廬山蓮宗寶鑑 2.19

2.19

Great Master Zhizhe said: "Once the teachings of the Buddhas are understood, without the practice of contemplation there is no way to return to one's nature. Therefore, relying on the principle of the three truths in one mind, he demonstrated the three cessations and three contemplations, where in each and every contemplative mind, thought after thought cannot be grasped. First emptiness, next the provisional, and afterward the middle: leaving the two extremes to contemplate the one mind. Like the moon beyond the clouds—this is the aspect of practice of the distinct teaching." He also said: "For shattering all delusion, nothing is more potent than emptiness; for establishing all phenomena, nothing is more potent than the provisional; for exhausting all natures, nothing is greater than the middle. Therefore, when one is middle, all are middle; there is neither provisional nor empty that is not middle. The same is true for emptiness and the provisional; this is the aspect of practice of the perfect teaching. Like the three dots of the Sanskrit letter i, or the three eyes of the god Maheśvara, arrayed neither vertically nor horizontally. Therefore, when the three contemplations are perfectly fulfilled, the dharmakāya is not bare, and one avoids being like the poor son." Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna's verse says: "Phenomena arisen through causes and conditions, I explain as being empty; they are also called provisional names, and are also the meaning of the middle way." Although the names differ from the three contemplations of śamatha, samāpatti, and dhyāna taught in the Śūraṅgama and Perfect Enlightenment sūtras, their purport is one. They are also called the natural virtues of the nature of the three truths: the middle truth integrates all phenomena, the real truth obliterates all phenomena, and the conventional truth establishes all phenomena; to raise one is to raise all three, not in sequence. Sentient beings fundamentally possess them; they are not obtained through purposeful contrivance. The secret treasury is not revealed only because it is covered by the three delusions: fundamental ignorance darkens the Dharma-nature, dust-and-sand delusions obstruct transforming and guiding [others], and delusions of view and thought impede emptiness and quiescence. Yet these three delusions are merely false unrealities on the substance. Therefore, the three contemplations are established to shatter the three delusions, realize the three wisdoms, and accomplish the three virtues. The contemplation of emptiness shatters the delusions of view and thought, realizes all-knowledge, and accomplishes the virtue of prajñā. The contemplation of the provisional shatters the dust-and-sand delusions, realizes the knowledge of the paths, and accomplishes the virtue of liberation. The contemplation of the middle shatters the delusion of fundamental ignorance, realizes all-aspect knowledge, and accomplishes the virtue of the dharmakāya. They are not separate, nor at different times, because the natural principle contains all phenomena. Yet these three truths are naturally so of their own nature, exhausting principle and fulfilling nature; therefore they differ yet do not differ from the Chan school. When a practitioner engages in buddhānusmṛti, the mental faculty is the direct cause, and the round light of the white curl of hair between the brows is the condition; the thought that arises is the produced phenomenon. Carefully contemplating the arising of the mind mindful of the Buddha: it is a provisional name; substantializing it, it is empty. Penetratingly inspecting this mind, the Tathāgatagarbha is present, leaving extremes and revealing the middle; whether sense faculties or sense dusts, all are the dharmadhātu; Buddhas and sentient beings universally respond in a single thought. Reaching the middle right through the extremes, there is neither Buddha nor mindfulness. This is the Mahāyāna buddhānusmṛti of the perfect cultivation of the three contemplations. It may be called: 'Lacking marks, lacking emptiness, yet nothing that is not empty—this is the true and real mark of the Tathāgata.'"