宗鏡錄 5.3

5.3

答。本心湛寂。絕相離言。性雖自爾。以不守性故。隨緣染淨。且如一水。若珠入則清。塵雜則濁。又如一空。若雲遮則昏。月現則淨。故大智度論云。譬如清淨池水。狂象入中。令其渾濁。若清水珠入。水即清淨。不得言水外無象無珠。心亦如是。煩惱入故。能令心濁。諸慈悲等善法入心。令心清淨。然垢淨不定。真妄從緣。若昧之則念念輪迴。遺失真性。若照之則心心寂滅。圓證涅槃。故知真妄無因。空有言說。約真無說。約說無真。皆是狂迷。情想建立。千途競起。空迷演若之頭。一法纔生。唯現闥婆之影。以含生不窮實際。但徇狂情。則諸聖俯順機宜。悉同其事。以楔出楔。說妄而從妄旋真。將麁接麁。舉相而因相通性。若不執妄。尚不說真。幻影纔消。智光息焰。首楞嚴經云。佛告阿難。精真妙明。本覺圓淨。非留生死。及諸塵垢。乃至虛空。皆因妄想之所生起。斯元本覺妙明真精。妄以發生。諸器世間。如演若多。迷頭認影。妄元無因。於妄想中。立因緣性。迷因緣者。稱為自然。彼虛空性。猶實幻生。因緣自然。皆是眾生妄心計度。阿難。知妄所起。說妄因緣。若妄元無。說妄因緣。元無所有。何況不知。推自然者。肇法師窮起妄之由。立本際品云。夫本際者。即一切眾生。無礙涅槃之性。何為忽有如是妄心。及種種顛倒者。但為一念迷心。此一念者。從一而起。又此一者。從不思議起。不思議者。即無所起。故經云。道始生一。一者。謂無為。一生二。二謂妄心。乃至三生萬法也。既緣無為而有心。復緣有心而有色。故經云。種種心色。是以心生萬慮。色起萬端。和合業緣。遂成三界種子。所以有三界者。為執本迷真一故。即有濁辱生其妄氣者。澄清微為無色界。所謂心也。澄濁辱為色界。所謂身也。散滓穢為欲界。所謂塵境也。故經云。三界虛妄。唯一妄心變化。夫內有一生。即外有無為。內有二生。即外有有為。內有三生。即外有三界。既內外相應。遂生種種諸法。及恒沙煩惱也。故知三界內。無有一法不從自心生。因心想念。分別造作。如幻術力。變化萬物。於外似有發現。現無現性。唯自心生。迷倒之人。執為外境。隨境了別。妍醜自分。纔生忻厭之情。便起塵勞之迹。故遠法師云。本端竟何從。起滅有無際。一微涉動境。成此頹山勢。但內一不生。則無諸有。欲塞煩惱之窟穴。截生死之根株。但能內觀一念無生。則空華三界。如風卷烟。幻影六塵。猶湯沃雪。廓然無際。唯一真心矣。進趣大乘方便經云。佛言。一實境界者。謂眾生心體。從本已來。不生不滅。乃至一切眾生心。一切二乘心。一切菩薩心。一切諸佛心。皆同不生不滅。真如相故。乃至盡於十方虛空。一切世界求心形狀。無一區分而可得者。但以眾生無明癡闇熏習因緣。現妄境界。令生念著。所謂此心不能自知。妄自謂有。起覺知想。計我我所。而實無有覺知之相。以此妄心畢竟無體。不可見故。若無覺知。能分別者。則無十方三世一切境界差別之相。以一切法。皆不能自有。恒依妄心分別故有。所謂一切境界。各各不自念為有。知此為自。知彼為他。是故一切法。不能自有。則無別異。唯依妄心。不了不知。內自無故。謂有前外所知境界。妄生種種法想。謂有謂無。謂好謂惡。謂是謂非。謂得謂失。乃至生於無量無邊法想。當如是知。一切諸法。皆從妄想生。依妄心為本。然此妄心。無自相故。亦依境界而有。所謂緣念覺知前境界故。說名為心。又此妄心與前境界。雖俱相依。起無前後。而此妄心。能為一切境界原主。所以者何。謂依妄心。不了法界一相故。說心有無明。依無明力因。故現妄境界。亦依無明滅。故一切境界滅。非依一切境界自不了故。說境界有無明。亦非依境界故生於無明。以一切諸佛。於一切境界。不生無明故。又復不依境界滅故。無明心滅。以一切境界。從本已來。體性自滅。未曾有故。因如此義。是故但說一切諸法。依心為本。當知一切諸法。悉名為心。以義體不異。為心所攝故。又一切諸法。從心所起。與心作相。和合而有。共生共滅。同無有住。以一切境界。但隨心所緣。念念相續故。而得住持。暫時而有。如上廣引佛言。委曲周細。只為成後學之信。明我自心。寶藏論云。古鏡照精。其精自形。古教照心。其心自明。當知一心遍一切心。無塵可異。一切性含一性。有法皆同。無形而廓徹虛空。誰分彼此。搜迹而任窮法界。莫得纖毫。何故眾生界中。即今顯現。斯則皆因妄念積集熏成。如鏡上之塵。似遮光影。若空中之霧。暫混清虛。但有一法現前。皆是自心分別。設當一念纔起。盡因幻境牽生。起滅同時。更無前後。若知能所無體。頓悟人空法空。忽了物我無依。始信境寂心寂。又乃心生非是因彼。境未曾生。心滅亦不因他。境未曾滅。當知境因心起。還逐心亡。但心生非境生。心滅非境滅。似魚母念魚子。如蜂王攝眾蜂。若魚母不念。則魚子亡。蜂王不攝。而眾蜂散。是以有心緣想。萬境縱然。無念憶持。纖塵不現。終無心外法。能與心為緣。但是自心生。還與心為相。是以楞伽經云。不覺自心所現分劑。不覺內識轉變外現為色。但是自心所現。不通達如此分劑。名惡見論。以不知心現。起差別見故云分劑。是知若不於宗鏡正義之中。所有知解。皆是邪道宗黨。設形言說。悉墮惡見論議。此宗鏡法義。可以憑准。正理無差。可以依行。現前得力。萬邪莫迴。其致。千聖不改其儀。遂能洗惑塵。消滯慮。湛幽抱。豁神襟。獨妙絕倫。故無等等。

Answer: The original mind is tranquil and still, beyond characteristics and detached from words. Although its nature is inherently so, because it does not maintain its nature, it becomes defiled or pure according to conditions. It is just like single [body of] water: if a jewel is placed in it, it becomes clear; if dust mixes with it, it becomes turbid. It is also like the single sky: if clouds veil it, it becomes dark; if the moon appears, it becomes pure. Therefore the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa says: 'It is like the pure water of a pool: if a mad elephant enters it, it makes it turbid; if a water-clearing jewel enters it, the water becomes pure. One cannot say that apart from the water there is no elephant and no jewel. The mind is also like this: because kleśas enter it, they can make the mind turbid; when good dharmas such as various [forms of] compassion enter the mind, they make the mind pure.' Yet defilement and purity are not fixed; the real and the false depend on conditions. If one is deluded about it, then from thought to thought one transmigrates, losing the true nature. If one illuminates it, then from mind to mind there is quiescence and extinction, perfectly realizing nirvāṇa. Therefore we know that the real and the false are without cause; words and explanations are in vain. In terms of the real, there is no explanation; in terms of explanation, there is no real. All of this is mad confusion, established by emotional thinking: a thousand paths compete to arise, like being deluded in vain about Yajñadatta's head; the moment a single dharma arises, it merely manifests the shadow of a gandharva[nagara]. Because sentient beings do not exhaust the limit of reality and merely comply with mad emotions, the holy ones bend to accord with capacities and needs, joining in the same activities: using a wedge to remove a wedge, they speak of the false and