宗鏡錄 24.7.9

24.7.9

The skin and flesh are the earth and soil. The hair models the dense forests. The five viscera are within: in heaven, they model the five planets; on earth, they model the five sacred peaks; in yin and yang, they model the five elements; in worldly ways, they model the five constants; within, they are the five spirits; cultivated, they are the five virtues; as messengers, they are the eight trigrams; punishing crimes, they are the five punishments; governing, they are the five offices; ascending, they are the five clouds; transforming, they are the five dragons. The heart is the Vermilion Bird; the kidneys are the Dark Warrior; the liver is the Azure Dragon; the lungs are the White Tiger; the spleen is the Gochen. These five kinds of living beings encompass all worldly birds and beasts, all being within them. They are also the five surnames—namely gong, shang, jiao, zhi, and yu; all myriad surnames are subsumed within them. In terms of classical texts, they are the five classics; all writings and histories issue from them. If compared to crafts, they are the five sciences and the six arts; all techniques issue from among them. One should know that although the human body is small, its significance corresponds to heaven and earth. Explaining the body in this way is not merely [referring to] the world of the five aggregates, but is also the world of countries and lands. Furthermore, the righteous principle of royal law and government within the body: by the power of the practitioner's aspirational knowledge within samādhi, one further realizes within the body that the heart is the great king, honoring righteousness above and benevolence below, and thus dwelling within a hundredfold enclosure. When he goes forth, he has officials, subordinates, and guards to the front and rear, left and right. The lungs are the Minister of War (Sima); the liver is the Minister of Education (Situ); the spleen is the Minister of Works (Sikong). The kidneys are the great ocean, wherein a divine turtle breathes the primal qi, moving wind and bringing rain, circulating qi to the four limbs. The four limbs are the common people and children. The left is the Controller of Fate (Siming); the right is the Controller of Records (Silu), in charge of recording human lifespans. The Lord of the Great Unity (Taiyi Jun) in the navel is also the master of the person, the Great General Supporting Heaven, the Lord King of Special Advancement, who oversees the twelve thousand great spirits within the body. The Great Unity has eight messengers, which are the eight trigrams; combined, they constitute the nine ministers. The opening of the primal by the triple burner forms the altars of the soil on the left and grain on the right, which manage villains and thieves. The upper burner circulates qi into the head, the center forming the ancestral shrine, wherein the king governs and transforms. If the heart practices the correct Dharma, the myriad subordinates all comply, and the governance will be pure and peaceful; thus the five viscera are harmonized, the six bowels function smoothly, the four great elements are in ease and comfort, free of all diseases and afflictions, and life expectancy is preserved to the end. If the heart practices unrighteousness, the myriad officials fall into rebellion and injure one another; thus the four great elements fall out of harmony, the sense faculties become clouded and obstructed, and one consequently succumbs to affliction and meets one's end—all because the mind practices evil dharmas. The scripture says: 'Losing the ethereal soul (hun) brings disorder; losing the corporeal soul (po) brings madness; losing the intellect brings confusion; losing the will brings forgetfulness; losing the spirit brings death.' One should know that the external establishment of the royal way and civil transformation are all methods within the body. Such principles are fully explained as in the Tiwei Jing. Furthermore, regarding the correspondence of the internal world: what has been spoken above all corresponds to external meanings. Why is this? Before the Buddha appeared in the world, the various divine immortals and those of worldly knowledge had also penetrated these dharmas, names, and meanings in their mutual correspondence; therefore what was said before belongs to the meaning of the external world. Although these various divine immortals possessed worldly knowledge and dialectical acumen, and were able to penetrate the mundane world, if they abide in such distinctions, they are ultimately minds operating outside the true principle, having not yet seen the real truth. In the Buddha-Dharma they are not called noble ones, but are still ordinary beings, transmigrating through the three realms and the twenty-five states of existence, having not yet escaped birth and death. If they transform sentient beings, they are called 'old physicians' or 'worldly physicians.' Thus the Nirvāṇa Sūtra says: 'What worldly physicians treat relapses after being cured; what the Tathāgata treats does not relapse once cured.' This is as explained below. Now, in speaking of the world of internal meaning: this refers to the Tathāgata's appearing in the world and broadly preaching the characteristics of all doctrinal methods, names, and meanings to transform sentient beings. Within a concentrated mind, the practitioner wishes to know the characteristics of the primary correspondences of the Buddha's doctrinal methods; by the power of the roots of good of samādhi and wisdom, he immediately realizes it. How does he know it? As the Buddha spoke of the meaning of the five precepts, it corresponds to the five viscera. The four great elements, five aggregates, twelve sense bases, eighteen elements, four noble truths, and twelvefold dependent origination are all within the human body. One thus knows that the four great elements, in their meaning, correspond to the five viscera: wind corresponds to the liver, fire corresponds to the heart, water corresponds to the kidneys, and earth corresponds to the lungs and spleen. Upon hearing the names of the five aggregates, one immediately realizes their correspondence to the body's five viscera: form corresponds to the liver, consciousness corresponds to the spleen, perception corresponds to the heart, feeling corresponds to the kidneys, and formations correspond to the lungs. Although the names are not in sequential order, their meanings are correlated. If one hears of the twelve sense bases and eighteen elements, one also immediately knows their correspondence to the internal five aggregates: with one base and three elements, the meaning is evident of itself; with two bases and three elements, we shall now differentiate it. The five consciousnesses are entirely the base and element of the mental faculty; the external five sense objects and internal mental objects form the base and element of dharmas. This is the correlation of the two bases and three elements. The mental consciousness element takes the newly arisen five consciousnesses as its faculty; facing the external mental objects, it immediately produces the mental consciousness, termed the mental consciousness element. If one hears of the five feeling faculties, one also knows their correspondence to the internal five viscera: the faculty of grief corresponds to the liver, the faculty of pain corresponds to the heart, the faculty of joy corresponds to the lungs, the faculty of pleasure corresponds to the kidneys, and the faculty of equanimity corresponds to the spleen. The conditions of the five feeling faculties fully possess the three realms. Why is this? The faculty of grief corresponds to the desire realm; the faculty of pain corresponds to the first dhyāna; the faculty of joy corresponds to the second dhyāna; the faculty of pleasure corresponds to the third dhyāna; the faculty of equanimity corresponds to the fourth dhyāna, and extending up to the four formless absorptions, all are called dhyānas associated with equanimity. One should know that the three realms also correlate in meaning with the five viscera. Hearing the explanation of the four modes of birth, one also realizes that this meaning pertains to the five viscera. Why is this? The desire realm possesses the five faculties; the five faculties pertain to the five viscera; the five viscera pertain to the four great elements. In correspondence to the four modes of birth: all egg-born beings mostly share the nature of the wind element, because their bodies can fly lightly; all moisture-born beings mostly share the nature of the water element, because they are born dependent on moisture; all womb-born beings mostly belong to the nature of the earth element, because their bodies are heavy and dull; all spontaneously born beings mostly belong to the nature of the fire element, because the substance of fire suddenly exists from non-existence, and also possesses luminosity. Because the Tathāgata would transform the three realms and the four modes of birth, he expounded the four noble truths, the twelvefold dependent origination, and the six pāramitās. One should know that these three dharmas are medicinal drugs and divine elixirs,