西方合論 8.17

8.17

六、癡空墮者，學道之人，稍窺法空，聞人念佛，即曰：「法離名字，若狥假名，轉益虛妄。何故？文言尚空，何況名號。」答：「《法句經》曰：『佛告寶明菩薩：「汝且觀是諸佛名字，若是有，說食與人，應得充饑；若名字無者，定光如來不授我記及于汝名。如無授者，我不應得佛。當知名字其已久如，以我如故，備顯諸法，名字性空，不在有無。」』《華嚴經》曰：『譬如諸法，不分別自性，不分別音聲，而自性不捨，名字不滅。』《群疑論》曰：『若言名字無用，不能詮諸法體，亦應喚水火來。故知筌蹄不空，魚兔斯得。』稱斯弘名，生實淨土，何得言虛？天台智者曰：『世間有空行人，執其癡空，不與修多羅合，聞此觀心而作難言：「觀心是法身等，應觸處平等，何故經像生敬，紙木生慢？敬慢異故，則非平等，非平等故，法身義不成。」答：「我以凡夫位中，觀如是相耳，為欲開顯此實相，恭敬經像令慧不縛；使無量人崇善去惡，令方便不縛，豈與汝同耶？」』上都儀曰：『夫歸命三寶者，要指方立相，住心取境，不明無相離念也。佛懸知凡夫繫心，尚乃不得，況離相耶。如無術通人，居空造舍也。』《法華經》曰：『汝證一切智，十力等佛法，具三十二相，乃是真實滅。』南泉大師曰：『微妙淨法身，具相三十二，祇是不許分劑心量。』若無如是心，一切行處乃至彈指合掌，皆是正因。百丈和尚曰：『行道禮拜，慈悲喜捨，沙門本事，宛然依佛勅，祇是不許執著。』《淨土指歸》曰：『圓頓行人，語默動靜，皆遵聖教，盡合佛心。若以念佛生心動念成妄想者，則息心無念，亦成妄想。』《首楞嚴經》云：『縱滅一切見聞覺知，內守幽間，猶為法塵分別影事。』若以念佛著有為患，則執空之人其患尤甚。永嘉云：『豁達空，撥因果，𣾘𣾘蕩蕩招殃禍。』若以外求他佛為未達，則內執己心，不達尤甚。長沙云：『學道之人不識真，只為從來認識神；無量劫來生死本，癡人喚作本來人。』若以別求淨土為遍見，則執目前為淨土者，其失尤甚。《楞嚴經》說：『落魔道者，都指現前即為佛國，無別淨居及金色相，口中好言眼耳鼻舌皆為淨土，男女二根即是菩提，弟子與師俱陷王難，迷惑無知，墮無間獄。』若以執有修證為權說者，執無修證墮落外道，其禍尤甚。《楞嚴經》曰：『若彼定中諸善男子，見色陰消、受陰明白，自謂已足，則有一分大我慢魔，入其心腑，謂三祇劫一念能越，心中尚輕十方如來，何況下位聲聞、緣覺。不禮塔廟，摧毀經像，謂檀越言：「此是金銅、是土木，經是樹葉或是疊華。肉身真常，不自恭敬，却崇土木，實為顛倒。」疑誤眾生，入無間獄。』是故當知，執空破相，皆是魔屬。《智度論》曰：『譬如田舍人，初不識鹽，見人以鹽著種種肉菜中而食，問言：「何以故爾？」語言：「此鹽能令諸物味美故。」其人便念此鹽，能令諸物味美，自味必多，便空鈔鹽，滿口食之，鹹苦傷口。而問言：「汝何以言鹽能作美？」人言：「癡人，此當籌量多少，和之令美，云何純食？」無智人聞空解脫門，斷諸善根，亦復如是。』思之思之，任爾一切空、生死空，爭柰閻羅大王空不得何。」

