宗鏡錄 34.5

34.5

Answer: Speaking of permanence and impermanence, self and no-self, are merely the forms of verbal traces; all are skillful means. Therefore the Zhaolun says: 'The Bodhisattva expounds the teaching of non-permanence amidst those who calculate permanence.' When the Buddha first appeared in the world, he wished immediately to speak the wondrous gate of complete permanence and the Buddha-nature of the true self. But because all non-Buddhists falsely grasped an ātman pervading the realms of the ten directions and gave rise to the eternalist view, if he had spoken of true permanence, bliss, self, and purity, he feared it would be confused with heterodox understandings. Thus, temporarily sweeping away the dust of emotional attachment, he spoke of impermanence, non-bliss, no-self, and impurity. Furthermore, the two vehicles and provisional bodhisattvas, not knowing the secret intent of the Buddhas, clung to the gate of skillful means and hastily sought realization, all abiding in the principle of no-self and taking it to be ultimate. The World-Honoured One, pitying their lack of comprehension, thereupon fully expounded permanence, bliss, self, and purity. If anyone, upon hearing this ultimate teaching, clearly sees the Buddha-nature of the true self—distinctly and without delusion across human beings, trees, insects, and dust—they do not even abide in the middle way, how much less could they be confused by the two views of permanence and impermanence, or self and no-self! But if, although hearing the names of permanence, bliss, self, and purity, they merely form intellectual interpretations of permanence, bliss, self, and purity, generating views according to words and remaining blind to their own true mind, then the medicine of self and no-self becomes the illness of self and no-self. Hence we know that the true self is difficult to discern; unless one realizes it, it cannot be illuminated. As the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra says: 'For example, two men were close friends: one was a prince, and the other was poor and base. These two men visited back and forth with each other. At that time, the poor man saw that the prince possessed an excellent knife, exceptionally clean and wondrous, and in his heart he coveted it. Later, the prince took this knife and fled to another country. Thereupon the poor man later lodged and slept at another's house, and in his sleep he babbled: "Knife, knife!" A bystander heard this and arrested him, taking him to the king. The king then asked: "You spoke of a knife; where did you get it?" The man answered the king in full with the matters above, [saying]: "Even if Your Majesty were now to butcher and carve my body and dismember my hands and feet, wishing to obtain the knife, it truly cannot be had. I was formerly on intimate terms with the prince and stayed together with him. Although I once saw it with my eyes, I never even dared to touch it with my hand, much less take it intentionally." The king asked again: "When you saw the knife, what was its appearance like?" He answered: "Great King, what I saw was like a ram's horn." Having heard this, the king smiled with joy and said to him: "You may now go wherever you wish; do not give rise to anxiety and fear. In my treasury there has never been such a knife, how much less could you have seen it beside the prince!" The king then asked his ministers: "Have you ever seen such a knife?" Having spoken, he passed away. Soon another son was established to succeed to the throne. He again asked the prime ministers: "Have you ever seen this knife in the royal treasury?" The ministers answered: "We have seen it." He asked again: "What was its shape like?" They answered: "Great King, like a ram's horn." The king said: "Where in my treasury could there be a knife of such an appearance?" In succession, four kings inspected, sought, and could not find it. Sometime later, the prince who had fled returned from the other country to his native land and became king again. Having ascended the throne, he asked the ministers: "Have you seen the knife?" They answered: "Great King, we have all seen it." He asked again: "What was its shape like?" They answered: "Great King, its colour was pure, like an utpala flower." Another answered: "Its shape was like a ram's horn." Another said: "Its colour was bright red, like a mass of fire." Another answered: "Like a black snake." The king laughed heartily [and said]: "None of you have seen the true appearance of my knife." Good sons, the Bodhisattva Mahāsattva is also like this: appearing in the world, he expounds the true characteristic of the self; having expounded it, he departs, just as the prince holding the pure, wondrous knife fled to another country. Foolish ordinary beings say: "Everything has a self, has a self", just as that poor man lodging in another's house babbled in his sleep: "Knife, knife!" Śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas ask sentient beings: "What characteristic does the self have?" They answer: "I see the characteristic of the self to be as large as a thumb", or say "like a grain of rice", or "like a millet grain", and some say "the characteristic of the self resides in the heart, blazing like the sun." Sentient beings such as these do not know the characteristic of the self, just as the ministers did not know the characteristic of the knife. When the Bodhisattva speaks thus of the Dharma of the self, ordinary beings do not understand, generating various discriminations and falsely constructing the characteristic of a self, just as when asked about the characteristic of the knife, they answered that it was like a ram's horn. These ordinary beings give rise to false views in continuous succession. In order to sever such false views, the Tathāgata manifests and speaks of no-self, just as the prince said to the ministers: "In my treasury there is no such knife." Good sons, the true self spoken of today by the Tathāgata is named Buddha-nature. Such Buddha-nature is, in my Buddhadharma, likened to the pure knife. Good sons, if there is an ordinary person who can skillfully expound it, that is following the unsurpassed Buddhadharma. If there are those who can skillfully distinguish, accord with, and proclaim it, they should be known to bear the characteristics of a bodhisattva.'