turn from the false back to the real; using the coarse to receive the coarse, they present characteristics and through characteristics open up the nature. If one did not grasp at the false, one would not even speak of the real; the moment the illusory shadows vanish, the flames of the light of wisdom subside. The Śūraṅgamasūtra says: 'The Buddha told Ānanda: The quintessential, real, marvelous, and luminous original enlightenment is perfectly pure; it does not retain birth and death, nor any defiling dust, up to and including space—all are brought about by false thoughts. This original, marvelously luminous, true essence of original enlightenment falsely brings forth the container worlds, like Yajñadatta who, bewildered about his head, took shadows to be real. The false is originally without cause; within false thought, the nature of causes and conditions is established. Those who are confused about causes and conditions call it spontaneity. That nature of space is yet born from real illusion; causes and conditions and spontaneity are both the false mind's reckonings of sentient beings. Ānanda, knowing whence the false arises, one speaks of the causes and conditions of the false. If the false is originally non-existent, the causes and conditions spoken of for the false are originally non-existent as well—how much more so if one does not know this and attributes it to spontaneity!' Master Zhao, examining the source from which the false arises, established the 'Chapter on the Primal Limit,' saying: 'The primal limit is indeed the nature of unhindered nirvāṇa of all sentient beings. Why is there suddenly such a false mind and various inverted [views]? It is merely due to a single thought of a deluded mind. This single thought arises from the One. Furthermore, this One arises from the inconceivable. The inconceivable is that which has nowhere to arise. Therefore a scripture says: "The Dao first generates the One; the One refers to the unconditioned. The One generates the Two; the Two refers to the false mind, up to the Three generating the myriad dharmas." Since it is conditioned by the unconditioned that there is mind, and conditioned by the existence of mind that there is form, therefore the scripture says: "Various minds and forms." For this reason, the mind generates myriad thoughts, and form gives rise to myriad facets; harmonizing with karmic conditions, they thereupon become the seeds of the triple world. The reason there is a triple world is that because of grasping at the origin and being deluded about the true One, there is turbidity and humiliation generating its false energy. The clear, subtle [energy] is the formless realm, which is what is called the mind. The turbid and humiliating [energy] that settles is the form realm, which is what is called the body. The dispersed dregs and filth are the desire realm, which are what are called the dusts and objects.' Therefore a scripture says: 'The triple world is false and unreal, merely the transformation of a single false mind.' When internally the One arises, externally there is the unconditioned. When internally the Two arises, externally there is the conditioned. When internally the Three arises, externally there is the triple world. Since the internal and external correspond, various dharmas and kleśas like the sands of the Ganges are thereupon produced. Therefore we know that within the triple world, there is not a single dharma that is not born from one's own mind. Due to the mind's thoughts and memories, it discriminates and constructs, like the power of an illusionist's art transforming the myriad things. Externally they seem to appear, but their appearance has no nature of appearance; they are born solely from one's own mind. Deluded and inverted people grasp at them as external objects; distinguishing them according to the objects, beauty and ugliness are naturally differentiated. The moment feelings of attraction and aversion arise, the traces of defilement and toil are produced. Therefore