宗鏡錄 23.29

23.29

Answer: Sentient beings do not understand in this way, which is why they must be transformed. Therefore a sūtra says: 'They all share one nature, namely no-nature. Great compassion continues unbroken, delivering sentient beings.' According to different approaches, there are various distinctions: viewed in terms of the approach of attaining Buddhahood, all have already attained it. Because they share one and the same no-nature, it is naturally accomplished. The delusive nature is originally empty; sentient beings are fundamentally Buddhas. The true nature cannot be grasped; it is not newly accomplished now. Therefore all are accomplished. Since each and every thing lacks a nature of its own, the knowledge of all aspects is accomplished. Realizing this identical substance, one gives rise to great compassion. Once attained, it is forever constant, hence it is said to 'continue unbroken.' Solely because they do not know no-nature, teaching and transforming them never ceases. Although the reward and transformation bodies are manifested, the substance of Dharma does not shift. Like a mani jewel responding to colors, manifold forms appear while its original substance does not move; like an empty valley echoing sounds, myriad reverberations ring forth while the place of their arising has no mind. Not clinging to self and other, how could one see the characteristic of sentient beings? Fundamentally there is no appearing or disappearing, constantly merging with the source of the Great Awakening. The Avataṃsaka Sūtra says: 'The Buddha's body has no birth, / yet is able to manifest birth; / the Dharma-nature is like empty space, / and the Buddhas abide within it.' It also says in verse: 'Without substance and without an abiding place, / also no birth can be found; / without characteristics and without form, / all that manifests is like a reflection.' The Viśeṣacintibrahmaparipṛcchā Sūtra says: 'Mahākāśyapa said: "Good man, a magically created person is free from self-characteristics, has no difference or distinction, and has no aspiration. Are you also like this? If you are like this, how can you benefit immeasurable sentient beings?" Jālinīprabha said: "The nature of anuttarasamyaksaṃbodhi is the nature of all sentient beings. The nature of all sentient beings is the illusory nature. The illusory nature is the nature of all dharmas. In these dharmas, I see neither benefit nor non-benefit."' It also says: 'Bodhisattva Jālinīprabha addressed the Buddha, saying: "World-Honoured One, if there is a bodhisattva who aspires to the benefit of merit and generates the bodhicitta, this is not called generating the Great Vehicle. Why is this? All dharmas have no benefit of merit, because there is no counter-abode. If there are sentient beings to be delivered and one seeks the benefit of merit, this is seeing dharmas outside the mind and completely failing to recognize the mind. How could this be called generating the mind of the Great Vehicle? Because with the mind of absolute transcendence, there is no counter-abode."' As the Laṅkāvatārasūtra says: 'The Buddha said to the non-Buddhists: "If you can thoroughly understand that dharmas such as existence and non-existence are all seen by one's own mind, do not produce discrimination, do not grasp external objects, and abide in your own place. To abide in one's own place means not giving rise. Not giving rise to what? Not giving rise to discrimination. This is my Dharma, not what you possess."' 'My Dharma' is simply the mind of sentient beings. Because they do not know it and do not believe it, they alienate themselves from it, so that even though it exists, it is the same as non-existent. Therefore, the Patriarch came from the West solely to point directly to sentient beings and make them realize what they have of themselves, abruptly entering the true source where ordinary persons and sages are equal. As the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra of the Heavenly King Suvikrānta says: 'When the bodhisattva-mahāsattva practices the prajñāpāramitā, his mind becomes subtle and he reflects thus: "The worldly realm is a blazing mass of great fire—namely, the fire of lust, the smoke of anger, and the darkness of delusion. How shall I cause all sentient beings to attain liberation? If one can penetrate the equality of all dharmas, that is called liberation. Knowing dharmas as they truly are is like an illusory appearance; observing causes and conditions skillfully, yet without discrimination."' Therefore, if one wishes to discard the inferior and approach the superior, detesting difference and rejoicing in identity, desiring to place ordinary persons and sages in the same rank and make defilement and purity equal, there is no such possibility. Simply clarifying the mirror of the source, the ten thousand dharmas naturally become uniform: this is the meaning of ultimate liberation