宗鏡錄 20.13

20.13

答。只謂了唯心故。成平等之佛。達唯識故。行同體之悲。若不直下頓悟斯宗。則自他二利俱失。何者。不入一心平等。違成佛之正宗。不了同體大悲。墮愛見之妄想。如維摩經觀眾生品云。爾時文殊師利。問維摩詰言。菩薩云何觀於眾生。維摩詰言。譬如幻師。見所幻人。菩薩觀眾生為若此。如智者見水中月。如鏡中見其面像。如熱時焰。如呼聲響。如空中雲。如水聚沫。如水上泡。如芭蕉堅。如電久住。如第五大。如第六陰。如第七情。如十三入。如十九界。菩薩觀眾生為若此。如無色界色。如焦穀芽。如須陀洹身見。如阿那含入胎。如阿羅漢三毒。如得忍菩薩貪恚毀禁。如佛煩惱習。如盲者見色。如入滅盡定出入息。如空中鳥跡。如石女兒。如化人煩惱。如夢所見已寤。如滅度者受身。如無煙之火。菩薩觀眾生為若此。文殊師利言。若菩薩作是觀者。云何行慈。維摩詰言。菩薩作是觀已。自念。我當為眾生。說如斯法。是即真實慈也。淨名私記釋云。今明觀眾生品大精。只依其中一句行則足。得一句攝心。常照行之。一切萬行足。只今汝自觀。觀汝身心。如此畢竟空。即是菩薩觀眾生。菩薩名道。道能通。通汝色心本性。令離虛妄。即是菩薩。菩薩只在汝身中。觀汝身心。如第三手。為畢竟無身心。此中示人坐禪用心法大好。只觀身心。如此。無可作。定亂。是非。一異。一切平等。即坐禪法。不同今時。計有心可得。言我心亂。欲除亂取定。大成顛倒。須覺知魔事。又今時欲度眾生。應須曉夜。觀汝心中所起煩惱性。即是度眾生。只詺此觀煩惱智。名佛耳。釋迦已觀煩惱。已得作佛竟。說教留與。今凡夫依教修行。若言別有佛。別有許多世界眾生。佛次第度竟。然後成佛。若爾。釋迦已成佛竟。今那得猶見有眾生滿世間。當知不爾。夫言竟者盡也。已上觀眾生竟。次觀如來者。如阿閦佛品云。爾時世尊。問維摩詰。汝欲見如來。為以何等觀如來乎。維摩詰言。如自觀身實相。觀佛亦然。我觀如來。前際不來。後際不去。今則不住。不觀色。不觀色如。不觀色性。不觀受想行識。不觀識如。不觀識性。非四大起。同於虛空。六入無積。眼耳鼻舌身心已過。不在三界。三垢已離。順三脫門。三明與無明等。不一相。不異相。不自相。不他相。非無相。非取相。不此岸。不彼岸。不中流。而化眾生。觀於寂滅。而不永滅。不此不彼。不以此不以彼。不可以智知。不可以識識。無晦無明。無名無相。無強無弱。非淨非穢。不在方。不離方。非有為。非無為。無示無說。不施不慳。不戒不犯。不忍不恚。不進不怠。不定不亂。不智不愚。不誠不欺。不來不去。不出不入。一切言語道斷。非福田。非不福田。非應供養。非不應供養。非取非捨。非相非無相。同真際。等法性。不可稱。不可量。過諸稱量。非大非小。非見非聞。非覺非知。離眾結縛。等諸智。同眾生。於諸法無分別。一切無失。無觸無惱。無作無起。無生無滅。無畏無憂。無喜。無厭。無著。無已有。無當有。無今有。不可以一切言說。分別顯示。世尊。如來身為若此。作如是觀。以斯觀者。名為正觀。若他觀者。名為邪觀。天台淨名疏。釋。不觀色不觀色如。不觀色性者。不觀色者。心如幻師。幻作種種色。若知幻師是誑。則不得所幻之色。今色從心幻師幻出。尚不得此心。何處見有此色。故不應觀色。不觀如者。若見色與如異。是則泯色入如。今不見色如之別。故不觀如。不觀性者。即不觀佛性。不觀色。是空俗。不觀如。是空真。不觀佛性。是空中道。以其計中道有佛性。而起順道愛生。是為頂墮。故經云。我及涅槃。是二皆空。唯有空病。空病亦空。今不觀性。是無順道愛故。夫受世間差別果報。皆為一念心異。分別情生。取眾生相。為凡。執諸佛境為聖。如經所說。觀眾生如幻師見幻。觀如來則三際體空。二見於是雙消。情量為之俱泯。則可以成諸佛之喜。除菩薩之憂。信此一心。能入宗鏡。是以法華神力品偈云。能持是經者。令我及分身。滅度多寶佛。一切皆歡喜。古聖云。道俗之不夷。二際之不泯。菩薩之憂也。大方等大集經云。佛法者。名一切法。一切法者。名為佛法。佛法性。即一切法性。如一切法性。即佛法性。佛法性。一切法性。無有差別。故知性無有異。隨見成差。其體常融。假名有別。所以經云。一切諸法。及諸佛法。但假名字。亦非是法。亦非非法。不退轉法輪經云。佛及菩提。有聲無實。亦無方所。諸法亦然。華嚴經頌云。知諸世間悉平等。莫非心語一切業。眾生幻化無有實。所有果報從茲起。又頌云。諸法寂滅非寂滅。遠離此二分別心。知諸分別是世見。入於正位分別盡。法華經安樂行品云。復次菩薩摩訶薩。觀一切法空。如實相。不顛倒。不動不退。不轉。如虛空無所有性。一切語言道斷。不生不出不起。無名無相。實無所有。無量無邊。無礙無障。但以因緣有。從顛倒生故。說常樂觀如是法相。是名菩薩摩訶薩。第二親近處。又如來壽量品云。諸善男子。如來所演經典。皆為度脫眾生。或說己身。或說他身。或示己身。或示他身。或示己事。或示他事。諸所言說。皆實不虛。所以者何。如來如實知見三界之相。無有生死。若退若出。亦無在世。及滅度者。非實非虛。非如非異。不如三界。見於三界。如斯之事。如來明見無有錯謬。以諸眾生有種種性。種種欲。種種行。種種憶想分別故。欲令生諸善根。以若干因緣。譬喻言詞。種種說法。所作佛事。未曾暫廢。故知若以正宗門。尚無在世之人。亦無滅度之者。何況有能化所化之異乎。若以佛事門。則教海宏深。智燈廣照。隨機善巧。寧容暫廢耶。

Answer: It is simply because understanding mind-only accomplishes the Buddha of equality, and comprehending consciousness-only practices compassion of identical substance. If one does not directly and suddenly awaken to this source, both self-benefit and benefit for others are lost together. Why is this? Failing to enter the equality of the one mind contradicts the true source of attaining buddhahood; not understanding identical-substance great compassion falls into the delusional conceptions of love and views. As the 'Contemplating Sentient Beings' chapter of the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa-sūtra says: 'At that time, Mañjuśrī asked Vimalakīrti, "How should a bodhisattva contemplate sentient beings?" Vimalakīrti said, "Just as a magician sees the people he creates by illusion, so does a bodhisattva contemplate sentient beings: like a wise person seeing the moon in water; like seeing the reflection of one's face in a mirror; like a mirage in the heat; like the echo of a cry; like clouds in the sky; like clusters of foam on water; like bubbles upon water; like the solidity of a plantain tree; like a flash of lightning lingering long; like a fifth great element; like a sixth skandha; like a seventh sense-faculty; like a thirteenth āyatana; like a nineteenth dhātu—so does a bodhisattva contemplate sentient beings. Like form in the formless realm; like the sprout of scorched grain; like the view of selfhood in a srotāpanna; like the entry into a womb by an anāgāmin; like the three poisons in an arhat; like greed, anger, and breaking of precepts in a bodhisattva who has attained tolerance; like the residue of kleśas in a Buddha; like a blind man seeing colors; like the inhalation and exhalation of one who has entered the cessation attainment; like bird tracks in the sky; like the child of a barren woman; like the kleśas of an illusory person; like what is seen in a dream after