宗鏡錄 28.14

28.14

答。信有二種。一。若正信堅固。諦了無疑。理觀分明。乘戒兼急。如此則一生可辦。誰論退耶。二若依通之信。觀力麁浮。習重境強遇緣即退。如華嚴論云。如涅槃經。聞常住二字。尚七世不墮地獄。如華嚴經云。設聞如來名。及所說法。不生信解。亦能成種。必得解脫。至成佛故。何故經言第六住心。及從凡夫信位。猶言有退。此意若為和會。解云。十信之中勝解未成。未得謂得。便生憍慢。不近善友。不敬賢良。為慢怠故。久處人天。惡業便起。能成就大地獄業。若一信不慢。常求勝友。即無此失。若權教中第六住心。可有退位。實教中為稽滯者。責令進修。如舍利弗。是示現聲聞。非實聲聞。所作方便。皆度眾生使令進策。如權教中第六住心。可說實退。何以故。為權教中地前三賢。總未見道。所修作業。皆是有為。所有無明。皆是折伏。功不強者。便生退還。若折伏有力。亦不退失。如蛇有毒。為呪力故。毒不能起。但於佛法中種於信心。謙下無慢。敬順賢良。於諸惡人。心常慈忍。於諸勝己者。諮受未聞。所聞勝法。奉行無妄。所有虛妄。依教蠲除。於三菩提道。常勤不息。夫為人生之法。法合如然。但不長惡而生。何須慮退。華嚴疏云。深心信解常清淨者。信煩惱即菩提。方為常淨。由稱本性而發菩提心。本來是佛。更無所進。如在虛空。退至何所。

Answer: There are two kinds of faith. First, if correct faith is firm and solid, clearly understood without doubt, rational contemplation distinct, and vehicles and precepts both urgently maintained—if like this, then in a single lifetime it can be accomplished; who would speak of regression? Second, if it is faith dependent on penetration, where the power of contemplation is coarse and unstable, habit-energy heavy, and conditions powerful, then encountering circumstances one immediately regresses. As the Huayan lun says: "As in the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, having heard the two words 'eternal abiding,' one does not fall into hell even for seven lifetimes; and as the Huayan Sūtra says, even if one hears the name of the Tathāgata and the Dharma he expounds without generating faith and understanding, it still forms a seed and must attain liberation up to the point of becoming a Buddha—why then do the sūtras say that at the sixth mental dwelling and from the faith stage of an ordinary person, there is still said to be regression? How is this intention reconciled?" The explanation states: "Within the ten faiths, superior understanding is not yet completed. Having not attained, one claims to have attained, thereby generating arrogance, not drawing near good friends, and not respecting the worthy and good. Due to arrogance and negligence, dwelling long among humans and devas, bad karma then arises, which can accomplish karma of the great hells. If one possesses faith without arrogance, always seeking superior friends, then one will not have this fault. If in the provisional teaching, at the sixth mental dwelling there can be a stage of regression; in the real teaching, for those who linger, they are rebuked to cause them to advance in cultivation. Just as Śāriputra is a manifest śrāvaka and not a real śrāvaka; what he does as expedients are all to deliver sentient beings and cause them to advance and spur themselves on. Like in the provisional teaching, at the sixth mental dwelling one can speak of actual regression. Why? Because in the provisional teaching, the three grades of the worthy before the stages (bhūmi) have altogether not seen the Path; the actions they cultivate are all conditioned, and whatever avidyā they have is merely suppressed. If one's effort is not strong, regression then arises. If suppression is forceful, one also does not regress and lose it. Just as a snake has poison, yet due to the power of a mantra, the poison cannot arise. One need only plant the mind of faith within the Buddha-Dharma, be humble without arrogance, respect and follow the worthy and good, constantly harbor loving-kindness and forbearance in mind toward all evil people, consult and receive what has not been heard from all those superior to oneself, faithfully practice without falsity the superior Dharma heard, eradicate all falsity according to the teachings, and constantly be diligent without rest in the path to the three bodhis. As the Dharma for human life, the Dharma appropriately is like this. As long as one lives without growing evil, what need is there to worry about regression?" The Huayan shu says: "'Those whose deep-minded faith and understanding are constantly pure' means that only when one believes that kleśa is bodhi is it constantly pure. From matching the original nature, one gives rise to the bodhi-mind; originally being Buddha, there is nothing further to advance toward—as if in empty space, to what place could one regress?"