宗鏡錄 22.11

22.11

Answer: Now, when it is said that the way of bodhi is identical to mind, this is the mind pure in its intrinsic nature, serenely unmoving; it is truly the true wisdom of markless correct awakening. Its way is subtle and profound, marvelously transcending ordinary objects. The astute have no way to admit it to their hearing; the wise have no way to exercise their understanding upon it; the eloquent have no way to frame words for it; the depictor has no way to figure its form. Because deluded people do not comprehend, they grasp at the form aggregate (rūpaskandha) as their own body and identify that which is able to know as their own mind. Therefore the sūtra says: 'The body is like grass and wood, having no conscious awareness; the mind is like an illusion, empty, false, and unreal.' Thus, to eliminate their grasping mind, it says: 'Bodhi cannot be attained through body or mind.' Bodhi is not a tangible object (spraṣṭavya), so it cannot be attained through the body; bodhi is not a mental object (dharmāyatana), so it cannot be attained through the mind. But for one who comprehends, one realizes that the aggregate-body is originally empty and the false mind has no marks. Because it is originally empty, the dharmakāya is always manifest; because it is markless, the true mind is not deficient. Revealing it in this way, the five aggregates are themselves bodhi; apart from this there is no bodhi. One cannot seek bodhi through bodhi, nor can one attain bodhi through bodhi. Mañjuśrī said: 'I do not seek bodhi. Why is that? Because bodhi is myself, and I am bodhi.' The Vimalakīrtinirdeśa-sūtra says: 'Non-contemplation is bodhi, because it is free of all conditions.' When bodhi is not an objective realm to be contemplated, then there is no mind capable of conditioning it. When the objective realm contemplated is empty, that is the real-mark bodhi; when the conditioning mind is tranquil, that is the intrinsic-nature bodhi. The Mahāprajñāpāramitāsūtra says: 'Nāgaśrī said: "Is there anyone who can realize bodhi?" Mañjuśrī said: "There are also those who can realize it." Nāgaśrī said: "Who is the one who realizes it?" Mañjuśrī said: "If one is free from names, designations, and conventional speech, that one can realize it." Nāgaśrī said: "Since that one is such, how can they realize it?" Mañjuśrī said: "Their mind has no arising; they do not keep bodhi or the seat of awakening in mind, nor do they pity all sentient beings. With an unmanifest mind, a non-seeing mind, and the like, they are able to realize unsurpassed, complete awakening." Nāgaśrī said: "If so, Venerable One, with what mind and the like should one attain bodhi?" Mañjuśrī said: "I have no objective toward which to proceed, nor am I one who can proceed; I have nothing whatsoever to learn, nor will I in the future go to the bodhi tree, sit on the vajrāsana, realize great bodhi, turn the wondrous wheel of Dharma, and rescue [beings from] birth and death. Why is that? All phenomena are unmoving, indestructible, ungraspable, and ultimately empty and tranquil. With such a mind of non-proceeding and the like, I shall attain bodhi." Nāgaśrī said: "What the Venerable One has said is all based on the ultimate truth, causing sentient beings to have faith in and understand this teaching, and to be liberated from kleśas. If sentient beings are liberated from kleśas, they will ultimately be able to break the snare-net of Māra." Mañjuśrī said: "The snare-net of Māra cannot be broken. Why is that? Māra is not different from an augmentative designation for bodhi. Why is that? The natures of both Māra and the armies of Māra do not exist at all; they are utterly unobtainable. Therefore I say that Māra is not different from an augmentative designation for bodhi." Nāgaśrī said: "What is called bodhi?" Mañjuśrī said: "What is called bodhi pervades all times, places, and all phenomena. Just like space, it is utterly without obstruction, nowhere not present throughout times, places, and phenomena. Bodhi is also like this: being unobstructed, it pervades all times, places, and phenomena. Such bodhi is supreme. Which bodhi do you now wish to realize?" Nāgaśrī said: "I wish to realize the unsurpassed." Mañjuśrī said: "You should now rectify [the notion of] unsurpassed bodhi—it is not a phenomenon that can be realized. If you wish to realize it, you engage in conceptual proliferation. Why is that? Unsurpassed bodhi is free of marks