宗鏡錄 57.29

57.29

答。只為識性幽玄。難窮本末。唯佛能了。下位莫知。以無跡無形。為萬有之本。唯深唯妙。作眾聖之原。如菩薩處胎經五道尋識品云。爾時世尊。將欲示現識所趣向。道識。俗識。有為識。無為識。有漏識。無漏識。華識。果識。報識。無報識。天識。龍識。鬼。神。阿脩羅。迦樓羅。緊那羅。摩睺羅伽。人。非人識。上至二十八天識。下至無救地獄識。爾時世尊。即於胎中。現勾鎖骸骨。遍滿三千大千世界。佛告阿祈陀。能別此骸骨識耶。對曰。不別。何以故。未得通徹。行力未至。佛告彌勒菩薩。汝此天中。未得神通耶。彌勒白佛言。有成就者。有不成就者。佛告彌勒。汝觀勾鎖骸骨。令一切眾。知識所趣。分別決了。令無疑滯。爾時彌勒菩薩即從座起。手執金剛七寶神杖。攬勾鎖骸骨。聽彼骨聲。即白佛言。此人命終。瞋恚結多。識墮龍中。次復攪骨。此人前身。十跡行具。得生天上。次復攪骨。此人前身。破戒犯律。生地獄中。如是攪骨。有漏無漏。有為無為。從二十八天。下至無救地獄。知識所趣。善惡果報。白黑行報。有一全身舍利。無有缺減。爾時彌勒。以杖攪之。推尋此識。了不知處。如是三攪。前白佛言。此人神識。了不可知。將非如來入涅槃耶。佛告彌勒。汝紹佛位。於當來世。當得作佛。成無上道。何以攪舍利而不知識處耶。彌勒白佛言。佛不思議。不可限量。非我等境界。所能籌量。今有狐疑。唯願世尊。當解說之。五道神識。盡能得知。彼善惡所趣。不敢有疑。於如來所。今此舍利。無有缺減。願說此識。令我等知。佛告彌勒。過去未來現在諸佛。舍利流布。非汝等境界所能分別。何以故。此舍利。即是吾舍利。何能尋究如來神識。今當與汝。分別。如來上中下識。至薩芸然。各各不同。初住菩薩。未立根德力。雖得神通。二住菩薩。以天眼觀。知識所趣。退不退地。亦復觀見。欲界色界。無色界者。或復觀見。生東方無數恒河沙佛剎。供養諸佛。奉律無礙。亦復知彼受記劫數。一劫二劫。乃至百千億劫。或有菩薩。於三住地。觀見舍利。知識所趣。於有餘涅槃。無餘涅槃。然復不見四住所行。識所趣向。四住菩薩。見一見二三住識法。然復不見五住舍利識法所趣。乃至唯佛。知佛神識所念。又偈云。識神無形法。五大以為家。分別善惡行。去就別真偽。識示善道處。永到安隱道。識為第六王。餘大最不如。

