宗鏡錄 33.15

33.15

答。實然。今言滅者。但心相滅。非心體滅。如水因風而有動相。以風滅故。動相即滅。非水體滅。若水滅者。動相應斷。以無所依。無能依故。以水體不滅。動相相續。眾生亦爾。以無明力。令其心動。無明滅故。動相即滅。非心體滅。若心滅者。則眾生斷。以無所依。無能依故。以心體不滅。心動相續。釋曰。論明麁細二種心境。皆由無明熏習力起。然依因依緣。因是不覺。緣是妄境者。只謂不覺自心。妄生外境。故知境無自性。從心而生。和合而起。故云心生即法生。因滅則緣滅矣。以水體不滅。動相相續者。此況真心自體。非動非止。因無明風起。生死動搖。若妄風息時。心之動相即滅。非心體滅。以心體是所依。萬法是能依。若無所依。能依非有。故知一心之體。為群有之依。猶如太虛。作萬像之體。又本識有二義。一妄染義。凡夫所住。二真淨義。八地所住。佛地單住真如。但名無垢識。

Answer: It is indeed so. What is called cessation now is only the cessation of the mind's characteristics, not the cessation of the mind's substance. Just as water has the characteristic of motion due to wind, because the wind ceases, the characteristic of motion immediately ceases, not the substance of the water. If the water ceased, the characteristic of motion would have to be cut off, because there would be neither that which is supported nor that which supports. Because the substance of water does not cease, the characteristic of motion continues. Sentient beings are also like this: through the power of avidyā, their minds are made to move; because avidyā ceases, the characteristic of motion immediately ceases, not the substance of the mind. If the mind ceased, sentient beings would be severed, because there would be neither that which is supported nor that which supports. Because the substance of the mind does not cease, the movement of the mind continues. Commentary: The treatise clarifies that both coarse and subtle minds and objects arise through the perfuming power of avidyā. However, they depend on causes and depend on conditions: the cause is non-awakening, and the condition is the deluded sensory object. This merely means that not awakening to one's own mind falsely gives rise to external objects. Therefore we know that objects have no intrinsic nature; they arise from the mind, arising in combination. Hence it is said: 'When the mind arises, phenomena arise; when the cause ceases, the condition ceases.' As for 'because the substance of water does not cease, the characteristic of motion continues,' this is an analogy for the intrinsic substance of the true mind, which is neither moving nor still. Due to the wind of avidyā arising, saṃsāra moves and shakes. When the wind of delusion subsides, the moving characteristics of the mind immediately cease, but the substance of the mind does not cease. For the substance of the mind is that which is supported, and the myriad phenomena are that which supports. If there were no support, that which is supported could not exist. Therefore we know that the substance of the one mind is the support of all existences, just as great space serves as the substance of the myriad images. Furthermore, the fundamental consciousness has two meanings: first, the meaning of deluded defilement, in which ordinary beings abide; second, the meaning of true purity, in which the eighth bhūmi abides. The Buddha ground abides solely in tathatā, and is solely named the taintless consciousness (amalavijñāna).