and tranquil. If you now wish to grasp it, that constitutes conceptual proliferation. For example, if someone were to say: 'I will cause an illusory person to sit on the seat of awakening and realize illusory unsurpassed, complete awakening,' such words would be utter conceptual proliferation. If an illusory person is already unobtainable, how could one cause him to realize illusory great bodhi? An illusion toward illusory phenomena is neither united nor separated, neither grasped nor abandoned; their intrinsic natures are both empty. The Buddha, the World-Honoured One, taught that all phenomena are indistinguishable and like illusory occurrences. Now, in wishing to realize unsurpassed bodhi, would you not be discriminating illusory phenomena? Yet all phenomena can neither be grasped nor abandoned; they have neither formation nor destruction. It is not that a phenomenon can engage in creation or destruction regarding another phenomenon; nor can a phenomenon engage in combination or separation regarding another phenomenon. Why is that? Because all phenomena are neither united nor separated, their intrinsic natures are all empty, free from 'I' and 'mine', equal to the realm of space, beyond description and demonstration, beyond praise and disparagement, neither high nor low, without decrease or increase, unimaginable, beyond conceptual proliferation, originally empty and tranquil in their fundamental nature, all ultimately empty, like illusions and dreams, without counterpart or comparison. How could one give rise to a discriminating mind regarding them?" Nāgaśrī said: "Excellent, Venerable One! By means of this, I will now definitely attain bodhi. Why is that? Because the Venerable One has expounded the profound Dharma for me." Mañjuśrī said: "Just now, I have never expounded anything for you, whether explicit or implicit, profound or shallow. How could I cause you to be able to attain bodhi? Why is that? The intrinsic nature of all phenomena cannot be spoken of. That you consider me to have spoken profound Dharma is engaging in conceptual proliferation. Indeed, I am truly not an expounder, and the intrinsic nature of all phenomena also cannot be spoken of. It is like someone saying: 'I can explain the characteristics of consciousness of an illusory person, claiming that an illusory person's consciousness has such-and-such distinctions.' By saying this, he harms his own truthful words. Why is that? An illusory person cannot even be recognized [as real], let alone possess characteristics of consciousness! Now you say that I expound profound Dharma to cause you to realize and attain unsurpassed bodhi—it is just the same. Because all phenomena are like illusory occurrences, ultimately empty of nature, they cannot even be known, let alone expounded. Therefore, the nature of all sentient beings is itself markless, equal bodhi. Within one's intrinsic nature, how could there be the distinction between a realizer and that which is realized? As the Prajñāpāramitāsūtra says: 'To awaken to the intrinsic nature of phenomena as free from all discrimination is bodhi.' Another sūtra says: 'All practices have something affirmed. Having nothing affirmed is bodhi.' Why? If there is something affirmed, then an objective realm of realization is established, and there arises a mind capable of realizing it. Where both subject and object are exhausted, that is named great awakening. The meaning of great awakening is solely awakening to one's own mind. As the Mahāvairocanābhisaṃbodhisūtra says: 'At that time, Vajrapāṇi Bodhisattva addressed the Buddha again, saying: "World-Honoured One, who seeks sarvajñatā? Who attains correct awakening as bodhi? Who gives rise to all-knowledge-wisdom?" The Buddha said: "Lord of Secrets, one's own mind seeks bodhi and sarvajñatā. Why is that? Because its fundamental nature is pure. Mind is neither inside, nor outside, nor between the two; mind is unobtainable. … If one wishes to know bodhi, one should know one's own mind in this way."' The Zhuangyan putixin jing says: 'The Buddha said: "The bodhicitta is neither existent nor produced, and is free from written words. Bodhi is simply mind; mind is simply sentient beings. If one can understand in this way, this is called a bodhisattva cultivating the bodhicitta."' Thus, outside mind there is no bodhi—what is there to seek? Outside bodhi there is no mind—what is there to attain? As the Avataṃsakasūtra says: 'One knows