宗鏡錄 34.23

34.23

Answer: Due to the force of the perfuming of the discrimination of self and dharmas, when the various consciousnesses arise, they transform into semblances of self and dharmas. Because they are veiled by ignorance, the sixth and seventh consciousnesses grasp these based on those conditions as a real self and real dharmas. It is like a dreaming person: due to the force of the dream, the mind appears in the likeness of various external sense objects. While dreaming, one grasps them as truly existent external things; only upon waking does one know they were transformed solely by the dream. The forms of this body of ours and the external world are also like this: they are transformed by consciousness alone. Because of delusion, one grasps them as having a self and external objects. Having awakened to the fact that there are originally no self and no dharmas and that there is only mind and consciousness, one then relies on this wisdom of the two emptinesses to cultivate the contemplation of consciousness-only and practices such as the six pāramitās and the four means of embracing. Gradually subduing and severing the two hindrances of affliction and the knowable, one realizes the tathatā revealed by the two emptinesses. With the ten grounds perfected, one transforms the eight consciousnesses into the four wisdoms of bodhi. With the hindrances to tathatā exhausted, one achieves the fruit of the dharmatā-kāya and great nirvāṇa. This third [approach] uses consciousness to break through external objects, and it coincides and accords with the meditation gate's Source of Quelling Delusion and Cultivating the Mind. Because one knows that external objects are all empty, one does not cultivate external marks of phenomenal matters, but solely quells delusion and cultivates the mind: quelling the delusion of self and dharmas, and cultivating the mind of consciousness-only. Second, the Teaching that Implicitly Refutes Marks to Reveal the Nature: Based on the true and definitive meaning, deluded grasping is originally empty, so there is nothing further to refute; and the undefiled dharmas are the marvelous functions of the true nature according with conditions, never severed, so they too should not be refuted. Yet solely because a class of sentient beings grasps false marks which obstruct the real nature of tathatā, making profound awakening difficult to attain, the Buddha provisionally rebuked and refuted everything—without distinguishing good and evil, defiled and pure, nature and mark. Because the true nature and marvelous functions are not non-existent, yet he called them non-existent, it is termed 'implicit intention'. Moreover, the intention lies in revealing the nature, while the words refute marks; because the intention is not manifest in the words, it is called 'implicit'. This teaching states: since the objects transformed in the previous teaching are all false, how could the transforming consciousness alone be real? Mind and objects are mutually dependent; being empty, they seem to exist. Furthermore, the mind does not arise in isolation: relying on objects, it only then arises; and objects do not arise of themselves: depending on the mind, they manifest. When the mind ceases as objects fade, and objects vanish as the mind becomes empty, it is because all depend on multiple conditions and lack an intrinsic nature. For this reason, among all dharmas, there is none that is not empty; all appearances are false. Therefore, within emptiness there are no five skandhas, six sense bases, conditions, or four noble truths; there is no wisdom and no attainment; saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are equally like an illusion. This teaching is entirely identical with the meditation gate's Source of Total Cessation without Reliance. Third, the Teaching that Directly Shows the True Mind to Be the Nature: It directly reveals that one's own mind is precisely the true nature. It is not revealed with reference to phenomenal marks, nor is it revealed with reference to refuting marks; hence it is called 'being the nature'. It is not a matter of expedient or concealed intent; hence it is called 'shows'. This teaching states: all sentient beings possess an empty and quiescent true mind, which from beginningless time is originally pure in its own nature, luminously clear and unobscured, distinctly and constantly knowing, and permanently abiding without extinction until the end of the future. It is called the Buddha-nature, it is also called the tathāgatagarbha, and it is also called the mind-ground. What Bodhidharma transmitted is this mind.