宗鏡錄 34.25

34.25

Answer: In saying 'knowing' here, it does not mean realizing-knowing. The intent is to state that the true nature is not like empty space, wood, or stone; hence it is called 'knowing'. It is not like the consciousness that discriminates by taking conditions as objects, nor is it like the wisdom that illuminates the substance and realizes it; it is directly the nature of tathatā, naturally and constantly knowing. The Treatise on the Awakening of Faith says: 'Tathatā is in its own substance real consciousness and knowing.' The Avataṃsaka Sūtra says: 'Tathatā has illuminating wisdom as its nature.' Furthermore, the 'Chapter on Clarifying Questions' states that wisdom (jñāna) and knowing (parijñā) are different: wisdom is confined to sages and does not extend to ordinary beings; knowing is possessed by both ordinary beings and sages, and extends to both principle and wisdom. The bodhisattvas such as Bodhisattva Jñānaprabha asked Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī: 'What is the wisdom of the buddha-realm? What is the knowing of the buddha-realm?' Mañjuśrī answered in verse: 'The wisdom of the buddhas is sovereign / and unobstructed throughout the three periods of time; / such a realm of insight / is equal like empty space.' He also said in verse: 'It is not what consciousness can cognize, / nor is it an object of the mind; / its nature is originally pure: / it is disclosed to all living beings.' Since it is said to be 'originally pure' without waiting to sever hindrances, one knows that living beings originally all have it; it is only because they are screened by delusion that they do not know it themselves. Therefore, what is disclosed in the Lotus Sūtra to cause them to attain purity is the purity free from defilement in the Ratnagotravibhāga. Although this mind is pure in its self-nature, it ultimately requires awakening and cultivation to attain finality. What the sūtras and treatises clarify are two kinds of purity and two kinds of liberation. Some attain only the purity and liberation free from defilement, and thus disparage the meditation gate's [teaching that] 'the mind itself is the Buddha'; or they know only the self-nature purity and liberation, and thus make light of doctrinal marks and reject such practices as upholding the Vinaya, sitting in meditation, and subduing [the passions]. They do not know that one must頓悟 (suddenly awaken to) self-nature purity and self-nature liberation, and gradually cultivate to attain the purity free from defilement and liberation free from hindrances, fulfilling complete purity and ultimate liberation, unimpeded in both body and mind, identical to Śākyamuni Buddha. The sūtra asks: 'What is the wisdom of the buddha-realm?' This asks about the wisdom of realization and awakening. 'What is the knowing of the buddha-realm?' This asks about the inherently existing true mind. The answer to wisdom states: 'The wisdom of the buddhas is sovereign and unobstructed throughout the three periods of time.' The answer to knowing states: 'It is not what consciousness can cognize, nor is it an object of the mind.' Consciousness is discrimination; discrimination is not true knowing; only in non-thought is it seen. Furthermore, if one realizes it by means of wisdom, it then belongs to the sphere of what is expressed; since true knowing is not an objective realm, if an illuminating mind suddenly arises, that is precisely not true knowing; hence 'it is not an object of the mind'. Taking non-arising of mind as the profound and marvelous, and taking accumulating and arising as the definition of 'mind', if one gives rise to mind to look, that is deluded thought; hence it is not true knowing. For this reason, true knowing must empty the mind and abandon illumination, where the paths of words and thought are cut off. The Northern School's 'observing the mind' loses the true purport: if there is something that can be observed, it is an objective realm. The Baozang lun says: 'Knowing being, being is destroyed; knowing non-being, non-being is ruined. The wisdom of that knowing does not calculate being or non-being.' Since it does not calculate being or non-being, it is the non-discriminative knowing of the self-nature. Therefore, this knowing of the true mind's own substance is the unconditioned mind; not relying on deliberate intention, it naturally and constantly knows, not involved with being or non-being, eternally transcending subject and object. Venerable Shuinan said: 'The function of the substance itself is called knowing; the substance of the function itself is quiescence. It is just as when it is the lamp, it is the light; when it is the light, it is the lamp. The lamp is the substance, and the light is the function—non-dual yet dual.' He also said: 'The single word "knowing" is the gate to all marvels.' Such a disclosure of the mind of numinous knowing being the true nature, not different from the Buddha, is therefore called the Teaching that Directly Shows the True Mind to Be the Nature, which is entirely identical to the meditation gate's third Source that Directly Shows the Nature of Mind. Since Aśvaghoṣa indicated the mind as the fundamental source, and Mañjuśrī selected knowing as the true substance, how can the faction that refutes marks speak only of quiescent extinction and not accept tathatā, while the school that speaks of marks clings to ordinary beings being different from sages and does not accept being the Buddha directly? Now establishing this determination according to the teachings is precisely for such people. Therefore, what was transmitted in the Western Regions mostly combined sūtras and treatises; there were not two paths. But because people in this region were deluded about the mind and clung to the written word, taking the name as the substance, Bodhidharma skillfully set aside the written word and transmitted the mind, pointing to its name ('mind' being the name) and silently indicating its substance ('knowing' being the mind). He used the metaphor of wall contemplation to make them cut off all conditions. When they cut off all conditions, he asked: 'Is it completely annihilated or not?' The answer was: 'Although all thoughts are severed, it is not annihilated.' He asked: 'By what evidence do you say it is not annihilated?' The answer was: 'It is distinctly and self-knowingly so; words cannot reach it.' The Master then authenticated it, saying: 'Just this is the self-nature pure mind; doubt no further.' If the answer did not tally, he would merely ward off all errors and have them observe further, never speaking the word 'knowing' to them beforehand, waiting until they had awakened on their own before verifying its authenticity; only having directly realized its substance would he then authenticate it, causing them to end any remaining doubts. Therefore it is said: 'silently transmitting the mind seal.' What is meant by 'silent' refers only to keeping the word 'knowing' silent, not to remaining completely speechless. The transmission through the six generations was always like this. By the time of Heze, other schools competed and arose; wishing to seek silent accord, he encountered no suitable opportunities. Moreover, reflecting on Bodhidharma's prediction of the hanging thread (Bodhidharma said: 'After the sixth generation of my Dharma, its life will be like a hanging thread'), and fearing that the ancestral principle would be extinguished, he thereupon said: 'The single word "knowing" is the gate to all marvels.'