that for all phenomena, formlessness is form, and form is formlessness; non-discrimination is discrimination, and discrimination is non-discrimination; non-existence is existence, and existence is non-existence; non-action is action, and action is non-action; non-explanation is explanation, and explanation is non-explanation; it is inconceivable. One knows that mind is equal to bodhi, and knows that bodhi is equal to mind; mind and bodhi are equal to sentient beings.' And a verse says: 'Though one exhausts the bounds of the future / roaming through all buddha-lands, / if one does not seek this wondrous Dharma, / one will never attain bodhi.' Therefore know that because the Dharma of the mind is wondrous, its immediate substance is just it. If one seeks externally from afar, one loses the true way. Hence it is said: 'Sudhana traveled everywhere visiting various spiritual friends, yet did not step outside the Śāla Grove; Maitreya attained the merit of becoming a buddha in one lifetime, yet did not depart from the unarisen nature-ocean of a single thought.' Therefore the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa-sūtra says: 'If Maitreya attains anuttarāsamyaksaṃbodhi, all sentient beings should also attain it. Why is that? All sentient beings are identical to the mark of bodhi. If Maitreya enters parinirvāṇa, all sentient beings should also enter parinirvāṇa. Why is that? The buddhas know that all sentient beings are ultimately tranquil, which is identical to the mark of nirvāṇa, and do not perish again.' Therefore know that what has already been accomplished is not accomplished again; what is already extinguished is not extinguished again. For the sake of those who do not yet know, it is expediently said to be accomplished, and expediently said to be extinguished. If one clings to expedients, one loses the fundamental source. As the Da zhuangyan famen jing says: 'At that time, Mañjuśrī spoke to the Golden-Coloured Woman, saying: "Thus the substance and nature of the five aggregates is identical to the substance and nature of bodhi; the substance and nature of bodhi is identical to the substance and nature of all buddhas. Just as the substance and nature of the five aggregates in your body is identical to the substance and nature of all buddhas, the substance and nature of all buddhas is identical to the substance and nature of the five aggregates of all sentient beings. Therefore I say that your body is itself bodhi. Furthermore, awakening to the five aggregates is called awakening to bodhi. Why is that? It is not apart from the five aggregates that a buddha attains bodhi, nor is it apart from bodhi that a buddha awakens to the five aggregates. By this expedient, know that all sentient beings are all identical with bodhi, and bodhi is also identical with all sentient beings. Therefore I say that your body is itself bodhi."' The Mahāratnakūṭasūtra says: 'Bodhi is called the equality of mind, because nothing arises. Bodhi is called the equality of sentient beings, because fundamentally there is no arising. … Bodhi is like this in nature and marks. If one holds desires and pursuits regarding this Dharma, one merely exhausts oneself in vain. Why is that? A bodhisattva should practice in accordance with the nature of bodhi. Being able to practice in this way is called correct practice.' A verse in the Viśeṣacintabrahmaparipṛcchāsūtra says: 'A bodhisattva, not destroying form, / generates the aspiration and practice of bodhicitta; / knowing that form is itself bodhi, / this is called practicing bodhi. / As with form, so it is with bodhi; / equally entering the mark of suchness, / not destroying the nature of phenomena: / this is called practicing bodhi. / Not destroying the nature of phenomena / is precisely the meaning of bodhi; / within this meaning of bodhi, / there is also no bodhi. / Correctly practicing the ultimate truth: / this is called practicing bodhi.' The Yingluo jing says: 'As for the dwelling of generating the aspiration, this person begins from being fully bound, not yet knowing the Three Jewels, and so forth, until, encountering the teaching of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, giving rise to a single thought, they thereupon have faith and generate the bodhicitta.' Since it says starting from an ordinary worldling's very first aspiration, we clearly know that this generating of aspiration encompasses both the beginning and the end.