宗鏡錄 16.11

16.11

Answer: Are you studying the true teaching of the One Vehicle, or are you aiming at the provisional capacities of the five natures? Here we discuss the teaching of personal realization, not the skillful means of the forms of conversion. Furthermore, the Laṅkāvatārasūtra speaks of four buddhas: first, the transformation buddha; second, the retribution-born buddha; third, the suchness buddha; fourth, the wisdom buddha. Responding to capacities and answering receptivity is called 'transformation'. Requiting past causes is called 'retribution'. The fundamental awakening manifesting in illumination is called 'wisdom'. The substance of principle being non-dual is called 'suchness'. The Avataṃsaka-sūtra explains ten kinds of buddhas, namely: regarding the Buddha who abides in the world and achieves perfect awakening, he is seen without attachment; regarding the Vow Buddha, he is seen in birth; regarding the Karmic Retribution Buddha, he is seen in deep faith; regarding the Upholding Buddha, he is seen in accord; regarding the Nirvāṇa Buddha, he is seen in deep entry; regarding the Dharmadhātu Buddha, he is seen in universal pervasion; regarding the Mind Buddha, he is seen in abiding; regarding the Samādhi Buddha, he is seen as immeasurable and unreliant; regarding the Fundamental Nature Buddha, he is seen with clear understanding; regarding the Accordance-with-Joy Buddha, he is seen in universal bestowal. Moreover, the Buddha completely possesses ten bodies: first, the sentient-being body; second, the land body; third, the karmic retribution body; fourth, the śrāvaka body; fifth, the pratyekabuddha body; sixth, the bodhisattva body; seventh, the tathāgata body; eighth, the wisdom body; ninth, the dharma body; tenth, the space body. If classified separately according to the Five Teachings, it is indeterminate according to the teaching: First, the Hīnayāna teaching has a Buddha of two bodies: 1. the birth body, 2. the dharma body. Second, the Initial Teaching of the Mahāyāna has a Buddha of three bodies: 1. the dharma body, 2. the response body, 3. the transformation body. Third, the Final Teaching has a Buddha of four bodies: 1. the principle-nature body, 2. the dharma body, 3. the retribution body, 4. the response-transformation body. Fourth, the Sudden Teaching has only one Buddha body: 1. the Buddha of true nature. Fifth, the Perfect Teaching of the One Vehicle has a Buddha of ten bodies. Furthermore, in terms of becoming a buddha through nature, the five teachings have different distinctions: In the Hīnayāna, only the one person Siddhārtha has the buddha-nature. In the Initial Teaching, half succeed and half do not, because buddhahood is defined by the division between having nature and lacking nature. In the Final Teaching, all who have minds will attain buddhahood, excluding grass, trees, and the like. In the Sudden Teaching, there is neither buddha nor nature; transcending verbal characteristics is Buddha. In the Perfect Teaching, there is nowhere that does not have buddha-nature, because all three kinds of worlds are the Buddha. If all three kinds of worlds are the Buddha, then internal and external mind and objects are nothing other than the Buddha. Furthermore, in terms of becoming a buddha through the mind: in the Hīnayāna, what is obtained through cultivating a wholesome mind is the Buddha; in the Initial Teaching, the mind-nature is the Buddha; in the Final Teaching, the cessation of mental characteristics and nature is the Buddha; in the Sudden Teaching, the mind being fundamentally unborn is the Buddha; in the Perfect Teaching, the mind being unobstructed and inexhaustible is the Buddha. Furthermore, Tiantai clarifies the buddhas of the four teachings: 1. the Buddha of the Tripiṭaka Teaching, 2. the Buddha of the Shared Teaching, 3. the Buddha of the Separate Teaching, 4. the Buddha of the Perfect Teaching. If taking the Suchness Buddha, the Mind Buddha, and the Fundamental Nature Buddha, who is not endowed with them? If taking the Land Body, the Dharma Body, and the Space Body, what dharma is not fully complete? Then every place is a jeweled dwelling—who erects hills and mounds? In every thought-moment all achieve perfect awakening—how could deluded thoughts be differentiated? Just as a blind person not seeing light is not the fault of the morning sun or the evening moon, and just as the lesser fruit not hearing the perfect and sudden [teaching] is not a matter of the closeness or distance of the wondrous intent of the Buddha's mind, it is only that the weakness of the Dharma is due to slightness of capacity, and the vastness of the Path depends on greatness of scope. When shallow capacities perceive by themselves, wondrous existence is realized as impermanence; suited to meager merit, precious jewels turn into tiles and rubble. Vainly deluding one's own eyes, one mistakenly identifies another's body, dividing the ultimate reality into a thousand differences, causing a hundred variations in the forms of conversion. As the Mahāvaipulya Mahāmegha Sūtra states: 'At that time the Buddha said to Mahāmeghagarbha Bodhisattva: "Good man, you must now light the great lamp of wisdom to destroy the mad, foolish darkness of sentient beings. If anyone says that the Tathāgata was truly born in Śuddhodana's palace, left home to study the Path, practiced austerities, defeated the hosts of Māra's army, sat at the bodhimaṇḍa, and realized the path of bodhi, you should know that this person