念佛三昧寶王論 2.23

2.23

I reply: “Not so! If one clings to a buddha who is visualized and a mind that visualizes, or if one avoids visualizing the buddha and thus takes an evil grasping of emptiness as ‘no-thought’, this is the height of delusion! Now I realize that all buddhas are born from thought; since there is neither buddha nor thought, what delusion could there be? This is the samādhi of contemplating emptiness, not a wrong view. You also ask: ‘Where does the principle lie?’ Now, the perfected person unites with the real, embodies stillness, and empties his bosom. Although all myriad phenomena are simultaneously illuminated, they never inhere in his mind; ultimate wisdom has no conditions, and so is named ‘unthinking’; conventional wisdom has conditions, and so thoughts and conceptions arise. Furthermore, thought is not different from emptiness, and emptiness is not different from thought; this is called the principle of the Middle Way in the highest sense, which reveals the dharmakāya. Emptiness is precisely thought; this is called the principle of conventional truth; the myriad virtues like sands of the Ganges all rely on conventional truth, which reveals the saṃbhogakāya. Thought is precisely emptiness; this is called the principle of ultimate truth; destroying the twenty-five states of existence and attaining the twenty-five samādhis, being constantly empty yet constantly transforming, softening its light to benefit beings—this reveals the nirmāṇakāya. Thus, by means of the three contemplations, one contemplates the three truths, realizes the three virtues, accomplishes the three bodies, and so forth up to the ten triads of dharmas; what could be impermissible about this? Why then would you wish to discard pure thought and grasp at the thought of no-thought? Why block the gate of meditative concentration and grasp at the threshold of becoming a buddha? Both the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra and the Ghanavyūha Sūtra state: ‘Better to raise a view of existence as vast as Mount Sumeru.’ This means that by believing in cause and effect, holding thought and being mindful of the buddha, one is reborn in the pure land of Sukhāvatī; therefore it says ‘better to raise [a view of] existence.’ ‘Do not raise a view of emptiness as small as a mustard seed.’ This means that by rejecting cause and effect and slandering buddha-mindfulness, one is born in the Avīci Hell; therefore it says ‘do not raise [a view of] emptiness.’ Alas, what is truly to be feared lies right here!”