宗鏡錄 79.17

79.17

答。萬法但名。實無體相。因名立相。相狀元空。因相施名。名字本寂。唯想建立。名相俱虛。反窮想原。亦但名字。既無想體。分別則空。故知萬法出自無名。萬名生於無相。名不當相。相不當名。彼此無依。萬法何在。相待之名既寂。分別之想俄空。如幻之境冥真。所執之情合覺。密嚴經頌云。世間種種法。一切唯有名。但想所安立。離名無別義。又頌云。能知諸識起。無有所知法。所知唯是名。世法悉如是。以名分別法。法不稱於名。諸法性如是。不住於分別。以法唯名故。想即無有體。想無名亦無。何處有分別。若得無分別。身心恒寂靜。如木火燒已。畢竟不復生。又頌云。如見杌為人。見人以為杌。人杌二分別。但有於名字。諸大和合中。分別以為色。若離於諸大。色性即無有。

Answer: The myriad dharmas are only names; they truly have no substance or characteristics. Characteristics are established because of names, yet the appearance of characteristics is originally empty. Names are applied because of characteristics, yet names are fundamentally tranquil. Established solely through conception (saṃjñā), names and characteristics are both unreal. Inquiring back to the origin of conception, it too is only a name. Since there is no substance to conception, discrimination is empty. Therefore we know that the myriad dharmas emerge from the nameless, and myriad names are born from characteristiclessness. Names do not correspond to characteristics; characteristics do not correspond to names. With neither relying on the other, where do the myriad dharmas abide? When relative names are tranquil, the conceptions of discrimination suddenly become empty. The illusory objects merge with the true, and feelings of clinging unite with awakening. A verse in the *Ghanavyūhasūtra* says: / "Various dharmas of the world / are all merely names, / established only by conception; / apart from names there is no distinct referent." / Another verse says: / "When the cognitive consciousnesses arise, / there are no dharmas to be known; / that which is known is merely names; / worldly dharmas are all like this. / Discriminating dharmas by names, / dharmas do not correspond to names; / the nature of dharmas is like this, / not abiding in discrimination. / Because dharmas are merely names, / conception has no substance; / when conception is absent, names are also absent; / where could there be discrimination? / If one attains non-discrimination, / body and mind are perpetually tranquil, / just as when wood has been burned by fire, / it never arises again ultimately." / Another verse says: / "Like seeing a stump and taking it for a person, / or seeing a person and taking them for a stump, / the two discriminations of person and stump / exist only in names. / In the harmony of the great elements, / one discriminates them as form; / if separated from the great elements, / the nature of form does not exist."