宗鏡錄 2.15

2.15

Answer: Although it truly possesses all meritorious qualities, yet there are no differentiated characteristics. Those manifold phenomena are all of one flavor and one reality, free from differentiated characteristics, because they have no dual nature. It is in dependence on the characteristics of arising and ceasing—such as the karmic consciousness—that all those differentiated characteristics are established. How are these established? Because all phenomena are originally mind-only and truly without differentiation. Because of non-enlightenment, the differentiating mind arises and sees objects, which is called avidyā. The nature of the mind is originally pure; when avidyā does not arise, then with reference to tathatā the meaning of the light of great wisdom is established. If the mind gives rise to seeing objects, there is then the characteristic of not seeing; when the nature of the mind is free of seeing, then there is nothing unseen. Thus with reference to tathatā the meaning of universally illuminating the dharmadhātu is established. If the mind moves, it is not true full knowledge, not the original purity of nature, not permanent, bliss, self, and pure, not peaceful and still, but subject to change and transformation, and not sovereign. Through this, there arise in full measure false and mixed defilements exceeding the sands of the Ganges. Because the nature of the mind is devoid of movement, the meaning of true full knowledge is established, up to and including the meaning of the characteristics of pure meritorious qualities exceeding the sands of the Ganges. If the mind arises and sees that there are remaining objects to be differentiated and sought, then there is insufficiency with regard to the inner Dharma. Since boundless merits are the self-nature of the one mind, and one does not see any remaining dharmas that could be further sought, therefore the dharmas of all buddhas that are neither one nor different, inconceivable, and exceeding the sands of the Ganges are fully fulfilled, without ever being cut off. Therefore it is said that tathatā is named the tathāgatagarbha, and it is also named the tathāgata's dharmakāya. Yet this one mind is not like [that conceived by] ordinary persons, who falsely take the mind of conditioning thoughts and deductive reasoning, and resolutely cling to it as being inside the physical body. Now, throughout the worlds of the ten directions, all is the wondrous, luminous true mind. As the Chapter on Entering the Dharmadhātu says: in the ocean of worlds of the Flower Garland, without question—whether mountains or rivers, the great earth or empty space, plants, trees, thickets, and forests, or minute dust particles and hairs—all without exception are designated as the true dharmadhātu, endowed with boundless virtues. Therefore a master of old said: 'Origination, prosperity, furtherance, and perseverance are the virtues of Qian; they begin in the single qi. Permanence, bliss, self, and purity are the virtues of the Buddha; they are rooted in the one mind. Concentrating upon the single qi to achieve softness; cultivating the one mind to accomplish the Way.' As for this mind: it is empty, tranquil, pure, and wondrous; brilliant, numinous, and clear. Devoid of going and coming, it darkly penetrates the three times. Neither internal nor external, it brightly pervades the ten directions. Unceasing and unarising, how could the four mountains harm it? Free from nature and free from characteristics, how could the five colors blind it? Abiding in the stream of saṃsāra, the black dragon's pearl alone shines upon the dark ocean; perched upon the shore of nirvāṇa, the cassia-moon wheel alone gleams in the azure sky. How vast it is! It is that upon which the ten thousand phenomena rely to begin. The ten thousand phenomena are deceptive and false, arising from the confluence of conditions. Arisen phenomena are originally non-existent; all is representation-only. Consciousness is like an illusion or a dream; it is merely the one mind. The mind is quiescent yet aware; this is termed perfect enlightenment. Pervasive and pure, it admits no other within it. Therefore, its boundless virtues and functions all share the same single nature. Nature arising becomes characteristics; objects and wisdom are distinctly apparent. Characteristics attain the blending of nature; body and mind are vast and open. Comparing it to the sāgaramudrā, it surpasses the great void. Vast and expansive! Brilliant and dazzling! It towers far beyond the reach of thought. Moreover, a master of old said: 'The tathāgatagarbha is another name for the one mind. What is meant by the one mind? It is the non-dual nature of all phenomena—true or false, defiled or pure; therefore it is called "one". This non-dual locus is the reality within all phenomena, unlike empty space; its nature is spontaneously spiritually aware, and therefore it is called "mind".' Therefore, if one seeks separately outside and falsely learns from another, it is like drilling ice to seek fire, or pressing sand to yield oil. Because ice and sand are not the