宗鏡錄 34.7

34.7

Answer: The myriad affairs are summoned by oneself; the single principle of mind-only is never deficient. Good and evil arise merely from one's own thoughts; how could karmic retributions be received from another? As Master Chuanao said: "It is only because there is evil karma within that demonic obstructers are outwardly stimulated; if good thoughts arise within, one outwardly encounters the Buddhas." Thus, good and evil depend on oneself; do they depend on others? For this reason, that Xishi loved the river and Momu disliked the mirror was truly foolishness. Furthermore, even a gentleman seeks [faults] in himself and does not blame Heaven or cast blame on other people; how much more so a bodhisattva! If one can have deep faith in this discourse, one can empty the mind, eliminate conceptualization, and suddenly enter the emptiness of phenomena. Therefore the Awakening of Faith says: "Some sentient beings lack the power of good roots, and are thus confused and disturbed by demons, non-Buddhists, ghosts, and spirits. If while seated [in meditation] these manifest terrifying forms, or manifest handsome and beautiful marks of men and women, one should contemplate that they are mind-only realms, and they will immediately vanish and ultimately cause no affliction." From this we know that the sage (sheng) is correctness (zheng). When the mind is correct, it is sage-like. Hence it is said: "A correct mind can ward off evil." It is like the sun and moon directly overhead in the sky: the grasses and trees cast no slanting shadows. From this we know that this mind is the dwelling of ordinary beings and sages, the source of sense organs and objects. It is only because ordinary beings grasp it as the ālayavijñāna that it becomes the cause of the suffering and affliction of birth and death. Sages realize it to be the tathāgatagarbha mind and receive the fruit of the eternal bliss of nirvāṇa. If one speaks of the ālayavijñāna, it has a name but no substance, because it exists through emotional grasping and is not ultimate. When one realizes sageliness, its name is immediately discarded. If one speaks of the tathāgatagarbha mind, it has both name and substance, because it is inherently existent and not grasped, and is uninterrupted into the bounds of the future. It is like making a bracelet out of gold: the characteristic of the bracelet is empty, while the substance of gold is exposed and evident. The tathāgatagarbha constitutes the ālaya: the characteristic of the ālaya is empty, while the tathāgatagarbha nature is manifest. Now, because sentient beings follow emotional grasping heavily, most recognize the ālaya and do not believe there is a tathāgatagarbha. Because of their lack of faith, they not only slight and despise it themselves, but also disparage and ruin others. The transgression of slandering the Dharma does not exceed this fault! Thought after thought they obscure the nature of the Tathāgata's dharmadhātu; step after step they create the causes of sentient beings' karmic fruits. Evil karma is renewed daily; conditions for suffering are unending. In a place of peace and security they give rise to thoughts of decay and vexation; within liberation they bring about the fruit of bondage. They receive bodies with flaming mouths and needle-thin throats, burned by the fires of hunger for kalpas. They assume forms covered with hair and bearing horns, tangled and ensnared by nets at every turn. Or they fall into the Avīci hell, embracing acute suffering and constantly situated on flaming wheels. Or they are born into the asura palaces, initiating fighting and disputes while knives and swords constantly rain down. Or they temporarily dwell in the human realm, where in an instant the eight sufferings boil together. Or they happen to dwell in heavenly palaces, where in a flash the five signs of decay drag them down. Long submerged in the three obstacles, they do not emerge from the four māras. All this is because they do not know the tathāgatagarbha mind and lose the wondrous nature of consciousness-only. Turning their backs on the true, compassionate Father, they hire themselves out in foreign lands; abandoning the King of Great Wisdom, they submit to other realms. For this reason, the Buddhas were alarmed and entered the burning house, and the ancestral master came from the west for this special purpose. They pointed to the true homecoming, yet [sentient beings] do not return; they showed the right view, yet [sentient beings] do not see. This is entirely because the places perfumed by the storehouse consciousness have been hardened since beginningless time: emotional grasping is as thick as ten thousand layers of icy cliffs, and the roots of doubt are as deep as a dark chamber of a thousand folds. Now, broadly searching the profound and subtle, not weary of voluminous texts, harmonizing the subtle words of a thousand sages, and thoroughly penetrating the secret explanations of a hundred lineages, there is not a single phenomenon that does not accord, capable of fulfilling the gate of filial piety and righteousness; there is not a single thought that is not harmonious, all becoming the path of non-contention. Then the six sense entrances are an empty village, where ultimately no person exists; within the cottage of the five aggregates, it is open, empty, and tranquil. Therefore, inwardly there is nothing to be done, and outwardly there is nothing to rely upon. Outwardly there is nothing to rely upon, so the myriad existents cannot bind one; inwardly there is nothing to be done, so a thousand thoughts cannot gallop away. One is thus able to pacify the Buddha's frontiers, without a single speck of dust stirring up disorder; and uphold the domain of the Dharma, without a single realm failing to submit. One can say that at this moment, one unites with the heavenly nature without any different lineage; today, father and son are established, belonging solely to our family tradition. As the Aṅgulimālīyasūtra says: "They constantly receive all pleasures among humans and devas, and their clan and caste are superior, all being complete. This is because they have heard and known that all sentient beings possess the Tathāgata's eternally abiding store. Furthermore, if those sentient beings in the past, future, or present among the five destinies lack limbs and joints, transmigrate through birth and death, and endure all sufferings, this is because they have slighted and disparaged the tathāgatagarbha."