念佛三昧寶王論 3.19

3.19

I reply: "You say that the supreme, wondrous dhyāna of buddhānusmṛti-samādhi is not sought within mental activity. That is not so! Let me clarify this for you. The mind's activity acts in three spheres: first, acting in wholesome spheres, which is the buddhānusmṛti-samādhi, the best of the wholesome, the heaven among heavens; second, acting in unwholesome spheres, which refers to all evil spheres such as greed, anger, and delusion; third, acting in neutral spheres, meaning that the mind does not abide and does not condition the wholesome or the unwholesome. If one speaks of the nature of principle, principle pervades the preceding three; but speaking of according with principle, only the wholesome sphere is retained. The sūtra says: 'What is called grasping at a self is defilement; not grasping at a self is purity.' This means that failing to comprehend that the substance of dharma-nature is free from stinginess and greed, one acts contrary to dharma-nature and does not practice giving; or even if giving, one abides in giving and cannot relinquish giving—how is this not defilement? If one can comprehend and accord with dharma-nature, practicing the perfection of giving without the marks of stinginess or giving, perfectly according with principle—how is this not purity? The unwholesome and the neutral conflict with dharma-nature and cannot be joined together with the wholesome. Therefore King Viśeṣacinti asked the Buddha: 'How does a bodhisattva penetrate the perfection of dhyāna?' The Buddha told the great king: 'When a bodhisattva mahāsattva learns the perfection of prajñā and practices the perfection of dhyāna, he should observe what sphere this mind acts in: whether in wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral spheres. If it acts in wholesome spheres, he diligently cultivates it, just as a lotus flower does not retain water droplets, and he does not abide for a moment in the sea of unwholesome ones.' According to these golden words, how could one fail to reject the unwholesome and the neutral? Thus, according with principle, the wholesome mind acts in wholesome spheres, and through blazing buddha-mindfulness, liberation is found within mental activity. If one says that the mental activity of buddha-mindfulness is not liberation, how could the two kinds of mental activity—unwholesome and neutral—ever possess it? Regarding such liberation: if deluded about it, one is stranded for vast kalpas; if awakened to it, one realizes it as easily as turning over one's palm. The clear mirror for practicing dhyāna is truly right here. The Tathāgata, Hero of the World, examined those various samādhis and took the buddhānusmṛti-samādhi to be the king among dhyānas; all other samādhis that rely on conditions or have counterparts are merely the samādhis of common fellows. However, the Jewel King Samādhi does not abide in the mark of superiority nor in the mark of inferiority; the mark of wrong or right, the mark of saṃsāra or nirvāṇa, the mark of defilement or bodhi, the mark of stillness or disturbance, the mark of attaining perfect enlightenment, the mark of delivering sentient beings, the mark of sitting at the bodhimaṇḍa, or the mark of non-attainment—in all such marks, it does not abide at all, just like waking from a dream, entirely without coming or going. Therefore the *Large Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra* says: 'Neither going nor coming is the Buddha.' When it is thus, even the Middle Way is set aside; how could it abide in the extremes? As the verse in the *Sūtra on the Inaction of All Seas* says: