宗鏡錄 17.11

17.11

Answer: It is solely because [sentient beings] do not believe that their own citta is the Buddha, and instead rush outward seeking [elsewhere]. For those of middling and inferior faculties, [the teachings] provisionally instruct them to contemplate the Buddha's physical form, fixing their conditions on coarse mindfulness, using the external to reveal the internal and gradually awakening them to their own citta. If one is of superior capacity, they are only instructed to contemplate the real characteristic of the body, and contemplating the Buddha is likewise. As the Fozang jing states: 'To see the real characteristic of all dharmas is called seeing the Buddha. What is called the real characteristic of all dharmas? It is what is known as all dharmas being ultimately empty and having nothing that exists. Mindfully contemplating the Buddha by means of this dharma that is ultimately empty and has nothing that exists—and furthermore, one who mindfully contemplates the Buddha is free from all thoughts; all thoughts do not arise, the citta is free from discrimination, without names, without obstruction, without desire and without attainment, not giving rise to vitarka or vicāra. Why is this? Śāriputra, all thoughts that arise according to what is thought are entirely wrong views. Śāriputra, following nonexistence, free from vitarka and vicāra, free from arising and ceasing—one who penetrates this is called one who mindfully contemplates the Buddha. Within such mindfulness, there is no rāga and no clinging, no adversity and no compliance, no name and no thought. Śāriputra, being free from thought and free from speech is precisely what is called mindfully contemplating the Buddha. Herein there is not even the most minute subtle thought, how much less the coarse karma of body, speech, and mind! Where there is no karma of body, speech, and mind, there is neither grasping nor gathering, neither dispute nor litigation, no thought, no discrimination, empty and quiescent, devoid of nature, extinguishing all vitarka and vicāra—this is called mindfully contemplating the Buddha. Śāriputra, if a person accomplishes such mindfulness, should they wish to overturn the earth of the four continents, they can overturn it at will, and they can also subdue hundreds of thousands of koṭis of māras, how much more so the wretched avidyā that arises from false and deceptive conditions and has no determined characteristic! This dharma is thus: free from thought and free from conceptual proliferation, free from arising and ceasing, inexpressible, indiscernible, free from darkness and free from light, unable to be fathomed by Māra or the hosts of Māra. It is only by means of conventional speech that there is any teaching and transformation, saying: "When you mindfully contemplate the Buddha, do not grasp at small thoughts, do not produce conceptual proliferation, and do not have discrimination. Why is this? These dharmas are all empty and have no substance or nature. One cannot be mindful of a single characteristic; that is to say, signlessness. This is called truly mindfully contemplating the Buddha."' A verse in the Huayan jing says: 'Just as the sun and moon abide in empty space / And their reflections appear in all waters, / Abiding in the dharmadhātu without moving, / Appearing as reflections in accord with the citta is likewise.' Another verse says: 'Just as an indranīla gem / Illuminates objects so they all share the same colour, / When sentient beings see the Buddha, / They share the colour of the Buddha's bodhi.' An explanation says: The colour of all buddhas' bodhi is the very light of the citta-nature of sentient beings. Because the citta is signless, bodhi is also likewise. Therefore, Mañjuśrī's verse says: 'Devoid of colour and devoid of visible signs, / Devoid of root and devoid of an abiding place, / Because it neither arises nor ceases, / I pay homage without anything contemplated.' Another verse says: 'Empty space has neither middle nor boundary; / The citta of all buddhas is also like this. / Because the citta is identical to empty space, / I pay homage without anything contemplated.' In the Chapter on Entering the Dharmadhātu of the Huayan [jing], the monk Deyun entered the realm of recollecting all buddhas, the light of wisdom, the Dharma gate of universal seeing, and so forth, down to abiding in the gate of mindfully contemplating the Buddha in all worlds, because in accord with the desires and joys of his own citta, he universally saw all tathāgatas of the three times. A verse in the Chapter on Entering the Inconceivable Realm of Liberation says: 'The citta can universally amass boundless karma, / Adorning all the worlds. / Comprehending that all dharmas are just the citta, / It manifests bodies equal in number to those sentient beings.' A gāthā in the Laṅkāvatārasūtra says: 'The bodies of buddhas and śrāvakas, / Bodies of pratyekabuddhas, and so forth, / And furthermore the various physical