西方合論 8

English (machine translation) 8

Language: English

Now, all deluded sentiments arise relying on various views: treading upon them becomes a dense forest; sinking into them becomes a boiling sea. Like a silkworm spinning a cocoon, its very dwelling place becomes the cause of its binding; like a moth rushing toward a flame, relying on the light becomes the basis for losing its life. Therefore past masters said: 'When practice arises, understanding ceases.' For this reason, when about to approach the holy chamber, one first enters the gate of Samantabhadra; wishing to cultivate the correct cause, one first cuts through the net of wrong views. Now, in summary of the lapses and falls of various teachers, they are briefly divided into ten items. Since there is no dharma to be abandoned, every view must be rebuked. A prodigal son who has cast away his home is accustomed to pitying wayfarers; an impoverished scholar who failed the examinations fully knows the bitter straits of a dead end. May you follow the Buddha's words and not rely on the teachings of Māra.

8.3

1. The fall into annihilationism. 2. The fall into faint-hearted inferiority. 3. The fall into following words.

8.4

4. The fall into reckless arrogance. 5. The fall into fragmented dissolution. 6. The fall into foolish emptiness.

8.5

7. The fall into according with conditions. 8. The fall into mind-only. 9. The fall into sudden enlightenment.

8.6

10. The fall into the perfect and real.

8.7

First, regarding the fall into annihilationism, there are two kinds: first, various Confucian scholars who are stuck on the present body and suspect that the future is annihilation; second, newly aspiring students who cling to the mark of emptiness and suspect that everything is annihilation. Such people do not even believe that there is birth; how could they believe in rebirth, the Pure Land, and such matters? Now I shall explain it briefly:

