宗鏡錄 49.45

49.45

答。下界眾生所見。是業果色。無色界現境。即定果色。俱不離心。慈恩云。由定中變異他身者。瑜伽論云。色無色天。變身萬億。共立毛端。是平等心。無色既無通力。即唯是定力。華嚴經說。菩薩鼻根。聞無色界宮殿之香。阿含經云。舍利弗入涅槃時。色無色天宮中。淚下如春細雨。波闍波提入涅槃時。色無色天。佛邊側立。及實色中定境者。是所變境力。為相續。為間斷。若內身多續。少分間斷。由有生一念。即便命終故。或如蜉蝣等。生已則死故。若變外器。多分長時。隨業勢力任運變故。

Answer: What is seen by sentient beings of the lower realms is form that is the fruit of karma. The objects manifesting in the formless realm are forms that are the fruit of meditative absorption. Both do not depart from mind. Ci'en states: 'Regarding transformation into another body from within meditative absorption, the Yogācārabhūmiśāstra says: "Devas of the form and formless realms transform their bodies into ten thousand kotis and together stand on the tip of a hair; this is due to an equanimous mind." Since the formless realm lacks supernormal powers, it is solely the power of meditative absorption. The Avataṃsakasūtra says that a bodhisattva's nose organ smells the fragrance of the palaces of the formless realm. The Āgamas say that when Śāriputra entered nirvāṇa, tears fell like a fine spring rain in the palaces of the devas of the form and formless realms; when Mahāprajāpatī entered nirvāṇa, devas of the form and formless realms stood beside the Buddha.' As for the objects of meditative absorption among real forms: is the power of the transformed objects continuous or intermittent? In the case of the internal body, it is mostly continuous and only partly intermittent, because there are instances where after being born for a single thought-moment one immediately dies, or like mayflies and the like, as soon as they are born they die. In the case of transforming the external vessel-world, it mostly lasts for a long time, because it is transformed spontaneously in accordance with the momentum of karma.