宗鏡錄 20.13

20.13

Answer: It is simply because understanding mind-only accomplishes the Buddha of equality, and comprehending consciousness-only practices compassion of identical substance. If one does not directly and suddenly awaken to this source, both self-benefit and benefit for others are lost together. Why is this? Failing to enter the equality of the one mind contradicts the true source of attaining buddhahood; not understanding identical-substance great compassion falls into the delusional conceptions of love and views. As the 'Contemplating Sentient Beings' chapter of the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa-sūtra says: 'At that time, Mañjuśrī asked Vimalakīrti, "How should a bodhisattva contemplate sentient beings?" Vimalakīrti said, "Just as a magician sees the people he creates by illusion, so does a bodhisattva contemplate sentient beings: like a wise person seeing the moon in water; like seeing the reflection of one's face in a mirror; like a mirage in the heat; like the echo of a cry; like clouds in the sky; like clusters of foam on water; like bubbles upon water; like the solidity of a plantain tree; like a flash of lightning lingering long; like a fifth great element; like a sixth skandha; like a seventh sense-faculty; like a thirteenth āyatana; like a nineteenth dhātu—so does a bodhisattva contemplate sentient beings. Like form in the formless realm; like the sprout of scorched grain; like the view of selfhood in a srotāpanna; like the entry into a womb by an anāgāmin; like the three poisons in an arhat; like greed, anger, and breaking of precepts in a bodhisattva who has attained tolerance; like the residue of kleśas in a Buddha; like a blind man seeing colors; like the inhalation and exhalation of one who has entered the cessation attainment; like bird tracks in the sky; like the child of a barren woman; like the kleśas of an illusory person; like what is seen in a dream after having awakened; like receiving a body by one who has passed into extinction; like fire without smoke—so does a bodhisattva contemplate sentient beings." Mañjuśrī said, "If a bodhisattva practices this contemplation, how does he practice benevolence?" Vimalakīrti said, "Having performed this contemplation, the bodhisattva thinks to himself: 'I should preach such Dharma for sentient beings.' This is genuine benevolence."' The Personal Notes on the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa-sūtra explains: 'Now expounding the "Contemplating Sentient Beings" chapter is extremely essential. Merely practicing in accord with a single sentence in it is sufficient. If you obtain a single sentence to collect your mind and constantly illumine and practice it, all ten thousand practices are complete. Just now you yourself contemplate: contemplate your own body and mind as ultimately empty like this—this is precisely the bodhisattva contemplating sentient beings. "Bodhisattva" is called the Way. The Way can penetrate; it penetrates the original nature of your form and mind, causing them to depart from falsehood—this is precisely the bodhisattva. The bodhisattva is only within your body. Contemplate your body and mind as like a third hand, being ultimately devoid of body and mind. Herein, the method of applying the mind in sitting in meditation shown to people is exceedingly good: simply contemplating body and mind like this, with nothing that can be made—calm and distraction, right and wrong, oneness and difference—all being equal, is precisely the method of sitting in meditation. It is not like that of people today, who reckon that there is a mind that can be apprehended, saying, "My mind is distracted," and wishing to remove distraction and take hold of calm—this completely becomes an inversion; one must become aware of Māra's affairs. Moreover, if people today wish to deliver sentient beings, day and night they ought to contemplate the nature of the kleśas arising in their own minds—that itself is delivering sentient beings. Simply this wisdom that contemplates kleśas is called "Buddha," nothing more. Śākyamuni has already contemplated kleśas and already finished becoming a Buddha; he preached teachings and left them behind for ordinary people nowadays to cultivate and practice according to the teachings. If one says that there is a separate Buddha, and separately many sentient beings of the world whom the Buddha sequentially finished delivering, and only thereafter became a Buddha—if so, since Śākyamuni has already finished becoming a Buddha, how could one still see the world filled with sentient beings nowadays? You should know this is not so. For the word "finished" means exhausted.' The contemplation of sentient beings above is concluded. Next, regarding