六祖大師法寶壇經 1.111

1.111

[Zhidao] said, “All sentient beings have two bodies, the physical body and the dharmakāya. The physical body is impermanent and is subject to generation and extinction, but the dharmakāya is permanent and is without knowing and without cognition. The sutra says, ‘When generation and extinction

are extinguished, quiescence is blissful,’ but I don’t know which body is quiescent and which body experiences the bliss. If it’s the physical body, when it is extinguished the four elements would disperse. This would [result in a state of] total suffering, and suffering cannot be called blissful. If it is the dharmakāya that becomes extinguished, then one would be identical to the plants and rocks, and who would experience the bliss? Further, the Dharma-nature is the essence and the five skandhas are the functions of generation and extinction. There is one essence and five functions. If generation and extinction are permanent, if there is generation then the functions should be activated on the basis of the essence, and if there is extinction then the functions should revert into the essence. To hear that there is generation once again implies that sentient beings are [subject to] neither annihilation nor extinction. But not to hear that there is generation once again implies a permanent reversion to quiescence, which would [make sentient beings] identical to inanimate objects. If this were the case then all the myriad dharmas would be contravened by nirvana and could not be generated. So how would there be bliss?”

The master said, “You are a disciple of the Buddha, so why are you cultivating the false views of annihilationism and eternalism of the heterodox paths? To explain the teaching of the Supreme Vehicle on the basis of what you have just said would be to imply that there is a dharmakāya separate from the physical body, and that one must transcend generation and extinction in order to seek quiescence. Furthermore, you have argued from the Nirvana [Sutra’s doctrine of ] permanence and bliss that there is a body that experiences the functions, but this [doctrine was preached on behalf of sentient beings who] poignantly grasp onto samsara and are shamefully attached to worldly pleasures.

“You should now understand that the Buddha [preached] on behalf of all deluded people that the five skandhas conjoin to make their own essences and characteristics. [Sentient beings] discriminate all the dharmas as external sensory characteristics, taking generation as good and extinction as bad and being swept along moment after moment. They do not understand that the dreamlike phantasmagoria are false, and they pointlessly and crazily experience samsara. Thinking that permanent and blissful nirvana is transformed into the characteristics of suffering, they rush seeking after it all the time. Taking pity on such [people], the Buddha indicated the true blissfulness of

nirvana: if [even] for an instant there is no characteristic of generation and if [even] for an instant there is no characteristic of extinction, then there will be no generation and extinction that can be extinguished. This is to have quiescence right there. But if when it is right there, one does not have the thought of it being right there, this is called permanent and blissful. This bliss is not experienced and it is not not experienced. How can there be the categories of one essence and five functions? And how could one possibly speak of nirvana contravening the myriad dharmas and rendering them permanently ungenerated? This is to revile the Buddha and destroy the Dharma. Listen to my verse:

The insurpassable great nirvana

Is perfect and bright, always serene and illuminating.

Foolish ordinary people call it death,

And the heretics grasp at it as annihilation.

Those who seek the two vehicles

Refer to it as unconditioned.

Of all that is considered by sentient beings—

Of [all] the sixty-two [heterodox] views—it is the fundamental

[source].

To falsely posit empty names—

How can these be true doctrines?

It is only those who go beyond thinking