宗鏡錄 100.77

100.77

Answer: Regarding this inconceivable teaching of great majesty and virtue, if one only sees or hears it, one deeply obtains wholesome benefits. It is like a single speck of dust falling upon the ridges and mounds of Mount Song, which already partakes of towering above the clouds; or like a drop of dew entering the waves of the vast ocean, which instantly shares in the broad moisture. It can indeed be called directly inheriting the seed of bodhi and being born entirely into the house of the buddhas. How much more so if one faithfully understands, accepts, maintains, correctly contemplates, observes, expounds for others, and spreads and puts it into practice! In terms of the gate of wholesome benefits, no thing can serve as a metaphor; its merit is inexhaustible, and cannot be measured except by sarvākārajñatā. How could its benefits and joy be exhausted? They surpass empty space so that their boundaries cannot be known. Even if one were to fill empty space with rare jewels and make offerings to as many tathāgatas as the sands of the Ganges, and transform the sentient beings of the ten directions so that they all realize the fruit of a pratyekabuddha, it would not compare to widely proclaiming this purport and expounding this source. When measured against this, nothing can be compared to it. It can be called planting the seed of the buddha within the field of the bodies of sentient beings, sprouting the shoot of the true Dharma within the mire of kleśas and desires, after which the seven flowers of awakening blossom and the fruit of bodhi is accomplished, generating one another in turn to an inexhaustible limit. As the Huayan tanxuan ji says: 'If, within the residual teaching, one sees, hears, believes, and turns toward this inexhaustible Dharma, it becomes a vajra seed, and one will certainly attain this perfectly fused universal Dharma. As the sūtra says: the metaphor of swallowing a vajra, and the metaphor of a small fire burning extensively. Furthermore, it is like the Tusita devaputra coming out of hell and attaining the anutpattikadharmakṣānti of the tenth bhūmi, whose progressive benefits cannot be exhausted, all because having heard this Dharma in the past served as the fundamental cause.' The verse says: 'Though one be in the great ocean / or amidst the fire at the end of the kalpa, / if one has resolute faith without doubt, / one will certainly get to hear this sūtra.' The Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa says: 'In weighing the merits of accepting and upholding prajñā, in terms of such upholding, correct recollection is supreme. Now, as the buddhas take pity on sentient beings, explaining its meaning for them to make it easy to understand is superior to one's own practice of correct recollection.' At that time, because the Buddha wished to extensively distinguish the merit, he said: 'If someone were to make offerings to the buddhas of the ten directions for their whole life, it would not compare to explaining the meaning of prajñā for others.' The supreme reason is stated here: the buddhas of the three periods all trained in prajñā to accomplish the unsurpassed path. Furthermore: 'Even teaching people in worlds as numerous as the sands of the Ganges to attain the path of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas would not compare to expounding the meaning of the prajñāpāramitā for others.' The reason is stated here: all these worthy and noble ones emerge from the prajñāpāramitā. Therefore the Śūraṅgamasūtra says: 'The Buddha told Ānanda: "If, furthermore, a person were to fill all the empty space of the ten directions with the seven treasures, and take them to offer up to as many buddhas as dust motes, serving and making offerings without their mind idling for a moment—what do you think? Would this person gain much merit by this cause of giving to the buddhas?" Ānanda replied: "Empty space is inexhaustible, and rare jewels are boundless. In the past, a sentient being gave seven coins to the Buddha, and after relinquishing his body still attained the station of a wheel-turning king. How much more so when empty space is now exhausted and buddha lands are filled, and all is given with rare jewels! Even thinking and calculating for an entire kalpa could not reach it; how could this merit have any boundary?" The Buddha told Ānanda: "The words of the buddhas, the tathāgatas, are not false. If, furthermore, a person has committed the four grave offenses and the ten pārājikas, so that in the twinkling of an eye they would pass through the Avīci hells of this world and other worlds, even to the point of passing through without exception all the unceasing [hells] across the ten directions, yet could with a single thought take this Dharma door and reveal it to beginners in the final kalpa, this person's sinful hindrances would be extinguished in an instant, transforming the causal factors of the hellish suffering they were to receive into a land of peace and