宗鏡錄 44.3.2

44.3.2

念念遷變。 則汝三歲。 見此河時。 至年十三其水云何。 王言。 如三歲時。 宛然無異。 乃至于今年六十二。 亦無有異。 佛言。 汝今自傷髮白面。 皺其面必定皺於童年。 則汝今時觀此恒河。 與昔童時。 觀河之見。 有童耄不。 王言。 不也。 世尊。 佛言。 大王。 汝面雖皺。 而此見精性未曾皺。 皺者為變。 不皺非變。 變者受滅。 彼不變者。 元無生滅。 云何於中受汝生死。 而猶引彼末伽梨等。 都言此身死後全滅。 王聞是言。 信知身後。 捨生趣生。 與諸大眾。 踊躍歡喜。 得未曾有。 又如眾生八識之中。 前眼耳鼻舌身等五根。 及第八識。 俱緣現量。 得諸法之自性。 不帶一切名言。 又無二種。 計度分別。 隨念分別。 即現前不生滅。 若六七二識。 落在比非二量。 及具計度隨念分別。 即念念常生滅。 亦是於生滅中有不生滅性。 已上經文。 此是因闍王示疑。 寄破外道斷見。 有此方便。 分別生滅不生滅二性。 若不執斷常見性之人。 則八識心王。 同一真性。 皆是實相。 無有生滅。 如大智度論云。 當知色生時。 但是空生。 色滅時。 但是空滅。 中觀論偈云。 無物從緣起。 無物從緣滅。 起唯諸緣起。 滅唯諸緣滅。 故知萬法既不從緣生。 亦不非緣生。 又不空亦不生。 空亦不生。 何者。 若一切法是不空者。 即無有生。 以無自性空故。 方能隨緣成諸幻有。 若一切法是空者。 亦無有生。 以無自體故。 無有生相。 既無有生。 亦無有滅。 如論偈云。 果不空不生。 果不空不滅。 以果不空故。 不生亦不滅。 果空故不生。 果空故不滅。 以果是空故。 不生亦不滅。 但隨心現。 畢竟無生。 如首楞嚴經云。 佛言。 善男子。 我常說言。 色心諸緣。 及心所使。 諸所緣法。 唯心所現。 汝身汝心。 皆是妙明真精妙心中所現物。 云何汝等。 遺失本妙圓妙明心。 寶明妙性。 認悟中迷。 晦昧為空。 空晦昧中。 結暗為色。 色雜妄想。 想相為身。 聚緣內搖。 趣外奔逸。 昏擾擾相。 以為心性。 一迷為心。 決定惑為色身之內。 不知色身。 外洎山河虛空大地。 咸是妙明真心中物。 譬如澄清百千大海棄之。 唯認一浮漚體。 目為全潮。 窮盡瀛渤。 汝等即是迷中倍人。 如我垂手。 等無差別。 如來說為可憐愍者。 如上所說。 見性周遍湛然。 似鏡常明。 如空不動。 萬像自分出沒。 一性未曾往還。 但隨生滅之緣。 遺此妙明之性。 是以一切祖教。 皆指見性識心。 不從生因之所生。 唯從了因之所了。 相麁易辯。 性密難明。 隨轉處而莫知。 在照時而方了。 如今不見者。 皆被三惑心牽。 六塵境換。 不知境元是我。 翻成主被客迷。 但能隨流得性之時。 自然無惑。 復有云。 般若唯以心神契會。 以心傳心。 方成密付。 不可以言迹事相而求者。 此是為未入人。 顯宗破執。 恐取相背心。 情求意解。 故有是說。 若融會而論。 則隨緣體妙。 即相恒真。 且如正見相時。 是誰見相。 以六塵鈍故。 名不自立。 相不自施。 以六根利故。 強自建立。 而為緣對。 若能了境本寂。 識自無生。 則入平等真空。 方稱究竟見性耳。 故云見性周遍。 非汝而誰。 聞性者。 即今聞性。 具三真實。 文殊簡出。 現證可知。 觀音入門。 圓通立驗。 非從行得。 不墮有為。 豈假功成。 本來如是。 首楞嚴經偈云。 譬如人靜居。 十方俱擊鼓。 十處一時聞。 此則圓真實。 目非觀障外。 口鼻亦復然。 身以合方知。 心念紛無緒。 隔垣聽音響。 遐邇俱可聞。 五根所不齊。 是則通真實。 音聲性動靜。 聞中為有無。 無聲號無聞。 非實聞無性。 聲無既無滅。

'[thought-moments] change in every thought-moment. Now, when you were three years old and looked upon this river, and then when you reached thirteen years of age, how was that water?' The King replied, 'It was just as when I was three years old, perfectly the same without difference, even down to the present when I am sixty-two, there is also no difference.' The Buddha said, 'You now lament that your hair is white and your face is wrinkled. Your face is certainly more wrinkled than in your childhood; then when you view this Ganges River now, compared to the sight of viewing the river in childhood past, is there youth and old age [in that seeing]?' The King replied, 'No, World-Honoured One.' The Buddha said, 'Great King! Although your face is wrinkled, the nature of this essential seeing has never wrinkled. That which wrinkles undergoes change; that which does not wrinkle does not change. That which changes is subject to cessation; that which does not change originally has no arising or ceasing. How could it undergo your birth and death within it, yet you still cite such [teachers] as Maskarin [Gośālīputra] and others who all say that this body is completely annihilated after death?' When the King heard these words, he believed and knew that after this body [perishes], one abandons this life and proceeds to another life. Together with the great assembly, he danced with joy, having attained what he had never had before. Furthermore, as among the eight consciousnesses of sentient beings, the first five sense-faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body, as well as the eighth consciousness, all take direct perception (pratyakṣa) as their cognitive condition and grasp the self-nature of phenomena without bearing any names or words, and are also without the two kinds of conceptual discrimination—calculative discrimination and recollective discrimination; thus they are immediately manifest, non-arising, and non-ceasing. If it is the sixth and seventh