宗鏡錄 24.3

24.3

Answer: These are names and stages where there are no names and stages; they are cause and fruit where there is no cause and fruit. It is citta that acts as the cause; it is citta that achieves the fruit. It is citta that designates the names; it is citta that establishes the stages. The Guan Puxian jing says: 'The cause of the Great Vehicle is none other than the true mark; the fruit of the Great Vehicle is also none other than the true mark.' The Commentary [Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa] says: 'First contemplating the true mark is called the cause; when contemplation is complete, it is called the fruit.' Therefore we know that beginning and end are both citta, and cause and fruit are identically realized. It is merely because people's faculties and capacities are not equal that what they see is not the same. If one used a single teaching to suit their capacities, they would never all equally achieve liberation. Thus, it is necessary to manifest individually to lead beings back to citta. Although various names are opened up, they are all the meaning of the one mind. If one goes against one's own citta and grasps at the superior and wondrous realms of external Buddha marks, that is distortion. Therefore, a verse in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra says: / 'If by majesty, physical form, or clan / one sees the Tamer among Men, / this is the distorted view of diseased eyes, / and such a person cannot know the supreme Dharma.' / Another verse says: / 'Even if for hundreds of thousands of kalpas / one constantly sees the Tathāgata, / if one does not rely on the real meaning / in contemplating the Savior of the World, / that person grasps at marks, / increases the net of delusion and confusion, / is bound in the prison of birth and death, / and, blind and benighted, does not see the Buddha.' / Why do they not see the Buddha? First, because they do not recognize their own citta; second, because they do not understand the concealed and the revealed. How so? The cause of sentient beings is concealed in original awakening; the fruit of the Buddhas is revealed in the dharmakāya. The original awakening in which the cause is concealed is the dharmakāya in which the fruit is revealed. When the fruit can accomplish the cause, it is the sentient beings of the Buddha; when the dharmakāya in which the fruit is revealed is the original awakening in which the cause is concealed, and the cause can bring about the fruit, it is the Buddha of sentient beings. Therefore it is said that the ordinary and the holy interpenetrate, and principle and phenomena mutually contain each other. As for what is called 'Śākyamuni': Śākya is translated here as 'able to be benevolent' (nengren); muni is translated here as 'silent' (jimo). 'Able to be benevolent' means that the nature of citta is boundless, containing and accommodating all things; 'silent' means that the substance of citta is fundamentally quiescent, undisturbed by movement or stillness. Hence he is named Śākyamuni; awakening to this is called 'Buddha'. As for Maitreya: this is translated here as 'the Compassionate One' (Cishi), which is the true compassion of the one mind. Because citta does not abide in its own nature, it rolls up and unrolls according with beings, responding and manifesting without fixed direction, accomplishing transformation without conditions; hence he is called the Compassionate One. As for Amitābha: this is translated here as 'Infinite Life' (Wuliangshou), which means taking conformity with principle as life; because the nature of the tathatā of the one mind is inexhaustible, he is called 'Infinite Life'. As for Akṣobhya: this is translated here as 'Immovable' (Budong), which means that the wondrous nature of the one mind is serenely immovable, incapable of being increased by the stage of wondrous awakening or decreased by the ground of avidyā; hence he is called 'Immovable'. As the Tripiṭaka [master] Ratnamati said: 'As for the homage of universally entering the dharmadhātu, it truly arises because the practitioner visualizes and contemplates that the dharmas of their own body and citta have, from the very beginning, never been separate from outside the bodies of the Buddhas of the dharmadhātu, nor are they inside the bodies of the Buddhas; nor are they outside of me, nor inside of me. Their self-nature is equal, fundamentally without increase or decrease. Now, when paying homage to one Buddha, it universally extends to all Buddhas. All the undefiled [qualities] of the stages and grounds of the triyāna: since my body is universal, following the Buddhas it is also universal, extending even to the dharmadhātu, the two realms of emptiness and existence, the two retributions of dependent and primary, and the adornments and offering utensils—all filling everywhere according to conditions, not departing from the dharmadhātu, unobstructed according to citta; all are dedicated as offerings, rejoiced in, and bowed to with the head. It is like hanging hundreds of thousands of mirrors in a single room: when a person looks into the mirrors, the mirrors all manifest their image. The pure Buddha bodies are more brilliant than those mirrors; they mutually interpenetrate, so that no mirror fails to illuminate and no reflection fails to appear. This is subsuming the other as the universal and entering the other as the particular. Since one body is like