宗鏡錄 12.5

12.5

Answer: The sage is established in relation to the ordinary; the sage is originally nameless. The true is revealed through the conventional; the true is fundamentally unestablished. Both arise in mutual dependence upon worldly words and letters. Words and letters are themselves empty, and emptiness also has nothing to adhere to. If it is a person of superior capacity, why would they rely on names and characteristics to illuminate it? Confronting objects, with every thought they know the source; encountering conditions, with every thought they accord with the Way. As the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa says: 'As the sūtra explains, the buddha-realm of Lion's Thunder is adorned with jewel trees. These trees constantly emit immeasurable voices of the Dharma, namely, that all phenomena are ultimately empty, non-arising and non-ceasing, and so forth. When the people of that land are born, they immediately hear this Dharma voice, and so they do not give rise to evil thoughts and attain the forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas.' At such a time, where are there the names of the Three Jewels? Merely by comprehending the principle of non-arising, spontaneously the Three Jewels are of one essence and ever-present in the world. If one grasps at differentiated names, one loses the principle of the true and eternal. If one merely comprehends that all dharmas are without self-nature, then in all places buddhas appear in the world, and there is not a single dharma that is not the source. As a previous master said: 'That buddhas appear in the world means that now the Tathāgata's appearance entirely takes the lack of nature in dust motes, the dependent origination of the dharmadhātu, and bodhi and nirvāṇa as the Tathāgata's body. This body pervades the three worlds. Therefore, in all realms, all sentient beings, all things, all dependent origination, all karmic retributions, and all dust motes and hairs, bodhi and nirvāṇa and so forth are each manifested as a buddha appearing in the world. If in one place one does not comprehend this, then one does not become a buddha, nor does [a buddha] appear. Why is this? Because that place not comprehended remains avidyā; therefore one does not become a buddha, nor does [a buddha] appear.' Therefore, when the buddhas appear in the world, knowing the capacity and knowing the time, they condescend for those of lesser faculties, manifesting birth in a kalpa of decrease, enticing with an empty fist and warning with yellow leaves. For persons of the highest capacity, the buddhas neither appear nor disappear. Hence the sūtra says: 'Whether there is a buddha or no buddha, the nature and characteristics abide constantly.' A verse in the Avataṃsakasūtra says: 'As is the mind, so are the buddhas; as are the buddhas, so are sentient beings. Mind, buddha, and sentient beings—these three are without differentiation.' It is merely one dharma; the names differ, but the principle is the same. What is this? When one awakens to this unreliant, unstaying, non-relative, inconceivable mind in its unmoving state, entering the beginning of the ten faiths, it is called the Buddha of Unmoving Wisdom. When one does not awaken to this non-relative true mind, and failing to maintain its self-nature it differentiates in accordance with conditions, it is called the dharmakāya transmigrating in the five destinies, designated as 'sentient beings.' There are only the designations of delusion and awakening, which are never apart from the substance of the one mind. What other dharma is there to make differentiated names of ordinary and sacred? As the Mañjuśrīprajñāpāramitāsūtra says: 'The Buddha said: "Is the Buddha-Dharma supreme?" Mañjuśrī replied: "There is not a single dharma as small as a fine dust mote that can be called supreme."' Furthermore, a sūtra says: 'As when the World-Honoured One preached this Dharma, there was no bodhisattva who attained these samādhis and gateways of dhāraṇī, nor were there the words, phrases, and meanings spoken by those buddhas, up to not speaking a single word or phrase, with no person listening, no person understanding, and no person becoming a buddha. If such teachings as these are true words, then in the future Latter Age, after five hundred years, this sūtra and Dharma gateway will be propagated in Jambudvīpa, circulating everywhere, blazing and unextinguished. These are true words.'