consciousnesses, they fall into the two pramāṇas of inference and non-perception, and possess both calculative and recollective discrimination; thus in every thought-moment they constantly arise and cease. This is also having a non-arising and non-ceasing nature within arising and ceasing. The above is the scriptural text. This is because King Ajātaśatru displayed doubt, and in order to refute the heterodox view of annihilationism, there was this skillful means distinguishing the two natures of arising-and-ceasing and non-arising-and-ceasing. If a person does not cling to annihilationism or eternalism and sees the nature, then the eight consciousnesses as sovereign minds share the identical one true nature; they are all the true mark, devoid of arising and ceasing. As the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa states: 'You should know that when form arises, it is merely emptiness arising; when form ceases, it is merely emptiness ceasing.' A verse in the Madhyamakaśāstra states: 'No thing arises from conditions; no thing ceases from conditions. Arising is merely conditions arising; ceasing is merely conditions ceasing.' Therefore we know that the myriad phenomena neither arise from conditions nor do they not arise from conditions. Furthermore, they are neither non-empty nor do they arise; being empty, they also do not arise. Why is this? If all phenomena were non-empty, then there would be no arising, because it is by their emptiness of self-nature that they are able to follow conditions and form all illusory existences. If all phenomena were empty, there would also be no arising, because lacking self-substance, there would be no mark of arising. Since there is no arising, there is also no ceasing. As the treatise verse states: 'The fruit is not non-empty and does not arise; the fruit is not non-empty and does not cease. Because the fruit is not non-empty, it neither arises nor ceases. The fruit is empty, therefore it does not arise; the fruit is empty, therefore it does not cease. Because the fruit is empty, it neither arises nor ceases.' They merely manifest according to the mind, and are ultimately without arising. As the Śūraṅgamasūtra states: 'The Buddha said: Good men, I have constantly said that all conditions of form and mind, as well as mental factors and all conditioned dharmas, are merely manifestations of the mind. Your bodies and your minds are all objects manifested within the wondrous, luminous, true essence of the wondrous mind. Why do you lose your fundamentally wondrous, completely wondrous luminous mind and your precious luminous wondrous nature, accepting delusion within awakening? It is dimmed and clouded into emptiness; within the dim and clouded emptiness, darkness congeals into form. Form is intermingled with false thoughts, and thoughts take form as the body. Condensing conditions stir internally, and rush outwardly in pursuit; taking the confused and turbulent characteristics to be the mind-nature, once you are deluded regarding the mind, you determinately mistake it to be inside the physical body. You do not know that the physical body, outward to the mountains, rivers, empty space, and the great earth, are all objects within the wondrous luminous true mind. It is like abandoning hundreds of thousands of clear and calm great oceans, only grasping at the body of a single floating bubble and regarding it as the entire ocean, exhausting all the vast seas. You are indeed doubly deluded among the deluded. Just as my hand