宗鏡錄 42.5.1

42.5.1

答。 馬鳴祖師雖標唯心一法。 開出真如生滅二門。 達磨直指一心。 建立隨緣無礙四行。 詳夫宗本無異。 因人得名。 故云祖師頓悟直入名禪宗。 諸佛果德根本名佛性。 菩薩萬行原穴名心地。 眾生輪迴起處名識藏。 萬法所依名法性。 能生般若名智海。 不可定一執多。 生諸情見。 是以金光明經云。 法性甚深無量。 無量者。 非別有一法名為無量。 毘盧遮那遍一切處。 一切諸法。 皆是佛法。 甚深者。 亦非別有一法名為甚深。 即事而真。 無非實相。 可謂一中之多。 當存而正泯。 多中之一。 在卷而亦舒。 如華嚴經云。 菩薩摩訶薩。 知三界唯心。 三世唯心。 而了知其心無量無邊。 是為無等住。 又先德云。 言雖不能言。 然非言無以傳。 是以聖人終日言而未甞言也。 以終日言故。 不絕漚和之心。 而未嘗言故。 靡失般若之性。 以漚和故。 不違大化之門。 以般若故。 不見言象之迹。 又經云。 諸佛常依二諦說法。 若不得世諦。 不得第一義。 以了俗無性。 即是真門。 何乃逐物隨情。 橫生異見。 局方隅之遠近。 定器量之淺深。 如尺蠖尋條。 安前足而進後足。 似癡猴得樹。 放高枝而捉低枝。 若能除器觀空。 自亡方圓長短。 知心是境。 豈有高下是非。 且如世諦門中。 有八萬四千塵勞煩惱。 於諸凡夫妄想中。 唯生死一法最大。 以有生死心境並生。 若無生死。 人法俱寂。 故知了存今日。 不可因循。 夫業繫四生。 身居九有。 得人身者。 如爪上之塵。 失人身者。 猶大地之土。 處三塗地。 而永埋塵劫。 居四空天。 而恒沒禪支。 設暫生人中。 千般障難。 或機鈍而難省。 或根利而信邪。 或身器不完。 或遮障俱重。 皆不可化。 無由證真。 如大智度論云。 當知人身難得。 佛世難值。 好時易過。 一墮諸難。 永不可治。 若墮地獄。 燒炙屠割。 何可教化。 若墮畜生。 共相殘害。 亦不可化。 若墮餓鬼。 飢渴熱惱。 亦不可化。 若生長壽天。 千萬佛過。 著禪定味。 故皆不覺知。 如安息國。 諸邊地生者。 皆是人身愚。 不可教化。 雖生中國。 或六情不具。 或四支不完。 或盲聾瘖瘂。 或不識義理。 或時六情具足。 諸根通利。 而深著邪見。 言無罪福。 不可教化。 故為說好時易過。 墮諸難中。 設無諸難。 煩惱業深。 仍為八苦火燒。 五濁所亂。 夫言苦者無量。 或三苦。 五苦。 八苦。 乃至瑜伽一百一十苦。 及八萬四千塵勞之苦。 皆不出流轉之苦。 及行苦等。 而凡夫甘處。 曾不覺知。 如俱舍論頌云。 如以一睫毛。 置掌人不覺。 若置眼睛上。 為苦極不安。 凡夫如手掌。 不覺行苦緣。 智者如眼睛。 睫極生厭怖。 故知生老病死之苦。 誰能免乎。 四山常來切人。 如先德云。 故賢與不肖。 豪強羸弱。 同為四遷。 一無脫者。 梵王帝釋。 貧窮下賤。 堯舜桀紂。 三皇四凶。 併歸灰壤皆為苦依。 夫八苦者。 生苦。 則眾苦積聚之因。 六趣受身之本。 如食糞中之果。 猶飡毒樹之根。 取甘露而墮坑。 買上食而致死。 功德黑闇。 二女相隨。 有智主人。 二俱不受。 對法論云。 生苦者。 眾苦所依故。 眾苦逼迫故。 九月十月處胎藏間。 如在糞穢坑中。 長受寒熱等種種眾苦。 生熟藏間。 如兩山迫逼。 趣產門時。 其苦難堪。 乍出風飄。 如刀割錐刺。 不覺失聲。 廢忘已前所有事業。 名為生苦。 老苦者。 時分變異故苦。 身分沈重。 諸根熟昧。 皮膚緩皺。 行步傴曲。 寢膳不安。 起坐呻吟。 喘息氣逆。 所為縵緩。 為人所輕。 世情彌篤。 世事皆息。 名為老苦。 又老者。 忘若嬰兒。 狂猶鬼著。 以危脆衰熟之質。

Answer: Although Patriarch Aśvaghoṣa formulated the single phenomenon of mind-only, he opened up the two gates of tathatā and arising-and-ceasing. Bodhidharma pointed directly to the one mind, and established the four practices of according with conditions without obstruction. Upon examination, the source is fundamentally without difference, yet it receives names according to people. Therefore it is said: The patriarch's sudden awakening and direct entry is called the Chan source; the fundamental root of the fruitional virtues of all buddhas is called the buddha-nature; the source cavity of the bodhisattva's myriad practices is called the mind-ground; the place where sentient beings' transmigration arises is called the storehouse consciousness; that upon which the myriad phenomena rely is called the dharmatā; that which can give birth to prajñā is called the ocean of wisdom. One must not rigidly fixate on the one or cling to the many, giving rise to various emotional views. Thus the Suvarṇaprabhāsasūtra states: "The dharmatā is profoundly deep and immeasurable." "Immeasurable" does not mean there is a separate phenomenon named "immeasurable." Vairocana pervades all places; all phenomena are buddhadharma. "Profoundly deep" also does not mean there is a separate phenomenon named "profoundly deep." Reaching phenomena, it is true; there is nothing that is not the real mark. It may be called the many within the one, which, precisely when preserved, is utterly extinguished; and the one within the many, which, while folded, also unfolds. As the Avataṃsakasūtra says: "The bodhisattva mahāsattva knows that the three realms are mind-only and the three periods of time are mind-only, yet fully comprehends that this mind is immeasurable and boundless: this is the matchless abode." Furthermore, a former worthy said: "Although words cannot speak it, yet without words there would be no means to transmit it. Therefore the sage speaks all day yet has never spoken." Because he speaks all day, he does not sever the mind