宗鏡錄 15.7

15.7

Master Niutou Rong answered, saying: "Excellent, excellent! Inconceivable! If you now demand of me such realization of the fruit, I fear it would diverge from the Way. If becoming a Buddha were truly like this, then a magician could also become a Buddha. Furthermore, consider those who realized it among the venerable ones and people of the past: When Śākyamuni expounded the unsurpassable Way among the Saṅgha, he was no different from a monk. When Vimalakīrti spoke of the fruit of liberation while living as a householder, he was no different from a layman. When the woman Śrīmālā spoke the Great Vehicle Dharma, her female form did not change. When the monk Sunakṣatra engaged in icchantika conduct, his monk's appearance did not alter. This is precisely based on the understanding or lack of understanding in the inner citta as constituting the distinction; what does it have to do with the physical body, male or female appearance, or fine and ugly clothes? If one says that form changes with realization and appearance shifts with awakening to make a sage, then only when Gautama's form changed would he become Śākyamuni, and only when Vimalakīrti's appearance shifted would he become Jin su. Thus one knows that realization is citta-realization, not a shift in form; awakening is the transformation of jñāna, having nothing to do with difference in characteristics. For example, when a person in the world holds office, if they are promoted to another office, does high rank mean their appearance is immediately different? Moreover, the ancients said: 'Do not change the person of old; only change where that person of old walked.' Even if one alters form and changes substance through a thousand transformations and ten thousand alterations, all are wrought by the one mind. As for supernormal functions appearing and disappearing freely, changing small into large, expanding the brief into the long—how could they depart from the within of the one mind? Therefore, know that among the ten thousand things, there is none that does not proceed from the mind. Just realize your own mind, and you will become a sage at once upon these words. If you do not recognize the Way, of what use are possessing characteristics? Therefore, the Diamond Sūtra says: 'If one views the Tathāgata by means of the thirty-two marks, a wheel-turning sage king would be the Tathāgata.' Again, a verse says: 'If one sees me by form, or seeks me by sound, this person walks a deviant path and cannot see the Tathāgata.' The ancients said: 'If one does not comprehend this principle, even if with every step one treads upon lotus flowers, it is still the working of Māra.' Layman Pang's verse says: 'Seeking the Buddha-Way through form and sound, the result turns out to be becoming a māra.' If one definitely takes supernormal powers and superior marks to constitute a Buddha, then not only would magicians become sages, but even heavenly māras, non-Buddhists, demon foxes, spirits, ghosts, gods, dragons, and clam-monsters would all become Buddhas, for they all possess the five supernormal powers of karmic retribution and are entirely capable of transformation. If one does not scrutinize each and every thing with the true mark, how can the true and the false be distinguished? But if you first awaken to the mirror of the source and the Dharma-eye is completely clear, then what principle will not be penetrated, and what matter will not be fathomed? All gates of doing Buddha-work and gathering and transforming [beings] will naturally be accomplished. As the Huayan lun says: 'The sūtra says: "Entering deep dhyāna-concentration, one attains the Buddha's supernormal powers." This is because the mind accords with the source of principle: it has no substance of entering or exiting, no substance of quietude or disturbance, and no nature of contrivance. Entrusted to principle, it is naturally true, neither arising nor ceasing. Principle being true, jñāna responds; the nature is naturally all-pervasive. In the three times and the ten directions, it responds universally at once, manifesting physical forms facing [beings] and transforming all kinds according to the response of jñāna, yet without coming or going, nor is there transformation. This is called the Buddha's supernormal powers. Jñāna has no basis of reliance; it has no form and no color; its substance has no coming or going; its nature is naturally all-pervasive. It is not subsumed within the three times, yet it can universally respond to the dharmas of the three times—this is called supernormal power. Therefore, the sūtra says: "Jñāna enters the three times yet has no coming or going." This is because the three times are falsely established by the sentiments of sentient beings and are not real existents. Because the substance of jñāna has no form and no color, and is uncreated and unmade, yet responds to all kinds of beings, it is called divine; being complete throughout the ten directions, knowing all dharmas, and recognizing all faculties, it is called power.' It also says: 'The Lotus Sūtra says: "The meanings of the various natures and marks—only I and the Buddhas of the ten directions can know these matters; śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and non-retrogressing bodhisattvas are all unable to know them." These beings are just the three vehicles outside the gate. Because they have not yet clarified that the characteristics of the world abide constantly and that dharmas abide in their dharma-positions; and because the three vehicles share a mind that is weary of suffering and its arising and delights in cultivating cessation and the path, they