顯密圓通成佛心要集 1.7

1.7

First, as for the contemplation of all dharmas as like a dream and an illusion (which corresponds to the contemplation of the dharmadhātu of phenomena): it means constantly contemplating that all defiled and pure dharmas in their entirety are unreal and are all like a dream and an illusion; and this contemplating wisdom is also like a dream and an illusion. The *Avataṃsaka Sūtra* says: "Just as in a dream one sees / various different signs, / so too is the world: / it has no difference from a dream." It also says: "To deliver sentient beings, / cause them to know that dharmas are like illusions; / sentient beings are not different from illusions; / realizing illusion, there are no sentient beings." Furthermore, the *Diamond Sūtra* says: "All conditioned dharmas / are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows, / like dew and like lightning; / one should contemplate them thus." Master Zhao said: "Empty and false, the three realms are unreal; / like dreams and illusions, the six destinies contain no thing." All sentient beings, from beginningless time, have grasped all dharmas as real existences, thereby generating delusion, creating karma, and cycling through the six destinies. If one constantly reflects that all fame, gain, enemies, loved ones, the three realms, and the six destinies in their entirety are unreal and all like a dream and an illusion, then love and aversion will naturally diminish, and compassion and wisdom will naturally grow brighter. (This contemplation of dreams and illusions is called in the *Commentary on the Perfect Enlightenment Sūtra* "the contemplation of arising as illusion to extinguish dust [defilements]"; Tiantai calls it the "contemplation of the provisional" and also "the calming that accommodates conditions as an expedient." Distinctly illuminating is called "contemplation" [vipaśyanā], and resting serene without disturbance is called "calming" [śamatha]; thus within contemplation there is calming, and within calming there is contemplation: this is the joint practice of calming and contemplation. All other calming-and-contemplations are to be understood accordingly. If someone, though having faith and understanding in the perfect teaching, has afflictions so thick and heavy that they cannot cultivate this contemplation of dreams and illusions, they should practice the contemplation of impurity. That is, contemplating the five kinds of impurity of the body: First, impurity of seed: it is formed from the union of the father's semen and the mother's blood, red and white. The *Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra* says: "The seed of this body is impure; / it is not other wonderful jewels. / It does not arise from what is pure and white, / but only emerges from a foul pathway." Second, impurity of dwelling place: it dwells within the mother's womb, below the stomach of raw food and above the stomach of digested food, where impurities overflow and filth abounds. Also, Haishan said: "Impurities serve as clothing, and filth becomes food and drink." Third, impurity of its own substance: the thirty-six substances are all mutually combined impurities. The thirty-six are: outwardly there are twelve—hair of head, hair of body, nails, teeth, grime, dirt, the two excretions (feces and urine), rheum, tears, nasal mucus, and saliva; next there are twelve—skin, flesh, blood, fat, grease, brain, membrane, bones, marrow, sinews, and vessels; inwardly there are twelve—heart, liver, gall bladder, bowels, spleen, kidneys, intestines, stomach, organ of raw food, organ of digested food, red phlegm, and white phlegm. Thus one knows that from head to foot, all is impure. Master Yongjia said: "A leather bag holding feces, a gathering of pus and blood, an overflowing of impurities, an abode for maggots; even fishmongers' shops and privy-holes cannot compare to it." Fourth, impurity of its individual marks: the nine apertures constantly discharge various foul abominations. As for the nine apertures: the two ears discharge wax, the two eyes discharge rheum and tears, the two nostrils discharge thick mucus, the mouth discharges saliva, the anus discharges feces, and the urethra discharges urine. The *Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra* says: "Various impure things / fill the body; / constantly they flow out impurities, / like things kept in a leaky bag." Fifth, ultimate impurity: when life ends, the body disintegrates, bloats, stinks, and becomes pus, blood, and maggots, unfit to approach. Tiantai says: "From feet to head, and from head to feet, observing the body all over, one sees only bloating and rotting, with worms and pus flowing from the excretory passages, stinking worse than a dead dog." The *Sūtra of the Contemplation of the Mind-Ground* says: "One should contemplate one's own body as foul, putrid, and impure, just like a dead dog." The *Suvarṇaprabhāsa Sūtra* says: "For long I relied on this body, / stinking, putrid, and flowing with pus, not to be loved. / Though constantly sustained, it harbors malice; / in the end it abandons me without gratitude." Having finished contemplating one's own body, one again contemplates others: whether male or female, all their bodies possess these five kinds of impurity; and so on up to contemplating the bodies of all sentient beings in the world as impure. Thus the *Awakening of Faith* says: "One should contemplate that all who have bodies in the world are impure, with various foul defilements, having nothing delightful." Since one contemplates all as impure, thoughts of greedy desire naturally do not arise. The *Āgama Sūtras* relate: "Long ago there was a king whose desires were insatiable. A monk admonished him with a verse, saying: 'The eyes are a den of rheum and tears, / the nose is a bag of foul snot, / the mouth is a vessel of saliva, / the belly is a granary of feces and urine. / But the king lacks the eye of wisdom / and is infatuated with sensual form. / This poor monk sees it as abominable, / and has left home to cultivate the bodhimanda.'" Tiantai says: "Though contemplating impurity, one can accomplish the great matter—just as one can cross the sea by relying on a corpse." Alternatively, one may practice the contemplation of