8.8

First, explaining [the error of] the Confucian scholars and the like: In the Śūraṅgama-sūtra, "The Buddha said to King Prasenajit: 'You now lament that your hair is white and your face wrinkled; your face must surely be more wrinkled than in your youth. Yet now, when you look at this Ganges River, compared to your perception when looking at the river back in your youth, is there any youth or old age in that seeing?' The king said: 'No.' The Buddha said: 'Great King, although your face is wrinkled, the nature of this essential seeing has never been wrinkled. What is wrinkled undergoes change; what is not wrinkled does not change. What changes is subject to annihilation, whereas that which does not change fundamentally has neither arising nor cessation. How could it undergo your birth and death within itself, such that you say this body is completely annihilated after death?'" / The Dazhidulun states: "Question: 'When a person dies, they return to annihilation. Annihilation is of three kinds: first, burned by fire into ashes; second, eaten by worms into dung; third, ultimately returning to dust. Now we only see its annihilation, and do not see anyone else emerging to receive a future body. Because it is not seen, one therefore knows it does not exist.' Answer: 'If one asserts that with the destruction of the body there is simply nothing, why do sentient beings possess sorrow, joy, fear, and dread habitualized from prior lifetimes? For example, when an infant is born, it may cry or laugh; having previously habitualized sorrow and joy, now without anyone teaching it, sorrow and joy arise in succession. Furthermore, a newborn calf naturally knows to seek milk; among pigs, sheep, and the like, not long after birth they know the union of male and female. Children share the same parents, yet beauty and ugliness, wealth and poverty, intelligence and dullness are each different. If there were no causes and conditions from prior lifetimes, there should be no differences. From various causes and conditions such as these, one knows there is a future life. Furthermore, you said earlier that you do not see anyone else departing. In the human body, it is not only the eye faculty that can see; the six sense faculties within the body each have that which they cognize. There are phenomena that can be heard, smelled, tasted, touched, and cognized. Even a phenomenon that can be heard cannot be seen, so how much less what can only be cognized! The phenomena of birth and death can also be seen and also be cognized; because of your physical eyes you do not see them, but those with the divine eye see them clearly, just like seeing a person go out of one room and enter another; abandoning this body and reaching a future body is also like this. If the physical eye could see it, what would be the use of seeking the divine eye? If it were so, the divine eye and the physical eye, the foolish and the holy, would be no different. If you share the vision of animals, how could you see the future life? As for what can be cognized: although when a person dies and is born there is no one who comes and goes, because afflictions are not exhausted, in continuity with the body, senses, and mind, there further arise a body, senses, and mind. The body, senses, and mind create karma, which also does not go to the future life, yet from these causes and conditions, one is reborn to receive the retribution of a future life. For example, if poison is placed in milk, the milk turns into curd, and the curd turns into ghee. The milk is not the curd or ghee, and the curd and ghee are not the milk; yet although milk and curd have changed, both contain poison. This body is also like this. Due to the causes and conditions of the five aggregates in this life, one is reborn in a future life; because the activities of the five aggregates continue without difference, one receives retribution. Furthermore, just as winter trees, though not yet having blossoms, leaves, and fruit, bring them forth in sequence when the season arrives, from such causes and conditions one knows there is death and rebirth. Furthermore, in the present world there are those who remember past lives, just as a person who is exhausted from walking in a dream, after waking from sleep, recalls what they traversed. Moreover, all sages, in both Buddhist and non-Buddhist scriptures, speak of a future life. Furthermore, in the present world when unwholesome phenomena are activated too heavily, giving rise to anger, jealousy, doubt, and remorse, because of inner affliction the body withers and the complexion becomes unhappy. If evil and unwholesome phenomena cause such harm [to the mind], how much more when bodily and verbal karma are initiated! If wholesome phenomena and karma of pure faith arise as causes and conditions, the mind becomes pure and attains wisdom as it truly is, the mind rejoices, and the body becomes light, supple, and pleasant in complexion. Because there are causes and conditions of suffering and pleasure, there are the wholesome and unwholesome; since there certainly exist the wholesome and unwholesome now, one should know there must be a future life. It is only because sentient beings do not see with their physical eyes and their wisdom is shallow that they give rise to heterodox doubts; though they cultivate merits, what they do is superficial. For instance, a physician treated a king's illness; the king secretly built a residence for him, but the physician did not know it. When he returned home and saw it, he then regretted not applying his full mind and utmost effort to treat the king. Furthermore, because what the sages say about the present affairs is truly trustworthy, what they say about the affairs of future lives is likewise entirely trustworthy. Just as when a person walks on a perilous road at night and a guide reaches out a hand, knowing he is trustworthy, the person follows him. Through inferential cognition and the words of the sages, one can know that a future life definitely exists. Burdened by the heavy offenses of your physical eyes, your inferential cognition being shallow, and lacking the divine eye, since you yourself lack wisdom and do not believe the words of the sages, how could you know what comes after this body?'" / For example, when the Pronouncing Sage (Confucius) spoke of the obscure and the evident, he said that the virtue of ghosts and spirits is abundant, clearly stating that King Wu and the Duke of Zhou attained ultimate filial piety solely by understanding the circumstances of ghosts and spirits, serving the dead as they served the living. Yet Master Kaoting (Zhu Xi) distorted the explanation, reducing them to the two breaths (yin and yang). How dared he falsely accuse the ancient sages and mislead later generations? Moreover, petty novels and unofficial histories need not even be discussed; yet Peng Sheng becoming a boar and Boyou becoming a vengeful ghost, Liu Cong becoming the king of Zhexu, and Jiang Ji's son begging for an official post from the Magistrate of Mount Tai—these are in the standard histories. The black bird giving birth to the Shang, and Emperor Wu initiating the Zhou—these are in the standard classics. Sparrows transforming into clams, field mice transforming into quails, and hawks transforming into doves—these are in the monthly ordinances. How much can a consciousness of a single fine dust mote know? To attempt to have a frog begrudge the vastness of the ocean, or a firefly obscure the light of the sun—what offense should one incur for insulting the sages and desecrating Heaven? Furthermore, debaters constantly say: "Whatever a human has not experienced, and whatever cannot be verified by rational principle, is not worthy of reliance." Yet the degrees of the sun and moon, and the movements of the five planets, are not things humans can experience; heaven does not come here, nor do humans go there—why is it that deductions are all verified? Moreover, why is heaven high and earth low? Why do winds arise and clouds move? Why does spring bring forth life and autumn bring destruction? What rational principle is there to rely upon for this? The sense organs in the womb turn without consciousness; a mother's milk emerges without an external cause—what rational principle is there to rely upon for this? Moving down to a single hair, a single speck of dust, a single blade of grass, or a single tree: if there is even the tip of a fine hair's worth of rational principle to rely upon, please point it out! It is merely that because they are commonly seen, one takes them as normal; yet this "commonly seen" is also without rational principle. Therefore, one should not doubt rebirth merely because one does not see it.

8.9

Second, explaining practitioners of the Way who grasp at the characteristic of emptiness: The treatise states: When practitioners hear talk of emptiness, they give rise to doubts regarding the causes and conditions of karma in saṃsāra. If all phenomena are ultimately empty, without coming or going, without emerging or entering, how can there be birth upon death? Even phenomena seen before the eyes at present should not exist, so how much less being reborn in another place after death? They do not know that in the Buddha's Dharma, all phenomena are ultimately empty yet not annihilated; although saṃsāra is continuous, it is also not eternal. Through immeasurable asaṃkhyeya kalpas, although the karmic causes and conditions have passed, they can still produce retributions without being extinguished; this is subtle and difficult to understand. If all phenomena were entirely empty, the Buddha would not have spoken of rebirth; how could a wise one contradict himself from first to last? If the characteristics of saṃsāra truly existed, why would it be said that all phenomena are ultimately empty? It is only to eliminate attachment, wrong views, and inversion regarding phenomena that he spoke of ultimate emptiness, not to refute the future body. Furthermore, to ward off the causes and conditions of sinful karma, he spoke of various kinds of rebirth. The Buddha's Dharma does not cling to existence, nor does it cling to nonexistence; it does not even cling to "nonexistence," nor does it cling to "neither existence nor nonexistence"; it does not even cling to non-clinging. Such a person cannot be challenged, just as striking the open sky with a sword causes no injury; this is the characteristic of ultimate emptiness. Ultimate emptiness does not obstruct the causes and conditions of karma in saṃsāra, which is why rebirth is spoken of. This doubt is very shallow; anyone with a little knowledge can sever it. Yet because worldly people hold this view most frequently, it is refuted first, as it is the primary obstacle and difficulty for those seeking rebirth.