correct causes of oil and fire, wishing to seek their application will only waste effort. Furthermore, if one only cultivates gradual practice and vainly abides in the provisional vehicles, it is like painting without glue, or like unfired pottery. Because unfired pottery and [glueless] paintings are not durable vessels, wishing to seek the ultimate therein is impossible. If one can truly understand one's own mind without falsely seeking outside, it is like producing fire from wood or pressing oil from hemp: without destroying the correct cause, it is quickly accomplished. It is also like painting that has acquired glue, or like pottery that has undergone fire: it is fit to become a useful vessel, and the undertaking is not in vain. Whatever actions one performs, all reach the ultimate. If one has not entered with faith, one adopts and discards in myriad ways, giving rise to delusion in accordance with objects, and is harmed by phenomena. Not contemplating emptiness to dispel encumbrances, one merely grasps emptiness and abolishes good; not realizing existence to foster compassion, one merely clings to existence and gives rise to transgressions. These all occur because one does not understand the one mind of emptiness and existence, leading to these gains and losses. If one enters the mirror of the source, at the very moment one gives rise to the mind [of bodhi], not only is practice accomplished, but the principle is immediately fully present; one is then identical to the ancient buddhas, on the same plane without difference. As the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra says: in the city of Kuśinagara, there was a caṇḍāla named Huanxi (Joyful). The Buddha made a prophecy regarding this person: due to giving rise to this single thought of the mind, he would quickly accomplish the unsurpassed, correct, and true Way among the number of the thousand buddhas of this realm. The Fahua xuanyi says: 'As for the phenomena of the mind: how could the phenomena explained previously be different from the mind? However, the phenomena of sentient beings are too broad, and the phenomena of the Buddha are too elevated; for beginners, they are difficult. Yet since the mind, the Buddha, and sentient beings—these three—are not distinct, simply contemplating one's own mind is easy.' The Nirvāṇasūtra says: 'All sentient beings are fully endowed with three concentrations. The superior concentration refers to the buddha-nature. Being able to contemplate the nature of the mind is called the superior concentration.' The superior can subsume the inferior, thereby gathering the phenomena of sentient beings. The Huayan jing says: 'Roam with the mind in the dharmadhātu like empty space, then one will know the realm of the buddhas.' The dharmadhātu is the Middle; empty space is emptiness; mind and Buddha are the provisional. These three are the Buddha's realm. This is contemplating the mind while still being endowed with the Buddha's Dharma. Moreover, roaming with the mind in the dharmadhātu means contemplating that when sense faculties and dust objects face each other, a single thought of the mind arises; it must belong to one of the ten realms. If it belongs to one realm, it immediately possesses the hundred realms and thousand dharmas; within a single thought, all are fully present. This mind-magician, within a single day and night, constantly creates various sentient beings, various five aggregates, and various lands—namely, the provisional and real lands of the hell realm, up to the provisional and real lands of the buddha realm. Practitioners should choose for themselves which path to follow. Furthermore, 'like empty space' means contemplating that if the mind itself gives rise to mind, it does not need to rely on conditions. When there is a mind, the mind has no power to arise; if the mind has no power to arise, conditions also have no arising. Mind and conditions are nominally non-existent; how could their conjunction exist? A conjunction is still unobtainable, and in separation there is no arising. If there is not even a single arising, how could there be a hundred realms and a thousand dharmas? Because the mind is empty, all that arises from the mind is empty. This emptiness is also empty. If empty, it is non-empty; pointing to emptiness, provisionality is posited; provisionality is also non-provisional. There is neither provisionality nor emptiness; it is ultimately pure. How could it merely be the three contemplations and ten thousand practices? Even the empty space of the ten directions still transforms from the mind, let alone the images of things produced within space! As the verse in the Śūraṅgamasūtra says: 'Space is born within great enlightenment, / like the arising of a single bubble in the ocean.' Therefore the Huayan shu says: 'The two phenomena of emptiness and existence both accord with the principle of truth; thus both existence and emptiness are empty of nature.' The commentary explains: 'As for emptiness and existence according with the principle of truth: this emptiness is external space. If one contrasts the emptiness