萬松老人評唱天童覺和尚頌古從容庵錄 5.49

5.49

The Master said: Mañjuśrī asked Vimalakīrti, 'What is the root of the body?' He answered, 'Desire is the root.' He asked, 'What is the root of desire?' He answered, 'False discrimination is the root.' He asked, 'What is the root of false discrimination?' He answered, 'Perverted thought is the root.' He asked, 'What is the root of perverted thought?' He answered, 'Non-abiding is the root.' He asked again, 'What is the root of non-abiding?' He answered, 'Non-abiding has no root. From this root of non-abiding, Mañjuśrī, all phenomena are established.' Master Zhao's commentary says: 'The mind is like water: when calm, it reflects; when agitated, it has no mirror-clarity. Muddied by delusion and craving, fanned by perverse winds, surging and tossing with waves, it never abides even for an instant. If one contemplates phenomena with this, what is not perverted? It is like looking into a bubbling spring and reproaching oneself for not seeing one's original face—such a thing has never been.' He also says: 'If the stirring of the mind is taken as the root, then there is the characteristic of a cause; when the principle of life first stirs, there is no further root. If non-existence is taken as the root, then cause arises from non-existence; yet non-existence is not caused by non-existence, so there is no further root.' He also says: 'Because of non-abiding, there is perverted thought; because of perverted thought, there is discrimination; because of discrimination, there is desire; because of desire, there is a body. Once there is a body, good and evil are displayed together. Once good and evil are displayed, the myriad phenomena arise. From this point on, words and numbers cannot exhaust them.' Master Zhao took the initial stirring of thought, the fundamental unawareness, as the root of non-abiding. In the Chuandeng lu, National Teacher Qingliang, answering the Crown Prince on the essentials of mind, said: 'The ultimate Way is rooted in one's mind; the nature of mind is rooted in non-abiding. The substance of the non-abiding mind is numinously knowing and unobscured.' National Teacher Anguo cited the Diamond Sūtra: 'One should produce the mind without abiding anywhere.' 'Without abiding anywhere' means not abiding in form, not abiding in sound, not abiding in delusion, not abiding in awakening, not abiding in substance, and not abiding in function. 'Producing the mind' means that in all places the one mind is manifested. If one produces mind abiding in good, good appears; if one produces mind abiding in evil, evil appears, and the original mind is concealed. If there is no abiding anywhere, the worlds of the ten directions are nothing but the one mind. The Sixth Patriarch asked Heze, 'A good friend has come from afar with great hardship. Did you bring the root with you? If you have the root, you should recognise its master—try to say.' Heze said, 'Taking non-abiding as the root, seeing is the master.' Heze's Xianzong ji says: 'Since the Bhagavān entered extinction, the twenty-eight patriarchs of the Western Heavens jointly transmitted the mind of non-abiding.' This root of non-abiding is just naming the fundamental affair 'non-abiding'. If reality and delusion are fused, the one contains multiple varieties, while the two are not of two sorts. Where Fayan answered, it comes from the Baocang lun: 'Forms emerge before they have substance; names arise before they are named. Once forms and names are portended, unsettled vapors confuse clarity.' Xuedou held up his staff and said, 'Assembly, the staff is a simultaneous raising of both form and name. Form is formless; name is nameless.' A sort of blind fellows lacking discernment merely recognize what has no form and no name or surname as the ultimate, letting down Fayan and going against Yongming. Dhyāna Master Shou's Weixin jue says: 'Not a single name fails to proclaim the Tathāgata's title; not a single thing fails to expound Vairocana's form.' There is yet another sort, narrow-minded and ignorant, who refuse to investigate principle and ask in study, merely saying, 'What is there originally?' Wansong says: This has already produced too much. Someone asks, 'How can it be avoided?' Wansong says, 'What was ever lacking originally? You just need to understand it in this way.' Due to investigating Fayan, one also sees Tiantong. The verse says: