宗鏡錄 6.20

6.20

答。近代已來。今時學者。多執文背旨。昧體認名。認名忘體之人。豈窮實地。徇文迷旨之者。何契道原。則心是名。以知為體。此是靈知。性自神解。不同妄識。仗緣託境。作意而知。又不同太虛空廓。斷滅無知。故。肇論云。般若無知者。無有取相之知也。常人皆謂般若是智。智則有知也。若有知。則有取著。若有取著。則不契無生。今明般若真智。無相無緣。雖鑒真諦。而不取相。故云無知也。故經云。聖心無知。無所不知矣。又經云。真般若者。清淨如虛空。無知無見。無作無緣。斯則知自無知矣。豈待返照。然後無知者哉。只此知性。自無知矣。不待忘也。以此真知。不落有無之境。是以諸佛有祕密。祕密之教。祖師有默傳。密付之宗。唯親省而相應。非言詮之表示。若明宗之者。了然不昧。寂爾常知。昭昭而溢目騰輝。何假神通之顯現。晃晃而無塵不透。豈勞妙辯之敷揚。為不達者。垂方便門。令依此知。無幽不盡。

Answer: In recent times, scholars nowadays mostly cling to the text and turn their backs on the purport; they are blind to the substance and acknowledge [only] the name. How could one who acknowledges the name while forgetting the substance ever fathom the real ground? How could one who follows the text while missing the purport ever accord with the source of the Way? Thus, 'citta' is the name, and it takes awareness as its substance. This is numinous awareness; by nature it possesses spiritual understanding of itself. It is not like deluded consciousness, which relies on conditions, depends on objects, and knows through mental application. Nor is it like the vast emptiness of space, which is sheer annihilation without awareness. Therefore, the Zhao lun says: 'Prajñā being without knowledge means that it has no knowledge that grasps at characteristics.' Ordinary people all say that prajñā is wisdom, and wisdom implies knowing. If there is knowing, then there is grasping; if there is grasping, then one does not accord with the unproduced. Now it is explained that the true wisdom of prajñā is without characteristics and without conditions; although it illuminates the ultimate truth, it does not grasp at characteristics. Therefore it is said to be without knowledge. Thus a sūtra says: 'The sage's mind is without knowledge, yet there is nothing it does not know.' Another sūtra says: 'True prajñā is pure like empty space; it is without knowledge and without vision, without action and without conditions.' This means that awareness is of itself without knowledge; how could it wait for reflective illumination before becoming free of knowledge? This very nature of awareness is of itself without knowledge; it does not wait to be forgotten. Because this true awareness does not fall into the realms of existence or non-existence, the Buddhas have their secret teachings, and the ancestral masters have their source transmitted in silence and conferred in secret. It is only personally realized and matched; it cannot be expressed by verbal formulations. If one understands the source, it is clearly known and not obscured, quiescent and constantly aware. Brilliantly filling the eyes with radiance, what need is there for the display of supernatural powers? Dazzlingly penetrating every dust-mote, why labor over the expounding of wondrous eloquence? For those who have not attained it, expedient gates are opened to enable them, relying on this awareness, to exhaust every hidden depth.