四明尊者教行錄 4.114

4.114

答：只一如來藏性，眾生循業發現不同，是故山河大地建立胎卵濕化成形。如《佛頂經》曰：覺海性澄圓，圓澄覺元妙，元明照生所，所立照性亡。迷妄有虛空，依空立世界，想澄成國土，知覺乃眾生。且無情化有情者，神識乘時而來，依草附木也。有情化無情者，神識遇氣遷變，驅㲉枯朽也。當知千變不離於一念，萬化難逃於藏識。世間更有火鼠湯蟲氷蠶石鷰，情器難量，業報奚測？佛及眾生俱不思議，於茲見矣。

Answer: It is solely the single nature of the tathāgatagarbha; sentient beings manifest it differently according to their karma. Therefore the mountains, rivers, and great earth are established, and beings born from eggs, wombs, moisture, and transformation take form. As the Foding jing says: 'The nature of the ocean of awakening is clear and perfect; perfect and clear, the awakening is fundamentally wondrous. Fundamentally luminous, it illumines and generates an objective sphere; once the sphere is established, the illumining nature is lost. In delusion and falsity there is empty space, and relying on space worlds are established; solidified thoughts become the land, and knowing and awareness constitute sentient beings.' Furthermore, when insentient things transform into sentient beings, consciousness arrives seizing the opportune moment, adhering to grass and attaching to trees. When sentient beings transform into insentient things, consciousness undergoes mutation upon encountering conditions, leaving behind a dried-up, decayed husk. You should know that a thousand transformations do not depart from a single thought, and ten thousand mutations cannot escape the storehouse consciousness. In the world there are also fire-rats, boiling-water insects, ice-silkworms, and stone swallows; sentient beings and their environment are difficult to measure, and how could karmic retribution be fathomed? That buddhas and sentient beings are both inconceivable can be seen in this.