of principle with external space, external space is separated from phenomena and is an annihilatory emptiness; the emptiness of principle is named true emptiness. If external space is also manifested by the mind, and also depends on contrast with form, being revealed only when form is eliminated, then this annihilatory emptiness has no self-nature since it derives from conditions, which is itself emptiness of nature.' Therefore, when explaining the 'great' among the eighteen kinds of emptiness, it refers to the space of the ten directions—that is, the empty space of the ten directions is also empty of nature. Therefore, though the thousand sages have entrusted this, it is difficult to encounter the right occasion and capacity. Yet when faced with those of superior roots, it can be tested with sudden clarity. As the poem of Cold Mountain (Hanshan) says: 'From antiquity, how many sages, / have earnestly exhorted along the path of words! / People's roots and natures are not equal, / high and low have sharp and dull faculties. / In the true Buddha they refuse to believe, / applying effort in vain to suffer confinement. / It is not as good as the mind being pure and bright, / which is itself the seal of the mind king.' A master of old said: 'If you wish to know the essentials of the Dharma, the mind is the root of the twelve divisions of scriptures, the essential gate for entering the Way. As for this mind gate, of the buddhas and patriarchs of the three times, only this one thing is real; the other two are not true. There is only the one-vehicle Dharma; there is neither a second nor a third. The one-vehicle Dharma is the one mind. Merely guarding the one mind is the gate of the mind as tathatā. Among all phenomena, nothing is lacking. All practices of phenomena do not go beyond one's own mind. Mind alone knows itself; there is no other mind. The mind has no form or color, no root and no abode, no arising and no ceasing, nor is there any vitarka or vicāra to be practiced. If there is anything that can be contemplated and practiced, that is sensation, perception, volition, and consciousness, not the original mind; all are conditioned efforts. The patriarchs merely transmitted mind with mind; the realized ones seal and confirm it, and there is no other Dharma.' For instance, in the Huayan jing, the youth Mañjuśrī converted five hundred youths, causing them to generate the mind of bodhi; yet only one person, the youth Sudhana, reached the original source of the mind, visited one hundred and ten cities, inquired about the myriad practices of bodhi, and the gates of samādhi he learned were all like illusions and transformations without real substance. Therefore we know that whatever arises from the mind is identical to illusion and transformation. If one only directly understands the true mind, it is naturally real. As the Weishi shuyao says: 'Among the five kinds of consciousness-only based on object, teaching, principle, practice, and fruit: in this treatise, one position is that it only clarifies the consciousness-only of objects, abandoning the grasping of objects outside the mind, because all objects are not separate from the mind. Another position is that it only explains the consciousness-only of teaching, to establish the fundamental teaching of the treatise and interpret those explanations. Another position is that it only adopts the consciousness-only of principle, establishing the principle stated by the fundamental teaching and differentiating the nature and characteristics of consciousness-only. Another position is that it only adopts the consciousness-only of practice, explaining the cultivation of the practice of consciousness-only across the five stages. Another position is that it only adopts the consciousness-only of fruit, to seek the great fruit, because the peaceful and liberated body of the Great Muni is called Dharma. Now, to interpret those explanations, we only adopt teaching and principle: we say that relying on teaching and principle establishes those natures and characteristics; because nature and characteristics gather everything without remainder, adopting all is superior in terms of principle.' From this we know that the principle of consciousness-only is the correct source for attaining buddhahood; simply because the principle encompasses all, there is no phenomenon that is not it. Therefore it is said that the ten thousand phenomena are representation-only. Setting forth the correct intent of the mirror of the source, and plumbing the fundamental intention of the patriarchs and buddhas, it only responds to capacities with the single Dharma, having no other tenet. Therefore the Lotus Sūtra says: 'In the buddha lands of the ten directions, there is only the Dharma of the one vehicle.' The Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra says: 'The lion's roar is the definitive statement: all sentient beings fully possess the buddha-nature.' It also says: 'Sentient beings are likewise: all have minds. All who have minds shall without exception attain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi.'