[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Taishō Tripiṭaka (Chinese Buddhist canon)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho) › [宗鏡錄](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016) › [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt) › 100.63 # 宗鏡錄 100.63 English (machine translation) 100.63 - **Language:** English ### [100.63](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt.100.63) Answer: "Within this gate of mine, there is neither delusion nor awakening, nor any principle of matching or not matching. 'Letting go of your hands, you seem to have not a single thing; in vain do you laboriously speak of several thousand kinds.' This matter cannot be compared by ten thousand metaphors; the thousand sages cannot determine it; the great earth cannot bear it; empty space cannot contain it. Unless one is a person of great capacity, there is no way to shoulder it. As an ancient worthy said: 'Though one search through the worlds of the ten directions, one cannot find a single person as a companion.' It is also said: 'There is only one person who inherits the ancestral seat; there is never a second person.' If you have not personally arrived, you wear out your mental faculties in vain. Even if you speak of the mystery of mysteries, the wonder within wonders—if, as a skillful means within the gate of praise, you aid another in faith and entry as a temporary peripheral commendation, then it is not \[a fault\]. But if, at the time of personal illumination on one's own part, you deliberately speak of mystery and wonder, giving rise to a single thought of an extraordinary, inconceivable understanding, you fall completely into the realm of Māra. Therefore the \*Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment\* says: 'With a false, floating mind and many clever views, one cannot achieve perfect enlightenment.' A verse by an earlier worthy also says: / 'Gaining it is not gaining; the heavenly demons gain it. / The mystery of mysteries is the mystery of the non-Buddhists. / Casting mother and father away into the village weeds, / One mistakes yellow leaves for gold coins. / At the top of a hundred-foot pole, quickly let go your hands; / There is no need to look behind and look ahead.' / At present, whenever there seems to be the trace of words and patterns begin to arise, all of it is clinging to the gate of skillful means and being deluded about the real Dao; it is all mistaking yellow leaves for gold coins. At the moment of great awakening, it is like casting off your body at the top of a hundred-foot pole, no longer looking back or forward. Within this mirror of the source is the place where all commoners and sages make the great sacrifice of body and life. Those who do not enter this source are all non-ultimate." - [Previous: 100.62](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt.100.62) - [Next: 100.64](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt.100.64) - [Up: 100](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt.100) ## Linked texts (1) - [宗鏡錄](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016.100.63) — Classical Chinese --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt.100.63](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt.100.63) · Pramāṇa