釋門歸敬儀 2.14

2.14

The above are all standard texts of secular propriety, interpreted according to status by Zheng Xuan in this manner. Now, based on the inner teachings, taking reverent propriety as the beginning, it is roughly divided into two: namely, body and mind. The Buddhadharma takes mind as the root and body as the branches. Therefore, when Subhūti quietly contemplated in his room, the Tathāgata praised it as bowing to and seeing the dharmakāya; when Utpalavarṇā was the first to arrive at the jeweled staircase, the Tathāgata disparaged it as bowing to a transformation Buddha. Thus we know that when one contemplates subtleties in a quiet place, thought by thought one proceeds toward the Path; when one observes physical shapes and scrutinizes forms, again and again one remains in the secular. If subject and object are not yet relinquished, conceptual thoughts arise together, and when the inversion of a self appears before one, it constitutes an obstruction to the Path. Therefore, with reference to this, the Buddha distinguished bodily and mental reverence. If one can grasp form as condition for emptiness and contemplate that the objective realm is created by mind, then even though thoughts arise in profusion, not without purity and defilement, one knows that consciousness's false thoughts cannot yet become clear and serene; when conceptual inversions are emptied, conditioned thinking is severed. Dwelling now at the stage of ordinary beings, one's power can only exert control to this extent; when thought by thought occurs naturally, one gradually becomes able to be pure and clean, constantly generating the two contemplations, which must not be practiced in isolation. Knowing that there are no objective realms is gradually turning toward the ultimate; knowing consciousness-only is gradually turning away from the conventional. If one spurs one's cultivation like this unceasingly for a long time, then part by part clarity increases, and only after three asaṃkhyeya kalpas is it completed. This has already been explained above and must be known repeatedly. In the sūtras, the explanation of reverence has many ranks and distinctions; therefore, I first list the table of contents and subsequently explain them in detail according to it (meaning, one first knows the rites of reverent practice, and afterward accords with them and applies them in succession):