8.10

Second, the fall of timidity and inferiority: 1. Doubting that one's habitual tendencies are deep and heavy; 2. Doubting that the power of mindfulness is slight and weak; 3. Doubting that the tens of thousands of millions of kṣetras are far away.

8.11

1. Doubting that one's habitual tendencies are deep and heavy: Ordinary beings only know the power of karma, but do not know that the nature of karma is empty. Therefore, if the nature of sentient beings' karma were real, the entire space of the cosmos would not have room to contain it. It is like dark clouds obstructing the sky: when the wind arrives, they vanish; if the clouds were real, even blowing would not disperse them. Empty space represents the nature, dark clouds represent karma, and buddhānusmṛti represents the wind. Moreover, the nature of karma is precisely the Dharma-nature, whose power and function are supreme and vast; it is only because of the fetters that its spiritual power does not manifest. For example, when Ucchuṣma heard the Buddha King of Emptiness say that a person of excessive lust becomes a mass of blazing fire, he thereafter comprehensively contemplated the cold and warm vapors throughout his four limbs and hundred bones; his spiritual light condensed internally, transforming his mind of excessive lust into the fire of wisdom. Indeed, it was the same burning affliction: when lustful, it formed a great mass of fire; when detached, it became a great jewel-flame. If the nature of lust were real, how could he have attained samādhi within it? Therefore, when delusion is accomplished, one dwells in the prison of the womb; when mindfulness is accomplished, one immediately enters the calyx of the lotus. For the nature of womb-birth is precisely the nature of transformation, not coming from the outside; just as clarity within turbid water does not come from outside.

8.12

2. Doubting that the power of mindfulness is slight and weak: Sentient beings are foolish and dark; they believe that tangible bodily actions are great, but do not believe that the intangible power of mindfulness is even greater. Why is this? The power of mindfulness is the root of bodily actions; no enterprise can be accomplished without thought. For example, when a person commits a crime, one who commits it unintentionally incurs a light retribution for a heavy offense; one who commits it intentionally is the opposite, because the power of mindfulness was heavy. For example, when a person is in an unmindful state, even if vulgar and common affairs are spoken right into their ears and instructed to their face, they still do not remember them; yet if the mind is attentive, all kinds of difficult-to-remember matters, once entering the ear faculty, will be remembered and held throughout life without being forgotten, because the power of mindfulness is firm. Su Zizhan said: "The Buddha, with great perfect enlightenment, fills the realms of the ten directions; I, with inverted thoughts, emerge and sink in saṃsāra." How could one, with a single thought, attain rebirth in the Pure Land? The beginningless karma I have created fundamentally arose from a single thought; since it arose from a single thought, it is also extinguished by a single thought. Where arising and ceasing are completely extinguished, I am the same as the Buddha. It is like pouring water into the ocean, or blowing bellows in the wind; even with great holy wisdom, one cannot distinguish them. The Jingtujue states: "What a person's thoughts cling to is most urgent: like water inevitably heading to the sea, like fire inevitably flaming upward, like a sharp blade inevitably cutting, like a poison inevitably killing, none miss their mark; the thought of buddhānusmṛti is also like this." For example, because a lustful man's thought of lust was firm, it transformed into a fierce flame that spread to burn down a shrine. Also, because the youth Candraprabha visualized water, when his disciple peeked into the room, he saw only clear water. Also, when the monk Bhaviveka debated with a non-Buddhist, the non-Buddhist stubbornly clung to his own view and suddenly transformed into stone; Bhaviveka still wrote his questions upon the stone, and when he went to look the next day, there were also answers; after a long time, it suddenly shattered by itself, with a roaring sound in the sky. These all occurred because the power of mindfulness was firm and fierce, undergoing transformation without external cause; how could it be that when one is mindful of the Buddha, the Buddha does not manifest? One should know that the power of mindfulness is the king among all phenomena. It is like the mighty warrior Mahānāga: when he is enraged, a sore inevitably forms on his forehead, and if the sore has not yet closed, no one in all of Jambudvīpa can rival him.

