宗鏡錄 16.5

16.5

Answer: In the gate of ultimate emptiness, principle has no signs or traces. In the way of differentiation, phenomena have opening and restriction. The deluded citta is produced from subject and object, and arises due to differentiation. It gives rise to the temporary function of the superficial sense faculties, and accomplishes the deluded cognition confronting sense objects. If separated from external dust-objects, this citta has no substance. Arising illumination due to sense objects, when sense objects perish, illumination vanishes. Following thoughts, dust arises; when thoughts are empty, dust ceases. If one takes these shadowy occurrences to be the Buddha-body, since they are a false and deluded cause, they will only produce the result of annihilation.
The true citta is clear and bright, quiescent and illuminating, not produced from sense objects. Containing emptiness and according with conditions, it has never engaged in intention. Bright and unobscured, clearly and constantly aware, when stretched out it leaves no footprints, and when rolled up it leaves no traces. Like a clear pool reflecting the wild plain, or a bright mirror suspended in the sky, the myriad forms spread out in profusion, yet it openly and emptily reflects them, neither exiting nor entering, neither existent nor non-existent. This is where the thousand sages secretly return, and where the myriad spirits converge. Those who have faith in it penetrate the source and bottom of the Great Path; those who embody it accomplish the permanent dharmakāya. The ancestors and Buddhas jointly point to this citta and thereby accomplish Buddhahood. It is also called the innately true Buddha, the dharmakāya Buddha, the nature Buddha, and the tathatā Buddha.
It is neither apart from delusion, because delusion has no substance; nor is it identical with truth, because truth is not an identity. When the designations of truth and delusion are exhausted, and the sentiments of identity and departure are extinguished, the wondrously complete awakened citta can then be revealed. Furthermore, because it is inherently possessed, it can then be opened and revealed. Therefore it is said: 'The Tathāgata's right awakened citta and the discriminative citta of sentient beings accord and are identical without duality; this is the skillful means for opening, revealing, awakening to, and entering.' Therefore, if the cittas of sentient beings and the cittas of all Buddhas were each different, how could one speak of opening? Only because they accord and are identical does one bestow skillful means. If there were no treasure in the storehouse, digging and excavating would be in vain; only because there is a treasure is human effort not wasted. If one only generates faith, one will ultimately see the nature. Therefore it is said: 'I guarantee this matter for you; it will never be in vain.'
Hence it is said:
'The maṇi jewel, people do not know; / Within the tathāgatagarbha it is personally retrieved. / Six kinds of divine functions are empty and not empty; / A single round light is form and not form.'
With such direct pointing, what need is there to seek elsewhere? Therefore the Secret of the Citta-Elixir says:
'Vastly beneath heaven they search in vain, / Unwilling to turn their heads and recognize it themselves. / Trusting the master to travel to the land of non-action, / Only then does one realize that one has always wasted effort.'
Therefore the Treatise on the Avataṃsaka says: 'The kleśas of the ground of avidyā are immediately the unshakeable wisdom of all Buddhas. All sentient beings possess it inherently of themselves. It is only because the substance of wisdom has no nature and no support that it cannot comprehend itself; only by meeting conditions does it comprehend.' Thus we know that all sentient beings are the Buddha's wisdom; without obtaining the conditions for comprehension, they have no way to be awakened. When comprehended, they immediately become Buddhas. As the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra says: 'There is a bodhisattva who, upon first generating the citta, immediately sits at the place of awakening and is like a Buddha.' Therefore Layman Pang's verse says:
'If the citta is like tathatā, the spirit is naturally empty. / Without taking medicine, the disease is naturally removed. / The white lotus flower, the wish-fulfilling jewel: / No need to labor in search, do not scurry about. / The wise observe wealth and sex, / Clearly understanding them to be like illusions and emptiness. / Food and clothing support the body and life; / Mutually we encourage studying suchness. / When the time comes, move the hut away; / There are no things left over.'
Also the ancients said: 'A single pill cures ten thousand diseases; there is no need for many prescriptions.'