bliss, and they would gain merit surpassing that of the previous giver by a hundredfold, a thousandfold, ten millionfold, up to what cannot be reached by calculation or metaphor."' Therefore, praising and disseminating this scripture brings boundless wholesome benefits. This is because the Śūraṅgamasūtra takes the tathāgatagarbha mind as its source. The tathāgatagarbha is none other than the eighth ālayavijñāna. A verse in the Ghanavyūhasūtra says: 'The pure garbha of the Tathāgata / is the worldly ālaya; / like gold and a finger-ring, / they are mutually without distinction.' Because all buddhas comprehend it, it becomes the pure garbha; ordinary beings cling to it as the ālaya. It is like true gold which, following the conditions of the artisan's furnace and fire, receives the distinct name of 'finger-ring' and assumes the illusory appearance of being round and small; the substance of the gold does not move, while name and characteristic are falsely displayed. Similarly, the true mind, following sentient beings' conditions of defilement and purity, takes on the distinct names of ordinary and noble, and displays the illusory appearance of rising and sinking; the mind-nature does not move, while name and characteristic are fundamentally empty. Grasping at false designations, the two views suddenly diverge; awakening to the true substance, the one mind is completely realized. Delusion and awakening occur right beneath the words; Dharma and metaphor are brilliantly clear before our eyes. Those who are dim to it cultivate in vain over kalpas; those who penetrate it are motionless and still in its very substance. The Lotus Sūtra says: 'After my extinction, if one can secretly speak even a single line of the Lotus Sūtra for one person, know that this person is an emissary of the Tathāgata, sent by the Tathāgata to do the Tathāgata's work; how much more so if one speaks it extensively for people amidst the great assembly!' 'Secretly for one person': 'secretly' means privately. If one privately speaks only this single line for one person, this person is an emissary sent forth from the tathatā of the one mind to proclaim to ordinary beings that they should directly comprehend the principle of the single suchness, which is precisely doing the work within tathatā. Because tathatā is boundless and reaches all places, the Dharma benefit obtained also accords with the nature of tathatā, immeasurable and inexhaustible. It also says: 'Know that this person lodges together with the Tathāgata, and has their head caressed by the hand of the Tathāgata,' up to entering the Tathāgata's room, wearing the Tathāgata's robes, and sitting on the Tathāgata's seat. In summary, for the person who upholds this sūtra, in their four deportments, raising a foot or lowering a foot, they never depart from the tathatā of the one mind, the place where all buddhas tread. The Aṅgulimālīyasūtra says: 'If a person in the past had encountered buddhas, made offerings and served them, heard of the tathāgatagarbha, and for the snap of a finger temporarily got to listen and receive it, by the cause of this good karma their faculties would be fully matured, their rebirths superior, and they would be wealthy, noble, and autonomous. These sentient beings are now still fully matured, their rebirths superior, and they are wealthy, noble, and autonomous, because in the past they had encountered buddhas and temporarily got to hear the tathāgatagarbha.' It further states that the Buddha told Aṅgulimāla: 'It is not being a tathāgata that is the foremost difficult thing; there is something even more difficult. Aṅgulimāla, suppose a man were to shoulder the king of mountains Sumeru, as well as the great earth and the great oceans, for hundreds of thousands of years—would this be great strength and the foremost difficulty?' Aṅgulimāla said to the Buddha: 'This is the realm of a tathāgata, not something reached by those śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas.' The Buddha told Aṅgulimāla: 'That is not great strength, nor is it extremely difficult. If one were to divide a single speck of dust of the great ocean into ten billion parts, and take away one part every hundred thousand kotis of kalpas, until it were nearly exhausted, leaving only as much as a cow's footprint, and could furthermore shoulder the king of mountains Sumeru, the great earth, and the rivers and seas for hundreds of thousands of kotis of kalpas, yet he could not, during the remaining eighty years when the true Dharma abides in the world, expound the Tathāgata's eternal, constant, and unchanging tathāgatagarbha. Only a hero among people, a bodhisattva, can speak of the Tathāgata's eternal, constant, and unchanging tathāgatagarbha and protect and uphold the true Dharma. I say that this person is the foremost in extreme difficulty.' Furthermore, the chapter 'Apparition of the Jeweled Stūpa' in the Lotus Sūtra says: 'If one were to take up Sumeru / and cast it to other lands / across