from the burning house of the three realms, and also the meaning of abiding together with the children in the secret storehouse. As it is said: 'If one uses uniformity to make uniform what is not uniform, it is not yet uniform. If one uses uniformity to make uniform what is already uniform, it is not yet uniform. I have heard that he who is good at making all under heaven uniform makes all under heaven uniform by means of what is not uniform.' Why must one level the peaks and fill the chasms before there is flatness, or lengthen the duck's legs and shorten the crane's before they are equal? Hence we know that simply realizing that each and every dharma is 'suchness,' there is natural equality; then the green pine and the green fragrant-grass show no shortness or length, and the soaring roc and the flitting fly naturally forget greatness and smallness. As the Zhao lun says: 'Therefore, when the sūtras say that all dharmas are not different, how could it mean lengthening the duck's legs and shortening the crane's, or leveling the peaks and filling the ravines, and only then having no difference? It is truly because they are not different within difference; therefore, though different, they are not different.' Further, the sūtra says: 'Prajñā and all dharmas have neither a single characteristic nor different characteristics.' This is truly reliable. The Nanhua jing of Zhuangzi says: 'What is long is not in surplus; what is short is not deficient. Therefore, though the duck's legs are short, lengthening them causes grief; though the crane's legs are long, cutting them causes sadness. Thus, what is naturally long is not to be cut, and what is naturally short is not to be lengthened.' This clarifies that though object and wisdom are different, they are identical; they do not wait to become identical before they are identical. If one can comprehend the two approaches of identity and difference as stated above, then whether Buddhas appear in the world or do not appear, whether sentient beings can be delivered or cannot be delivered, and even whether there is existence or non-existence, high or low, all doubts will be completely cut off. If one clings to identity, one stagnates in quietude; if one clings to difference, one splits into two. Being confused about these two approaches of identity and difference, in both cases wisdom lacks sovereignty. The Jingang bianzong says: 'Because there is a mirror, the images of men and women appear within it; because there is the dharmakāya, it can respond, manifest, and go everywhere. Solely because there are fundamentally no images in the mirror, it is able to manifest the images of men and women. The Buddha's body fundamentally has no body, so it is able to manifest all bodies.' According to the capacities and responses of sentient beings, causeless compassion spontaneously responds. If there were definitively a body, it would be an obstruction. The Zhao lun says: 'The Buddha is neither heavenly being nor human, yet can be a heavenly being and can be a human.' Therefore, all bodhisattvas take non-attainment as their expedient means, able to enter the illusory net of boundless defilements. Because there is no dharma outside the mind, one can accomplish the wisdom of non-attainment. If outside the mind there were the least trace of anything to be attained, how could one accomplish causeless compassion and identical-substance transformation? Because the mirror of the source is clear, it can broadly illuminate the world. Observing birth is like a barren woman conceiving a child; observing abiding is like the surging waves of a mirage; observing change is like the myriad transformations of floating clouds; observing death is like wild flowers withering into the sky. Therefore, deeply penetrating non-birth, knowing that all are without self, empty birth and empty cessation, illusory falling and illusory rising, sympathizing with those deluded fools who are blind without the eye of wisdom, one then generates the illumination of wisdom without a maker, opens the dāna gate of non-relinquishment, upholds the precept mind of the emptiness of self-nature, possesses the vigor of non-arising, perfects the forbearance of dharmas without injury, cultivates the dhyāna gate of non-abiding, realizes no-body yet is adorned with major and minor marks, penetrates wordlessness yet possesses comprehensive eloquence, roams playfully in the world of the emptiness of nature, establishes a bodhimaṇḍa of the water-moon, arranges offerings like an illusion, makes offerings to the Sugata who is like an echo, practices extensively the myriad deeds of sky-flowers, acts out the delivery-gates of valley echoes, subdues the māra army of mirror-images, performs on a grand scale the Buddha-work within a dream, delivers broadly the sentient beings who are like magical creations, and together realizes the bodhi of tranquil cessation.