禪源諸詮集都序 1.17

1.17

The *Baozang lun* (Treasure Storehouse Treatise) also says: "Knowing existence, existence is destroyed; knowing non-existence, non-existence collapses (these are both the cognition that knows existence and non-existence). The knowing of true awareness does not reckon existence or non-existence" (since it does not reckon existence or non-existence, it is the non-conceptual awareness of one's own nature). Thus, it reveals that the mind of numinous awareness is the true nature itself, not different from the Buddha. Therefore, this is the teaching that explicitly reveals the true mind as the nature. The more than forty scriptures such as the *Avataṃsaka*, the *Ghanavyūha*, the *Perfect Enlightenment*, the *Śūraṅgama* (Fo ding), the *Śrīmālādevī*, the *Tathāgatagarbha*, the *Lotus*, and the *Nirvāṇa*; and the fifteen treatises such as the *Ratnagotravibhāga*, the *Buddhadhātu-śāstra*, the *Awakening of Faith*, the *Daśabhūmika*, the *Dharmadhātu*, and the *Nirvāṇa-śāstra*—although differing in being sudden or gradual—all belong to this teaching in terms of the essential substance of phenomena they reveal. They are completely identical to the Chan gate's third school, which directly reveals the nature of mind. Since Aśvaghoṣa singled out mind as the fundamental source, and Mañjuśrī selected awareness as the true substance, how can those partisans of refuting marks say only "quiescence and cessation" without allowing true awareness, and the proponents of phenomenal marks cling to the difference between ordinary beings and sages without admitting that one is immediately the Buddha? Now, evaluating and determining them according to the Buddha's teachings is precisely for the sake of these people. Thus, what was described earlier—that the transmission of mind in the Western Regions mostly coincided with the sūtras and treatises—shows there are not two different paths. However, because people in this land were deluded about the mind and clung to the written word, taking names as the substance, Bodhidharma skillfully selected beyond texts to transmit the mind: he designated its name ("mind" is the name) and silently pointed to its substance ("awareness" is this mind); he illustrated it with "wall contemplation" (as related above) to bring all conditions to an end. If asked: "When all conditions are brought to an end, is there annihilation?" He would answer: "Though all thoughts are brought to an end, it is not annihilated." If asked: "By what verification is it said not to be annihilated?" He would answer: "Clearly and distinctly it is self-aware; words cannot reach it." The Master would then verify it, saying: "Just this is the intrinsically pure mind; doubt it no further!" If the answer did not correspond, he would merely ward off errors and make them observe further; in the end he would not utter the word "awareness" beforehand to the other person. He waited until they awakened on their own, and only then would he verify its reality, confirming their direct realization of its substance, and afterwards endorse it so as to cut off remaining doubt. Therefore it is said: "silently transmitting the mind seal." What is called "silent" means only keeping silent about the word "awareness," not speaking nothing at all. The transmission through six generations was all like this. By the time of Heze, other schools competed in spreading, and wanting to seek silent accord, he did not encounter suitable capacities. Furthermore, reflecting on Bodhidharma's prediction of the "suspended thread" (Bodhidharma said: "After the sixth generation of my Dharma, its life will be like a suspended thread"), and fearing that the core doctrine would be extinguished, he openly stated: "The single word 'awareness' is the gateway to all marvels." He left it to practitioners' awakening to be shallow or deep, aiming primarily to keep the school and doctrine from being severed. This was also due to the astrological destiny of the great Dharma in this land: a class of clerics and laity were destined to hear it universally, and thus the response was such. For those who transmitted silently, other people did not know of it, so the kāṣāya was used as proof of faith. For those who transmitted openly, students could easily discern it, so speech alone was used to dispel doubt. Moreover, having taken form in words, it is fully possible to cite the sūtras and treatises as proof. (The earlier text addressed an external objection: "Do present-day transmitters of the Dharma speak secret words?" This is answered here. The Dharma is Bodhidharma's Dharma, so listeners, whether shallow or deep, all benefit. It was only secret formerly and open now; therefore it is not called "secret words." How could a difference in name mean the Dharma itself is different?) Question: Once one has awakened to this mind, how does one cultivate it? Does one still rely on the first teaching that explains phenomenal marks, having people sit in meditation? Answer: There are two points here. For those whose torpor is heavy and difficult to stimulate, whose restlessness is violent and cannot be suppressed, or whose greed and anger rage