宗鏡錄 21.11

21.11

"Answer: According to the Mahāyānasaṃgraha, the consciousness-only wisdom is taken as its substance—for the Buddha and bodhisattvas, the consciousness-only wisdom is taken as its substance. That is, the Vajracchedikā-prajñāpāramitopadeśa says: 'Wisdom practices consciousness-only penetrations; / In this way one takes the pure land.' According to the Buddhabhūmiśāstra, the Buddha's sovereign, untainted mind is taken as the substance; it is not that apart from the Buddha's pure mind there is separate real form, and so on, of a pure mind. It also says: 'Form and so on are precisely what is induced by the Buddha's pure mind; apart from the Buddha's own mind, there is nothing else capable of inducing them.' Thus provisionally designated and real forms are not apart from the Buddha's pure mind. Because this very pure mind can manifest provisionally designated and real forms, the sūtra says: 'Blue form with blue light, yellow form with yellow light,' and so forth. Tiantai's Commentary on the Amitāyurdhyānasūtra says: 'Now, the Land of Bliss compared to the realm of suffering, gold and jewels compared to mud and sand, the lotus pond seen from the prison of the womb, the jewel trees compared to the thicket of brambles—truly these stem from the mind distinguishing defilement and purity, so that the rising and sinking of the two lands are seen; practice opens into good and evil, so that the coarseness and subtlety of the two directions are observed. This is illustrated by: when the shape is straight, the shadow is upright; when the source is turbid, the stream is murky... and thus it can be called subtle practice and marvelous contemplation, the essential method of the ultimate path.' This sūtra takes contemplation of the mind as its source, and true characteristic as its substance. The Record says: '"Marvelous contemplation and the ultimate path": although karmic practices are numerous, contemplation of the mind is taken as the essential method. When a single thought-moment arises in the mind, the pure land is vividly present; the unconditioned substance is as it is, hence it is called subtle practice. The three contemplations of one mind are all empty, provisional, and middle; although subject and object are divided, they mutually illuminate the inconceivable. The essential point of the object lies in the mind-source, which is the merit of contemplation. Horizontally universal and vertically exhaustive, equal and without duality. The cause of the three contemplations is rounded, and the fruit of the three virtues is fulfilled, all brought to completion through the essential meaning of the mind; hence it is called the essential method of the ultimate path.' Master Sengzhao said: 'The myriad things and myriad forms are all accomplished by the mind. Because the mind has highs and lows, mounds and hills are born.' He also said: 'The buddha-land is ever pure; how could it wait to be transformed before being adorned? It merely transforms what the multitude sees.' Therefore, sentient beings seeing it as earth, stone, mountains, and rivers are all shadows arising from their own karma; for bodhisattvas it is purely marvelous wisdom, which is the doing of true wisdom. Apart from the minds of ordinary beings and sages, there are no real or conventional objects. As the Treatise on the Avataṃsaka says: 'This Avataṃsakasūtra illuminates the gate of the dharmadhātu of conditioned arising; principle and phenomena are not two, no condition is not calm, and no phenomenon is not real. The worlds of the ten directions are one sea of true nature; great wisdom is universally round, serving as the realm of the lands. Totally they form the ocean of nature, forming the one true dharmadhātu; it is not that there are sentient and non-sentient, which are merely spoken according to karma. As the purely true realm within the Avataṃsaka, they are totally wisdom. Bodhisattvas of the ten abodes take wisdom as their land; bodhisattvas of the ten practices take gnosis as their land; bodhisattvas of the ten dedications and ten grounds take the marvelous as their land. They do not speak of the differing views of sentient and non-sentient, because the Avataṃsakasūtra reveals the fundamental Dharma, differing from the provisional teachings of the triyāna, where non-sentient and sentient exist with arising and ceasing.'"