宗鏡錄 31.2.6

31.2.6

can cast aside childish behavior; liberation is also like this: casting off the five aggregates. Casting off the five aggregates is true liberation; true liberation is the Tathāgata. Furthermore, liberation is called ultimate. Just as a bound person, having obtained release from bondage, bathes purely and then returns home; liberation is also like this: utterly pure. Utterly pure is true liberation; true liberation is the Tathāgata. Furthermore, liberation is called effortless bliss. Effortless bliss is because greed, anger, and delusion have been vomited out. For example, just as a person mistakenly drinks snake venom, and to remove the poison, takes an emetic; once having vomited, the poison is eliminated and cured, and their body obtains ease and bliss; liberation is also like this: vomiting out the poison of all kleśas, bonds, and fetters, the body obtains ease and bliss, and it is called effortless bliss. Effortless bliss is true liberation; true liberation is the Tathāgata. Furthermore, liberation is called severing the four kinds of poisonous snake kleśas. Severing kleśas is true liberation; true liberation is the Tathāgata. Furthermore, liberation is called being free from all realms of existence, extinguishing all suffering, attaining all bliss, forever severing greed, anger, and delusion, and pulling out the root of all kleśas. Pulling out the root is true liberation; true liberation is the Tathāgata. Furthermore, liberation is called severing all conditioned phenomena and giving rise to all untainted wholesome phenomena, cutting off and blocking all paths—namely, whether self, non-self, neither self nor non-self—severing only grasping and attachment, not severing the view of self. The view of self is called the Buddha-nature. The Buddha-nature is true liberation; true liberation is the Tathāgata. Furthermore, liberation is called not empty emptiness. Empty emptiness is called having nothing at all. Having nothing at all is the liberation posited by non-Buddhists such as the Nirgranthas; yet these Nirgranthas in truth have no liberation, hence it is called empty emptiness. True liberation is not like this, hence it is not empty emptiness. Not empty emptiness is true liberation; true liberation is the Tathāgata. Furthermore, liberation is called not empty. Just as with jars for water, wine, curds, butter, and honey, though they lack water, wine, curds, butter, and honey at the time, they are still called water jars and so forth. Jars such as these cannot be spoken of as empty or as not empty. If one says they are empty, then they could not have color, aroma, flavor, or touch. If one says they are not empty, yet they lack the reality of water, wine, and so forth. Liberation is also like this: it cannot be spoken of as form nor as non-form; it cannot be spoken of as empty nor as not empty. If one says it is empty, then it could not have permanence, bliss, self, and purity. If one says it is not empty, who would experience this permanence, bliss, self, and purity? By this meaning, it cannot be spoken of as empty nor as not empty. 'Empty' refers to lacking the twenty-five states of existence, all kleśas, all suffering, all characteristics, and all conditioned formations; just as a jar lacks curds, it is called empty. 'Not empty' refers to real wholesome form, permanence, bliss, self, and purity, immovable and unchanging; just like that jar's color, aroma, flavor, and touch, hence it is called not empty. Therefore liberation is exemplified by that jar. When that jar meets conditions, it breaks. Liberation is not like this; it cannot be destroyed. Being indestructible is true liberation; true liberation is the Tathāgata. Furthermore, liberation is called freedom from longing. For example, just as a person's loving mind aspires to Śakra Devānām Indra, the great Brahmā heaven-king, or the Maheśvara heaven-king; liberation is not like this. If one has attained anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi, there is no longing and no doubt. No longing and no doubt is true liberation; true liberation is the Tathāgata. If one says that liberation has longing and doubt, there is no such place. Furthermore, liberation severs all existence and greed, severs all characteristics, all bonds, all kleśas, all saṃsāra, all causes and conditions, and all karmic retributions. Such liberation is the Tathāgata; the Tathāgata is nirvāṇa. Because all sentient beings dread saṃsāra and all kleśas, they receive the three refuges. For example, just as a herd of deer dreads a hunter; having managed to escape, if they manage one leap, it exemplifies one refuge; in this way, three leaps exemplify the three refuges. Because of the three leaps, they attain ease and bliss. Sentient beings are also like this: because they dread the evil hunters of the four māras, they take the three refuges; because of the three refuges, they attain ease and bliss. Attaining ease and bliss is true liberation; true liberation is the Tathāgata; the Tathāgata is nirvāṇa; nirvāṇa is inexhaustible; inexhaustible is the Buddha-nature; the Buddha-nature is definitive; definitive is anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi. Explanation: The above hundred phrases on liberation are clearly displayed in the text without prolixity. To further explain their general import: they merely clarify the one mind's true-nature liberation. By means of liberation through true wisdom, this true nature is revealed, and subsequently liberation through expedient wisdom is accomplished; therefore, being able to awaken oneself and awaken others, it is named 'Buddha'—namely, the naturally authentic Buddha of the equal dharmakāya. Therefore the sūtra states: 'One should know that liberation is the Tathāgata; the nature of the Tathāgata is liberation; liberation and the Tathāgata are neither two nor different.' Hence the nature of the Tathāgata is the nature of sentient beings; the nature of sentient beings is the nature of all phenomena; the nature of all phenomena is the nature of citta. Because the nature of citta is omnipresent in all places, all places are entirely the inconceivable liberation. Because of not seeing one's own nature, one craves and attaches in accordance with each place; where there is attachment, one is bound. If one comprehends this source, bondage and liberation are both serene. Therefore it is said: 'Severance is attachment; attachment is severance. Within the gateway of illusory transformations, real meaning is born. There is neither severance nor attachment; where else would one seek medicine for the disease-free?' Furthermore, these hundred phrases on liberation unfold in meticulous detail and are the ultimate refuge.