of upāya; and because he has never spoken, he does not lose the nature of prajñā. By means of upāya, he does not contravene the gate of great transformation; by means of prajñā, he sees no traces of words and forms. Furthermore, a sūtra says: "The buddhas always rely on the two truths to preach the Dharma. If one does not attain the conventional truth, one cannot attain the ultimate truth." Because fully comprehending that the conventional lacks self-nature is itself the gate of the real, why pursue objects and follow emotions, arbitrarily generating divergent views, restricting the distances of directions and corners, or fixing the shallowness and depth of vessels' capacities? It is like an inchworm traversing a twig: setting down its front legs before advancing its rear legs; or like a foolish monkey finding a tree: letting go of a high branch to grasp a low branch. If one can remove the vessel and contemplate space, square, round, long, and short will naturally vanish of themselves. Knowing that the mind is the objective realm, how could there be high or low, right or wrong? Moreover, within the gate of the conventional truth, there are eighty-four thousand afflictions of worldly toil. Among the vain thoughts of ordinary persons, the single phenomenon of birth-and-death is the greatest. Because there is birth-and-death, mind and objective realm arise together; if there is no birth-and-death, person and phenomena are both tranquil. Therefore know that understanding must reside in the present day; one cannot procrastinate. Now, bound by karma in the four modes of birth, with bodies dwelling in the nine realms of existence, those who obtain a human body are like dust on a fingernail, while those who lose a human body are like the soil of the great earth. Dwelling in the realms of the three evil paths, one is forever buried for dust-eon durations. Residing in the four formless heavens, one is perpetually submerged in the factors of absorption. Even if one is temporarily born among humans, there are a thousand kinds of hindrances and difficulties: either one's faculties are dull and difficult to awaken, or one's faculties are sharp but one believes in false views; either one's physical vessel is incomplete, or obstructions and hindrances are all heavy. In all such cases, they cannot be transformed, and have no way to realize the real. As the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa states: "One should know that a human body is difficult to obtain, and a buddha's world is difficult to encounter. Favourable opportunities are easy to pass by; once one falls into the difficulties, it can never be cured. If one falls into the hells, being roasted, slaughtered, and cut to pieces, how could one be taught and transformed? If one falls among animals, mutually harming one another, they also cannot be transformed. If one falls among hungry ghosts, tormented by hunger, thirst, and burning heat, they also cannot be transformed. If one is born in the heaven of long life, tens of millions of buddhas pass by, yet because of attachment to the taste of meditative absorption, one remains completely unaware. Those born in Parthia and various frontier lands all have foolish human bodies and cannot be taught and transformed. Even if born in the central kingdom, either their six sense faculties are incomplete, or their four limbs are deficient; or they are blind, deaf, mute, and dumb; or they do not understand right principle; or sometimes their six sense faculties are complete and all faculties are