六祖大師法寶壇經 1.92

1.92

Having heard the gāthā, Fada repented and apologized, saying, "From now on, I will certainly be humble and respectful toward all. This disciple has recited the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra without understanding its meaning, and doubts constantly remain in my mind. The upādhyāya's wisdom is vast; I pray you will briefly explain the principles within the sūtra." The Master said, "Fada! The Dharma reaches far indeed, but your mind has not reached it. The sūtra is fundamentally without doubt; your mind itself doubts. When you recite this sūtra, what do you take as its central theme?" Fada said, "Your student's faculties are dull and dark; all along I have merely recited according to the text. How could I know its central theme?" The Master said, "I do not know written characters. You try taking the sūtra and reciting it through once, and I will explain it for you." Fada then recited the sūtra in a loud voice. When he reached the Parable Chapter, the Master said, "Stop! This sūtra fundamentally takes the causes and conditions for appearing in the world as its central theme; even though it speaks of many kinds of parables, they do not exceed this. What are the causes and conditions? The sūtra says: 'The Buddhas, the World-Honoured Ones, appear in the world solely for the sake of the one great cause and condition.' The one great cause is the vision and knowledge of the Buddha. Worldly people are confused outwardly by clinging to marks, and confused inwardly by clinging to emptiness; if one can depart from marks in the midst of marks and depart from emptiness in the midst of emptiness, then inwardly and outwardly one is not confused. If you awaken to this Dharma, in a single thought the mind opens: this is the opening of the vision and knowledge of the Buddha. 'Buddha' is equivalent to 'awakened.' It is divided into four gates: opening the vision and knowledge of awakening, showing the vision and knowledge of awakening, awakening to the vision and knowledge of awakening, and entering the vision and knowledge of awakening. If one hears the opening and showing, one can awaken and enter; that is, the vision and knowledge of awakening, the original true nature, appears. Take care not to misunderstand the sūtra's meaning, seeing others say: 'Opening, showing, awakening, and entering naturally belong to the vision and knowledge of the Buddha; we ordinary people have no share in them.' If you hold this understanding, it slanders the sūtra and disparages the Buddha. Since he is already a Buddha, he is already endowed with vision and knowledge; why would he need them to be opened again? You should believe now that the vision and knowledge of the Buddha is simply your own mind; there is no other Buddha. It is merely because all sentient beings veil their own radiance, craving dusty realms, outwardly disturbed by conditions and inwardly agitated, willingly suffering themselves to be driven about. This then troubled the World-Honoured One to rise from samādhi and with all manner of earnest words urge them to rest and desist, not to seek outside, for they are no different from the Buddha. Therefore it says: 'Opening the vision and knowledge of the Buddha.' I also urge all people to always open the vision and knowledge of the Buddha within their own minds. Worldly people have deviant minds; foolish and confused, they commit wrongdoing, with good mouths and evil minds, greed, anger, jealousy, flattery, sycophancy, conceit, encroaching upon people and harming things, thereby opening the vision and knowledge of sentient beings for themselves. If one can rectify the mind, constantly generate wisdom, contemplate one's own mind, stop evil and practice good, this is to open the vision and knowledge of the Buddha for oneself. You must open the vision and knowledge of the Buddha in every thought; do not open the vision and knowledge of sentient beings. Opening the vision and knowledge of the Buddha is transcendence of the world; opening the vision and knowledge of sentient beings is worldly. If you merely toil to cling to reciting, taking it as a routine practice, how is that different from a yak guarding its tail?" Fada said, "If that is so, is it enough merely to understand the meaning, without toiling to recite the sūtra?" The Master said, "What fault does the sūtra have? How could it obstruct your recitation? It is only that confusion and awakening depend on the person, and loss or gain comes from oneself. Reciting with the mouth and practicing with the mind is turning the sūtra; reciting with the mouth and not practicing with the mind is being turned by the sūtra. Listen to my gāthā: