宗鏡錄 29.17

29.17

Answer: An ancient worthy said: "The supreme Way is rooted in one's citta; the dharmas of citta are rooted in non-abiding. The non-abiding substance of citta possesses spiritual knowing that is never dark; thus the arising of the ten thousand dharmas entirely takes the non-abiding one mind as its substance. Outside of citta, there are no distinct dharmas. Just as the multitude of waves depend on water and apart from water there are no waves, and the myriad phenomena depend on space and apart from space there are no phenomena." A verse in the Mahāyāna-sūtrālaṅkāra says: / "Far removed from the dharmadhātu, / There is no distinct dharma of rāga. / Therefore all buddhas teach / That rāga delivers from rāga, and so with the rest." / As the Buddha previously taught: "I do not speak of any dharma distinct from rāga that can deliver from rāga; dveṣa and moha are also thus. Because apart from the dharmadhātu, a separate dharma has no substance. Therefore, the dharmatā of rāga and the rest receives the name of rāga and the rest. This states that the dharmatā of rāga and the rest can deliver from rāga and the rest." This meaning is the essential import of the sūtras. Another verse says: / "Arising correct contemplation regarding rāga, / One attains liberation from rāga. / Therefore it is said that rāga delivers from rāga; / Liberation from dveṣa and moha is also thus." / Explanation: Outside of rāga there are no distinct dharmas; because rāga is the dharmadhātu, all dharmas tend toward rāga, and there is nowhere beyond this tendency. Why is this? If toward rāga one tends with correct reflection, comprehending that rāga has no intrinsic nature, one then attains liberation from rāga. If toward rāga one gives rise to false thoughts, being deluded by rāga and generating attachment, one is then bound by rāga. Binding and liberation subsequently form the two gates of ultimate and conventional truth. The two gates of ultimate and conventional truth completely encompass all defiled and pure dharmas. If this single dharma of rāga is thus, the remaining gates of the eighty-four thousand afflictive defilements such as dveṣa and moha are also thus, because each and every one universally contains the dharmadhātu. This is indeed the gateway to the purport of the sūtras, and it can also fully verify the overarching theme of the Mirror of the Source. If one is deluded about expedient means and attached to the various doctrinal approaches, one will suspect mirage-water of drowning people and stride toward a Gandharva city; relying on the unreal, one loses oneself, but once the real is attained, what worry is there? The purport of this one mind is that whereto all ten thousand virtues return. Be it good or evil, it can turn it all around; be it adverse or compliant, it makes all turn out well. Therefore among the Ten Mysterious Gates, there is the Gate of Good Completion through Reversal by Mind-Only. An ancient commentary explains: "Regarding the phrase 'reversal by mind-only', the preceding doctrinal approaches and so forth are all established by the pure true citta of the tathāgatagarbha nature. Be it good or evil, it turns in accord with the mind; hence it is called 'good completion through reversal'. Since there are no distinct objects outside of citta, it is called 'mind-only'. If it turns compliantly, it is termed nirvāṇa; the sūtra says: 'The mind creates all tathāgatas.' If it turns adversely, it is saṃsāra; the sūtra says: 'The three realms are deceptive; all are made by one mind.' Saṃsāra and nirvāṇa both do not go beyond the citta. Therefore one cannot determinately say that the nature is pure, nor that it is impure." Hence the Nirvāṇa Sūtra says: "The Buddha-nature is neither pure nor impure; pure and impure are both mind-only, because apart from citta there is no other dharma." A verse in the Laṅkāvatārasūtra says: / "Mind-only lacks external spheres; / Without dust, there is false perception." / Therefore we know that compliance and adversity are turned solely by persons; suffering and joy merely follow upon conditions. The non-abiding true citta of a single thought-moment has never changed throughout kalpas as countless as dust particles; it is only in accord with intellectual discrimination that what is seen differs. The Commentary on the Nirvāṇa Sūtra says: "To say that the citta-nature is originally pure and covered by delusion still belongs to the teaching path, tentatively following an expedient explanation. If one says that the original citta is pure, sentient beings hearing this will give rise to wrong views, thinking