禪源諸詮集都序 1.16.4

1.16.4

[Therefore it is difficult to understand.] It is clearly not obscured and distinctly ever-aware (a saying of the Buddha is cited below); extending to the ultimate limits of the future, it is eternally abiding and imperishable. It is called the buddhadhātu, also called the tathāgatagarbha, and also called the mind-ground (what Bodhidharma transmitted is this mind). From beginningless time, vikalpa has screened it, so that beings do not realize it themselves and are addicted to birth and death. The Great Awakened One, pitying them, appeared in the world to teach that birth and death and other dharmas are all empty, revealing and indicating that this mind is wholly identical to that of all Buddhas. As the "Manifestation Chapter" of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra says: "Sons of the Buddha! There is not a single sentient being that does not fully possess the wisdom of the Tathāgata; it is entirely because of vikalpa and grasping that they do not realize it. If they are freed from vikalpa, all-knowledge, natural wisdom, and unobstructed wisdom will immediately manifest before them. For example, suppose there were a great scripture scroll (a metaphor for the Buddha's wisdom) equal in extent to a trichiliocosm (the substance of wisdom is boundless, vast and encompassing the dharmadhātu), wherein all the affairs in a trichiliocosm are recorded in full (a metaphor for the substance originally possessing sands-of-the-Ganges merits and sands-of-the-Ganges wondrous functions). Although this great scripture scroll is equal in extent to a great trichiliocosm, it rests entirely inside a single atom of dust (a metaphor for the Buddha's wisdom being fully and completely present in the bodies of sentient beings). Just as in a single atom of dust (taking one sentient being as an example), so it is in all atoms of dust. At that time there was a person of luminous and penetrating wisdom (a metaphor for the World-Honoured One) who had fully perfected the pure divine eye. He saw this scripture scroll inside the atom of dust (the power of the divine eye sees form through obstructions; this is a metaphor for the power of the Buddha's eye seeing the Buddha's wisdom through defilements), without bringing the slightest benefit to sentient beings (a metaphor for how in delusion they do not obtain its function at all, which is no different from having none). Thereupon, employing skillful upāya, he broke that atom of dust (a metaphor for expounding the Dharma to eliminate obstructions) and brought out this great scripture scroll, causing all sentient beings to obtain abundant benefit (and so on). The wisdom of the Tathāgata is also just like this: immeasurable and unobstructed, universally able to benefit all sentient beings (corresponding to recording all affairs of the three-thousand worlds), fully present within the bodies of sentient beings (corresponding to within the atom of dust). It is only that ordinary foolish people have vikalpa and grasping, being unaware and unperceiving, and do not obtain benefit. At that time, the Tathāgata, with the unobstructed and pure eye of wisdom, universally gazed upon all sentient beings of the dharmadhātu and said: 'Wonderful! Wonderful! How is it that these sentient beings possess the wisdom of the Tathāgata, yet in foolishness and delusion they are unaware and unseeing? I should instruct them in the noble path, causing them to forever abandon vikalpa and grasping, and in their own bodies to see the Tathāgata's vast wisdom, which is no different from the Buddha's.' He then taught those sentient beings to cultivate the noble path (the ṣaṭpāramitā, the thirty-seven factors of awakening, etc.) to cause them to abandon vikalpa. Having abandoned vikalpa, they realized the immeasurable wisdom of the Tathāgata, benefiting and bringing peace and happiness to all sentient beings."

Question: Above it was said that the nature is of itself distinctly ever-aware; why then is there need for all Buddhas to reveal and indicate it?

Answer: What is called "awareness" here is not realized awareness. The meaning is that the true nature is not like empty space, wood, or stone, hence it is called "awareness." It is not like consciousness that cognizes through sensory objects, nor is it like wisdom that illumines the substance and comprehends it; it is simply that the one nature of tathatā is naturally and ever-aware. Therefore Bodhisattva Aśvaghoṣa says: "Tathatā is in its own substance real consciousness-awareness." The "Dedication Chapter" of the Avataṃsaka also says: "Tathatā has illumination as its nature." Moreover, based on what is said in the "Chapter on Asking for Clarification," awareness (zhi) differs from wisdom (jñāna): wisdom is confined to sages and does not extend to ordinary people; awareness is possessed by both ordinary people and sages, extending through both principle and wisdom. Therefore Bodhisattva Jñānaprabha and the other nine bodhisattvas asked Mañjuśrī: "What is the wisdom of the Buddha's realm (wisdom of realization)? What is the awareness of the Buddha's realm (the originally inherent true mind)?" Mañjuśrī answered regarding wisdom: "The wisdom of all Buddhas is sovereign and unobstructed throughout the three times (it comprehends all affairs of past, future, and present, hence it is sovereign and unobstructed)." He answered regarding awareness: "It cannot be cognized by consciousness (that which cannot be cognized by consciousness is because consciousness pertains to discrimination; discrimination is not true awareness; true awareness is seen only in nirvikalpa); nor is it an object-realm of the mind (it cannot be known by wisdom: that is, if one realizes it by means of wisdom, it would pertain to the object-realm realized; true awareness is not an object-realm, hence it cannot be realized by wisdom; if an illumining mind suddenly arises, that is not true awareness. Therefore a sūtra says: 'One's own mind grasping one's own mind—what is not an illusion becomes an illusory dharma.' A treatise says: 'Mind does not see mind.' Master Heze says: 'To deliberate in mind is already an error.' Therefore the Northern School's contemplation of the mind loses the true purport: if the mind could be contemplated, it would be an object-realm; hence it is said here, 'nor is it an object-realm of the mind'); its nature is originally pure (it does not wait to be freed from the defilement of afflictions to be pure; it does not wait to sever the turbidity of doubts to be clean; hence it is called 'originally pure.' In the Ratnagotravibhāga, this selects not the purity freed from defilements, but that purity of nature; hence it says: 'its nature is originally pure'); to reveal and indicate it to all living beings (since it is said to be 'originally pure without waiting to sever obstructions,' one knows that living beings originally all possess it; it is only because it is screened by delusion that they do not realize it themselves; therefore the Buddha reveals and indicates it to cause them all to awaken and enter it; this is precisely the revealing, indicating, awakening to, and entering the Buddha's vision and awareness in the Lotus Sūtra; as cited above, the Buddha originally appeared in the world solely for this matter. What that text calls 'causing them to attain purity' refers to the purity freed from defilement in the Ratnagotravibhāga. Although this mind is in its self-nature pure, one must ultimately awaken and cultivate in order to attain the complete purity of both nature and marks. Therefore tens of sūtras and treatises all speak of two kinds of purity and two kinds of vimokṣa. Nowadays people of shallow learning either only know the purity freed from defilement and the vimokṣa of purity freed from defilement, hence reviling Chan's 'mind itself is Buddha'; or they only know the purity of self-nature and the vimokṣa of purity of nature, hence slighting doctrinal marks and repudiating the upholding of the vinaya, seated dhyāna, subduing the passions, and other practices. They do not know that one must have sudden awakening to the purity of self-nature and the self-liberation of nature, and gradual cultivation to attain the purity freed from defilement and the vimokṣa freed from obstructions, perfecting complete purity and ultimate vimokṣa, so that neither body nor mind is obstructed in any way, identical to Śākyamuni Buddha).