8.13

Third, those who doubt because of the distance of countless billions of lands: common people cling fixedly to the ten billion lands, thinking in their minds that even a swift horse or a fast sail does not cover a thousand li in a day, so how could one be born in that place in a single kṣaṇa? They do not consider that the distance or proximity of a land is calculated and born from the body of partitioned limitation, and born from the physical eye. Is this one who is reborn a body of partitioned limitation, or is it the mind that is all-pervasive and all-containing? If it were the body of partitioned limitation, the body is inert matter—how could it attain rebirth? If it is born from the mind, the mind pervades lands numerous as sands; the Pure Land is originally within the mind, so how could there be any coming or going? It is like a person in Chang'an longing for his home, whether in Min or in Dian: as thought arises, he is immediately there; how could there be any journey? It is also like when a person dreams: although his body is on the bed, his mind, intellect, and consciousness travel everywhere to other regions. Upāsaka Wugong said: 'Sukhāvatī is ten billion lands away from here; that an ordinary person at the end of life arrives there in an instant is because one's own mind is originally wondrous.' Therefore the Śūraṅgama[-sūtra] says: 'You still do not understand that all floating dust and illusory, transformed phenomena are born right where they are and extinguished right where they are. When causes and conditions combine, there is falsely said to be birth; when causes and conditions separate, there is falsely called extinction.' Deducing from this: at the end of life, because defiled and turbid conditions separate, the Sahā world is illusorily extinguished right where it is; because pure conditions combine, Sukhāvatī is illusorily born right where it is. Between this extinction and that birth there is not room for a hair; how could one even speak of an instant? In the past, in my home village, there was a man who could summon a planchette immortal, who was his elder brother. Later, when he went to the capital for the examinations, my elder brothers and others had something to divine; the man worried that the distance was too great for [the spirit] to arrive, but having no choice, he wrote a talisman and proclaimed the words, and in a short while it arrived. Even this kind of karmic bondage is swift like this; how much more so is the inconceivable power of mindfulness, relying on the merits of Amitābha's fundamental vow! Hoisting a sail before a favorable wind, what obstruction could there be? Therefore, those who practice buddhānusmṛti should dispel these three doubts. If one does not dispel them, one's habituated afflictions are truly dense and heavy, one's power of mindfulness is truly slight and weak, and the journey of ten billion is truly distant. It is like a man who wishes to go out the door yet locks the bolt himself: it is that he himself does not wish to go out, not the fault of there being no door.

8.14

Third, those who fall by following words: the Sixth Patriarch said, 'People of the east commit sins and practice buddhānusmṛti seeking rebirth in the west; when people of the west commit sins and practice buddhānusmṛti, in what land do they seek rebirth?' Upāsaka Pang said: 'Speaking of the Buddha-land in terms of phenomena, it is one hundred thousand li from here; the great sea is vast and boundless, and as soon as there is movement, the dark wind rises.' Because of this, a group of ignorant people transmit illusions and catch at echoes, saying that the Pure Land is not worth cultivating; obstructing themselves and obstructing others, they are deeply to be pitied. Now, regarding the promotions and teachings of the Chan school, they do not even speak of the existence of a Buddha, much less a Buddha-land; desiring to break forms and clarify the mind, right and wrong are both razed. It is like a hair-severing sharp blade: if you grasp it, it cuts your hand; like a vajra chestnut burr, how could it be everyday tea and rice? Moreover, in the Chan school such expressions are very numerous; if one clings to each and every one of them, would the appearance of old Śākya in the world truly have been to feed Yunmen's dog? Furthermore, an ancient worthy said, 'What is the Buddha? A dry piece of shit.' If it were really so, then whenever one sees a dung-cart, a dung-carrier, or a privy, one should bow and make offerings to each and every one. The Amitābha Commentary says: 'The Western Land is ten billion lands away from here; when the Platform Sūtra speaks of one hundred and eight thousand, it is a mistake, taking the Five Indias and so forth to be Sukhāvatī.' These words are close to the truth; for since the Sixth Patriarch had not read the great canon, it did happen that hearing people speak of the Western Land, he took it to be the Five Indias. The scriptures clearly state: in the land of Sukhāvatī, the three poisons do not arise, and one attains non-retrogression. Now to say that when those in the west commit sins, what land do they seek rebirth in—this is also a proof. However, in the Chan school, such occasional provisional words are most numerous, and are not worth debating. Ah! If a student can truly attain sudden enlightenment and sudden cultivation, with understanding and practice corresponding to each other, like the Sixth Patriarch casting gold into the Han River, disporting in saṃsāra; like Old Pang, even if he did not seek rebirth, what harm would there be in rebirth?

8.15

Fourth, those who fall into wild recklessness: there are certain demonic people who exclusively indulge in wild wisdom and are unwilling to maintain the precepts and cultivate, falsely citing similar words from the sūtras, such as 'afflictions are bodhi' and 'lust, anger, and delusion are pure conduct (brahmacarya),' generating understanding according to words, and venting poison according to their understanding. If it were truly as they say, then when Śākyamuni awakened to the Way, he should have been intimate with the precious maiden; when Ānanda was in the house of lust, why was there any need for Trapuṣa and Bahalika; when the Sixth Patriarch initially followed the hunters and had not yet received the precepts, why did he bother only eating vegetables from beside the meat? A sūtra says: 'There is not even non-killing, non-stealing, and non-unchastity, how much less could there be acts of killing, stealing, and unchastity!' How could someone, upon hearing someone scold eaglewood incense, say that one should dwell in a cesspool! In the past, in the Five Indias, there was a monk named Dharmada who had eloquence and wisdom, and served the Venerable Siṃha as his master; the Venerable knew of his awakening and understanding, and praised him before the assembly. But when it came to transmitting the Dharma and succeeding to the patriarchate, he conferred it upon Basiasita. Dharmada felt resentment in his heart and said, 'The Venerable knows me so deeply, why did he not confer the succession upon me?' One day, walking alone across a stream, there was a woman washing who exposed her feet; Dharmada thought, 'These shins are so fair and white.' The Venerable suddenly appeared at his side and said, 'With today's mind, could you be conferred the patriarchal seat?' Thereupon Dharmada gathered his thoughts, bowed at his feet, and begged for mercy. Taking this one precept against unchastity, the remaining practices can be deduced. The Prajñā-sūtra says: 'Because sin and non-sin are ungraspable, one should fully possess the śīlapāramitā.' The commentary explains: 'That sin and non-sin are ungraspable does not mean they are ungraspable for coarse minds with wrong views. It is because the bodhisattva deeply enters into the characteristics of all phenomena, practices the samādhi of emptiness, and observes with the eye of wisdom that sin is ungraspable; because sin does not exist, non-sin is also ungraspable. If a person is attached to being without sin, looking down with arrogance upon sinful people who break the precepts, and looking with affection and reverence upon good people who maintain the precepts, maintaining the precepts in this way is called the cause and condition for giving rise to sin, not called full possession.' Therefore know that dwelling in the precepts is already breaking them, how much more so casting them aside and destroying them! Only when attachment to the precepts is also guarded against is it first called maintaining the precepts. When various great sūtras say that pure conduct is ungraspable and so forth, they all mean this. Yongming said: 'Carrying residual habits, one is still dragged by objects; in manifest activity, how could one escape the bondage of conditions? It is like a drunken elephant without a hook, or a foolish monkey finding a tree; suddenly trapped while dashing about, or a living bird caught in a cage. Therefore, the bodhisattva takes the precepts as teacher and constantly harbors great fear.' He also said: 'In the degenerate age, practitioners of the Mahāyāna in the Chan school mostly slight the vinaya rules; therefore, the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra supports the vinaya and speaks of the eternal, so that both vehicle and precepts are urgent; hence this sūtra is named the weighty jewel that continues the life of the eternally abiding. Why is this? If not for this teaching, merely taking verbal liberation and not cultivating at all, then both vehicle and precepts are lost.' Therefore, 'vehicle' means awakening to the primary truth, and 'precepts' means putting a stop to all dark karma. The patriarchs divided this into four alternatives: First, the precepts are urgent and the vehicle is lax. Because the precepts are urgent, one is born among humans and devas, but like an arrow shot into the sky, when its force is spent it falls back down; because the vehicle is lax, even if one hears the great Dharma, one is as if deaf or mute. Second, the vehicle is urgent and the precepts are lax. Because the precepts are lax, one is born in the evil destinies; because the vehicle is urgent, one constantly hears the great Dharma, such as the ghosts and spirits of the eight classes in the Avataṃsaka assembly. Third, both vehicle and precepts are urgent, then one is born among humans and devas and constantly hears the great Dharma. Fourth, both vehicle and precepts are lax, then one falls into the three evil destinies and never hears the Dharma. Therefore, the two dharmas of vehicle and precepts are like the two wheels of a cart; one cannot dispense with either. Hence Nāgārjuna said: 'A person who breaks the precepts is like a cool, refreshing place that has a poisonous snake, unfit for bathing; his house is like a tomb where people do not go, losing all merits. He is like a withered tree, like a field struck by hail, unable to be relied upon. He is like a seriously ill person whom people do not wish to approach. He is like vomited food that cannot be eaten again.' When a bodhisattva rebukes so earnestly, did he ever allow people to break the precepts? Therefore, studying intellectual understanding for a thousand days is not as good as maintaining the precepts for one day; how can one covet the empty fame of awakening to the Way and suffer the real calamity of Niraya, deceiving oneself and duping others, vainly incurring punishment from the King [of the Underworld]? Those who wildly bark break everything; the reason I now speak solely of precepts is that the evil fire of wrong views first burns the jewel of precepts. Moreover, precepts are the foundation of pure karma, for all white dharmas are born from precepts.

