宗鏡錄 65.23

65.23

答曰。無心定等。識雖暫無。不久必還生。識不捨身故。有識時多。無識時少。是故名識相。如人出行。不得言其家無主。苦樂憎愛精勤等。是心相應。共緣隨心。行心有故便有。心無故便無。以是故是識相。非我相。又云。復次四大。及造色圍虛空。故名為身。是中內外入因緣和合。生識種。身得是種。和合。作種種事。言語坐起去來。空六種和合中。強名為男。強名為女。若六種是男。應有六男。不可以一作六六作一。既於地種中無男女相。乃至識種。亦無男女相。若各各中無。和合中亦無。如六狗各各不能生師子。和合亦不能生。無性故。

It answers: "In mindless absorption and the like, although consciousness is temporarily absent, it will definitely arise again before long; because consciousness does not abandon the body, the times with consciousness are many, and the times without consciousness are few. Therefore they are called characteristics of consciousness. Just as when a person goes out, one cannot say his house has no master. Suffering, pleasure, hate, love, exertion, and the like are associated with citta; sharing an object and following citta, their operations exist because citta exists, and do not exist because citta is absent. Therefore these are characteristics of consciousness, not characteristics of a self." It also says: "Furthermore, the four great elements and derived matter (upādāyarūpa) enclose empty space; thus it is named a body. Within this, the causes and conditions of the internal and external bases (āyatana) come together, producing seeds of consciousness. When the body obtains these seeds and they come together, they perform various activities—speaking, sitting, rising, going, and coming. In the combination of the six elements, it is arbitrarily named a man or arbitrarily named a woman. If the six elements were a man, there should be six men; one cannot make one into six, or six into one. Since in the element of earth there is no characteristic of male or female, up to the element of consciousness there is also no characteristic of male or female. If it does not exist in each separately, it also does not exist in their combination. Just as six dogs individually cannot produce a lion, when combined they also cannot produce one, because they lack the nature."