宗鏡錄 13.24

13.24

Answer: Encompassing the ten of others also has the meaning of being exhausted and unexhausted. Why is this? Because apart from others, there is no self. When the one encompasses other places, it is inexhaustible and constitutes the meaning of the one; the meaning of the ten in other places is like empty space, and therefore it is exhausted. A sūtra says: 'A bodhisattva abiding in one stage universally encompasses the merits of all stages.' This Record of the Mirror of the Source belongs to the Distinct Teaching of the One Vehicle, the inconceivable gate, the source that is completely harmonious and inexhaustible. It is not like what is taught in the Three Vehicles. The aforementioned principle of the unobstructedness of one and many cannot be conceptualized through discursive understanding and emotional thought so as to create limited views. Only with the pure eye of wisdom, subsuming it through the Six Characteristics and the Ten Mysteries, can its essential import be fully plumbed. Then one will know that harmonious inclusion is boundless and that containment leaves nothing outside. As the 'Chapter on Divine Powers' in the Lotus Sūtra says: 'Here the Buddhas attained anuttarāsamyaksaṃbodhi; here the Buddhas turned the wheel of the Dharma; here the Buddhas entered parinirvāṇa.' Another sūtra says: 'Loving-kindness and compassion are the Buddha's eyes; right mindfulness is the Buddha's head; wondrous sound is the Buddha's ears; a forest of fragrance is the Buddha's nose; amṛta is the Buddha's mouth; the four analytical knowledges are the Buddha's tongue; the six pāramitās are the Buddha's body; the four means of embracing are the Buddha's hands; impartiality is the Buddha's fingers; morality and concentration are the Buddha's feet; the knowledge of all aspects is the Buddha's heart-mind.' The Commentary on the Suvarṇaprabhāsa-sūtra says: 'The Buddha of the Dharmatā-kāya is not something that ordinary beings, the Two Vehicles, or those of the lower stages can see; he is only made visible and demonstrated to those who are ready to be saved. This is the body of no body, the mark of no mark. All-knowledge is the head; the supreme truth is the topknot; the eighty-four thousand Dharma-gates are the hair; great compassion is the eyes; the white curl of the middle way is between the brows; the taintless is the nose; the eighteen vacuities are the tongue; the forty unshared qualities are the teeth; the vast vow is the shoulders; the three samādhis are the waist; the tathāgatagarbha is the belly; the conventional and ultimate wisdoms are the hands; concentration and wisdom are the feet. With such marks as these, the Buddha of the Dharmatā-kāya is adorned.' The first patriarch of Niutou said: 'That the Buddhas attained bodhi here means that they attained bodhi in the place of the mind, turned the wheel of the Dharma in the place of form, and entered nirvāṇa in the place of the eyes.' If so, then ultimate liberation, the dharmakāya, is always present within the body, and the pure land is fully equipped—what more could be lacking? What more could be sought? At the moment of first generating the mind [for awakening], one immediately achieves correct enlightenment. In this mirror of the source, all the masters and companions of wisdom and practice belong to the identical realm. As soon as there is faith, all merge into the stream of Dharma. It is just as within a single round mirror, where there is no separate differentiation. As the Treatise on the Avataṃsaka says: 'The Dharma-gates of this sūtra are entirely the shared and common practice of all Buddhas of the ten directions; there is no new or old. It is like the great king's highway: whoever steps forth and ascends it is on it; nothing can be done for those who do not walk it. With one thought following good roots, seeing the nature to a slight degree, wisdom manifests before one. This is because it is never separate from the fundamental wisdom of the Buddha's correct enlightenment, and never separate from the practice of Samantabhadra. Just as a slight fraction of good mind within a single thought of Samantabhadra is entirely directed toward the stream of Dharma, so the sūtra says: "Hearing the name of the Tathāgata and the Dharma-gates spoken by him, even if one hears without faith, one will still ultimately reach the diamond stage of wisdom—how much more so for those who have faith and practice!" It also says: "Cultivating, studying, awakening, and entering into the Dharma-gates of understanding and practice in this Avataṃsaka-sūtra, one will certainly be able to accomplish the Dharma-gates of the ten abidings, abide in the Buddha's lineage, be born in the house of the Tathāgata, and become a true son of the Buddha. This is unlike the bodhisattvas of the first stage in the provisional teaching who attain buddhahood through vows. This Avataṃsaka-sūtra directly discusses stages of actual realization, not vows. Because this teaching as a whole is of one time, one realm, one dharmadhātu, without different thoughts, where before and after are cut off from emotional conceptualization, and ordinary and noble are of one nature, it does not discuss emotional attachments. It should be seen through the illumination of the dharmadhātu of non-thought and non-action. If one establishes emotional views, it cannot be believed. Even if faith arises, it is merely a profound faith in the Buddha's words, and therefore not one's own vision. If it is one's own vision, emotional conceptualization is severed, thoughts perish, the mind accords with principle, and wisdom merges into the objective realm. Only then does one know that all objective realms universally embrace nature and characteristics. If it is not like this, the mind will always distinguish between this and that, right and wrong will contend with each other, and when will defilement and purity ever cease? If one accords with nature and emotional conceptualization perishes, the gate of the twofold mystery of the dharmadhātu will naturally be reached. The one and the many, the pure and the mixed, are freely contained. The gates of the general and the particular are completely harmonious and unimpeded. In the methods for benefiting sentient beings, one will skillfully penetrate all faculties, and in accordance with what they can bear, all will receive benefit. Those who reverently rely on and draw near will all be delivered. Therefore, because it accords with nature, whenever a single action is performed, it universally pervades the dharmadhātu. If one acts according to conditioned phenomena, there will be limitations. As the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-sūtra says: 'If one wishes to make an offering with a single meal to all Buddhas and Saṅghas in the ten directions, each equal to the sands of the Ganges, one should study the prajñāpāramitā. If one wishes to make an offering with a single robe, flowers, perfumes, necklaces, powdered incense, ointment incense, burning incense, lamps, candles, banners, pennants, and canopies to all Buddhas and Saṅghas, one should study the prajñāpāramitā.'"