六祖大師法寶壇經 1.42

1.42

"Good friends! Mahāprajñāpāramitā is the most venerable, the highest, and the very first; it neither abides, nor goes, nor comes, and all Buddhas of the three times emerge from within it. One must use great wisdom to shatter the afflictions and defilements of the five aggregates. Practicing in this way, one is certain to achieve the Buddha path and transform the three poisons into morality, concentration, and wisdom. Good friends! This Dharma gate of mine generates eighty-four thousand wisdoms from a single prajñā. Why is this? Because worldly people have eighty-four thousand defilements. If there are no defilements, wisdom is constantly present, never departing from svabhāva. One who awakens to this Dharma is free of thought, free of recollection, free of attachment, and does not give rise to deception. Employing one's own nature of tathatā and contemplating with wisdom, neither grasping nor rejecting any phenomena—this is seeing into one's nature and attaining the Buddha path.
"Good friends! If you wish to enter the profound dharmadhātu and the prajñā-samādhi, you must practice the conduct of prajñā and recite the Diamond Prajñā Sūtra, and you will then achieve seeing into one's nature. You should know that the merits and virtues of this sūtra are measureless and boundless; it is clearly praised in the sūtra and cannot be fully spoken of. This Dharma gate is the Supreme Vehicle, spoken for people of great wisdom and spoken for people of superior faculties. When people of inferior faculties and small wisdom hear it, disbelief arises in their minds. Why is this? It is like when a great dragon makes rain fall upon Jambudvīpa: cities, towns, and villages are all swept away like drifting jujube leaves. But if it rains upon the great ocean, there is neither increase nor decrease. When people of the Mahāyāna or people of the Supreme Vehicle hear the Diamond Sūtra spoken, their minds open in awakening and understanding. Thus we know that our original nature inherently has the wisdom of prajñā; because we use our own wisdom and constantly contemplate, we do not rely on written words. It is like rainwater: it does not exist in the heavens, but originally is raised up by a dragon, causing all sentient beings, all grasses and trees, both sentient and insentient, to be moistened. The hundred rivers and myriad streams return to the great ocean, merging into a single body. The wisdom of prajñā of sentient beings' original nature is also like this.
"Good friends! When people of inferior faculties hear this sudden teaching, they are like grasses and trees of small root capacity: when struck by heavy rain, they all collapse on their own and cannot grow. People of inferior faculties are also like this. They originally possess the wisdom of prajñā, which is no different from that of people of great wisdom; why then do they not awaken on their own when hearing the Dharma? It is because the obstruction of their wrong views is heavy and the roots of their afflictions are deep. It is like a great cloud covering the sun; without the wind blowing, the sun's light cannot appear. The wisdom of prajñā also has neither great nor small; it is only that all sentient beings differ in their own minds between delusion and awakening. With deluded minds they look outside, practicing and seeking a buddha; not having awakened to svabhāva, they are of inferior faculties. If one awakens to the sudden teaching, one cannot practice outwardly, but merely constantly gives rise to right view in one's own mind, so that afflictions and defilements can never taint it—this is seeing into one's nature. Good friends! Not abiding internally or externally, coming and going freely, able to eliminate the clinging mind and penetrate without obstruction—if one can practice this conduct, it is fundamentally no different from the Prajñā Sūtra."