8.16

Fifth, those who fall into pedantic fragmentation: there are many Dharma masters who skim through doctrinal texts, glosses, and chapter-and-verse, clinging to the provisional names of the dharmakāya and dissecting the delimitations of names and characteristics, stitching from east and patching from west through months and years, playing with the painted mask of Vairocana, setting up the stage-play of the dharmadhātu, arrogant and conceited, taking a little to be sufficient. Hearing someone practice buddhānusmṛti, they say, 'This is subsumed within the Hīnayāna, a dharma of delusional thinking.' Or they say, 'The ocean of doctrine is deep in meaning; you of dull faculties may practice this as well.' Or they say, 'Among the three piṭakas, by which piṭaka is this subsumed?' Or they say, 'To which teaching does this belong? It is like neighborhood children singing contests, taking quantity to be victory.' Each contends for his own view, without real practice. It is like the Long-nailed Brahmacārin, who with the power of debate subjugated all masters, clashing, kicking, and trampling, with none able to control him; later, arriving at the Buddha's place, he thought: 'All treatises can be refuted, all attachments can be overturned; among them, what is the true characteristic of all phenomena? What is the primary truth? What is the nature? What is the characteristic? What is not inverted?' Having pondered thus, he said to the Buddha: 'Gautama, I accept no phenomena.' The Buddha asked the brahmacārin: 'You accept no phenomena; do you accept this view or not?' The brahmacārin replied: 'Gautama, I accept no phenomena, and I do not accept this view either.' The Buddha said to the brahmacārin: 'If you do not accept all phenomena, and do not accept this view either, then there is nothing accepted; you are no different from the common crowd. What need is there to be arrogant and give rise to conceit?' Thus the brahmacārin had no reply, and from then on submitted in his heart. Therefore, one should know: a hungry child passing a butcher shop and chewing vigorously only increases his gluttonous desire, but does not save his empty stomach. In the past in Jiangnan, there was an agile lecture master who analyzed Vijñaptimātra for me and showed me the profound meanings he had obtained from the teachings, leveling many critiques and refutations against the commentaries of famous figures. I asked him: 'Can this withstand saṃsāra?' The monk said haughtily: 'What saṃsāra is there to withstand?' I said: 'Be that as it may, I fear that before the hall of King Yama there are no translators, and they will not understand the lecture master's verbal samādhi.' Although this was a momentary jest, it also hit squarely upon the illness of the lecture rostrum. I advise young open-minded scholars: long treatises and short chapters, dragging vines and trailing creepers, chanting with the mouth and memorizing with the mind until the head is dizzy and the eyes are blurred—examining its efficacy, it amounts to nothing more than ascending the seat a few times, lecturing on sūtras for a few periods, and receiving bows from a few blind fellows; if one lacks genuine practice and achievement, one merely adds to one's karmic debts. How could it compare to a single invocation of Amitābha, directly ascending to non-retrogression, where the effort is one and the result is a hundredfold! For example, Tanmozui lectured on the Nirvāṇa and Avataṃsaka, leading a community of a thousand people. He was rebuked by King Yama: 'The lecturer harbored thoughts of other and self, arrogantly bullying others; among bhikṣus, this is the foremost coarse conduct.' He was immediately dispatched to the authorities. This can serve as a clear warning. Yet there are those of high caliber in doctrinal understanding who, through consulting doctrinal texts, awaken to this inconceivable great matter of the Western Land, and use this to benefit themselves and benefit others, turning to aid the future and lighting the torch of the long night, with boundless merit; why must one choke on food and give up eating, or see a stumble and halt one's carriage!

8.17

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?