sharp and clear, yet they are deeply attached to wrong views, saying there are no sins and blessings—they cannot be taught and transformed." Therefore it is said that favourable opportunities are easy to pass by, and one falls into the difficulties. Even if free from the difficulties, one's afflictions and karma are deep, and one is still scorched by the fires of the eight sufferings and thrown into disorder by the five turbidities. Now, the suffering spoken of is immeasurable: either the three sufferings, the five sufferings, the eight sufferings, up to the one hundred and ten sufferings of the Yogācārabhūmiśāstra, and the sufferings of the eighty-four thousand afflictions of worldly toil. None go beyond the suffering of saṃsāric wandering, the suffering of conditioning, and so forth. Yet ordinary persons gladly dwell in them, never becoming aware of them. As a verse in the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya states: "Just as a person is not aware / of a single eyelash placed on the palm, / but if placed upon the eye, / it causes extreme pain and unease; / so the ordinary person is like the palm of the hand, / unaware of the conditions of the suffering of conditioning, / while the wise are like the eye: / the eyelash produces extreme aversion and dread." Therefore know: regarding the suffering of birth, old age, sickness, and death, who can escape it? The four mountains constantly come to press upon humanity. As a former worthy said: "Thus the worthy and the unworthy, the mighty and the frail, are alike subjected to the four shifts; not a single one escapes. Brahma kings and Śakra, the poor and base, Yao and Shun, Jie and Zhou, the Three Sovereigns and the Four Perils—all together return to the dust and ashes, and all serve as the bases for suffering." As for the eight sufferings: The suffering of birth is the cause for the accumulation of all sufferings, the root of receiving bodies in the six destinies. It is like eating fruit found in excrement, or partaking of the root of a poisonous tree; like reaching for ambrosia and falling into a pit, or buying fine food and incurring death. Merit and Darkness—the two maidens follow one another; a master of wisdom accepts neither of them. The Abhidharmasamuccaya states: "The suffering of birth is because it is that upon which all sufferings depend; because it is pressed and tormented by all sufferings. For nine or ten months one dwells in the womb as if in a pit of foul excrement, constantly enduring various sufferings such as cold and heat. Between the stomach and the bowels, it is as if pressed between two mountains. When approaching the birth canal, the suffering is unbearable. Suddenly emerging and blown upon by the wind, it is like being cut by knives and pricked by awls, so that one cries out involuntarily, abandoning and forgetting all previous activities. This is called the suffering of birth. The suffering of old age is the suffering due to the transformation of time. One's body becomes heavy, the sense faculties become dull and clouded, the skin sags and wrinkles, one walks hunched and bent, sleeping and dining are uneasy, one groans when rising and sitting, the breath pants in reversal, whatever one does is sluggish, one is held in contempt by others, worldly sentiments grow ever more intense, while worldly affairs all cease. This is called the suffering of old age. Furthermore, the aged forget like infants, and become deranged as if possessed by ghosts, having a physical form that is frail, decaying, and withered."