Master Yuan said: 'From where does the primal origin ultimately come? Arising and ceasing have no limit. A single subtle [thought] enters the realm of motion, producing this crumbling mountain's momentum.' If only the internal One does not arise, then the various existences do not exist. If one wishes to plug the cave of kleśas and cut off the root and trunk of birth and death, one needs only to internally contemplate the non-arising of a single thought; then the sky-flowers of the triple world will be like wind rolling up smoke, and the illusory shadows of the six sense-objects will be like hot water poured on snow—vast and boundless, there is solely the one true mind. The Sūtra on the Expedients of Advancing toward the Mahāyāna says: 'The Buddha said: The realm of the one reality refers to the substance of the minds of sentient beings, which from the beginning has never been born and never ceased, up to the minds of all sentient beings, the minds of all of the two vehicles, the minds of all bodhisattvas, and the minds of all buddhas, which are all equally unborn and unceasing, because they have the characteristic of tathatā. Even if one were to seek the shape of the mind throughout the space of the ten directions in all worlds, there is not a single division that could be found. It is merely through the conditions of the perfuming of the darkness of ignorance of sentient beings that false realms appear, causing thoughts of attachment to arise. That is, this mind cannot know itself, but falsely considers itself to exist, gives rise to conceptions of awareness and knowing, and calculates "I" and "mine"; yet in reality there is no characteristic of awareness and knowing, because this false mind ultimately has no substance and cannot be seen. If there were no awareness and knowing that could discriminate, then there would be no differentiated characteristics of all realms in the ten directions and the three times. Because all dharmas cannot exist of themselves, they always exist based on the discrimination of the false mind. That is, all realms do not each think of themselves as existing, knowing "this is self" or knowing "that is other." Therefore, all dharmas cannot exist of themselves and have no distinctions; it is solely based on the false mind's failure to comprehend and failure to know—because internally it is inherently non-existent—that it asserts there are external knowable objects before it, falsely producing various conceptions of dharmas: asserting existence, asserting non-existence, asserting good, asserting bad, asserting right, asserting wrong, asserting gain, asserting loss, up to producing immeasurable and boundless conceptions of dharmas. It should be known in this way: all dharmas arise from false thought, taking the false mind as their basis. However, because this false mind has no intrinsic characteristic, it also exists based on objects. That is, because it conditions, thinks of, senses, and knows the objects before it, it is called "mind." Furthermore, although this false mind and the objects before it are mutually dependent and their arising has no before or after, this false mind is able to be the primal master of all objects. Why is this? It is because, based on the false mind's failure to comprehend the single characteristic of the dharmadhātu, the mind is said to have avidyā. Relying on the causal condition of the power of avidyā, false objects appear; also relying on the cessation of avidyā, all objects cease. It is not based on all objects themselves failing to comprehend that objects are said to have avidyā, nor is it based on objects that avidyā arises, because all buddhas do not give rise to avidyā with respect to all objects. Moreover, it is not based on the cessation of objects that the mind of avidyā ceases, because all objects from the beginning have their nature intrinsically extinguished and have never existed. Due to this meaning, therefore it is only said that all dharmas take the mind as their basis. One should know that