slanders the Buddha. Better to have one's head cut off and one's tongue pulled out than ever to utter such false words. Why is this? Because he does not skillfully understand the Tathāgata's secret words."' Furthermore, the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra states: 'If one says that the Tathāgata Śākyamuni descended in spirit from the Tuṣita heaven into his mother's womb, and so on up to the eight aspects of achieving the Path, this is the crooked view of the śrāvakas. Hence it is said that for sentient beings of inferior understanding, he appeared from a mother's womb.' Therefore, upon entering this Mirror of the Source, uttered words are free from error, and arising thoughts are all true. If one has not reached this gate, asserting what is right turns into wrong, and collecting the mind is still mistaken. As the Perfect Enlightenment Sūtra states: 'Both moving thought and stilling thought return to confusion and stupor.' The Xinxin ming states: 'Without knowing the profound intent, one toils in vain striving for mental purity.' Master Rong said: 'For one who has awakened to this source, saying that the Buddha is not [a buddha] is also permissible; for one who has not yet believed, even reciting the Buddha's name turns into false speech.' Therefore we know that without penetrating the Mirror of the Source, whatever views one holds all become slandering the Buddha, slandering the Dharma, and slandering the Saṅgha. Though one ponders ten thousand times and reflects a thousand ways, there will never be a day of accord. The moment one understands this principle, naturally in a single thought-moment there is no error. Therefore the Treatise on the Avataṃsaka states: 'From the initial arousal of the mind, at the head of the ten abodes, by the power of samādhi one suddenly seals the three realms. The three times are of one limit, all dharmas are of one taste, and liberation and nirvāṇa are of the ever-quiescent taste. There is no longer any beginning or end; cause and fruit are of one limit; all natures are of one nature; all wisdoms are of one wisdom; all characteristics are of one characteristic; all practices are of one practice; the three times are one thought-moment, and one thought-moment is the three times, and even the ten times. Dharmas such as these are sovereign and unobstructed. The dharma-gate of this sūtra has no beginning and no end, and is called the constantly turning wheel of the Dharma. Therefore, the teaching-gate of this sūtra is established according to the root so as to provide for great faculties. Relying on the root as one limit, it does not establish beginning and end, because it is not a deluded view. Entering one, one totally obtains the rest, because the dharmadhātu is of one limit. It is not like provisional learning where the vision is not yet exhausted. Entering the rest, one totally obtains the one, because the substance of the dharmadhātu is unobstructed. It is like a round pearl without corners, like a bright mirror illuminating suddenly, like empty space without division, like an echo without reliance, like a shadow without obstruction, like the creations of a phantom person. This dharma-gate encompasses beginning and end in one limit, is completely round and unobstructed, without production or destruction, without arising or vanishing—the constantly turning wheel of the Dharma. If a person can understand this dharma-gate, Buddha-wisdom, spontaneous wisdom, and teacherless wisdom will manifest before him. Because this dharma has no arising or vanishing, one can also attain it oneself only through spontaneous, non-arising and non-vanishing wisdom; it is not what can be attained by emotional attachment and conceptual calculation. All provisional teachings and dharma-gates are entirely included within it and expounded at one time, because the various provisional teachings do not depart from the dharmadhātu and have no three times; each relying on its own view, there are immeasurable differences. This One Vehicle teaching was expounded when he first achieved perfect awakening. If according to feeling, it was expounded when he first became a buddha; if according to wisdom, it is expounded without beginning or end. Thus we know that becoming a buddha and expounding the Dharma do not depart from a single thought-moment. As in the Avataṃsaka-sūtra, when the ṛṣi Vairaṃbhya took Sudhana's hand, immediately Sudhana saw his own body go to worlds numbering the atoms in ten buddha-lands in the ten directions, arriving before buddhas numbering the atoms in ten buddha-lands, seeing those buddha-lands and their assemblies, the buddhas' major and minor marks, and manifold adornments, and so on, even passing through kalpas numbering the atoms in hundreds of thousands of koṭis of ineffable-ineffable buddha-lands. And so on, until that ṛṣi released Sudhana's hand, and the youth Sudhana immediately saw his own body back in its original place. Thus we know that without moving from the place of one's original position, one's body pervades the ten directions; without departing from within a single thought-moment, eons numbering billions pass. The original position is unmoved, yet distant and near lands are distinct; a single thought-moment does not shift, yet periods of expansion and contraction are clearly apparent. If not relying on the Mirror of the Source, how could one interpret the text? The ten thousand dharmas subtly return [here], ultimately without any other intent.'