the skeleton. One should first visualize on one's own forehead the skin and flesh rotting and falling away, seeing only white bone. Gradually from narrow to broad, visualize the skin and flesh of the entire head rotting and falling away to reveal white bone, and so on until the whole body is seen as white bone. Having clearly seen a single skeleton of one's own body appear, one again contemplates other persons rotting and falling away in the same manner. Having contemplated a second skeleton, one gradually contemplates an entire room, a monastery, a city, a country, and even the whole earth, bounded by the oceans, filled with skeletons. In order to cause the mind of contemplation to expand, one then returns from broad to narrow, gradually reducing the contemplation: seeing only a single country as all skeletons, gradually seeing a city, a monastery, a room, a single skeleton, and within that single skeleton, gradually seeing only a small amount of white bone between the eyebrows. Having seen the space between the eyebrows, one focuses on that single object and abides serenely; cultivating like this, one attains samādhi. When this contemplation is accomplished, all greedy desire naturally dissolves away. Alternatively, one may practice the contemplation of counting the breath. One should advance in cultivation step by step from shallow to deep. First, one must harmonize one's own breath so that it is neither rough nor slippery, and with single-minded focus count the inhalation and exhalation: first counting the inhalation and then the exhalation, from one to ten, starting over again at the end, keeping the mind on the count without distraction. When one's mind relaxes effortlessly and spontaneously moves from one to ten, resting in counting the breath, then one further follows the breath in and out with single-mindedness. When the breath enters, the mind follows it from the nose to the throat, from the throat to the heart, navel, hips, thighs, shins, down to the toes. When the breath exits, the mind also follows it: as the breath exits the body to a span [vitasti], a fathom [vyāma], and so on, the mind constantly and single-mindedly follows the breath's going in and out. If one feels that mind and breath rely on each other effortlessly, one then ties mindfulness solely between the eyebrows, or fixes the mind at the tip of the nose. One contemplates the breath residing in the body like a thread in a pearl, noting whether it is cold or warm, harmful or beneficial. If one feels the body serene and joyful, one then further examines the subtle breath closely, and contemplates the internal and external thirty-six impure substances of the whole body. One also contemplates the mind-consciousness as not remaining for a single kṣaṇa. Cultivating in this way, one feels the breath entering and exiting through all pores; the mind's eye opens with clarity, penetratingly seeing the thirty-six substances inside the body and the hosts of worms, and then one turns to further cultivation." As for other practices, there are further explanations, but fearing prolixity, we pause here. As the sūtras say, contemplating inhalation and exhalation is the initial gateway for all Buddhas of the three periods of time to enter the Way. Alternatively, one may practice the contemplation of the emptiness of the self. One must deliberately investigate: this present body is originally without a self; it is merely the united appearance of the two dharmas of form and mind. Form has four categories—earth, water, fire, and wind: hair of head and body, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, marrow, brain, and bodily filth are all its earth; nasal mucus, saliva, pus, blood, humors, spit, phlegm, tears, semen, vitality, feces, and urine are all its water; warmth is its fire; movement is wind. Mind has four categories—feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness: experiencing is feeling, apprehending signs is perception, performing actions is volitional formation, and discerning is consciousness. Among these eight categories, which one is the self? If all are the self, there would be eight selves. Moreover, within form there are further three hundred and sixty bones, each distinct; skin, hair, sinews, flesh, liver, heart, spleen, and kidneys are each different; the various mental associates and so on are also each different—seeing is not hearing, joy is not anger. Since there are so many things, who knows which one should definitely be taken as the self? If all are the self, there would be hundreds of thousands of selves, producing immense confusion within a single body. Apart from these there are no other dharmas; investigating the self back and forth, none can be found. Thus one knows that this body is merely a provisional combined appearance of multiple conditions, and is originally without a self. It is wonderful for a practitioner constantly to maintain this contemplation day and night. Because all sentient beings from beginningless time have grasped the body as the self, cherishing this self, they greedily seek fame and gain desiring to enrich and benefit 'me', feel anger at adverse conditions fearing they will violate and harm 'me', and in their foolish delusions make unprincipled calculations. Now, since one constantly contemplates that this body is originally without a self, the three poisons will naturally be extinguished; and once the three poisons are extinguished, one naturally transcends the three realms. Alternatively, one may practice the contemplation of the emptiness of other dharmas. One must attentively contemplate the two dharmas of form and mind of this body: form has earth, water, fire, and wind; mind has feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness. Attentively contemplating each of these eight dharmas, all arise from conditions and are entirely devoid of inherent nature; the eight dharmas in their very essence are all empty. Beginning practitioners should train in such contemplation practices, cultivating one or two, or even all five kinds according to what they delight in. The contemplation methods of the mind only value actual cultivation and refinement; when refined, they are full of flavor, but when spoken of, words are bland.)