宗鏡錄 47.13

47.13

答。此體不可說。微妙最難知。周遍法界而無住心。任持一切而不現相。如空中飛鳥。雖往來騫翥而跡不可尋。似眼裏童人。任照矚森羅而眼終不見。若月含一色。遍分萬像之形。等日耀千光。普照四天之下。類摩尼無思而雨寶。廣濟群生。猶磁石無覺而轉移。周迴六趣。密嚴經偈云。藏識持於世。猶如線穿珠。亦如車有輪。隨於業風轉。陶師運輪杖。器成隨所用。藏識與諸界。共力無不成。內外諸世間。彌綸悉周遍。譬如眾星象。布列在虛空。風力之所持。運行常不息。如空中鳥跡。求之不可見。然鳥不離空。頡頏而進退。藏識亦如是。不離自他身。如海起波濤。如空含萬像。藏識亦如是。蘊藏諸習氣。譬如水中月。及以諸蓮華。與水不相離。不為水所著。藏識亦復然。習氣莫能染。如目有童子。眼終不自見。藏識住於身。攝藏諸種子。遍持壽煖識。如雲覆世間。業用曾不停。眾生莫能見。又云。諸仁者。一切眾色。皆阿賴耶與色習相應。變似其相。非別有體。同於愚夫妄所分別。諸仁者。一切眾生。若坐若臥。若行若立。惛醉睡眠。乃至狂走。莫不皆是賴耶識。乃至如磁石力令鐵轉移。雖無有心。似有心者。阿賴耶識。亦復如是。為生死法之所攝持。往來諸趣。非我似我。如水中有物。雖無思覺。而隨於水。流動不住。阿賴耶識。亦復如是。雖無分別。依身運行。乃至若有於此能正觀察。知諸世間。皆是自心。是分別見。即皆轉滅。又頌云。能持世間因。所謂阿賴耶。第八丈夫識。運動於一切。如輪轉眾瓶。如油遍在麻。鹽中有鹹味。亦如無常性。普遍於諸色。

Answer: This substance cannot be expressed in words; it is subtle, wondrous, and most difficult to know. It pervades the dharmadhātu while being a mind of no abiding; it sustains everything without manifesting its characteristics. It is like a bird flying in the sky: though it comes, goes, and soars, its traces cannot be sought. It is like the pupil inside the eye: while naturally illuminating the myriad phenomena, the eye never sees itself. It is like the moon containing a single color, everywhere reflecting the shapes of ten thousand forms; it is equal to the sun shining a thousand rays, universally illuminating all beneath the four heavens. It resembles the wish-fulfilling maṇi jewel that rains down treasures without thought, broadly delivering the multitude of living beings; it is like a lodestone that attracts and moves [iron] without sensation, turning through the six destinies. As a verse in the Ghanavyūhasūtra says: / “The storehouse consciousness sustains the world, / Just as a string threads through pearls, / And as a chariot has wheels / Moving in accordance with the karmic winds. / As the potter works the wheel and stick, / Shaping vessels according to their use, / So the storehouse consciousness and the various elements / Cooperate in power so that nothing is not accomplished. / The internal and external worlds / Are universally ordered and completely pervaded. / Just as the constellations of stars / Are arrayed across empty space, / Sustained by the power of the wind, / Ever revolving without cessation; / Just as the tracks of a bird in the sky / Cannot be seen when sought, / Yet the bird does not leave the sky, / Soaring up and down, advancing and retreating; / So too is the storehouse consciousness: / It does not leave one’s own body or others’ bodies. / As the ocean gives rise to billows and waves, / As empty space contains ten thousand forms, / So too is the storehouse consciousness: / Storing all the vāsanās within. / Just like the moon reflected in water, / And just like the lotus flowers, / Inseparable from the water, / Yet never soiled by the water; / So too is the storehouse consciousness: / No vāsanā can defile it. / As an eye has a pupil, / Yet the eye never sees itself, / So the storehouse consciousness abides in the body, / Gathering and storing all the seeds, / Everywhere sustaining life-force, heat, and consciousness, / Like a cloud covering the world; / Its karmic functions never cease, / Yet sentient beings cannot see it.”

It also says: “Virtuous Ones! All colors and forms are the ālayavijñāna in association with form-vāsanās, transforming into the semblance of their characteristics; they do not have a separate substance, as falsely conceptualized by the foolish. Virtuous Ones! All sentient beings, whether sitting or lying down, whether walking or standing, whether dazed, drunk, asleep, or even running madly—none of them are anything other than the ālayavijñāna.” And so on, until: “Just as the magnetic power of a lodestone causes iron to move, though having no mind, it appears to have a mind; the ālayavijñāna is also like this: sustained by the phenomena of birth and death, coming and going in the various destinies, it is not a self, yet resembles a self. Just as there is an object in the water that, though having no thought or awareness, moves without stopping following the water; the ālayavijñāna is also like this: though free from discrimination, it moves in dependence on the body.” And so on, until: “If someone can correctly observe this and know that all worlds are their own mind, these discriminative views will thereupon be transformed and extinguished.”

Another verse says: / “That which can hold the causes of the world / Is what is called the ālaya. / The eighth, the puruṣa-consciousness, / Moves and actuates all things. / As a wheel turns to form many jars, / As oil is everywhere within sesame seeds, / As salt contains the salty flavor, / And just as the nature of impermanence / Is omnipresent throughout all forms.”