宗鏡錄 30.9

30.9

Answer: If it is the capacity for complete cultivation and sudden awakening, then to bring forward the one covers all, without any further need for expedients. It is only for those who do not enter that expedients are opened into the three [vehicles] and up to the eighty-thousand. Although the three are opened, they originally illuminate the one path. Therefore the Vajrasamādhisūtra says: 'The principle of tathatā is complete with all dharmas. Good son, one who abides in the principle of tathatā crosses the ocean of the three sufferings.' Moreover, a verse in the Laṅkāvatārasūtra says: 'Existence and nonexistence are the two extremes, taken as the mind's cognitive objects; free from all object-dharmas, the equal mind is serene.' The Xianjie dingyi jing says: 'If, furthermore, one relinquishes all possessions, being in the midst of possessions yet having nothing possessed, this is called the one mind.' The Dharmapada says: 'A person living a hundred years, whose mind delights in negligence, is not equal to a single day of returning the mind to empty serenity.' Master Fu's verse says: 'The Buddhas do not permit seeking names externally; penetrating the original, true mind is precisely the correct [way].' Hence we know that when the ten thousand dharmas return to the mind, the Dao is complete. As the chapter 'The Completion of the Dao' in Gengsangzi says: 'The Duke of Lu questioned him in humble words. Gengsangzi said: "I can listen and see without using ears and eyes; it is not that I have changed the hardship of ears and eyes so as to surpass them." The Duke said: "Who can be like this? I am increasingly astonished. What is this way like? I wish to hear it soon." Gengsangzi said: "My body is joined to the mind; the mind is joined to qi; qi is joined to spirit; spirit is joined to nonbeing. If there is the slightest existence, the faintest sound—though as distant as beyond the eight frontiers, or as close as within the eyebrows and eyelashes—whatever comes to me, I must know it entirely. Yet I do not know whether this is the perception of my seven orifices and four limbs, or the knowledge of the thoughts of my five viscera and six bowels: it is merely self-knowing from itself."' He Can's commentary says: 'Mind and bodily form vanish into union, spirit and qi subtly tally, clear and open to the point of utter oblivion, sharing the same substance with nonbeing. Thereafter, the quieter the mind, the farther the wisdom; the more silent the spirit, the more manifest the illumination. When principle reaches its utmost, it penetrates of itself; without thinking, it gazes profoundly into the mysteries. If not for the supremely spiritual and supremely sage, who could participate in this? This is the crucial pivot of spiritual truth, the subtle Dao of twofold mystery.' Therefore, the orientations of both internal and external [teachings] must subtly tally with the substance of the mind, and then there is comprehensive illumination without remainder. Then one can harmonise the light with all existences, and in substance encompass the ten directions. Now, when speaking of 'harmonising', it is not that there are two dharmas, grasping and grasped, which accord with each other that is called 'harmony'. As the ancient virtuous one said: 'If ordinary and noble are kept distinct, it cannot be called harmony. When the substance of the mind is free from thought, the characteristic of sentient beings is not obtained; when the dharmadhātu is precisely oneself, and oneself is precisely the dharmadhātu, it is called harmony.' The Śūraṅgamasūtra says: 'Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara addressed the Buddha, saying: "World-Honoured One, through hearing, contemplation, and cultivation, I entered samādhi. Initially, in the midst of hearing, I entered the flow and forgot the object. The entered having become quiescent, the two characteristics of motion and stillness were clearly not produced. Increasing thus gradually, the heard and the hearing were exhausted; not abiding in the exhaustion of hearing, awareness and the aware were emptied; the awareness of emptiness having become exceedingly complete, emptiness and the emptied were extinguished. Arising and ceasing having been extinguished, quiescent extinction manifested before me. Suddenly I transcended the worldly and the supramundane; throughout the ten directions all was round and luminous, and I attained two extraordinary [qualities]: first, above, I united with the original, subtle, awakened mind of the Buddhas of the ten directions, sharing the same compassionate power with the Buddha Tathāgatas; second, below, I united with all sentient beings of the six paths in the ten directions, sharing the same sorrowful yearning with all sentient beings."' This is precisely where traces of grasper and grasped vanish, and the true and conventional subtly unite; it is not by engagement in practices that what was different becomes identical. Simply through understanding that the mind has no self or other, the ten thousand dharmas are naturally of one substance. Secular texts also say: 'When the mind is harmonious, words are harmonious; when words are harmonious, words fill the world without verbal fault. Because body and mind are harmonious, actions fill the world without resentment or enmity.' Once one is harmonious in substance with all dharmas, one does not contend with things. As the Huashou jing says: 'The Buddha told Śāriputra: "Therefore, when a bodhisattva generates the bodhicitta, he should observe the empty characteristic of this mind. Śāriputra, what is this mind? What is its empty characteristic? Śāriputra, the mind is called the manovijñāna; it is precisely the consciousness aggregate, the sense base of mind, the realm of mind. As for the empty characteristic of the mind, the mind has no characteristic of mind, nor is there an agent. Why? If there were an agent, then another would act and this person would experience it. If the mind acts by itself, then it acts by itself and experiences by itself. Śāriputra, the characteristic of this mind is empty; there is no agent, nor anyone who causes an agent to act. If there is no agent, then there is no characteristic of action. If someone engages in conceptual proliferation regarding this characteristic of the mind, then they contend with unobstructed emptiness and marklessness. If they contend with unobstructed emptiness and marklessness, this person contends with the Tathāgata. If one contends with the Tathāgata, you should know that this person will fall into a deep pit."' From this we know that if one enters into the ocean of the Mirror of the Source, all other Dharma gates are already encompassed, just as by ascending the mountain of the nature of dharmas, one sees all boundless realms completely. As the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra says: 'For example, if a person bathes in the great ocean, you should know that this person has already used the water of all rivers, springs, and pools. The bodhisattva-mahāsattva is also like this: by cultivating this vajrasamādhi, you should know that he has already cultivated all other samādhis.' It also says: 'For example, if someone ascends a high mountain and looks afar in all directions, all is completely clear. The mountain of vajra-concentration is also like this: when a bodhisattva ascends it and looks afar at all dharmas, there is none that is not clear.' Therefore we know that regarding one's own mind, nothing can surpass it. Hence in the teaching it is also named the profound Dharma and also named the supreme vehicle. Thus, with one dharma pointing the way, the myriad paths return and accord; there are only differences in names, but ultimately no separate substance is set forth. As a verse says: 'When the various forms and minds appear, they are like embossings in gold and silver; in different places of gold, names arise, having neither before nor after with respect to the gold.' Furthermore, like the shapes of merits embossed in gold and silver, there are only different names, while the substance of the gold remains unmoved; by analogy, it is like the one mind appearing as the paths of ordinary and noble: although separate appellations are established, the mind-nature is unborn. Understanding that these names are empty and seeing dharmas like a mirror, thoughts naturally cease, and one subtly unites with the true source.