fiercely and are hard to control when encountering sensory objects, one uses the various upāyas of the former teaching to regulate and subdue them according to the affliction. But if one's afflictions are slight and subtle, and one's wisdom and understanding are clear and sharp, one relies on the one-practice samādhi of one's own school and teaching. As the *Awakening of Faith* says: "If cultivating cessation, one dwells in a quiet place, straightens the body and uprights the intention, not relying on breath, shape, or color, ... extending even to mind-only without external objects." The *Vajrasamādhi-sūtra* says: "Dhyāna is movement; non-movement is not dhyāna; it is the dhyāna of non-arising." The *Dharmapada* says: "If you study various samādhis, this is movement, not sitting in meditation. When the mind flows along with sensory objects, how can it be called concentration?" The *Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa* says: "Not rising from the cessation-concentration yet manifesting all deportments (walking, standing, sitting, and lying down); not manifesting body and intention in the three realms: this is quiet sitting, endorsed by the Buddha." According to this, it serves as an answer: The three realms are flowers in the sky; the four modes of birth are a dream. Relying on the substance to give rise to practice, one cultivates without cultivation; not even dwelling in Buddha, not dwelling in mind, who would discuss the upper or lower realms? (The earlier text raised the objection: "According to the teachings, one must cite the concentration of the upper realms." Those who look at the sky through a tube cling only to the statements of provisional schools; upon seeing this definitive teaching, they should naturally withdraw in shame.) However, in this teaching, the single true mind-nature is set against defiled and pure phenomena in terms of complete exclusion and complete inclusion. Complete exclusion is as explained above: directly pointing to numinous awareness itself as the mind-nature, while all the rest is unreal. Therefore it is said: "It is not what consciousness cognizes, not the mind and its objects," and so forth, extending to: "not nature, not marks, not Buddha, not sentient beings; transcending the four propositions and cutting off the hundred negations." Complete inclusion means: defiled and pure phenomena are nothing other than mind. When the mind is deluded, it falsely gives rise to afflictions and karma, extending to the four modes of birth, the six destinies, and the defiled realms. When the mind awakens, it manifests function from substance, extending to the four immeasurables, the six pāramitās, the four unobstructed eloquence, the ten powers, marvelous bodies, and pure lands: there is nothing it does not manifest. Since it is this mind that gives rise to all phenomena, all phenomena are completely identical to the true mind. Just as with the events that appear in a person's dream, each event is the person; just as gold is made into vessels, each vessel is gold; just as a mirror reflects images, each image is the mirror (the dream corresponds to delusive thoughts and karmic retribution; the vessels illustrate cultivation and practice; the images illustrate responsive transformation). Therefore the *Avataṃsaka* says: "Knowing that all phenomena are the mind's own nature, one accomplishes the body of wisdom without relying on another's awakening." The *Awakening of Faith* says: "The three realms are deceptive and made of mind alone; apart from the mind there are no objects of the six senses," and so forth, down to: "All discrimination is discrimination of one's own mind. Mind does not see mind; no mark is attainable. Therefore, all phenomena are like images in a mirror." The *Laṅkāvatāra* says: "Quiescence and cessation is called the one mind; the one mind is called the tathāgatagarbha, which can universally generate all destinies and births, creating good and creating evil, experiencing suffering and experiencing pleasure. Because it is together with causes, know that nothing is other than mind." The gate of complete exclusion subsumes the previous second teaching that refutes phenomenal marks; the gate of complete inclusion subsumes the previous first teaching that explains phenomenal marks. Looking from the former to this, this is vastly different from the former; using this to subsume the former, the former is completely identical with this. What is deep inevitably embraces what is shallow; what is shallow does not reach what is deep. The deep directly reveals the substance of the true mind, and only then within it excludes everything and includes everything. In this way, with inclusion and exclusion operating freely, and nature and marks unobstructed, one can finally abide in nothing at all with respect to any phenomenon. Only this is called the definitive meaning. Furthermore, the sameness and difference of mind and nature, the contradictions and harmony of sudden and gradual, the order of the various masters' verbal teachings and their collections, and the general purpose of this compilation, are all fully set forth in the lower fascicle.