宗鏡錄 14.7

14.7

Answer: It should be formulated in four propositions. First, it is the Buddha, because the dharmatā-kāya is omnipresent. As the sūtra states: 'The emptiness of nature is precisely the Buddha.' Second, it is not the Buddha, because its nature is to transcend both the subject and object of awakening; and because the impartial, true dharmadhātu is neither Buddha nor sentient beings. Third, it is both Buddha and not Buddha, because the dharmatā-kāya has no svabhāva. Fourth, it is neither, because both nature and lack of nature are equally obliterated and cut off. A verse in a sūtra says: 'Within non-existence there is no duality, / nor is there even non-duality. / All things in the three times are empty: / this is the vision of the Buddhas.'

Second, regarding the approach through characteristics, there are two aspects: first, the sentient; second, the insentient. This is because the true mind, following conditions, transforms into subject and object. However, these two gates are each divided into defiled and pure: avidyā perfuming tathatā constitutes defiled dependent arising, while tathatā perfuming avidyā constitutes pure dependent arising. The defiled brings about the myriad varieties [of beings]; the pure culminates in the attainment of Buddhahood. By cultivating pure conditions and severing those defiled conditions, one then attains Buddhahood. According to these two meanings, sentient beings and the Buddha are distinct. Within pure conditions, there are furthermore cause and fruit. Cause has the pure and the mixed; fruit has the dependent and proper [retributions]. If taken through the approach of purity, any single bodhisattva, to the end of future time, cultivates only a single practice, and each and every one does likewise. If taken through the approach of mixture, the myriad practices are cultivated simultaneously to the end of future time. If taken through the approach of cause, to the end of future time one is always a bodhisattva. If taken through the approach of fruit, to the end of future time one is always a tathāgata. As the sūtra says: 'For the sake of sentient beings, in thought-instant after thought-instant ever new, they realize equal and correct awakening.' If taken through the approach of addressing both, to the end of future time one cultivates the cause and attains the fruit. If taken through the approach of negating both, to the end of future time there is neither cause nor fruit, which then accords with the true nature. The preceding three approaches completely possess both compassion and wisdom, and completely fuse citta and object.

Third, the approach of the mutual penetration of nature and characteristics intricately contains four approaches: 1. Taking nature to follow characteristics: identical with the second approach. 2. Basing on characteristics to return to nature: identical with the first approach. 3. Both persisting without obstruction: possessing both of the above approaches. Relying on this, compassion and wisdom are operated in tandem, nature and characteristics proceed side by side, and quiescence and illumination flow together, accomplishing great mastery. 4. Mutual deprivation and dual obliteration: then nature and characteristics are both cut off, submerging identically into the ocean of the fruit, with neither attainment nor non-attainment.

Fourth, the approach of harmonizing characteristics through nature: although characteristics are of ten thousand varieties, none is not identical with nature. The boundless virtues of the nature reside wholly within characteristics. When harmonizing characteristics through nature, characteristics are like the nature, causing all the above approaches to be free from obstruction: cause and fruit interpenetrate, pure and mixed fuse together, phenomenon and phenomenon intermingle, layer upon layer without end.

Now, among the four propositions of the approach through nature, this is the approach of 'being the Buddha'; it does not take the other three. Among the approaches through characteristics, regarding the approach of sentient beings, it is pure and not defiled, fruit and not cause; it is a one-sided meaning and not what is used here. Regarding the approach of mutual penetration, for the Buddha, nature and characteristics are dually fused; for sentient beings, characteristics are gathered to return to the nature. Now, this sūtra is precisely concerned with the fourth: harmonizing characteristics through nature, wherein when one attains, all attain. That is, by means of the Buddha's pure nature, the defilement of sentient beings is harmonized; by means of the Buddha's one nature, the multiplicity of sentient beings is harmonized, causing the many defiled beings, following the one true nature, to all be like the Buddha, having already attained Buddhahood. It is not only sentient beings: gathering the characteristics of the myriad classes and harmonizing them into the Buddha's substance, there are none that do not all attain. Therefore Master Zhao said: 'Is it not only the sage who can gather the ten thousand things to form himself?' And he also said: 'Therefore the sage empties and unifies his substance, so that none of the ten thousand things is not oneself.' By harmonizing the nature of things with the nature of the Buddha, together with the Buddha they all attain. Because the nature of things is harmonized with the characteristics of the Buddha, the three karmic activities are made equal to the myriad classes. This is precisely the meaning of the present sūtra, and not the other approaches. Therefore it is said that they vary according to the approaches; this is now the approach of attaining Buddhahood.