this, it extends to all the dharmadhātu: the bodies of the ordinary and the holy, and the utensils of offering, all assist in rejoicing, all identical in offering. Having known that my body is within the Buddha's body, how could one perversely and falsely commit evil karma, feeling no shame or remorse? Furthermore, since the virtues and functions of all Buddhas are equal, their names and titles are also equal. Whichever name is recited, no name is not fully encompassed. For instance, in reciting the single name of Amitābha Buddha and bowing to invoke him, all Buddhas are completely and fully present. In the Western lands he is called Amitābha Buddha; here he is called Infinite Life. How could there be any Buddha who does not have long life? Even if all Buddhas did not transform sentient beings, and only one Buddha transformed beings, the merit would return to the dharmadhātu; the virtues and functions of the dharmadhātu are universally complete. This is called the homage of universally entering the dharmadhātu.' The Laṅkāvatārasūtra says: 'The Buddha told Mahāmati: "Because of four equalities, the Tathāgata, Arhat, Samyaksambuddha proclaimed such words among the great assembly: 'At that time I was Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, and Kāśyapa Buddha.' What are the four equalities? They are: equality of syllables, equality of words, equality of dharmas, and equality of bodies. These are called the four equalities." What is the meaning of equality? It is what is called having the same name, having the same brahma sound, having the same vehicle door, having the same true substance, and even having the same citta, the same wisdom, the same awakening, and the same path. Just as when Aṅgulimāla and Mañjuśrī traveled together throughout the ten directions, all the Buddhas of the ten directions whom they saw praised Śākya Buddha, saying: "He is my very body." Furthermore, the Lotus Sūtra clarifies that the Buddhas of the ten directions are all divided bodies of Śākya[muni]; thus Akṣobhya and Amitābha are all our original teacher, and our original teacher is none other than our citta. The commentary explains: 'Not only Amitābha and Akṣobhya, but the Buddhas of the ten directions are all our original teacher, suddenly manifested in the sāgaramudrā.' Furthermore, the divided bodies in the Lotus Sūtra have many pure lands; why did the Tathāgata not point to his own pure land, but instead direct people elsewhere to Amitābha['s Sukhāvatī] or [Akṣobhya's] Abhirati? Think about this! Hence we know that Bhadramukha, Amitābha, and the others are all our original teacher; what is there to wonder at? As for the name 'Bhadramukha': in the 'Duration of Life' chapter, passing beyond millions of asaṃkhyeya kṣetras, he is the Tathāgata of the ultimate Lotus-Supreme World. The verse in the sūtra says: / 'Or one sees the supremely wondrous Lotus kṣetra, / with the Tathāgata Bhadramukha abiding therein.' / If this were not praising our original teacher, for what purpose would another Tathāgata in another land be spoken of? Moreover, in the teaching of dhāraṇī (Esoteric Buddhism), it is also stated that the thirty-seven deities are all manifested by the one Buddha Vairocana. That is to say, the Tathāgata Vairocana in his inner citta realizes his own enjoyment and accomplishes the five wisdoms. From four of the wisdoms flow forth the four Tathāgatas: that is, from the Great Round Mirror Wisdom flows forth the Tathāgata Akṣobhya of the east; from the Equality Wisdom flows forth the Tathāgata Ratnasambhava of the south; from the Wondrous Contemplation Wisdom flows forth the Tathāgata Amitāyus of the west; and from the Accomplishing-What-Must-Be-Done Wisdom flows forth the Tathāgata Amoghasiddhi of the north. The Dharmadhātu Pure Wisdom corresponds to the Tathāgata Vairocana himself. As for the thirty-seven: the Tathāgatas of the five directions each have four great bodhisattvas to their left and right, making another twenty. That is, for the central Tathāgata Vairocana, the four great bodhisattvas are: first, Vajrapāramitā Bodhisattva; second, Ratnapāramitā Bodhisattva; third, Dharmapāramitā Bodhisattva; fourth, Karmapāramitā Bodhisattva. For the eastern Tathāgata Akṣobhya, the four bodhisattvas are: first, Vajrasattva Bodhisattva; second, Vajrarāja Bodhisattva; third, Vajrarāga Bodhisattva; fourth, Vajrasādhu Bodhisattva. For the southern Tathāgata Ratnasambhava, the four bodhisattvas are: first, Vajraratna; second, Vajratejas; third, Vajraketu; fourth, Vajrahāsa. For the western Tathāgata Amitāyus, also named Avalokiteśvararāja Tathāgata, the four bodhisattvas are: first, Vajradharma; second, Vajratīkṣṇa; third, Vajrahetu; fourth, Vajrabhāṣa. For the northern Tathāgata Amoghasiddhi, the four bodhisattvas are: first, Vajrakarma; second, Vajrarakṣa; third, Vajrayakṣa; fourth, Vajrasandhi. Together with the [five Buddhas] there are already twenty-five, and with the four attractions and eight offerings, there are therefore thirty-seven. The four attractions are: hook, lasso, chain, and bell. The eight offerings are: incense, flowers, lamp, ointment, garland, dance, song, and music. All have 'Vajra' above and 'Bodhisattva' below. Yet these thirty-seven deities each have a seed syllable, and all flow forth from the wisdom-function of our original teacher; this shares the same broad import with the sudden manifestation in the sāgaramudrā in the present Avataṃsaka Sūtra.