turn, so that their practice of merit would not be performed and their aspiration for the path would not be involved; consequently, both would be abandoned, and they would forever dwell in the stream of offenses. By means of this expedient, guiding them to emerge from existence, he therefore revealed the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss, causing their minds to concentrate earnestly without wavering. Yet these inferior fools are greedy, stagnant, and hard to extract; if they give free rein to conceptualization, when will they ever thoroughly awaken? Therefore, by practicing phenomenal merit, they gradually practice the contemplation of principle. The body is fundamentally dull and foolish, not to be bound by rules; the mind is the cause of the path, awakening as it follows conditions. This means that these bodily deportments fundamentally exist only in consciousness; deluded by fundamental habituation, one falsely sees a self and others. Therefore, one must scrutinize and examine, causing them to practice veneration and offerings, and causing them to see that my body, bowing and looking up, high and low, is merely the arising and ceasing of dust, going and coming, bending and stretching—this is following the conventional. Again, contemplating this body: it is only dust and not a self; falsely taking it as mine, it is able to practice veneration—in accordance with this single principle, it is called penetrating the ultimate. The ultimate is fundamentally not mind, but now it arises along with the mind, which is called following the conventional; knowing that the ultimate is not mind is called the path of the ultimate. In this way, thought after thought, the later displaces the former, gradually becoming brighter, and over time becoming clear and sharp. If one follows past habits and neglects this without cultivating it, one will return to the same beginningless transmigration of birth and death. For this reason, one must exert oneself, controlling thought with every mindfulness, through each curriculum, causing one to advance. However, the paths of the sage and the ordinary person have been handed down from antiquity: an ordinary person is not permanently an ordinary person, hence there are the traces of going against the stream and returning to the source; a sage is not a sage of himself, but ultimately depends on the efficacy of gradual awakening and penetrating contemplation. Therefore, an ordinary person can become a sage, taking the Buddha-nature as the fundamental origin; a sage does not become an ordinary person, taking awakening and understanding as taking refuge and veneration. Thus we know that in the practice of phenomena and principle, body and mind are provisionally separated; yet in active functioning, the ultimate and the conventional are contemplated together. Therefore, as one sets out on the path, one must ultimately rely on both conditions: knowing non-existence reveals the ultimate, and knowing consciousness is the conventional; when seeds arise from conditions, only then can there be stages. If body and mind are divided in two, and the ultimate and conventional are two paths, then the three inversions will be constantly practiced; on what day will one transform the ordinary?