宗鏡錄 2.23

2.23

Answer: Although the various phenomena are manifold, they are made by the one mind alone. For the one noble path, innumerable designations are established. Just as one fire, according to what it burns, obtains various names such as 'grass fire' or 'wood fire', and just as one water, according to its function, receives numerous names such as 'soup' or 'wine', this portal of the one mind is also like this. In response to minor capacities, it is termed 'lesser teachings'; answering great capacities, it is called the 'great vehicle' (mahāyāna). Although greater and lesser are distinguished, the true nature has no division. If one resolutely grasps that the Buddha taught multiple dharmas, that is slandering the turning of the wheel of Dharma and constitutes the fault of double-tongued speech. Hence a sūtra says: 'The mind is not apart from the Path; the Path is not apart from the mind.' As the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra says: 'At that time, the World-Honoured One praised Bodhisattva Kāśyapa: "Excellent, excellent! Good son, it is because you now wish to know all the secrets in the profound and subtle sūtras of the Bodhisattva Mahāyāna that you ask such a question. Good son, all such sūtras enter into the truth of the Path (mārgasatya). Good son, as I said before, if there is faith in the Path, such faith in the Path is the root of faith and is able to assist the Path of bodhi. Therefore what I say is without error. Good son, the Tathāgata well knows limitless expedients; wishing to transform sentient beings, he therefore gives various teachings such as these. Good son, it is like a skilled physician who recognizes the various sources of illness in sentient beings and compounds medicines according to their afflictions, along with what is contraindicated with the medicine—only water alone is not subject to contraindication. Either they take ginger water, or liquorice water, or asarum water, or dark rock-sugar water, or āmalaka water, or nepāla water, or patra water, or cold water, or hot water, or grape water, or pomegranate water. Good son, such a skilled physician well knows the various afflictions of sentient beings; although medicines have many contraindications, water is not among them. The Tathāgata is also like this: well knowing expedients, in regard to a single characteristic of Dharma, according to sentient beings he discerns and extensively explains various names and characteristics. Those sentient beings receive them according to what is taught; having received them, they practice them and eradicate defilements (kleśa), just like that sick person who, following the skilled physician's instructions, has his affliction eliminated. Furthermore, good son, it is like a person who is skilled at understanding all languages being among a great crowd: this crowd, pressed by burning thirst, all cry out: 'I want to drink water! I want to drink water!' That person immediately uses clear and cold water, and according to their languages says, 'This is water,' or says pānīya, or says udaka, or says salila, or says vāri, or says payas, or says amṛta, or says cow's milk. With these and countless other names for water, he speaks to the crowd. Good son, the Tathāgata is also like this: with one noble path, he preaches variously for the śrāvakas, from the faculties such as faith up to the eightfold noble path. Furthermore, good son, it is like a goldsmith who, with one kind of gold, fashions various ornaments according to his wish, namely neck-chains, rings, bracelets, hairpins, earrings, heavenly crowns, and armlets: although there are such differences, yet they do not depart from gold. Good son, the Tathāgata is also like this: with the one Buddha-path, according to sentient beings, he distinguishes it in various ways and expounds it for them. Or he speaks of one kind, namely that the one path of the Buddhas is without duality; again he speaks of two kinds, namely concentration (samādhi) and wisdom (prajñā); again he speaks of three kinds, namely vision, wisdom, and knowledge; again he speaks of four kinds, namely the path of seeing (darśanamārga), the path of cultivation (bhāvanāmārga), the path of the adept (aśaikṣamārga), and the Buddha-path; and so on, up to speaking of twenty paths, namely the ten powers (daśabala), the four fearlessnesses (catvāri vaiśāradyāni), great compassion and great kindness, the samādhi of mindfulness of the Buddha, and the three stations of mindfulness. Good son, this path is of one substance; formerly, for the sake of sentient beings, the Tathāgata distinguished it in various ways. Furthermore, good son, it is like one fire: depending on what it burns, it gets various names, namely wood fire, grass fire, chaff fire, husk fire, and cow- or horse-dung fire. Good son, the Buddha-path is also like this: it is one and without duality; for the sake of sentient beings, it is distinguished in various ways. Furthermore, good son, it is like one consciousness (vijñāna) being distinguished into six: if it reaches the eye, it is called eye-consciousness (cakṣurvijñāna), and so on up to mental consciousness (manovijñāna), which is also like this. Good son, the Path is also like this: it is one and without duality; because the Tathāgata wishes to transform sentient beings, he distinguishes it in various ways. Furthermore, good son, it is like one form (rūpa): that which is seen by the eye is called visible form; that which is heard by the ear is called sound; that which is smelled by the nose is called fragrance; that which is tasted by the tongue is called flavor; that which is felt by the body is called tangible object. Good son, the Path is also like this: it is one and without duality; because the Tathāgata wishes to transform sentient beings, he distinguishes it in various ways. Good son, by this meaning, the eight limbs of the noble path are called the noble truth of the Path (mārgasatya). Good