bodies— / These are spoken of as only the internal citta.' The Dafangguang rulai mimi zang jing says: 'The Tathāgata's secret treasury of Dharma is called the all-knowing citta... down to: this citta is the pillar, not timid and not weak, not frail and not broken, without laziness, neither turning away nor abandoning; turning in accord toward this citta, one becomes enlightened to and comprehends it.' The Huashou jing says: 'All dharmas are clear and pure like the sun; in accord with whatever is correctly contemplated, all enter the limitlessness.' The explanation says: All dharmas are the light of the citta, without flaw or obstruction, hence it is said to be 'clear and pure like the sun'. In accord with whatever dharma there is, if one can make this contemplation, there is none that does not enter the limitless limit of one's own citta. Furthermore, the Zhiguan explains: As for the gate of the samādhi of mindfully contemplating the Buddha, how should one be mindful? Should one think: 'Shall I attain the Buddha from the citta, or attain the Buddha from the body?' The Buddha is not attained by means of the citta, nor attained by means of the body. One does not attain the Buddha's form by means of the citta, nor attain the Buddha's citta by means of form. Why is this? As for citta, the Buddha is without citta; as for form, the Buddha is without form. One does not attain sambodhi by means of form or citta. The Buddha's form is already exhausted, up to consciousness is already exhausted. That which the Buddha spoke of as exhausted is not known by foolish persons, but is understood by the wise. One does not attain the Buddha by means of body or speech; one does not attain the Buddha by means of wisdom. Why? Searching for wisdom, it cannot be attained; searching for myself, I am utterly unattainable, nor is there anything seen. All dharmas are originally nonexistent; destroying the root and cutting off the root. It is also like dreaming of seeing the seven treasures and rejoicing with relatives; upon waking, one pursues the thought, not knowing where they are. Mindfully contemplate the Buddha in this way. Furthermore, it is like when the Buddha was in the world, there were three men who were brothers. They heard that in the country of Vaiśālī there was a courtesan named Āmrapālī; in the country of Śrāvastī there was a courtesan named Sumanā; and in the city of Rājagṛha there was a courtesan named Utpalavarṇā. The three men each heard others praise the three women as incomparably upright and beautiful. Day and night they focused their mindfulness, their minds clinging without letting go. Thereupon in their dreams, they dreamed of engaging in affairs with them. Upon waking, they reflected in their minds: 'Those women did not come, nor did I go, yet the affair of lust was accomplished. Awakening because of this, are all dharmas like this?' Thereupon they went to the bodhisattva Bhadrapāla and asked about this matter. Bhadrapāla answered, saying: 'All dharmas are truly thus; they all arise from thought.' In various ways such as this, he skillfully explained the emptiness of all dharmas for these three men. At that time, the three men immediately attained avaivartika. From this it is known that though persons do not come or go, the pleasant affair is clearly apparent; one should mindfully contemplate the Buddha in this way. Furthermore, it is like a person travelling in a great marsh, who being hungry and thirsty dreams of obtaining delicious food; upon waking his belly is empty, and he thinks to himself: 'All existing dharmas are like a dream.' One should mindfully contemplate the Buddha in this way, repeatedly mindful without resting. Using this mindfulness, one will be born in the land of Amitābha; this is called mindfulness in accord with characteristics. The Dafangdeng daji jing says: 'The Buddha told Bhadrapāla: "I recall that in the past there was a Buddha, a World-Honoured One named Supari. At that time there was a man who, while travelling, encountered a wilderness, distressed by hunger and thirst. He then fell asleep and in a dream completely obtained various kinds of superior and wondrous delicious food; having eaten his fill, he was no longer hungry or empty. Having awoken from this, he was hungry and thirsty again. Because of this, the man then reflected to himself: 'All such dharmas are empty and without reality, like what is seen in a dream, fundamentally unreal.' When contemplating in this way, he awakened to anutpattikadharmakṣānti and attained non-retrogression in anuttarasamyaksambodhi."' Furthermore, it is like a person leaning a jewel against vaiḍūrya, so that its reflection appears within it; it is also like a monk contemplating bones, producing various kinds of light. Here, there is no one who brings them, nor are there these bones; it is merely made by the mind. As the Dafangdeng daji jing says: 'Furthermore, Bhadrapāla, it is just as when a monk cultivates the contemplation of impurity and