the contemplation of the Tathāgata, as the 'Akṣobhya Buddha' chapter says: 'At that time the World-Honoured One asked Vimalakīrti, "You wish to see the Tathāgata; in what way do you contemplate the Tathāgata?" Vimalakīrti said, "Just as I contemplate the real characteristic of my own body, I contemplate the Buddha likewise. I contemplate the Tathāgata: he does not come from the past limit, does not go to the future limit, and at present does not abide. I do not contemplate form; I do not contemplate the tathatā of form; I do not contemplate the nature of form. I do not contemplate feeling, perception, formation, and consciousness; I do not contemplate the tathatā of consciousness; I do not contemplate the nature of consciousness. He is not arisen from the four great elements, being identical to empty space. The six āyatanas are without accumulation: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind are already transcended. He is not in the three realms; the three stains are already abandoned. He accords with the three gates of liberation; the three vidyās are equal to avidyā. He is not of one characteristic, not of different characteristics, not of self-characteristic, not of other-characteristic, neither without characteristics nor grasping characteristics. He is not on this shore, not on the other shore, and not in the middle stream, yet he transforms sentient beings. He contemplates nirvāṇa without being eternally extinguished. He is not this and not that; he is not by this and not by that. He cannot be known through wisdom; he cannot be recognized through consciousness. He is without obscurity and without brightness, without name and without characteristic, without strong and without weak, neither pure nor defiled. He is not located in a direction, nor apart from a direction. He is not conditioned and not unconditioned. He is without indication and without explanation. He neither gives nor is stingy; neither observes precepts nor transgresses; neither tolerates nor is wrathful; neither is diligent nor indolent; neither is concentrated nor distracted; neither is wise nor foolish; neither is sincere nor deceitful; does not come and does not go; does not exit and does not enter. The path of all speech is cut off. He is not a field of merit, nor is he not a field of merit; he is neither worthy of offerings nor not worthy of offerings. He neither grasps nor relinquishes; he is neither characteristic nor uncharacterized. He is identical with the real limit, equal to the nature of phenomena; he cannot be weighed, cannot be measured, transcending all weighing and measuring; neither great nor small; neither seen nor heard, neither sensed nor known; departed from all saṃyojanas and bandhanas; equal to all wisdoms, identical with sentient beings; without discrimination regarding all dharmas, without loss in all things, without touch and without affliction, without doing and without arising, without birth and without extinction, without fear and without sorrow, without joy, without aversion, without attachment, without past existence, without future existence, without present existence; he cannot be discriminated and displayed through all spoken words. World-Honoured One, the Tathāgata's body is like this. To perform such a contemplation is called right contemplation; if one performs another contemplation, it is called wrong contemplation."' The Tiantai Commentary on the Vimalakīrti explains: 'Regarding "not contemplating form, not contemplating the tathatā of form, not contemplating the nature of form": "Not contemplating form" means that the mind is like a magician, magically producing various forms. If one knows that the magician is a fraud, then the forms conjured cannot be apprehended. Now, forms are conjured up by the magician of the mind; if even this mind cannot be apprehended, where could one see the existence of these forms? Therefore, one should not contemplate form. "Not contemplating tathatā" means that if one sees form as different from tathatā, this would be to extinguish form to enter tathatā. Now, one does not see any distinction between form and tathatā; therefore, one does not contemplate tathatā. "Not contemplating nature" means not contemplating the buddha-nature. Not contemplating form empties the conventional. Not contemplating tathatā empties the ultimate. Not contemplating the buddha-nature empties the Middle Way. Because one calculates that the Middle Way possesses a buddha-nature and generates an affection that accords with the Way, this is a "crest-fall." Therefore a sūtra says: "I and nirvāṇa—these two are both empty. There is only the illness of emptiness, and the illness of emptiness is also empty." Now, not contemplating nature