宗鏡錄 35.4

35.4

Answer: Comprehensively gathered in terms of phenomena, because of this, the profound, arising one mind possesses five gateways of meaning, according with any single practice to guide and transform sentient beings: First, the Hīnayāna: the gateway of gathering meaning into name. Second, the initial teaching: the gateway of gathering principle into phenomenon. Third, the final teaching: the gateway of the non-obstruction of principle and phenomenon. Fourth, the sudden teaching: the gateway wherein phenomena are exhausted and principle is revealed. Fifth, the complete teaching: the gateway wherein the ocean of nature is replete with virtues. The characteristics of the five meanings are revealed, yet they evolve solely from the one mind. The Mìmì Yì Jì states: 'Sons of the Buddha! Listen carefully! For example, take a treasure in a dark house: because people do not know of it, and because there is no lamplight, someone groping and touching it mistakenly takes it to be venom from a snake. Due to this mistake, the toxic vapor enters the body, the body swells up, and they suffer all kinds of distress. A wise person, seeing this, immediately takes a lamplight and reveals the beneficial treasure. The person who had been bitten then sees this treasure, and the toxic vapor within the body is instantly cured and eliminated. Because they obtain this treasure, they fly through the air without obstruction; when people see them, they show reverence; and all malicious ones face them with minds of benevolence, their malice extinguished. Because they have no enemies, they attain fearlessness; and because they have fearlessness, they are secure and joyful. Practitioners are also like this. Because they do not know the treasure of real virtues within the house of dharmatā, they are afflicted by eighty-four thousand defilements. Because they know to draw near to good spiritual friends and hear the Dharma, they overturn the defilements and impurities, making them into eighty-four thousand dharmas of the factors of enlightenment, eliminating attachments to spontaneity. They also know that causes and conditions are empty; they also know that the Buddha-nature is eternal; they also know that the path of words is cut off and the place of mental activity is extinguished; and they awaken to the conditioned arising of the dharmadhātu. Consequently, all phenomena do not go from one stage to another stage; they are unified within this pure mind. Therefore, all kleśas and all pure minds do not come from another place; they are merely the turning over of a single hand. The wise need have no doubts.' Furthermore, as in the previous metaphor, the real treasure in the dark house reveals the pure Dharma-gate to counter impure dharmas. Counteractive measures are fivefold: First is the Hīnayāna teaching, which counteracts non-Buddhists who do not rely on causes and conditions and give rise to attachment to spontaneity. Second is the initial teaching, which counteracts the Hīnayāna's attachment to existence based on causes and conditions. All those preceding this are called conditioned arising of the conditioned. Third is the final teaching, which counteracts the initial teaching's attachment that all phenomena are impermanent, suffering, empty, and non-self. This is called the conditioned arising of the unconditioned. Because tathatā accords with conditions, it is called the conditioned arising of the unconditioned. Fourth is the sudden teaching, which counteracts the final teaching's thought after thought fluttering about, giving rise to verbal explanations. This is the conditioned arising of one's own substance: exhausting the source and plumbing the nature, not a single thought arises, hence it is one's own substance. Fifth is the complete teaching, which counteracts the sudden teaching's silent discourse, where the place of mental activity is extinguished and all returns to the tranquil source, unable [to realize] the sovereignty of the one being identical to the all and the all being identical to the one, and so forth. This conditioned arising of the dharmadhātu is fully endowed with movement and stillness; hence it is called nature-arising, harmoniously merging without obstruction, grasping and discarding entirely exhausted, where the three poisons are themselves the Buddha. Although the Hīnayāna applies counteractive measures as they arise, it only knows the sixth consciousness, not knowing that all phenomena exist due to the mind. When one speaks of 'mind', it is the eight consciousness mind-kings. Furthermore, the Hīnayāna does not know the mind of permanence, bliss, self, and purity: because it is the master of the ten thousand phenomena, because it is unobtainable, and because it is like empty space, it cannot be counteracted. Although it has such dharmas, because it does not know their cause, does not know that the ten thousand phenomena exist due to the mind, and does not awaken to the mind's source, it merely grasps small fruits and universally annihilates form to grasp emptiness. If one does not annihilate form to grasp emptiness, but knows that form is itself emptiness, one can enter the initial teaching. Next, persons of the initial teaching say that all phenomena arising in the sequence described above exist as transformations of consciousness, and that nothing exists outside of consciousness. 'Consciousness' is the eighth consciousness. In terms of the nature of consciousness, it is also unobtainable. As soon as one realizes this mind, one knows that all phenomena are born of causes and conditions, and that what is conditionally arisen lacks self-nature. Although one realizes this dharma, there is still momentary arising and ceasing, hence it is called conditioned; because one realizes immutable tathatā. Next, persons of the final teaching say that all phenomena do not go beyond the one mind. This one mind is, for example, like the wet nature of the great ocean; all phenomena that depend on the one mind are like the billowing waves of the great ocean. Although waves are gathered into water, the billowing waves are not annihilated; although billowing waves arise in profusion, the tranquil water is not diminished. Thus, although the ten thousand objects are gathered into the one mind, the ten thousand objects are not diminished; although the ten thousand objects arise in profusion, the one mind is not diminished. Why is this? Because they are what the one mind possesses. Therefore, the true encompasses the false ends, and the false reaches the true source; nature and characteristics merge harmoniously, and the root and branch are equal. Although self-nature is unborn, karmic fruits are not lost; although karmic fruits are not lost, self-nature is unborn. Although one attains the one mind, one does not attain the inexhaustible, hence one does not attain the layer upon layer; therefore it is called the one real truth. The teachings prior to this, relying on gradual stages and ranks, are termed the gradual teachings. Next, as for the sudden teaching: not a single thought arising is itself the Buddha. Why is this? All phenomena have originally and always had the characteristic of tranquility. Down to sentient beings and up to all buddhas, nothing whatsoever that is done leaves out even a single hair, and all are like a dream; hence attaining Buddhahood and delivering sentient beings are still subsumed within this dream. It does not clarify the many within the one, the one within the many, the one being identical to the many, the many being identical to the one, and so forth. Next, what the complete teaching clarifies illuminates its meaning through the ten-and-ten inexhaustible, and distinguishes its characteristics through the ten-and-ten layer upon layer: whichever is picked up serves as master, and the ten thousand phenomena serve as companions; because the master does not obstruct the companions and the companions do not obstruct the master, both pervade the dharmadhātu.