sees a newly dead corpse, its shape and colour just beginning to change, being blue, or yellow, or black, or red, up to contemplating the bones scattering apart; yet those scattered bones have nowhere from which they come and nowhere to which they go; they are solely made by the citta, and one turns back to see one's own citta. It is also like an image in a mirror, which does not come from outside nor arise from within; because the mirror is clean, one sees one's own form. When the practitioner's form is pure, that which is seen is pure. If one wishes to see the Buddha, one immediately sees the Buddha. Seeing [him], one asks; asking, he responds. Hearing the sūtras, one greatly rejoices and reflects to oneself: 'Where does the Buddha come from? I also go nowhere. What I am mindful of, I immediately see. The citta makes the Buddha; the citta itself sees. The citta sees the Buddha. The citta is the Buddha. The citta is myself. The citta does not know the citta itself; the citta does not see the citta itself. When the citta has thoughts, it is folly; when the citta is free from thoughts, it is nirvāṇa.' These dharmas have nothing that can be demonstrated; they are entirely produced by thought. Even if there is that thought, it is also completely nonexistent, merely empty. This is called the Buddha's seal: without rāga, without clinging, without seeking, without thought, with all existence exhausted, all desires exhausted, with nowhere from which it arises, nowhere that can be extinguished, and nothing that is destroyed; it is the essential of the Path, the root of the Path. This seal cannot be destroyed by the two vehicles, how much less by Māra!" The *Vibhāṣā-śāstra clarifies: 'A newly resolved bodhisattva first mindfully contemplates the Buddha's physical marks, the substance of the marks, the karma of the marks, the fruit of the marks, and the function of the marks, obtaining inferior power. Next, they mindfully contemplate the Buddha's forty unshared dharmas, their mind obtaining middling power. Next, they mindfully contemplate the Buddha of real characteristic, obtaining superior power, and not clinging to the two bodies of form and Dharma.' A gāthā says: 'Not greedily clinging to the physical body, / Nor clinging to the dharmakāya, / Skillfully knowing that all dharmas / Are eternally quiescent like empty space.' Exhorting practitioners: 'If a person wishes to obtain wisdom like the great ocean, so that none can serve as my teacher, and while seated here without exercising supernatural powers, completely see all buddhas, completely hear what they expound, and be completely able to uphold it, they should constantly practise this samādhi; among all merits, it is the foremost. This samādhi is the mother of all buddhas, the eye of buddhas, the father of buddhas; non-arising is the great compassionate mother—all tathāgatas are born from these two dharmas. If one were to crush the great thousandfold earth, its grasses and trees into dust, with each speck of dust being a buddha-kṣetra, and filling those worlds with jewels, give them in generosity, that merit would be exceedingly great; yet it does not equal hearing of this samādhi without fear and without dread, how much less faithfully receiving, upholding, reading, reciting, and explaining it to others, how much less cultivating it with a concentrated mind for the duration of milking a cow, how much less being able to accomplish this samādhi! Therefore it is immeasurable and boundless.' Furthermore, the *Vibhāṣā-śāstra says: 'For kalpa-fire, officials, bandits, enemies, poisonous dragons, beasts, and the multitude of illnesses to invade this person—there is no such possibility. This person is constantly protected, kept in mind, and praised together by the devas, dragons, the eight classes of beings, and all buddhas, who all together wish to see them and come to their dwelling. If one hears of this samādhi and rejoices in accord with the four turns of merit as above, all buddhas and bodhisattvas of the three times will also rejoice in accord, further surpassing the four turns of merit above.' If one does not cultivate such a dharma, one loses immeasurable heavy treasures, and humans and devas grieve and lament for them. It is like a person without a sense of smell holding sandalwood without smelling it; it is like a peasant's son trading a maṇi jewel for a single ox. Therefore it is known that for those who do not recognize that their own citta is the Buddha, and instead seek other dharmas, their fault in cultivating the Path while turning their backs to the Path is like this. That is, ordinary persons who do not penetrate the citta-treasure drink poison and eat [foulness] among humans and devas; the two vehicles leave their family treasures far behind and seek the wages of a hired dung-remover. Therefore the Lotus Sūtra says: 'If those with wisdom hear it, they can faithfully understand; those without wisdom, doubting and regretting, will lose it forever.'