son, these four noble truths (caturāryasatya) are taught in sequence by the Buddhas, the World-Honoured Ones. Through this causal condition, limitless sentient beings are able to cross over birth and death." And it says: "If one says that the ten good deeds and the ten evil deeds, what may be done and what may not be done, the good paths and the evil paths, the white dharmas and the black dharmas, are considered two by ordinary persons, the wise comprehend that their nature is without duality. The nature without duality is precisely the true nature." The Dhāraṇīsūtra says: "The absence of all dharmas is called the single-syllable Dharma-portal." And another sūtra says: "The Buddha said: 'To the Dharma taught by the Buddhas of the three times, I now, for forty-nine years, have not added a single word.'" Therefore we know that this portal of the one mind can accomplish the ultimate Path. If those of superior faculties enter directly, they never establish any other portal; for those of middling and lower capacities who have not yet entered, the various paths are provisionally differentiated. Therefore the patriarchs and Buddhas point to the same, and the worthy and noble secretly return to it: though the names differ, the substance is identical; indeed, conditions differentiate while the nature unifies. Prajñā speaks only of non-duality; the Lotus Sūtra speaks only of the single vehicle (ekayāna); Vimalakīrti makes everything an enlightenment site (bodhimaṇḍa); Nirvāṇa wholly returns to the secret treasury. Tiantai dedicatedly practiced the three contemplations; Jiangxi showed that the entire substance is completely true; Mazu declared that the mind itself is Buddha; Heze directly pointed to knowing and seeing. Furthermore, the teaching has two kinds of exposition: first, explicit exposition; second, esoteric exposition. As for explicit exposition, it is like the Laṅkāvatāra and Ghanavyūha sūtras, and the Awakening of Faith and Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi treatises. As for esoteric exposition, each relies on its sūtra's source and establishes its distinct title: for instance, the Vimalakīrtisūtra takes the inconceivable as its source; the Diamond Sūtra takes non-abiding as its source; the Avataṃsakasūtra takes the dharmadhātu as its source; the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra takes Buddha-nature as its source. Arbitrarily establishing a thousand approaches, they are all distinct meanings of the one mind. Why is this? Because the wondrous substance of the true mind is not in existence or non-existence; wisdom cannot know it and words cannot reach it; it is not a realm of cognitive intellection—hence it is called inconceivable. Its substance is empty and its characteristics are quiescent; cut off from dualistic opposition, it is spiritually unimpeded; manifesting the dharmadhātu without arising, transcending the three times and leaving no trace—hence it is called non-abiding. Vertically penetrating the three times and horizontally extending through the ten directions, it has no bounds or limits, and its borders cannot be found—hence it is called the dharmadhātu. Serving as the root of all things and acting as the primeval origin of sentient beings, it does not decrease in the ordinary person and does not increase in the noble one; its spiritual awakening is luminous, eternally like its substance—hence it is called Buddha-nature. And so on, even being named the wondrous nature of the spiritual terrace or the divine jewel of the jewel-treasury—all are distinct titles according to conditions for the one mind. A sūtra says: "The hundreds of thousands of names throughout the three asaṃkhyeyas are all different designations for the Tathāgata." It is only because people do not understand the expedients of the Buddhas that they are deluded by names and attached to characteristics, and their understanding results in error. But if one comprehends this source, completely empty and quiescent, what names and characteristics could be expounded? It is like the single-flavor rain of the dragon king: according to the good and evil karma of humans and devas, what falls as rain is not the same, and each sees a difference. The Avataṃsakasūtra says: "For example, when Sāgara, the dragon king, wishes to manifest the great sovereign power of a dragon king to benefit sentient beings and make them all rejoice, from the four continents up to the Paranirmitavaśavartin heaven and on the earth, in all places what falls as rain is different: namely, in the great ocean he rains down pure, cold water, named 'unbroken'; in the Paranirmitavaśavartin heaven he rains down the sounds of various instruments like flutes and pipes, named 'exquisite'; in the Nirmāṇarati heaven he rains down great maṇi jewels, named 'emitting great light'; in the Tuṣita heaven he rains down great adornments, named 'hanging hair-tufts'; in the Yāma heaven he rains down great wondrous flowers, named 'various adornments'; in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven he rains down many wondrous perfumes, named 'pleasing the mind'; in the heaven of the Four Heavenly Kings he rains down heavenly jewel-garments, named 'canopies'; in the palace of the dragon king he rains down red pearls, named 'surging radiance'; in the palace of the asuras he rains down various weapons, named 'subduing enemies'; in Uttarakuru he rains down various flowers, named 'blooming'; and in the other three continents it is also like this. Yet in each place, what falls as rain is different. Although that dragon king's mind is impartial and without bias, solely because of the differences in sentient beings' roots of goodness, the rain has distinctions." Therefore the single-flavor rain of the dragon king differs according to where it is received by the gods; this is just like the portal of the one mind of the Buddhas having differences according to when sentient beings perceive it.'