宗鏡錄 18.25.4

18.25.4

As is explained at length above. Explanation: Thus, a painter moves the mind of skill or clumsiness and holds a brush of the five colours, sketching out all manner of fine and coarse images upon a level and flat ground; just so, sentient beings are endowed with minds of delusion or wisdom and wield the brush of the three karmas, painting all matters of suffering and joy upon the ground of good and evil. Furthermore, a worldly painter can only paint the form aggregate (rūpaskandha), whereas the mind painter can paint all five aggregates (pañcaskandha). Again, a worldly painting is not durable: when the colour fades, the image is destroyed; the mind's painting endures through long kalpas: though the body perishes, the karma is not lost. Again, a worldly painting is very easy to understand: beauty and ugliness can both be seen; the mind's painting is extremely difficult to investigate: its retributions cannot be known. As a verse in the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra says: / 'What is created by all karma / Surpasses a skillful painter. / The karma-painter among the gods / Creates all kinds of pleasurable retributions. / Various colours / Can be counted when directly observed; / Karma of the mind spreads multiple colours, / Whose number cannot be known. / If the wall is destroyed, the painting perishes: / The two are extinguished at the same time. / But when the body is destroyed and dies, / The painting of karma cannot be lost. / Just as a single painter / Produces various ornaments, / So too does the one mind / Produce various karmas. / When the radiant colours of the five pigments appear, / Seeing them gives rise to attachment and pleasure; / The painting of the five sense-faculties is also like this: / In accordance with karma, there is birth and death. / Just as a worldly skilled painter / Can be seen in the present, / The painter of the mind is subtle: / He cannot be seen at all. / Painting shapes of beauty and ugliness, / He causes various images to appear on the wall; / Karma of the mind is also like this: / It can produce good and evil retributions. / Day and night, this mind / Thinks and ponders without ever stopping; / In this way, karma follows the mind, / Constantly accompanying it and never parting. / Through wind, dust, smoke, clouds, and heat, / The colours of a painting are destroyed; / But unless good is abandoned and bad is not maintained, / Only then are the various karmas lost.' / Furthermore, according to the Pratyutpannasamādhisūtra, seeing the Buddha has roughly four similes: First, the dream simile: just as what is seen in a dream is produced from conceptual differentiation, so seeing all buddhas arises from one's own mind. Second, the water-reflection simile: water is a simile for the nature of the mind; thus, the moon-reflection of the Buddha is entirely an entity within the true mind of sentient beings. Mind and Buddha interpenetrate: it is solely the true mind. Third, the illusion simile: one's own mind is like the art of illusion, and all buddhas are like what is produced by illusion; this means that only because there is a phenomenon capable of illusion is an illusory matter formed: without the mind capable of mindfulness, there is no Buddha to be seen. Fourth, the echo simile: just as an empty valley produces an echo following a sound, so through understanding one's own mind, one sees the Buddha following upon thought. Among the above four similes, the first directly illustrates mind-only; the second, being mind-only, is therefore empty; the third, being mind-only, is therefore provisional; the fourth, being mind-only, is therefore the middle. Furthermore, the dream simile illustrates neither coming nor going; the reflection simile illustrates neither exiting nor entering; the illusion simile illustrates neither existing nor not existing; the echo simile illustrates neither uniting nor separating. As a verse in the sūtra says: / 'The mind does not know the mind; / The mind does not see the mind. / When the mind has ideation, it is delusion; / When it has no ideation, it is nirvāṇa. / These phenomena are not durable; / They are always established upon mindfulness. / Those who see emptiness through understanding / Have no conceptual thoughts at all.' / Explanation: If the mind were to see the mind itself, then the prior mind would be the seer and the Buddha would be the seen. A knife does not cut itself; a finger does not touch itself. How could one's own mind turn back and see one's own mind? Grasping and grasped are not distinct; seeing and characteristics are thus terminated. Therefore, the sūtra says: 'When the mind has ideation, it is delusion.' If there is no ideation, then the mind merges with the Buddha of the nature, and thinking and seeking are forever terminated. The above concerns sentient beings' own minds inducing appearances. Next, the power of the causal vows of all buddhas and bodhisattvas manifests transformative teachings without interruption. Therefore, the Vimalakīrtinirdeśasūtra says: 'Although displaying the realization of complete enlightenment, they do not abandon the bodhisattva path.' Although awakening to 'the mind itself is Buddha' and immediately accomplishing bodhi, yet because sentient beings have not realized it, they extensively cultivate meritorious karma to guide those who have not heard, causing all to open up understanding and return together to this ground. As the Avataṃsakasūtra says: 'Although capable of accomplishing anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi in a single thought, yet for the sake of sentient beings, they practice the bodhisattva conduct throughout immeasurable kalpas without resting. This is the mount-like sovereign mind.' It also says: 'Sons of the Buddha! The bodhisattva mahāsattva also generates this thought: “Anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi has the mind as its foundation. If the mind is pure, then one can consummate all wholesome roots and will definitely attain mastery over the Buddha's bodhi. If wishing to accomplish anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi, one accomplishes it immediately at will. If wishing to eradicate all conditions of grasping and abide in the unilateral path, I can also attain it. Yet I do not eradicate them; because I wish to culminate the Buddha's bodhi, I also do not immediately realize unexcelled bodhi. Why? In order to fulfill the original vows, exhaust all worlds, practice the bodhisattva conduct, and transform sentient beings.” This is the ninth, the vajra-like Mahāyāna mind of vow.' By the above comparisons and similes, faith is verified without doubt; then the Buddha Way is established at once, not derived from the instruction of others. In the end, one does not give rise to any other thought, but solely purifies the one mind itself. This may be called according with the Buddha's original intention and attaining the correct meaning of the teaching.