Sixth are those who fall into foolish emptiness. Practitioners of the Way, having glimpsed emptiness of dharmas only slightly, hear someone practicing buddhānusmṛti and immediately say: "The Dharma is free from names. If one conforms to provisional designations, one turns all the more toward unreality and falsehood. Why? If written words are already empty, how much more so are names and titles!" In reply: The Dharmapada states: "The Buddha told the Bodhisattva Baoming: 'Observe these names of the Buddhas: if they exist, then speaking of food to people should satisfy their hunger; if names do not exist, Dīpaṅkara Tathāgata would not have bestowed a prophecy upon me or upon your name. If there were no bestowing, I should not have attained buddhahood. You should know that names have already long been such; because I am such, all dharmas are fully revealed. The nature of names is empty, and is neither in existence nor non-existence.'" The Avataṃsaka-sūtra says: "Just as dharmas do not discriminate their own natures, nor do they discriminate sounds, yet their own natures are not abandoned, and their names are not extinguished." The Qunyi lun states: "If one says that names are useless and cannot express the essence of dharmas, then one should also be able to call for water and have fire arrive. Therefore, we know that the fish trap and hare snare are not empty; thus the fish and hare are caught." Invoking this great name brings about rebirth in the real Pure Land; how can it be called unreal? Tiantai Zhizhe said: "There are practitioners of emptiness in the world who cling to their foolish emptiness, which does not accord with the sūtras. Hearing this contemplation of the mind, they raise an objection, saying: 'Contemplating the mind is the Dharmakāya and so forth, which should be equal everywhere. Why then do you produce reverence toward scriptures and images, yet show disrespect toward paper and wood? Since reverence and disrespect differ, this is not equality; and because it is not equality, the meaning of the Dharmakāya is not established.' The reply is: 'I contemplate such marks while only in the rank of an ordinary person. Wishing to reveal this true mark, I revere scriptures and images so that wisdom is not bound; and I cause countless people to esteem goodness and discard evil so that skillful means are not bound. How could this be the same as you?'" The Shangdu yi states: "Those who take refuge in the Three Jewels must point to a direction and establish marks, fixing the mind and taking hold of objects; they do not speak of marklessness and detachment from thought. The Buddha foresaw that ordinary persons, in fastening their minds, are still unable [to succeed]; how much less could they be detached from marks? This would be like a person without magical powers trying to build a house in empty space." The Lotus Sūtra says: "When you realize all-knowledge, / The ten powers, and other Buddha-dharmas, / And are endowed with the thirty-two marks, / That indeed is true extinction." Great Master Nanquan said: "The subtle, wondrous, pure Dharmakāya is endowed with the thirty-two marks; one is merely not permitted to have a calculating, limiting mind." If one is free from such a mind, all places of practice, down to a snap of the fingers or joining of the palms, are right causes. Master Baizhang said: "Practicing the Way and making prostrations, kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity are the proper tasks of a śramaṇa, faithfully according with the Buddha's decree; one is merely not permitted to cling to them." The Jingtu zhigui says: "Practitioners of the perfect and sudden [teaching], in speech, silence, movement, and stillness, all comply with the sacred teachings and completely accord with the Buddha's mind. If one considers that generating thoughts and stirring the mind in buddhānusmṛti constitutes false discrimination, then pacifying the mind to be without thought also constitutes false discrimination." The Śūraṅgama-sūtra says: "Even if you extinguish all seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing, and internally guard the secluded stillness, it is still the shadow-affair of discriminating the dust of dharmas." If one considers being attached to existence through buddhānusmṛti to be an affliction, then for the person who clings to emptiness, the affliction is far worse. Yongjia said: "Sweeping emptiness that negates cause and effect / recklessly and wildly summons calamity and misfortune." If one considers seeking another Buddha externally to be unawakened, then internally clinging to one's own mind is an even greater failure of awakening. Changsha said: "Practitioners of the Way do not recognize the real, / solely because they have always recognized the conscious spirit; / the root of saṃsāra for countless kalpas, / fools call the original person." If one considers seeking the Pure Land elsewhere to be a biased view, then for those who cling to what is right before their eyes as the Pure Land, their error is far worse. The Śūraṅgama-sūtra says: "Those who fall into demonic paths all point to what is present before them as being the Buddha land, having no other pure abode or golden-hued marks. Their mouths love to say that eyes, ears, nose, and tongue are all the Pure Land, and that the male and female organs are themselves bodhi. The disciples and teacher together encounter royal punishment; deluded and ignorant, they fall into the Avīci hell." If one considers clinging to cultivation and realization as provisional teachings, then clinging to the absence of cultivation and realization causes one to fall among non-Buddhists, and its disaster is far worse. The Śūraṅgama-sūtra says: "If those good sons in samādhi see the form skandha dissolve and the feeling skandha become clear, and deem themselves already satisfied, then a demon of great arrogance will enter their mind and innards. They will claim that in a single thought they can transcend three asaṃkhyeya kalpas; in their minds they will even look down upon the Tathāgatas of the ten directions, not to mention the lower ranks of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas. They do not bow to stūpas and temples; they destroy scriptures and images, saying to donors: 'These are gold and bronze, clay and wood. Sūtras are tree leaves or silk and cotton cloth. Why not revere one's own fleshly body, which is truly permanent, instead of venerating clay and wood, which is truly upside-down?' Causing doubt and misleading sentient beings, they enter the Avīci hell." Therefore, you should know that clinging to emptiness and destroying marks all belong to Māra. The Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra says: "For example, a rustic who at first did not know salt saw people put salt into various meats and vegetables to eat. He asked, 'Why do you do this?' They told him, 'Because this salt makes all things delicious.' The man then thought, 'If this salt makes all things delicious, its own flavor must be abundant!' He then took a scoop of pure salt and ate a mouthful of it, which was bitter, salty, and hurt his mouth. He asked, 'Why did you say salt makes things delicious?' They said, 'Foolish man! One must measure the amount and mix it to make things delicious; how could you eat it pure?' An unwise person who hears of the liberation-gate of emptiness and cuts off all kuśalamūlas is also like this." Think on this! Think on this! Let everything be empty, let saṃsāra be empty—what will you do when Great King Yama cannot be made empty?