宗鏡錄 30.3.2

30.3.2

…[the mind] will end up forming grudges in the future.
If one can inquire into and contemplate the citta,
[people] will harmonize like milk and water;
all are cubs of the lion,
all are a grove of sandalwood.
For this cause and condition,
one must compose the Treatise on Contemplating the Citta.
With declining years, my body is beset with illness;
my eyes are dim, and my ears grow deaf;
my citta is confused, with much forgetfulness and negligence;
each year is worse than the last.
The king of death, the garuḍa,
will before long swallow the life-faculty.
Once the rope of karma snaps,
when breath is cut off, how could one speak?
For this cause and condition,
one must compose the Treatise on Contemplating the Citta.
I bow my head to the buddhas of the ten directions,
who out of profound loving-kindness contemplate the citta:
urge [others] to skillfully and truly examine it,
to generate the wondrous bliss of correct awakening.
I bow my head to the Dharma of the ten directions,
which out of profound compassion contemplates the citta:
skillfully urge [others] to truly examine it,
that they may attain truth and be freed from all suffering.
I bow my head to the Saṅgha of the ten directions,
the ocean of harmony of the great assembly:
if one can skillfully examine it,
the joyful citta is boundless.
I bow my head to Master Nāgārjuna:
may [you] cause us swiftly to gain awakening,
and also to abandon the three minds.
Now relying on the power of the Three Jewels,
I raise thirty-six questions.
The detailed inquiries among them
are difficult to count against matters.
If, contemplating the citta of a single thought-moment,
one can answer these questions,
one should know that one's mind-eye is opened,
and one has gained entry into the cool pool.
If one cannot answer these questions,
alas, how blind and dark!
Failing to see even slight meaning,
how could one walk the Great Way?
How mournful that in the age of the Final Dharma,
there are no longer people who practice the Path!
Even if there were three or several,
how could they distinguish these questions?
Therefore, conceiving a citta of pity,
I take refuge in and pay homage to the Three Jewels,
composing this Treatise of Inquiring into the Citta,
to cause the encouraged to become luminous and clear.
May all who see and hear this
not generate a citta of doubt or slander;
faithfully accepting and diligently cultivating it,
they will surely obtain the great benefit of the Dharma.
Up to the verse questions, which state:
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why are there the four unexplainables,
free from conceptual proliferation, grasping, and contention,
the citta pure as empty space?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why are there the actions of Māra,
bound by karma and kleśas,
burning in the burning house of the three realms?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why are there the non-Buddhists,
with the karma of various views and kleśas,
transmigrating in the six paths?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why are there the three vehicles,
which by clumsy salvation cut off [the delusions of] view and thought,
and emerge from the burning house of the three realms?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why is there skillful salvation,
wherein the three vehicles do not sever bonds,
yet enter the two nirvāṇas?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why is there the Distinct Teaching,
seeking the eternal fruit of the Great Vehicle,
wherein bodhisattvas sever distinct delusions?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why is there the Perfect Teaching vehicle,
which does not disrupt the dharmadhātu,
and abides in the nirvāṇa of the three virtues?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why is there nirvāṇa,
cultivating the four kinds of samādhi,
attaining the true anutpattikadharmakṣānti?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why does one skillfully accomplish
the twenty-five expedients,
tuning the citta to enter the correct path?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why does one know one's own citta
generates the ten kinds of objects,
accomplishing the three wisdoms in one mind?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why does one know the ten objects
each accomplish the ten vehicles of the Dharma,
joyfully roaming in the four directions?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why, by the non-abiding dharma,
does one enter the stage of the initial arousal of the mind
and the forty-two stages?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why are the six pāramitās accomplished,
able to attain the various samādhis
and the various dhāraṇīs?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why does one attain the six supernormal powers,
using the four means of embracing to conduct transformation,
with the four unobstructed analytical knowledges without hindrance?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why does one attain the major and minor marks,
accomplishing the two bodies of truth and response,
facing conditions like reflections in a mirror?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why is one endowed with the ten powers
and the four fearlessnesses,
inner and outer illumination and function perfected?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why, in contemplating the citta,
can one attain the eighteen kinds of
dharmas unshared with the world?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why does one attain great loving-kindness,
great compassion, and the three applications of mindfulness,
pitying sentient beings without differing notions?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why does one, by skillful means,
bring sentient beings to accomplishment
and adorn and purify all lands?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why does one, in this citta,
adorn the bodhi tree
and establish a pure place of enlightenment?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why does one subdue the hordes of Māra,
able to restrain all non-Buddhists,
causing the multitude all to take refuge and pay respect?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why does one sit in the place of enlightenment,
manifesting four kinds of attaining buddhahood,
meeting capacities without difference?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why does one turn the four teachings'
pure, wondrous wheel of the Dharma,
so that all attain the ambrosia?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why does one manifest four buddhas
with four kinds of nirvāṇa characteristics,
ultimately extinguished without remainder?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why does one know that as for circumstantial and direct reward,
across the four lands, the celestial vessels are identical,
yet the color of the rice differs?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why, in this citta,
is it all faculties and conditions,
penetrating through without hindrance?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why does one know the siddhāntas,
formless with nothing expounded,
yet manifesting forms to broadly expound the Dharma?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why does one know the gradual, sudden,
secret, and indeterminate teachings,
with a single sound expounding these four?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why does one know the four teachings
each open into four gates,
and all Dharma gates?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why, regarding the four teachings'
four gates, the sixteen gates,
does one compose treatises to penetrate the various sūtras?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why does one abide in the cessation attainment,
pervasively entering the ten dharmadhātus,
broadly benefiting all sentient beings?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why does one know that in the four lands,
the application of teachings has increase and decrease,
pervasively benefiting all sentient beings?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why does one know this citta
is endowed with all buddha-dharmas,
with not a single dharma existing outside the citta?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why does one know this citta
is the equal dharmadhātu,
wherein the Buddha does not deliver sentient beings?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why does one know this citta
is the dharmadhātu like empty space,
ultimately with nothing thought of?
I ask, contemplating the self-arising citta:
Why are there no letters,
all speech cut off,
solitary and silent without verbal expression?
Now, in terms of contemplating the self-arising citta of a single thought-moment, I have briefly raised thirty-six questions. For practitioners who contemplate the citta from outside, as well as lifelong companions, retinues, and those who practice the four kinds of samādhi—if that contemplator of the citta can thoroughly penetrate each and every one, one should generate toward them a thought of the citta as equal to the Buddha, drawing close to them and practicing their teachings as one would the four reliances. As for disciples and retinue, if they are unhindered in this...