宗鏡錄 50.3

50.3

答。是真。是假。不可定執。首楞嚴經云。陀那微細識。習氣成瀑流。真非真恐迷我常不開演。釋曰。梵語阿陀那者。此云執持識。此識體淨。被無明熏習。水乳難分。唯佛能了。以不覺妄染故。則為習氣。變起前之七識瀑流波浪。鼓成生死海。若大覺頓了故。則為無漏淨識。執持不斷。盡未來際。作大佛事。能成智慧海。真非真恐迷者。佛意。我若一向說真。則眾生不復進修。墮增上慢。以不染而染。非無客塵垢故。又外道執此識為我。若言即是佛性真我。則扶其邪執。有濫真修。我若一向說不真。則眾生又於自身撥無。生斷見。故無成佛之期。是以對凡夫二乘前。不定開演。恐生迷倒。不達如來密旨。以此根本識。微細難知故。

Answer: It is real, and it is provisional; it must not be dogmatically grasped. The Śūraṅgamasūtra says: "The ādāna is a subtle and minute consciousness, / Its habitual propensities becoming a torrent. / Fearing that [people] would be confused about whether it is real or not real, / I have always refrained from expounding it." The explanation says: In Sanskrit, ādāna is translated here as "appropriating consciousness." The substance of this consciousness is pure, but perfumed by avidyā, like water and milk difficult to distinguish; only a buddha can comprehend it. Because of unawakened delusive defilement, it forms habitual propensities, transforming and giving rise to the torrent and waves of the prior seven consciousnesses, surging into an ocean of saṃsāra. If, through great awakening, it is suddenly comprehended, it becomes the untainted pure consciousness, maintaining without interruption, exhaustively throughout future time, performing great buddha-works, capable of accomplishing an ocean of wisdom. "Fearing that [people] would be confused about whether it is real or not real" means the Buddha's intention: If I were to speak purely of it as real, sentient beings would no longer progress in practice and would fall into excessive pride (adhimāna), because while being undefiled it is defiled, and is not without the adventitious defilements. Furthermore, non-Buddhists grasp this consciousness as a self; if one says it is the true self of Buddha-nature, that would support their heterodox grasp, corrupting true cultivation. If I were to speak purely of it as not real, sentient beings would repudiate its existence in their own bodies and give rise to the view of annihilationism, and hence there would be no time when they could attain buddhahood. Therefore, before ordinary beings and the two vehicles, he did not definitively expound it, fearing the arising of confusion and inversion, failing to fathom the Tathāgata's esoteric intention, because this root consciousness is subtle, minute, and difficult to know.