having awakened; like receiving a body by one who has passed into extinction; like fire without smoke—so does a bodhisattva contemplate sentient beings." Mañjuśrī said, "If a bodhisattva practices this contemplation, how does he practice benevolence?" Vimalakīrti said, "Having performed this contemplation, the bodhisattva thinks to himself: 'I should preach such Dharma for sentient beings.' This is genuine benevolence."' The Personal Notes on the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa-sūtra explains: 'Now expounding the "Contemplating Sentient Beings" chapter is extremely essential. Merely practicing in accord with a single sentence in it is sufficient. If you obtain a single sentence to collect your mind and constantly illumine and practice it, all ten thousand practices are complete. Just now you yourself contemplate: contemplate your own body and mind as ultimately empty like this—this is precisely the bodhisattva contemplating sentient beings. "Bodhisattva" is called the Way. The Way can penetrate; it penetrates the original nature of your form and mind, causing them to depart from falsehood—this is precisely the bodhisattva. The bodhisattva is only within your body. Contemplate your body and mind as like a third hand, being ultimately devoid of body and mind. Herein, the method of applying the mind in sitting in meditation shown to people is exceedingly good: simply contemplating body and mind like this, with nothing that can be made—calm and distraction, right and wrong, oneness and difference—all being equal, is precisely the method of sitting in meditation. It is not like that of people today, who reckon that there is a mind that can be apprehended, saying, "My mind is distracted," and wishing to remove distraction and take hold of calm—this completely becomes an inversion; one must become aware of Māra's affairs. Moreover, if people today wish to deliver sentient beings, day and night they ought to contemplate the nature of the kleśas arising in their own minds—that itself is delivering sentient beings. Simply this wisdom that contemplates kleśas is called "Buddha," nothing more. Śākyamuni has already contemplated kleśas and already finished becoming a Buddha; he preached teachings and left them behind for ordinary people nowadays to cultivate and practice according to the teachings. If one says that there is a separate Buddha, and separately many sentient beings of the world whom the Buddha sequentially finished delivering, and only thereafter became a Buddha—if so, since Śākyamuni has already finished becoming a Buddha, how could one still see the world filled with sentient beings nowadays? You should know this is not so. For the word "finished" means exhausted.' The contemplation of sentient beings above is concluded. Next, regarding the contemplation of the Tathāgata, as the 'Akṣobhya Buddha' chapter says: 'At that time the World-Honoured One asked Vimalakīrti, "You wish to see the Tathāgata; in what way do you contemplate the Tathāgata?" Vimalakīrti said, "Just as I contemplate the real characteristic of my own body, I contemplate the Buddha likewise. I contemplate the Tathāgata: he does not come from the past limit, does not go to the future limit, and at present does not abide. I do not contemplate form; I do not contemplate the tathatā of form; I do not contemplate the nature of form. I do not contemplate feeling, perception, formation, and consciousness; I do not contemplate the tathatā of consciousness; I do not contemplate the nature of consciousness. He is not arisen from the four great elements, being identical to empty space. The six āyatanas are without accumulation: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind are already transcended. He is not in the three realms; the three stains are already abandoned. He accords with the three gates of liberation; the three vidyās are equal to avidyā. He is not of one characteristic, not of different characteristics, not of self-characteristic, not of other-characteristic, neither without characteristics nor grasping characteristics. He is