all dharmas are completely named "mind," because their meaning and substance are not different, being subsumed by the mind. Furthermore, all dharmas arise from the mind, serve as characteristics for the mind, exist in combination, are born together and cease together, and equally have no abiding. Because all objects merely follow that which is conditioned by the mind and continue from thought to thought, they are able to abide and temporarily exist.' As extensively cited above from the Buddha's words, in detail, depth, and precision, it is solely to establish the faith of later students and clarify our own minds. The Baocang lun says: 'When an ancient mirror reflects an essence, that essence forms itself. When the ancient teaching illuminates the mind, that mind clarifies itself.' One should know that the one mind pervades all minds; there is no dust that can be different. All natures contain the one nature; all existing dharmas are the same. It is formless and thoroughly clears space; who distinguishes self and other? Searching for traces, let it exhaust the dharmadhātu; not a hair can be found. Why does it manifest right now in the realm of sentient beings? This is entirely because the accumulation of false thoughts has perfumed and formed it, like dust on a mirror seeming to block the light and reflection, or like fog in the sky temporarily muddying the clear void. As long as there is a single dharma appearing before one, it is all the discrimination of one's own mind. Even if a single thought has just arisen, it is entirely drawn forth by illusory objects; their arising and ceasing are simultaneous, with no before and after. If one knows that the grasper and the grasped have no substance, one suddenly awakens to the emptiness of person and the emptiness of dharmas. When one suddenly comprehends that things and the self have no reliance, one first has faith that objects are quiescent and the mind is quiescent. Moreover, the mind's arising is not caused by that: the object has never arisen; the mind's ceasing is also not caused by the other: the object has never ceased. One should know that objects arise due to the mind and also perish following the mind. It is only that when the mind arises, objects do not arise; when the mind ceases, objects do not cease. It is like a mother fish thinking of her fishlings, or like a queen bee gathering the host of bees: if the mother fish does not think of them, the fishlings die; if the queen bee does not gather them, the host of bees scatters. Therefore, when there is a mind that conditions and thinks, the myriad objects run rampant; when there is no thought remembering and holding, not a speck of dust appears. In the end, there is no dharma outside the mind that can serve as a condition for the mind; it is merely that one's own mind arises and turns back to serve as characteristics for the mind. Therefore the Laṅkāvatārasūtra says: 'Failing to realize the boundaries manifested by one's own mind; failing to realize that internal consciousness transforms and externally manifests as form—it is merely what is manifested by one's own mind; not penetrating such boundaries is called the theory of bad views.' Because of not knowing that it is mind-manifested and giving rise to views of distinction, it is called 'boundaries.' From this we know that if one is not within the correct meaning of the mirror of the source, all the understandings one has are the factions of heterodox paths; even if expressed in speech, they all fall into debates of bad views. This Dharma meaning of the mirror of the source can be relied upon as a standard; its correct principle is without error and can be practiced accordingly. Gaining power in the present, myriad heterodoxies cannot turn its import; a thousand holy ones do not alter its standard. Thus it can wash away the dust of delusion, dissolve stagnant worries, make the hidden heart tranquil, and open the spiritual chest. It is uniquely marvelous and peerless; therefore it is the unequalled.