宗鏡錄 53.4

53.4

答。識論云。雖非無色。而是識變。謂識生時。內因緣力。變似眼等色等相現。即以此相。為所依緣。然眼等根。非現量得。以能發識。比知是有。此但功能。非外所造。外有對色。理既不成。故應但是內識變現。釋云。眼等雖有所依所緣之色。而是識所變現。非是心外。別有極微。以成根境。但八識生時。內因緣種子力等。第八識變似五根五塵。眼等五識。依彼所變根。緣彼本質塵境。雖親不得。要託彼生。實於本識色塵之上。變作五塵相現。即以彼五根為所依。以彼及此二種五塵。為所緣緣。五識若不託第八所變。便無所緣緣。所緣緣中。有親疎故。然眼等根。非現量得者。色等五塵。世間共見。現量所得。眼等五根。非現量得。除第八識緣。及如來等緣。是現量得。世不共言。餘散心中。無現量得。此但能有發識之用。此知是有。此但有功能。非是心外別有大種所造之色。此功能言。即是發生五識作用。觀用知體。如觀生芽。比知種體是有。所以密嚴經偈云。眼色等為緣。而得生於識。猶火因薪熾。識起亦復然。境轉隨妄心。猶鐵逐礠石。如乾城陽焰。愚渴之所取。中無能造物。但隨心變異。復如乾城人。往來皆不實。眾生身亦爾。進止悉非真。亦如夢中見。寤後即非有。妄見蘊等法。覺已本寂然。四大微塵聚。離心無所得。華嚴經云。自在主童子告善財言。善男子。我復善知十八工巧。種種技術。并六十二眷屬明論。及內明等一切方法。治內煩惱。何等名為內身煩惱。有四因緣。一謂眼根。攝受色境。二由無始取著習氣。三由彼識自性本性。四於色境作意希望。由此四種因緣力故。藏識轉已。識波浪生。譬如瀑流。相續不斷。善男子。如眼識起。一切根識微塵毛孔。俱時出生。亦復如是。譬如明鏡。頓現眾像。諸識亦爾。或時頓現。善男子。譬如猛風。吹大海水。波浪不停。由境界風。飄靜心海。起識波浪。相續不斷。因緣相作。不相捨離。不一不異。如水與波。由業生相。深起繫縛。不能了知色等自性。五識身轉。彼阿賴耶。終不自言。我生七識。七識不言。從阿賴耶生。但由自心。執取境相。分別而生。如是甚深阿賴耶識。行相微細。究竟邊際。唯諸如來住地菩薩之所通達。愚法聲聞。及辟支佛。凡夫外道。悉不能知。

Answer: The Vijñaptimātratāsiddhiśāstra says: "Although it is not that there is no form, it is transformed by consciousness. That is, when consciousness arises, through the power of internal causes and conditions, it transforms and appears resembling the characteristics of the eyes and so forth and visible form and so forth. It then takes these characteristics as its support and condition. However, sense-faculties such as the eyes are not apprehended through direct perception (pratyakṣa); because they are capable of producing consciousness, by inference (anumāna) one knows they exist. This is merely a functional capacity, not something produced externally. Since the principle of external, obstructive form is already unestablished, it must therefore merely be the transformation and appearance of internal consciousness."

The explanation states: Although the eyes and so forth have form that serves as their support and perceptual object, they are transformed and manifested by consciousness; it is not that outside of mind there exist separate atoms that form the faculties and their spheres. Rather, when the eight consciousnesses arise, through the force of internal causal seeds and so forth, the eighth consciousness transforms, resembling the five faculties and the five dusts. The five consciousnesses, such as the eye[-consciousness], rely upon the faculties transformed by it and take as objects the dust-spheres that are its original essences (benshi). Although they do not directly apprehend them, they necessarily rely on them to arise. In reality, upon the form-dust of the fundamental consciousness, they transform into the appearance of the five dusts; they thus take those five faculties as their basis of support and take both those and their own two kinds of five dusts as their objective conditions (ālambanapratyaya). If the five consciousnesses did not rely on what is transformed by the eighth consciousness, there would be no objective condition; for within the objective condition there are both direct (intimate) and indirect (distant) aspects.

As for "sense-faculties such as the eyes are not apprehended through direct perception": the five dusts such as visible form are mutually perceived by the worldly and apprehended through direct perception; the five faculties such as the eyes are not apprehended through direct perception. Except for being the objects of the eighth consciousness and the objects of the Tathāgatas and so forth—which are apprehended by direct perception—it is not commonly claimed in the world; within other scattered minds, there is no apprehension through direct perception. Since these merely possess the function of producing consciousness, from this one infers they exist. This is merely a functional capacity; it is not form produced by separate great elements outside the mind.

This word "functional capacity" refers precisely to the operation of producing the five consciousnesses. By observing the function, one knows the substance—just as by observing the sprouting of a shoot, one infers that the substance of the seed exists. Therefore, a verse in the Ghanavyūhasūtra says:
"Taking the eye, visible form, and so forth as conditions,
Consciousness is thereby able to arise.
Just as fire blazes on account of fuel,
So too is the arising of consciousness.
The sphere shifts, following the deluded mind,
Just as iron pursues a lodestone.
Like a city of the gandharvas or a mirage,
Apprehended by the foolish and thirsty:
Inside there is no producing entity;
They merely change and vary following the mind.
Again, like people in a city of the gandharvas,
Whose coming and going are all unreal,
So too are the bodies of sentient beings;
Their advancing and halting are entirely untrue.
They are also like what is seen in a dream:
Upon awakening, it no longer exists.
Falsely seeing dharmas such as the aggregates—
Once awakened, they are originally quiescent.
An accumulation of minute atoms of the four great elements,
Separated from mind, is ungraspable."

The Avataṃsakasūtra says: "The youth Prabhūtaratna said to Sudhana: 'Good son, I also thoroughly understand the eighteen crafts, various technical arts, the sixty-two auxiliary treatises on sciences, the inner science, and all methods for curing internal afflictions.' What are named the afflictions of the internal body? There are four causes and conditions: First, the eye-faculty apprehending visible objects; second, the habit-energy of clinging since beginningless time; third, the own-nature and fundamental nature of that consciousness; fourth, mental application and craving toward visible objects. Due to the power of these four causes and conditions, the storehouse consciousness transforms, and the waves of consciousness arise, just like a torrent flowing in uninterrupted succession.

'Good son, just as the eye-consciousness arises, so too do all the faculty-consciousnesses, fine atoms, and pores arise simultaneously. It is just like a clear mirror instantaneously reflecting many images; all consciousnesses are also like this, sometimes appearing instantaneously. Good son, it is like a fierce wind blowing across the great ocean, where the waves never cease: driven by the wind of objects blowing across the calm sea of the mind, the waves of consciousness arise in uninterrupted succession. Cause and condition interact with one another, never abandoning each other; they are neither one nor different, like water and waves. Because of the characteristics produced by karma, deep bondage arises, and one cannot understand the own-nature of form and so forth, and the collection of five consciousnesses turns. That ālayavijñāna never says of itself, "I produce the seven consciousnesses"; nor do the seven consciousnesses say, "We are produced from the ālayavijñāna." Rather, merely from one's own mind clinging to the characteristics of objects, they arise through conceptual discrimination. Such a profound ālayavijñāna has subtle and minute operational characteristics; its ultimate limits are penetrated only by the Tathāgatas and bodhisattvas residing in the stages. Śrāvakas foolish regarding the Dharma, pratyekabuddhas, ordinary persons, and non-Buddhists are all incapable of knowing it.'"