not on this shore, not on the other shore, and not in the middle stream, yet he transforms sentient beings. He contemplates nirvāṇa without being eternally extinguished. He is not this and not that; he is not by this and not by that. He cannot be known through wisdom; he cannot be recognized through consciousness. He is without obscurity and without brightness, without name and without characteristic, without strong and without weak, neither pure nor defiled. He is not located in a direction, nor apart from a direction. He is not conditioned and not unconditioned. He is without indication and without explanation. He neither gives nor is stingy; neither observes precepts nor transgresses; neither tolerates nor is wrathful; neither is diligent nor indolent; neither is concentrated nor distracted; neither is wise nor foolish; neither is sincere nor deceitful; does not come and does not go; does not exit and does not enter. The path of all speech is cut off. He is not a field of merit, nor is he not a field of merit; he is neither worthy of offerings nor not worthy of offerings. He neither grasps nor relinquishes; he is neither characteristic nor uncharacterized. He is identical with the real limit, equal to the nature of phenomena; he cannot be weighed, cannot be measured, transcending all weighing and measuring; neither great nor small; neither seen nor heard, neither sensed nor known; departed from all saṃyojanas and bandhanas; equal to all wisdoms, identical with sentient beings; without discrimination regarding all dharmas, without loss in all things, without touch and without affliction, without doing and without arising, without birth and without extinction, without fear and without sorrow, without joy, without aversion, without attachment, without past existence, without future existence, without present existence; he cannot be discriminated and displayed through all spoken words. World-Honoured One, the Tathāgata's body is like this. To perform such a contemplation is called right contemplation; if one performs another contemplation, it is called wrong contemplation."' The Tiantai Commentary on the Vimalakīrti explains: 'Regarding "not contemplating form, not contemplating the tathatā of form, not contemplating the nature of form": "Not contemplating form" means that the mind is like a magician, magically producing various forms. If one knows that the magician is a fraud, then the forms conjured cannot be apprehended. Now, forms are conjured up by the magician of the mind; if even this mind cannot be apprehended, where could one see the existence of these forms? Therefore, one should not contemplate form. "Not contemplating tathatā" means that if one sees form as different from tathatā, this would be to extinguish form to enter tathatā. Now, one does not see any distinction between form and tathatā; therefore, one does not contemplate tathatā. "Not contemplating nature" means not contemplating the buddha-nature. Not contemplating form empties the conventional. Not contemplating tathatā empties the ultimate. Not contemplating the buddha-nature empties the Middle Way. Because one calculates that the Middle Way possesses a buddha-nature and generates an affection that accords with the Way, this is a "crest-fall." Therefore a sūtra says: "I and nirvāṇa—these two are both empty. There is only the illness of emptiness, and the illness of emptiness is also empty." Now, not contemplating nature is because of the absence of affection that accords with the Way.' Generally, receiving differentiated karmic retributions in the world is entirely due to a single thought of mental difference, where discriminating passions arise: grasping the characteristic of sentient beings constitutes the ordinary; clinging to the realm of the Buddhas constitutes the sacred. As stated in the sūtra, contemplating sentient beings is like a magician seeing an illusion; contemplating the Tathāgata means the substance of the three limits is empty. Thereupon the two views are extinguished together, and passionate measures are completely eliminated. Then one