念佛三昧寶王論 2.6

2.6

I reply: “Although the conditioned is false, if one abandons it, then the endeavor of the Way cannot be accomplished. Although the unconditioned is real, if one grasps it, then the mind of wisdom will not be luminous. A sūtra says: ‘To loathe and shun conditioned merits is the work of Māra; to delight in and cling to unconditioned merits is also the work of Māra.’ Now with loathing and delight warring within you, how can you avoid penetrating to the very bones of Māra? Furthermore, when sages and worthies gather the mind, it is called internal; when ordinary beings let thought run wild, it is called external. If you consider running external to be distraction and abiding internal to be concentration, this is once again being run by the internal and external; it is not the intention of gathering the mind in buddhānusmṛti-samādhi. In his Commentary on the Vimalakīrti Sūtra, Dharma Master Kumārajīva says: ‘In a foreign land there was a woman whose body was golden in color. There was a son of an elder named Damodara, who offered a thousand ounces of gold to invite her into a bamboo grove, and they rode off together. Along the way, Mañjuśrī transformed his body into that of a white-robed layman wearing precious garments, which were exceedingly magnificent and fine. Seeing them, the woman gave rise to greed within her mind. Mañjuśrī said: “If you wish to obtain these garments, you should bring forth the bodhi-mind.” The woman said: “What is the bodhi-mind?” Mañjuśrī said: “Your very body is it.” She asked: “How is it so?” He replied: “The nature of bodhi is empty, and your body is also empty; therefore, it is so.” Formerly, before the Buddha Kāśyapa, this woman had planted many roots of goodness and widely cultivated wisdom; upon hearing this exposition, she immediately attained the forbearance of the non-arising of phenomena (anutpattika-dharma-kṣānti). Having attained this forbearance, wishing to demonstrate the fault of desire, she went back into the grove with the elder's son. Having entered the grove, she manifested her own body as dead, swollen, rotting, and foul. Seeing this, the elder's son was terrified; he went to the Buddha's place, and when the Buddha expounded the Dharma for him, he also attained dharma-forbearance.’ Because the Great Awakening is not yet accomplished and one has not yet the leisure for effortless ease, it is called ‘forbearance.’ As one contemplates the true mark of one's own body, so it is in contemplating the Buddha: the woman's body is empty, and the Buddha's body is empty; they have never differed. How could the meaning of bodhi differ? If it is like this, then all conditioned things are precisely the unconditioned! All internal and external are neither internal nor external! Thus, being in existence one has never been in existence, for existence is constantly non-existence; abiding in non-existence one has never been in non-existence, for non-existence constantly exists. What worry is there that the Buddha has marks and the mind has thoughts?”