宗鏡錄 16.9

16.9

Answer: It is like pointing to water as ice and pointing to ice as water for one who does not know ice. There are only names; how could there be two [separate] things that are identical with each other? Thus we know that though periods of time differ, and melting and freezing follow conditions, the nature of wetness is ever-present and has never altered. Even down to 'the ordinary is the noble'—it is also like this. 'Ordinary' and 'noble' are merely names; they are of one substance without distinction. Therefore a former worthy, explaining the Avataṃsaka-sūtra, said: 'That one world is like this throughout the entire dharmadhātu means that knowing the suchness of one eye, the suchness of all eyes is likewise so.' To cite an analogy: just as one person's body has hands and feet, all people have hands and feet. Therefore, failing to understand this one mind, everyone gives rise to dualistic views. If ordinary beings cling to this mind, they create the karma of saṃsāra. The two vehicles loathe and abandon this mind, seeking the fruit of reduction to ashes and annihilation. Furthermore, ordinary beings lack eyes; they turn the illumination of bodhi-wisdom into a burning fire of kleśas. They are like the blind child of a great house of wealth: sitting amidst a treasure house, every movement meets with obstruction, and he is harmed by the treasures. The two vehicles take the Tathāgata's secret treasury of the four virtues to be the impermanent five aggregates, calling it a robber, a tiger, a dragon, or a serpent, and run away in terror. Though bondage and liberation differ, clinging and rejection are both failures. If one truly understands and penetrates this, there is no arising and no ceasing, nothing attained and nothing produced. Realizing that this deluded mind has no substance from moment to moment, from where could attachment arise? Moment to moment it naturally departs; there is no need to sever or extinguish it. One cannot even obtain 'one', much less 'two'! Thus we know that when all dharmas accord with suchness, they realize the consummate [nature]; and though present in deluded feeling, they are absent in principle. When the feelings of the masses go against the intent, they cling to the imagined [nature]; and though present in deluded feeling, they are absent in principle. Accordance ever resides in violation; in the one path, how could it ever lose its substance? Deluded feeling does not diverge from principle; across a thousand paths, it has never branched off for an instant. Penetrating it, deluded feeling and principle transcend names; realizing it, accordance and violation find no ground. Therefore, every single dharma completely accords with the wordless Path; every single thought-moment returns to the source of non-attainment. It is innately natural, not artificially made. As the Wordless Bodhisattva Sūtra states: 'At that time, Śāriputra said to Wordless Bodhisattva: "Son of good family, if you cannot speak, how do you intend to inquire into the meaning of the Tathāgata?" Wordless said: "All dharmas are entirely without written letters, and also without words. Why is this? All sentient beings are entirely spontaneous, without any verbal teachings or manifold conceptual thoughts."' Therefore, if set forth in full in terms of phenomena, then ordinary and noble are identical and yet distinct; if harmonized and identified in terms of principle, then sentient beings and buddhas are distinct and yet identical. Hence, distinction and non-distinction both do not depart from the substance of tathatā. As the Commentary on the Avataṃsaka states: 'Distinction within non-distinction is gradual deployment atop complete harmony; non-distinction within distinction is complete harmony atop gradual deployment.' It is like gathering particulars to form the general; it is not that this general exists apart from the particulars. In this kind of harmonious integration, there is no dharma that does not return [to it]. Thus the three vehicles are not three, and the five natures are not five. Only with such wondrous understanding can one be bathed in the light of the Mirror of the Source. Giving rise to views that depart from this entirely violates the principle of non-duality.