can accomplish the joy of all Buddhas and eliminate the sorrow of bodhisattvas. Believing in this one mind enables one to enter the mirror of the source. Therefore, a verse in the 'Spiritual Powers' chapter of the Lotus Sūtra says: 'One who can uphold this sūtra / Causes me and my manifested bodies, / As well as the extinct Prabhūtaratna Buddha, / All to rejoice.' An ancient sage said: 'That the noble and conventional are not leveled, and that the two limits are not obliterated, is the sorrow of bodhisattvas.' The Great Vaipulya Mahāsaṃnipāta-sūtra says: '"Buddha-dharma" is the name for all dharmas; "all dharmas" are named Buddha-dharma. The nature of Buddha-dharma is precisely the nature of all dharmas; the tathatā of all dharmas' nature is precisely the nature of Buddha-dharma. Between the nature of Buddha-dharma and the nature of all dharmas, there is no difference.' Thus we know that nature is devoid of difference; according with views, differences are formed. Their substance is constantly interfused; conventional designations differ. Therefore a sūtra says: 'All dharmas and all Buddha-dharmas are merely provisional names; they are also neither dharma nor non-dharma.' The Avaivartikadharmacakra-sūtra says: 'The Buddha and bodhi possess sounds but no realities, nor do they have locations; all dharmas are likewise.' A verse in the Avataṃsaka-sūtra says: 'Know that all worlds are completely equal, / None being other than all karma of mind and speech. / Sentient beings are illusory and without reality; / All karmic retributions arise from this.' Another verse says: 'All dharmas are quiescent and not quiescent; / Depart far from this mind of twofold discrimination. / Know that all discriminations are worldly views; / Entering the true status, discriminations are exhausted.' The 'Practices of Ease' chapter of the Lotus Sūtra says: 'Furthermore, the bodhisattva mahāsattva contemplates all dharmas as empty, like the real characteristic: not inverted, not moving, not retreating, not turning, like empty space devoid of any nature, the path of all language cut off, not born, not exiting, not arising, without name and without characteristic, truly without anything existing, immeasurable and boundless, unobstructed and unhindered, existing only through causes and conditions, arising from inversion. Therefore it is said that constantly delighting in contemplating such characteristics of dharmas is called the bodhisattva mahāsattva's second sphere of intimate association.' Furthermore, the 'Lifespan of the Tathāgata' chapter says: 'Good sons, the sūtras expounded by the Tathāgata are all for delivering sentient beings. Sometimes he speaks of his own body, sometimes of another's body; sometimes he displays his own body, sometimes another's body; sometimes he displays his own deeds, sometimes another's deeds. All that he states is true and not false. Why is this? The Tathāgata knows and sees the characteristics of the three realms as they truly are: there is no birth and death, whether retreating or emerging; nor is there one who is in the world, nor one who passes into extinction; it is neither real nor false, neither such nor different. Not like the three realms, he sees the three realms. Such matters the Tathāgata clearly sees without error. Because sentient beings have various natures, various desires, various practices, and various recollections, imaginings, and discriminations, wishing to cause them to produce good roots, he uses diverse causes and conditions, parables, and verbal expressions to preach the Dharma in various ways. The Buddha-work he performs has never ceased for a moment.' Hence we know that in terms of the gate of the true source, there is not even a person in the world, nor one who passes into extinction; how much less could there be a difference between one who can transform and those who are transformed! In terms of the gate of Buddha-work, the ocean of teaching is vast and deep, and the lamp of wisdom shines broadly; functioning skillfully according with capacities, how could it be permitted to cease for a moment?