The Sudden Teaching mostly accords with the four approaches regarding nature. The Final Teaching is identical with the mutual penetration of nature and characteristics. The Initial Teaching has two approaches: illusory existence being identical with emptiness is identical with gathering characteristics to return to nature; but manifestation solely through citta mostly accords with the second. The Hīnayāna, humans, and devas all accord with the approach of characteristics. From this it is said: the attainment of Buddhahood by the insentient is based on the mutual fusion of nature and characteristics. By means of the nature of the sentient, the characteristics of the insentient are harmonized; by means of the characteristics of the insentient, following the nature they are harmonized and made identical with the characteristics of the sentient. Therefore it is said that the insentient has the meaning of attaining Buddhahood. If one uses the meaning that the insentient does not attain Buddhahood to harmonize the characteristics of the sentient, one may also say that Buddhas and sentient beings do not attain Buddhahood. This is because attainment and non-attainment, the sentient and the insentient, have no dual nature; because the dharmadhātu is boundless; because the Buddha's substance is all-pervading; because form and emptiness are non-dual; because dharmas have no fixed nature; because the ten bodies are completely fused; because dependent arising depends mutually; because the realm of sentient beings is inexhaustible; because serving as cause is pervasive; because it is far removed from annihilation and permanence; and because the ten thousand dharmas are empty and fused. Therefore it is said that when one attains, all attain. It does not mean that the insentient also possesses an awakening nature and attains Buddhahood along with the sentient. If such attainment were admitted, then it could cultivate causes: the insentient would become sentient, and the sentient would become insentient, which would then be identical with wrong view.

Therefore, the nature is neither clever nor clumsy, but understanding has the refined and the coarse. When wisdom is wondrous, seeing occurs in a mere instant; when capacity is dull, awakening traverses kalpas as numerous as dust motes. Therefore an ancient worthy said: 'The Buddha's substance is profound and mysterious; it is neither identical with the form aggregate nor apart from the form aggregate. The natures of identity and difference being empty, the true nature reveals itself.' As a verse in the Ghanavyūhasūtra says: 'Pound and grind gold ore, / and within the ore gold is not seen. / When the wise skilfully smelt and refine it, / only then does the true gold appear. / Analyze all forms / even down to the subtlest atoms, / and dissect and seek the aggregates / as of an identical or different nature: / the Buddha's substance cannot be seen, / yet nor is it that the Buddha does not exist.'

Furthermore, when one awakens and enters into the Mirror of the Source, attaining Buddhahood is not apart from a single thought. If the prior thought is ordinary and the subsequent thought is noble, this is still subsumed under the Separate Teaching. Now, without moving avidyā, it entirely becomes correct awakening. Therefore the Huayan Treatise says: 'It is like directly bestowing the precious throne upon an ordinary commoner; it is like a night dream of a thousand autumns, which upon waking instantly vanishes.' Mahāsattva Fu said to Emperor Wu of Liang: 'Now I wish to take the wish-fulfilling jewel—pure and liberated, illuminating the ten directions, its colors subtle and inconceivable—and desire to bestow it upon the sovereign of men. If you receive it, you will swiftly attain anuttarā samyaksambodhi.' Therefore we know that if in a single thought one resolves to faithfully accept it, without the interval of a kṣaṇa one ascends the rank of awakening. As the Vimalakīrtisūtra says: 'Vimalakīrti said: "If you just give rise to the mind of anuttarā samyaksambodhi, this is itself leaving home, this is itself full ordination."' Also, the Lotus Sūtra says: 'At that time the dragon girl had a precious jewel, worth the three-thousand-great-thousandfold world, and held it to offer to the Buddha. The Buddha immediately accepted it. The dragon girl said to Bodhisattva Prajñākūṭa and the Venerable Śāriputra: "I offered the precious jewel and the World-Honoured One accepted it; was this swift or not?" They answered: "Extremely swift." The girl said: "With your spiritual power watch me attain Buddhahood; it is swifter even than this."' Therefore we know that for all sentient beings, the jewel of citta shines brilliantly; in principle there is no before and after, but brightness and obscurity follow capacity. In some cases, because of a fight it is concealed within the flesh, and is revealed before a clear mirror; in some, through swimming it sinks to the bottom of the water, and is obtained when one is calm and patient; in some, it resides in the topknot of a cakravartin, and is bestowed for accomplishing great merit; in some, it is tied within a poor man's garment, and still remains when his wish of wisdom is awakened. The clear texts of the Mirror of the Source together testify to this.

One who has faith like this is completely without remainder: this is in a single thought knowing that all dharmas are the bodhimanda, because of accomplishing sarvākārajñatā. Relying on these instructions of the sages, citta and Buddha are clearly understood. Even if there are those who harbor doubts and fall back, though they have not yet faithfully accepted it, the principle of attaining Buddhahood has never for a moment been deficient. It is like someone who does not recognize true gold and takes it to be copper or iron; copper and iron have only empty names, while the nature of the gold has never for a moment changed. Those who cling to views nowadays do not know what is originally so, but conversely say that it is wrong now; nor was there past delusion such that one is only now beginning to awaken. The extensive citations above provide detailed and thorough proof, simply because right within birth-and-death there is an inconceivable nature, and within defilements one possesses the great bodhi-kāya. Because those with heavy obstructions hear this and none believe, being content to declare that they have no share and only saying 'I am an ordinary person,' they are unable to succeed to the Buddha vehicle and maintain the vessel of the Dharma. Consequently they completely accord with the karma of sentient beings, turning their backs on awakening to join with dust; the ocean of birth-and-death becomes ever deeper, and the cage of kleśas grows ever tighter. Therefore, the spoken teachings of the patriarchs and Buddhas have been gathered everywhere to suddenly resolve all doubts, causing people to be enlightened upon the words and directly see their own unproduced nature. Only then do they know that they are not different from the Buddha, and that the ten thousand dharmas are originally identical; only then do they believe that the true teaching has this profound benefit.