宗鏡錄 19.11

19.11

Answer: "Ten pints combine to form one peck. Since when there is no pint, with what would one make a peck? Thus we know that without the pint there is no peck, and with the pint there is the peck. Now, raising the pint is itself the peck; outside the peck and pint, there is no other pint or peck—like a turtle's hair or a rabbit's horn, they cannot be obtained. The initial mind immediately achieves buddhahood; outside of this achievement, there is no separate cultivation, because its characteristic is like space. Therefore, that the initial mind achieves buddhahood does not mean that it does not possess all merits. As the sūtra states: the youth Samantālaṃkāra in one lifetime heard good habituations, in a second lifetime accomplished their understanding and practice, and in a third lifetime entered the ocean of fruits—all belonging to the same conditioned arising. Yet these three lifetimes are only in a single thought-moment. It is like traveling far: the arrival is in the first step. However, the arrival of this first step does not mean there are no subsequent steps. This clarifies that this youth's entry into the fruit-ocean was not without having planted good roots for a long time."