8.18

Seventh are those who fall into following conditions. They cite the ancients who said: "Following conditions, extinguish old karma; taking things as they come, put on one's clothes. Merely accord with natural reality, and the myriad practices are naturally complete. When lifting a foot or setting down a foot, which of these is not pure karma? What need is there for all sorts of contrivance?" In reply: An ancient worthy was asked: "If mind itself is Buddha, what need is there to rely on cultivation?" He answered: "Precisely because it is so, one must cultivate." If iron has no gold, though it undergo smelting, it will not serve as gold. National Preceptor Xianshou said: "The present Buddha's three bodies, ten pāramitās, and even the bodhisattva's practices of benefiting others are all based on one's own nature, harmoniously revolving and being carried out." Because sentient beings have tathatā in their minds, with its great essence, great marks, and great functions, present cultivation brings forth the Dharmakāya, Saṃbhogakāya, and so forth; because sentient beings have the dharmatā of tathatā in their minds which naturally lacks stinginess and greed, present cultivation accords with the dharmatā's lack of stinginess and brings forth the dāna-pāramitā and so forth. In the Nirvāṇa-sūtra, the Buddha told Bodhisattva Siṃhanāda: "All sentient beings have the mind of mindfulness, the mind of wisdom, the mind of aspiration, the mind of diligent vigor, the mind of faith, and the mind of concentration. Although such dharmas perish thought after thought, they nevertheless continue in unbroken, similar succession; therefore it is called cultivating the Way. It is just as a lamp, though it perishes thought after thought, has light that dispels darkness; just as the food eaten by sentient beings, though it perishes thought after thought, can also satisfy the hungry; just as superior medicine, though it perishes thought after thought, can cure disease; and just as the light of the sun and moon, though it perishes thought after thought, can also nourish grasses, trees, and forests." The Ratnakūṭa-sūtra says: "If there were no right cultivation, cats and hares should also attain buddhahood." Master Niutou Farong said: "If one says that cultivation produces it, then contrivance is not real; if one says it is inherently present, then the myriad practices are established in vain." The Zhangzhe lun states: "If everything is uniformly equal, there would be no mind to cultivate the Way. One must spur on cultivation so as to reach non-cultivation." The record of Tripiṭaka Master Cimin states: "If it is said that the World-Honoured One taught that all conditioned dharmas are definitely like sky-flowers, why did he instruct his disciples to diligently cultivate the six pāramitās and the myriad practices as wondrous causes, to realize the fruits of bodhi and nirvāṇa? Would any wise person praise a city of Gandharvas as solid, real, lofty, and wondrous, and further encourage people to use hare's horns as a ladder by which to climb up?" By this principle, even though it is defiled cultivation, it is real and right. As for Bodhidharma's words to Emperor Wu of Liang, they were medicine prescribed according to the illness because the emperor was greedy for and attached to the conditioned; how can words spoken for a single occasion be used to abolish the Buddhist practice of the Way? Furthermore, what all the sūtras call "not abiding in marks" regarding precepts, giving, and so forth means that they exist yet one does not abide in them; because they exist yet one does not abide in them, one acts and yet there is non-action. Nowadays, people take fundamental non-existence to be non-abiding; this is like a base beggar in the streets saying to others: "I do not use wealth and honor to act haughty toward people." Is this not talk in a dream? Moreover, those who cling to the word "non-action"—must they wither their minds and dry up their bodies, like casting a golden image? Or do they still converse and respond like ordinary people? If they converse and respond, that should not be non-action; if they say this does not contradict non-action, then contemplating the Buddha, bowing, and mindfulness are fundamentally natural reality—how should they alone contradict it? If neither meaning is established, that is a great lie. Therefore, one should know that following conditions and letting things take their course is not non-action. If non-action is following conditions, then earthworms in the soil and frogs in the mud are also following conditions; why do they not attain buddhahood? Mistaking the ancestral master's dynamic function and taking gravel for jade—how is this different from the Non-Action Teaching esteemed by the market mob!

8.19

Eighth are those who fall into mind-only. They say that the Pure Land of self-nature is such that the conventional is ever the true; seven jewels and broken tiles are equal in the one Way; if one merely purifies one's own mind, what need is there for discrimination? In reply: You say that when the mind is pure, the land is pure and there is no need for discrimination. Were you led into a privy, could you stay there long? Entering a field of corpses where foul odors smoke and burn, would you not cover your nose? With people afflicted by scabies, leprosy, pus, and blood, could you share an almsbowl and bedding? If you cannot, these marks are precisely the marks of loathing the five defilements. If dwelling still requires a clean room, and companions still require pure associates, these marks are precisely the marks of rejoicing in the Pure Land. When rejoicing and loathing are blazing, how can you speak of equality? Even if you can endure what is difficult to endure and do not seek to distance yourself from the various foul defilements mentioned above, dung beetles, crows, and dogs can also draw near to them; have these various creatures all attained the Way? If you discard both purity and defilement, you are still accepting and rejecting, and you still do not accord with the meaning of mind-only. Therefore, you should know that precisely because it is mind-only, the Buddhas produce rejoicing and loathing; precisely because it is mind-only, they speak of equality; and precisely because it is mind-only, they adorn the Buddha lands. If it were not mind-only, how could it follow thought? If it were not equal, ordinary persons would have no share in it. When defilement is not even abandoned, why abandon only purity? Since abandonment is mind, how does acceptance contradict it? It is all due to not understanding the Buddha's intent that this false attachment arises; if one merely recognizes mind-only, doubts and objections will be resolved.