is because of the absence of affection that accords with the Way.' Generally, receiving differentiated karmic retributions in the world is entirely due to a single thought of mental difference, where discriminating passions arise: grasping the characteristic of sentient beings constitutes the ordinary; clinging to the realm of the Buddhas constitutes the sacred. As stated in the sūtra, contemplating sentient beings is like a magician seeing an illusion; contemplating the Tathāgata means the substance of the three limits is empty. Thereupon the two views are extinguished together, and passionate measures are completely eliminated. Then one can accomplish the joy of all Buddhas and eliminate the sorrow of bodhisattvas. Believing in this one mind enables one to enter the mirror of the source. Therefore, a verse in the 'Spiritual Powers' chapter of the Lotus Sūtra says: 'One who can uphold this sūtra / Causes me and my manifested bodies, / As well as the extinct Prabhūtaratna Buddha, / All to rejoice.' An ancient sage said: 'That the noble and conventional are not leveled, and that the two limits are not obliterated, is the sorrow of bodhisattvas.' The Great Vaipulya Mahāsaṃnipāta-sūtra says: '"Buddha-dharma" is the name for all dharmas; "all dharmas" are named Buddha-dharma. The nature of Buddha-dharma is precisely the nature of all dharmas; the tathatā of all dharmas' nature is precisely the nature of Buddha-dharma. Between the nature of Buddha-dharma and the nature of all dharmas, there is no difference.' Thus we know that nature is devoid of difference; according with views, differences are formed. Their substance is constantly interfused; conventional designations differ. Therefore a sūtra says: 'All dharmas and all Buddha-dharmas are merely provisional names; they are also neither dharma nor non-dharma.' The Avaivartikadharmacakra-sūtra says: 'The Buddha and bodhi possess sounds but no realities, nor do they have locations; all dharmas are likewise.' A verse in the Avataṃsaka-sūtra says: 'Know that all worlds are completely equal, / None being other than all karma of mind and speech. / Sentient beings are illusory and without reality; / All karmic retributions arise from this.' Another verse says: 'All dharmas are quiescent and not quiescent; / Depart far from this mind of twofold discrimination. / Know that all discriminations are worldly views; / Entering the true status, discriminations are exhausted.' The 'Practices of Ease' chapter of the Lotus Sūtra says: 'Furthermore, the bodhisattva mahāsattva contemplates all dharmas as empty, like the real characteristic: not inverted, not moving, not retreating, not turning, like empty space devoid of any nature, the path of all language cut off, not born, not exiting, not arising, without name and without characteristic, truly without anything existing, immeasurable and boundless, unobstructed and unhindered, existing only through causes and conditions, arising from inversion. Therefore it is said that constantly delighting in contemplating such characteristics of dharmas is called the bodhisattva mahāsattva's second sphere of intimate association.' Furthermore, the 'Lifespan of the Tathāgata' chapter says: 'Good sons, the sūtras expounded by the Tathāgata are all for delivering sentient beings. Sometimes he speaks of his own body, sometimes of another's body; sometimes he displays his own body, sometimes another's body; sometimes he displays his own deeds, sometimes another's deeds. All that he states is true and not false. Why is this? The Tathāgata knows and sees the characteristics of the three realms as they truly are: there is no birth and death, whether retreating or emerging; nor is there one who is in the world, nor one who passes into extinction; it is neither real nor false, neither such nor different. Not like the three realms, he sees the three realms. Such matters the Tathāgata clearly sees without error. Because sentient beings have various natures, various desires, various practices, and various recollections, imaginings, and discriminations, wishing to cause them to produce good roots, he uses diverse causes and conditions, parables, and verbal expressions to preach the Dharma in various ways. The Buddha-work he performs has never ceased for a moment.' Hence we know that in terms of the gate of the true source, there is not even a person in the world, nor one who passes into extinction; how much less could there be a difference between one who can transform and those who are transformed! In terms of the gate of Buddha-work, the ocean of teaching is vast and deep, and the lamp of wisdom shines broadly; functioning skillfully according with capacities, how could it be permitted to cease for a moment?