that the citta is already it and refusing to cultivate the Way. In order to cause sentient beings to sever rāga and the rest and only then see the Buddha-nature, it is said that it is ultimately never determinately spoken of, and so forth. If one relies on the actual principle, the citta-nature has originally never been pure, just as from beginningless time there has been only ice and no water. Although it is entirely ice, one cannot say that ice is not water. The citta-nature of sentient beings is also like this: although it has originally been avidyā, one cannot say that it is not the secret storehouse of the three virtues. Therefore the person of the perfect [teaching] solely contemplates that the beginningless three paths are precisely the three virtues; hence they differ from the person of the expedient [teachings], who only sees it after turning back the obscuration." The Vajrasamādhi Sūtra says: "The Elder Brahmacārin said: 'All dharmas are of one taste; why then does the wisdom of the three vehicles differ?' The Buddha said: 'Elder, take for example the Yangtze, the Yellow River, the Huai, and the ocean: because of their differences in size, distinctions in depth, and variations in name and character—when the water is in the Yangtze, it is called Yangtze water; when in the Huai, it is called Huai water; when in the Yellow River, it is called River water; yet together in the ocean, it is only called ocean water. Dharmas are also like this: together in tathatā, they are only called the Buddha Way.'" Thus, crisscrossing illusory realms unite in truth within the single nature; the spiritually quiescent void manifests characteristics by lodging within the myriad phenomena. As a verse in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra says: / "Just as the power of one mind / Can produce diverse minds, / So the body of one Buddha / Universally manifests all Buddhas." / A verse in the Kuśalamūlasaṃparigraha Sūtra says: / "If one wishes, with a single thought, / Universally to know all minds, / This mind has no shape or color; / Like an illusion, it is not firm." / The Bhadrakalpikā-samādhi-sūtra says: "To see clearly with verification that the three realms are like an illusion, and that in the original source of everything there is nothing contrary or lost—this is called one mind." It also says: "Taking these names as non-existent, yet seeing what there is to see, seeing the root of all—this is called one mind." As a sūtra verse says: / "The expansive worlds / Are measureless and boundless; / Knowing diversity is one, / One knows that the one is diverse." / Why is this? The one is the one of the ten thousand dharmas, because they take citta as their intrinsic nature. Therefore an ancient verse says: / "The ten thousand dharmas arise from citta; / When citta is pure, the ten thousand dharmas are pure. / The five superknowledges are unhindered; / The king of citta is like the eye." / The Candrapradīpa Samādhi Sūtra says: "At that time the World-Honoured One, knowing the silent thoughts in the mind of the youth Candraprabha, questioned him in verse, telling the youth Candraprabha: 'If a bodhisattva is in accord with one dharma, he can entirely obtain the most supreme merits and swiftly attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi. What is this one dharma? Youth, it is when a bodhisattva genuinely knows the substantial nature of all dharmas.'" And further the verse says: / "All dharmas are spoken of as only one, / Namely that dharmas are without characteristics. / This is what the wise speak of, / Genuinely comprehending it. / If such a dharma is taught, / And the bodhisattva comprehends it, / He attains unhindered eloquence, / Expounding billions of sūtras. / Protected by the Guide, / He reveals the limit of reality. / Without discriminating provisional designations, / He has never spoken anything. / Through the one he knows all; / Through all he knows the one. / Though giving diverse explanations, / He gives no rise to conceit. / His citta can comprehend / That all dharmas are nameless. / Complying with and learning all names, / He expounds the truth." / Explanation: If one genuinely knows the substantial nature of all dharmas, that is precisely the substantial nature of one's own citta. Contemplating all dharmas as completely without name and without characteristics, one uses provisional names and characteristics to explain and expound their reality, causing them to return to the true source of signlessness and the reality-limit of namelessness; one then enters the doctrinal ocean of the sūtras, with eloquence