8.20

Ninth, those who fall into sudden enlightenment claim: Today's Chan practitioners all say, 'One directly transcends and enters without falling into meritorious effort; one does not even seek to become a Buddha, much less seek rebirth.' In response it is said: As for those who do not seek to become a Buddha, after abandoning this body, will they be utterly extinguished in ash and cessation, or will they still receive a future existence? If they receive a future existence, are they reborn in a Pure Land, or are they reborn in the traidhātuka? If they abide in the traidhātuka, that is inferior to the Pure Land; if in the Pure Land, that is identical to rebirth. Furthermore, a virtuous predecessor said: 'As for a spiritual mentor, although he clearly sees the buddhadhātu as equal to that of a Buddha, when discussing his actual accomplishment, it does not yet match that of the noble ones; he must proceed step by step from this day onward, enhancing and solidifying it.' He also said: 'Cultivating prior to enlightenment is not true cultivation; only this sudden enlightenment followed by gradual cultivation both accords with the Buddhayāna and does not violate the perfect meaning. As for sudden enlightenment and sudden cultivation, this too is gradual cultivation over many lifetimes maturing suddenly in the present life; this must be tested and verified by each person for himself at all times.' If your speech matches your conduct and your conduct matches your speech; if your capacity exhausts the limits of the dharmadhātu and your mind accords with the principle of empty space; if you are unmoved by the eight winds, the three feelings are completely stilled, seeds and active manifestations are both dissolved, and root and derivative [defilements] are utterly extinguished—then, like one free from illness, you should take no medicine. If, however, in active manifestation your afflictions are not yet cut off, your habit-energies remain thick, sentiments arise upon whatever meets your gaze, and you become stuck whenever you encounter sense objects—though you understand the meaning of anutpāda, your power is not yet sufficient. You must not cling to the claim: 'I have already awakened to the emptiness of the nature of afflictions; if I give rise to the intention to cultivate, that would instead be inversion.' Thus, although the nature of afflictions is empty, they can still make one undergo karma; although karmic fruits lack an intrinsic nature, they still serve as the causes of suffering; although pain and suffering are empty, they are just so difficult to endure. It is like contracting a severe disease: the disease is also entirely empty, yet why seek a physician and take medicinal herbs at all costs? The Patriarch said: 'Only when you align a mind like empty space with the principle of empty space, while having no measure of empty space, can you attain freedom from retribution.' Chan Master Wuye of Fenyang said: 'Nowadays, those across the land who understand Chan and understand the Way are as numerous as the sands of the Ganges; those who speak of Buddha and speak of mind number in the hundreds of thousands of myriads. If a single speck of dust is not exhausted, one cannot escape saṃsāra; if the slightest thought is not forgotten, all will sink and fall.' People of this sort cannot even recognize their own karmic fruits, yet they falsely speak of benefiting oneself and others, considering themselves superior and on a par with past virtuous masters, merely saying, 'Whatever meets the eye is nothing but the Buddha's work; wherever one steps is entirely the place of practice.' In truth, their practice does not equal that of an ordinary person keeping the five precepts and ten good actions; yet observing their speech, they disparage the two vehicles and tenth-stage bodhisattvas. Furthermore, ghee is the supreme flavor, treasured by the world; yet encountering such people, it turns instead into poison. Even if one's talent matches Aśvaghoṣa and one's understanding equals Nāgārjuna, for merely one or two lifetimes one may not lose a human body; but at the time of death, if the slightest emotional measurement of noble versus ordinary is not exhausted and the finest speck of thought is not forgotten, one will take birth according to those thoughts. Bearing the weight of the five skandhas, one will take form in the womb of a donkey or the belly of a horse, or be boiled and cooked in cauldrons of soup and furnaces of coals. What was previously memorized, recollected, and understood will be lost in an instant; one will become an ant again as before, or start over as a mosquito or midge. Although there was a virtuous cause, it incurs an evil fruit. The Venerable Yuanwu said: 'The verge of saṃsāra is truly not easy to handle; only those of great penetration and transcendent realization who cut through it in one stroke find no difficulty. However, although this relies on one's own root power, it also depends on expedient means. If in ordinary times, amid these minor circumstances, you can transform them and penetrate through them, carry them into practice, and nurture them to full maturity, then when conditions disband, you will naturally be without fear. Therefore, when the ancients passed away sitting or died standing, departed while walking or shed their bodies upside down, their ability to be resolute and vigor-filled was entirely because they had thoroughly cleansed and refined themselves in ordinary times. Xianglin took forty years to achieve oneness; Yongquan after forty years still had slips; Shishuang exhorted people to cease and desist, to become like the incense burner in an ancient temple. Yongjia said: "The essence is itself anutpāda; one clearly understands that fundamentally there is no speed." Only by being cautious, diligent, and mindful of this constantly can one attain unobstructed freedom. After shedding this life, having attained a mind-made body, whether following one's own will or meeting future retributions, all are dismissed through principle and not drawn by karma; is this not what is meant by penetrating and casting off saṃsāra?' One should know that the meticulous practice of these great masters was merely to seek a good outcome at the point of life and death. Although their paths differed, they were one in aiming for final purity. In the past, an arrogant monk took pride in his insight. I asked him, 'Do you genuinely believe that you have left household life? Do you genuinely believe that your body is in Chang'an?' The monk was astonished and said, 'How could I not believe it?' I said, 'In your dreams, when you dream of the time before you left household life, seeing your parents and siblings, or playing as a child—at that time, do you know that you are a traveler far away?' The monk said, 'I do not.' I said, 'As for your believing that you have left household life and are on pilgrimage, it may well be utterly clear and completely penetrated; your clarity in seeing the Way surely does not surpass this. Yet the moment you reach the pillow, you turn back from monk to layman and change traveler into home, completely unaware of it yourself. How much more so in the long night of saṃsāra: relying on your petty insight, how could you ensure you will not be inverted?' The monk was filled with awe and dread.

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西方合論 — Classical Chinese