宗鏡錄 57.25

57.25

答。過去未來無體。剎那熏習。唯屬現在。現在正起妄念之時。妄念違真。名為初識。非是過去有識創起。名為初識也。故知橫該一切處。竪通無量時。皆是即今現在一心。更無別理。所以法華經云。我觀久遠。猶若今日。則三世情消。契無時之正軌。一真道現。證唯識之圓宗。

Answer: Past and future have no substantial entity; momentary perfuming belongs only to the present. The very time when false thought arises in the present, with false thought contravening the true, is called the 'initial consciousness.' It does not mean that there was a consciousness originally arising in the past that is called the 'initial consciousness.' Hence we know that horizontally encompassing all places and vertically extending through limitless time, everything is just the one mind of the present moment; there is no other principle. Therefore, the Lotus Sūtra says: 'I view distant kalpas as if they were today.' Then the sentiments concerning the three periods of time vanish, tallying with the correct norm of timelessness; the one true path appears, verifying the perfect source of mere-consciousness.