Answer: It is simply because the nature of consciousness is profound and obscure, difficult to fathom from beginning to end; only a Buddha can fully comprehend it, while those of lower stages cannot know it. Taking formlessness and tracklessness as the root of the myriad existences, uniquely deep and wondrous, it serves as the source of all sages. As the Sūtra of the Bodhisattva Dwelling in the Womb, in the chapter "Investigating Consciousness in the Five Destinies," states:
'At that time, the World-Honoured One wished to demonstrate the destinies to which consciousness tends: worldly consciousness, supramundane consciousness, conditioned consciousness, unconditioned consciousness, defiled consciousness, undefiled consciousness, flower-consciousness, fruit-consciousness, retributive consciousness, non-retributive consciousness, deva consciousness, nāga consciousness, ghost, spirit, asura, garuḍa, kiṃnara, mahoraga, human, and non-human consciousness, extending upward to the consciousness of the twenty-eight heavens and downward to the consciousness of the Avīci Hell without salvation. At that time, the World-Honoured One, right from within the womb, manifested interlaced skeletons filling the trichiliocosm. The Buddha said to Ajita, "Can you distinguish the consciousness of these skeletons?" He replied, "I cannot distinguish it. Why is that? Because I have not attained complete penetration and my power of practice has not reached it." The Buddha said to the Bodhisattva Maitreya, "In this heaven of yours, have you not attained supernormal powers?" Maitreya said to the Buddha, "There are those who have accomplished them, and those who have not accomplished them." The Buddha said to Maitreya, "Observe these interlaced skeletons, and enable all the assembly to know where their consciousness has gone, distinguishing and settling it so they have no doubts or hesitations." At that time, Bodhisattva Maitreya rose from his seat, held a diamond divine staff of seven jewels in his hand, stirred the interlaced skeletons, and listening to the sound of those bones, immediately said to the Buddha, "When this person's life ended, he had abundant fetters of anger; his consciousness has fallen among nāgas." Next he stirred the bones again: "In this person's previous life, he was fully equipped with the ten good tracks of practice; he has attained birth in the heavens." Next he stirred the bones again: "In this person's previous life, he broke the precepts and violated monastic discipline; he has been born in hell." In this manner he stirred the bones—defiled and undefiled, conditioned and unconditioned, from the twenty-eight heavens down to the hell without salvation—knowing where the consciousness tended, good and evil karmic retributions, and the retributions of white and black actions. There was one complete body of relics without any deficiency. At that time, Maitreya stirred it with his staff, searching for this consciousness, but could not know its place at all. Stirring it three times in this way, he stepped forward and said to the Buddha, "This person's consciousness cannot be known at all. Could it be a Tathāgata who entered nirvāṇa?" The Buddha said to Maitreya, "You will succeed to the position of a Buddha; in a future age, you will become a Buddha and achieve the unexcelled path. Why do you stir the relics and yet not know the place of the consciousness?" Maitreya said to the Buddha, "The Buddha is inconceivable and immeasurable, beyond the realm that our kind can calculate. Now I have doubts; I only wish that the World-Honoured One would explain it. I am able to know all the consciousnesses of the five destinies, where their good and evil tend; I dare not have any doubt. Yet regarding the Tathāgata, now these relics are without any deficiency; please speak of this consciousness so that we may know it." The Buddha said to Maitreya, "The relics of past, future, and present Buddhas are widely dispersed; it is not a realm that can be distinguished by your kind. Why is that? These relics are my relics. How could you investigate and fathom the consciousness of a Tathāgata? Now I shall distinguish for you: the Tathāgata's superior, middling, and inferior consciousnesses up to sarvajñatā are each different. Bodhisattvas of the First Abode have not yet established faculties, virtues, and powers, though they have attained supernormal powers. Bodhisattvas of the Second Abode, observing with the divine eye, know where consciousnesses tend, whether stages are retrogressing or non-retrogressing, and also observe those in the desire realm, form realm, and formless realm; or again, they observe those born in Buddha-lands in the eastern direction as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, making offerings to the Buddhas and upholding the precepts without hindrance, and also know the number of kalpas until their prediction, whether one kalpa, two kalpas, or up to hundreds of thousands of koṭis of kalpas. Or there are bodhisattvas who, at the stage of the Third Abode, observe relics and know where the consciousness tends in nirvāṇa with remainder and nirvāṇa without remainder, yet they do not see the practices or the destinations of consciousness of the Fourth Abode. Bodhisattvas of the Fourth Abode see the dharmas of consciousness of the First, Second, and Third Abodes, yet they do not see where the consciousness-dharmas of the relics of the Fifth Abode tend; and so on, until only a Buddha knows the thoughts of a Buddha's consciousness.' Furthermore, a verse states: / 'Consciousness is a formless dharma, / taking the five great elements as its home. / Distinguishing good and evil conduct, / its departures and arrivals distinguish the true from the false. / Consciousness indicates the place of good paths, / permanently arriving at the peaceful and secure path. / Consciousness is the sixth king, / the remaining great elements are completely inferior to it.'