countless buddha territories, / that would not yet be difficult; / if one were to move the great trichiliocosm with one's toe / and fling it far to another country, / that would not yet be difficult.' It also says: 'Supposing a person / were to hold empty space in their hand / and wander about with it, / that would not yet be difficult.' It also says: 'Supposing, when the kalpa burns, / one were to shoulder dry grass / and enter into it without being burned, / that would not yet be difficult. / After my extinction, / if one upholds this sūtra / and speaks it for one person, / that indeed is difficult.' Therefore we know that exhausting the ocean and moving mountains is not unconditioned power; even treading on empty air and walking on water are all contaminated supernormal faculties. How can they compare to opening the mind of all buddhas, expounding the tathāgatagarbha, inheriting the seed of bodhi, entering the gate of the ekayāna, being able to rely on the noble womb, and becoming a true child of the Buddha? Why is this? Because one attains the root; just as water comes forth from the source, and ghee is obtained from milk. As the Aṅgulimālīyasūtra says: 'Furthermore, Mañjuśrī, just as knowing that milk contains ghee, one applies skillful means to churn and seek it, and does not churn water because it lacks ghee—so it is, Mañjuśrī: because sentient beings know there is the tathāgatagarbha, they diligently maintain the precepts and purely cultivate the brahmacaryā. Furthermore, Mañjuśrī, just as knowing that a mountain contains gold, one digs the mountain to seek gold, and does not dig a tree because it lacks gold—so it is, Mañjuśrī: because sentient beings know there is the tathāgatagarbha, they diligently maintain the precepts, purely cultivate the brahmacaryā, and say: "I will certainly attain the accomplishment of the buddha path." Furthermore, Mañjuśrī, if there were no tathāgatagarbha, cultivating the brahmacaryā would be in vain, like churning water for endless kalpas, in the end never obtaining ghee.' Therefore, we know that entering the mirror of the source and seeing the tathāgata-nature, the path and fruit of bodhi are both accomplished in an instant, like a boat moving with the current, or like a fire assisted by the wind. If one turns one's back on the mirror of the source and does not recognize one's own mind, even if one cultivates merit and wisdom equally, one will never succeed in the end. It is like churning water to seek milk, or digging away from the mountain to find gold; even if one undergoes three asaṃkhyeya kalpas, how could there be any principle of attainment? What is recorded in the Mirror of the Source, from beginning to end, was all observed by the five eyes of all buddhas and spoken by their five modes of speech. Not a single word is not true; not a single meaning is not complete. It awaits future worthies to have resolute faith and enter it. As a verse in the Candrārkapradīpasūtra says: 'Even if Mount Sumeru were moved and overturned to the ground, / and the dwelling places of asuras were all destroyed, / the great ocean dried up, and the moon-god fell, / the Tathāgata would never utter false speech. / Even if the ten assemblies were of one mind, / or fire became water and water became fire, / the Most Honored One of immeasurable merits / speaks no varied word when benefiting sentient beings. / Even if the great earth and empty space became chaos, / and a hundred lands entered together into a mustard seed, / and a net could be used to bind the fierce wind, / the Tathāgata would never have false speech.' Because of this truthfulness, it can be universally transmitted and upheld; its merit is boundless, beyond the reach of words and thought. Therefore a verse in the Vijñaptimātratāsiddhiśāstra says: 'In composing this Vijñaptimātratā treatise, / it is not the place of my thinking; / it is the wondrous realm of all buddhas, / its merit and virtue bestowed upon sentient beings.' The great purport of this treatise is not what can be thought by the cognitive understanding of emotion and consciousness; it is the inconceivable, supremely wondrous realm of the Great Awakened One. By broadly using this inconceivable, inexhaustible blessing of propagation, it is universally bestowed upon the immeasurable living beings of the entire dharmadhātu, so that they may together enter this source and ascend equally to the buddha stage. As the verse of aspiration by Master Zang, the commentator on the Avataṃsakasūtra, says: 'I vow to see, hear, cultivate, and train in this / perfectly fused and unobstructed Dharma of Samantabhadra; / even if losing my life, I will never depart from it, / and vow to correspond with it to the end of future time. / With this root of goodness equal to the dharmatā, / may it universally moisten the inexhaustible realm of sentient beings; / cultivating universal practice in a single thought through many kalpas, / may all completely accomplish unsurpassed buddha bodhi.'