釋禪波羅蜜次第法門 7.74

7.74

Fourteenth, contemplating detachment from desire: this corresponds to the station of boundless consciousness. Why is that? All grasping and attachment to external objects are called desire. From the desire realm up to the station of boundless space, all are objects external to the mind. If empty space is an external object, when consciousness receives this emptiness, it takes emptiness as an object of desire. Now the absorption of the station of consciousness conditions internal consciousness, and because it can detach from desire for external space, it is called detachment from desire. If ordinary people attain this absorption, lacking the wisdom-eye to illuminate and comprehend it, they claim that the mind corresponds with consciousness as a real and secure state, and thus produce defiled attachment. Now, as for “contemplating detachment from desire”: when one attains this absorption, one immediately contemplates, analyzes, and deconstructs it. If one says that by having the mind condition consciousness, the mind and consciousness correspond, thereby entering absorption, this is truly not so. Why is that? Consciousness across the three times—past, future, and present—does not correspond with the present mind; how could one say that the mind corresponds with consciousness across the three times? A dharma of absorption holds the mind, which is named the absorption of consciousness. Thus, one knows that this absorption of consciousness exists in name only, deceptive and untrue; hence it is named detachment from desire.