have not yet clarified that suffering and arising originally arise solely from jñāna, and have not comprehended that cessation and the path are originally without cultivation, without making, and without contrivance. Transforming all kinds of beings, abiding in the world like an illusion, their nature severed from avidyā—this is precisely the Buddha. One thought corresponding is a Buddha for one thought; one day corresponding is a Buddha for one day. Why must one bitterly insist on three asaṃkhyeya kalpas? Just realize for yourself that the karma of the three realms can empty the locus of karma, and naturally receive and guide beings—this is the Buddha. Why must there be transformation before one speaks of becoming a Buddha? When dragons and devas transform, are they Buddhas? Persons of the three vehicles also transform, so why must they wait for three asaṃkhyeya kalpas before becoming Buddhas? Only above the ten stages can one see the nature. Therefore, the sūtra says: "If by material nature and great supernormal powers one desires to see the Tamer of Men, that is cataract-clouded eyes and inverted seeing; that is not recognizing the most supreme Dharma." "Buddha" means awakening. Awakening to the karmic nature as true, karma is without arising or ceasing, without attainment or realization, without emerging or submerging, its nature without transformation, originally such—this is precisely the Buddha. Following conditions across the six destinies, one practices the bodhisattva conduct, transforms with supernormal powers, and receives and guides deluded flows [of beings]—yet the Buddha is not a transformation. The Vimalakīrti Sūtra says: "Although he achieves right awakening and turns the wheel of the Dharma, he does not abandon the bodhisattva path—this is the bodhisattva conduct." Thus, Sudhana, at the initial mind of the ten abodes, at the place of the monk Meghasvara on Mount Sugambhīra, attained the Dharma-gate of the wisdom light of universally seeing the realm of all Buddhas through recollection, and immediately achieved right awakening. Only after that did he first visit the various spiritual friends to seek the bodhisattva path and practice the bodhisattva conduct. You should know that at the time of the substance and function of right awakening, the very locus of the mind's non-contrivance is precisely the Buddha; hence there is no need for cultivation. Even when practice is completed, it does not displace the present. Therefore, just as when a transformation-Buddha displays the appearance of transformation through the bitter practices of eating hemp and wheat, shaving the hair, wearing the robes, abandoning ornaments, sitting on grass, and such matters, to transform non-Buddhists—in the sūtras the Buddha himself harmonizes this, showing it was not that the Buddha himself required such practices. For one without overweening pride, why would such things be necessary? With a single thought entrusted to the unconditioned nature, the Buddha's jñāna appears before them, without attainment and without realization—this is precisely the Buddha. It is just like Sudhana seeking the bodhi path and bodhisattva conduct only after realizing awakening. The reason for this is that only after awakening to the Way is one capable of entering entanglement and abiding in the secular without bondage, and only then can one expound the Dharma to beings to release their bonds. If one is bound oneself, that one could release the bonds of others is impossible. Though spoken as earlier and later, the Dharma is simultaneous. You should know that if you wish to practice the bodhisattva conduct, you must first achieve right awakening. Furthermore, a sūtra verse says: "The Dharma of Mañjuśrī is constantly thus." This is because Mañjuśrī is the prajñā of all Buddhas: immovable jñāna is the substance, and Mañjuśrī is the function. Using this gate of substance and function of the fundamental jñāna of all Buddhas and all sentient beings, it acts as the cause-and-effect substance and function for all people of faithful mind, causing them to rely on the origin, so that reaching the ultimate fruit's completion, it is not different from the cause, because the nature is non-dual. Only then is it called the initial aspiring mind and the ultimate mind—the two types are not distinct. This clarifies that these ten faiths are difficult to arouse, difficult to believe, and difficult to enter. Those who hear of it all say: "I am an ordinary person; how could I be a Buddha?" Therefore, if they arouse even a small fraction of faith, they immediately demand supernormal powers and the power of the Way. For this reason, you should know that one must first have such right faith, and only then, by the force of Dharma of right faith and right view, make additional efforts and advance in cultivation in accord with Dharma: fraction by fraction avidyā thins, and liberation and jñāna brighten. In accordance with the depth or shallowness of one's own attainment of the Dharma, one gradually matches the supernormal virtuous functions according to what one has attained. When faith is not yet attained, why seek supernormal powers? When we speak of "gradual," it does not displace the single moment, the single dharma-nature, the single jñāna; it is gradual within the unattached and unattained, consummated by the meaning of the ten profundities and six characteristics. In the principle of dharma-nature, there is neither gradual nor sudden; but because the habits of beginningless avidyā are deeply ingrained, and bringing about an immediate accord with principle to thorough ripeness is difficult, there is the gradual.'