hanging down has no difference [from hanging up], the Tathāgata calls such people pitiable.' As stated above, the seeing-nature is all-pervading and serene, like a mirror constantly bright, like empty space unmoving. The myriad images naturally appear and disappear, while the single nature has never come or gone. Merely following the conditions of arising and ceasing, one abandons this wondrous luminous nature. Therefore all ancestral teachings point to seeing the nature and recognizing the mind; it is not produced by generative causes, but is only revealed by revealing causes. The characteristics are coarse and easy to distinguish; the nature is subtle and hard to comprehend. Where it follows transformations, it is not known; when in illumination, it is then understood. Those who do not see it now are all led astray by the mind of the three delusions, shifted by the objects of the six sense-dusts, not knowing that the objective realms are originally oneself, turning around so that the host is deluded by the guest. If one can merely grasp the nature while following the flow, naturally there will be no doubt. Furthermore, there are those who say: 'Prajñā is only united through spiritual resonance; transmitting mind with mind, it only then forms the secret transmission; it cannot be sought through verbal traces or phenomenal appearances.' This was stated for those who have not yet entered, to reveal the source and break attachments, fearing that they would grasp marks, turn their backs on the mind, and seek understanding through sentimental concepts; hence this was said. If we discuss it synthetically, then following conditions, its substance is wondrous, and identical with characteristics, it is ever true. Furthermore, when one correctly sees a characteristic, who is it that sees the characteristic? Because the six sense-dusts are dull, names do not establish themselves, and characteristics do not display themselves. Because the six sense-faculties are sharp, they forcibly establish themselves as cognitive objects. If one can understand that the objective realm is fundamentally quiescent, consciousness is naturally unproduced; then entering equal true emptiness, this alone can be called the ultimate seeing of the nature. Therefore it is said: 'The seeing-nature is all-pervading; if it is not you, who is it?' As for the hearing-nature: the present hearing-nature possesses three realities. Mañjuśrī selected it, and it can be known by immediate realization. Avalokiteśvara entered the gate, and the perfect penetration was immediately verified. It is not obtained through practice; it does not fall into the conditioned; how could it rely on effort to be accomplished? It is fundamentally like this. A verse in the Śūraṅgamasūtra states: 'For example, when a person resides quietly, / and drums are beaten simultaneously in the ten directions, / they are heard at once in the ten places; / this then is the reality of roundness. / The eyes cannot see beyond an obstruction, / and the mouth and nose are likewise so; / the body knows only by contact, / and mental thoughts are tangled without order. / Hearing sounds across a wall, / both far and near can be heard; / the five faculties are not equal [to it]— / this then is the reality of penetration. / The nature of sound is movement and stillness, / which in hearing are presence and absence. / Absence of sound is called not hearing, / not that hearing truly lacks its nature. / Since the absence of sound does not perish...'