inexhaustible. Furthermore, as the sūtra says: "Youth, this mind has no nature, nor does it have shape or color, and it cannot be seen. Youth, such a substantial nature of citta is precisely the substantial nature of the Buddha's virtues. Such a substantial nature of the Buddha's virtues is precisely the substantial nature of all dharmas. For this reason, youth, if a bodhisattva speaks of the substantial nature of all dharmas as having one meaning and genuinely knows it, he is called a bodhisattva. With citta quenched, he skillfully understands the wholesome roots of renouncing the three realms; genuinely comprehending, genuinely knowing and seeing, he can speak in accordance with truth without discordant speech; up to skillfully understanding the dharma free of letters, skillfully understanding the wisdom that discriminates words, skillfully understanding the dharma free of language, and so forth." Also, a verse in the Laṅkāvatārasūtra says: / "Non-arising manifests as arising; / Non-retrogression constantly manifests as retrogression. / Simultaneously, like the moon in water, / Manifesting in tens of billions of lands. / One body as well as measureless bodies, / Blazing fire and pouring rain. / Citta and the substance of citta are not different, / Therefore it is said to be only mind. / Within citta there is only citta; / Citta arises without mind. / Diverse forms and characteristics— / What is seen is only citta." / Another verse says: / "Within citta there is no annihilation or permanence; / The body, resources for life, and dwelling places / Are only mind, but the foolish and unintelligent / See existence where there are no things." / Another verse says: / "Sons of the Buddha see that the world / Is only mind and lacks dharmas; / Diversities are not made by a physical body, / Having attained power, they are freely accomplished." / Why is this? If one attains the king of citta, everything is sovereign; whatever one wishes to accomplish is immediately accomplished, unobstructable by others. As Bodhisattva Dharaṇīṃdhara said: "I constantly went to all important roads, river crossings, fields, and dangerous narrow paths, and wherever there was something irregular that hindered or harmed carts and horses, I leveled and filled it; until encountering Vipaśyin Tathāgata rubbing the crown of my head, who said to me: 'You should level the ground of citta, and then the ground of the world will all be level.' Why is this? Because when citta is uneven, the ground is uneven. Just as with Śāriputra, whose citta had high and low, seeing hills and hollows." Therefore we know that in grasping the essential outline and picking out the crucial points, nothing surpasses contemplating citta. Seeing the Way is not separated by an instant; attaining verification is like turning one's palm. The Liturgy for the Lotus Repentance by Emperor Wen of Chen says: "Principle has no two extremes; the tendencies must return to the same. Yet conditioned by karma and conditioned by citta, receiving the consciousness of the myriad kinds, following perception and following attachment, the characteristics of sentient beings differ." The Diamond Repentance by Emperor Wu of Liang says: "Attaining it in the citta, only then does it become the Dharma." Therefore the youth Without Words wondrously attained the wonder of non-speech, and the bodhisattva Without Explanation deeply saw the depth of non-explanation. That which is called "Principle has no two extremes; the tendencies must return to the same" means that the single dharma sets forth the source, and divergent paths vanish without a trace. As for "the wonder of non-speech and the depth of non-explanation": if one does not personally verify one's own citta, how could one penetrate their depth and wonder? Then the path of words and thought is cut off, silently uniting with this source. Emperor Dezong of the Tang said: "The dharmas of the myriad existents fundamentally condition citta. When citta arises, dharmas arise; when citta ceases, dharmas cease. Therefore, using citta to contemplate citta, outside of citta there are no dharmas. The nature of citta is eternally abiding—could the Way be far away?" As former worthies said: "As for the substance of cultivating the Way, one recognizes one's own eternal body: originally pure, neither arising nor ceasing, without discrimination, self-nature complete—this pure citta is the original teacher." Therefore we know that one's own true citta exists of itself and does not come from outside. Among all that is in the three realms, there is nothing more intimately close than citta.