宗鏡錄 35.6.3

35.6.3

Explaining the teachings by means of the mind: everything spoken by the buddhas is one's own mind. The Fuxing ji cites a verse from the Avataṃsaka-sūtra: / "The buddhas fully know / That everything turns according to mind. / If one can understand in this way, / That person truly sees the Buddha." / The Ratnagotravibhāga says: "A person of supernormal powers saw the disappearance of the Buddha's Dharma, and concealed the scrolls of scriptures of the great trichiliocosm within a single speck of dust." Also, the Avataṃsaka says: "Excellent, excellent! How is it that the Tathāgata is present within the body yet [sentient beings] are unaware?" Therefore, it is clear that the objects of the four noble truths and the twelve links of dependent origination, and the eighty-four thousand dharma-gates, do not go beyond the one mind. If one grasps this meaning, then the eight years of broadly expounding the Lotus [Sūtra] are present in a single thought-moment; passing through fifty kalpas—how could that stir a single kṣaṇa? By analogy, an entire lifetime of adapting to capacities resides within the nature of the mind; the buddha-deeds of the ten directions are vividly before one's eyes. Even up to the three virtues of nirvāṇa, they reside within the one mind; thus an entire vast scripture is fully marked upon one's own heart. Boundless dharmas of the teaching are gathered into a single kṣaṇa. Thousands of branches and ten thousand leaves share the one root as their source; numerous texts and all sūtras without exception expound the one dharma. As cited above, the passages on the five flavors, the eight teachings, the half and the full, and so forth, although they classify and judge the teachings of a whole lifetime, are nevertheless all harmoniously gathered into the one mind and entirely comprehended by the one principle. Divided, yet not many; gathered, yet not one; dispersed, yet not different; united, yet not identical. Dharma-doors numerous as the sands of the Ganges and inexhaustible purports all appear within the mirror of the source of the One Vehicle's perfect teaching. Therefore, an ancient worthy said: "Match it to the mind, and thereafter take it as dharma. In the mind it is dharma; expressed in words it is teaching. Dharmas have their own characteristics (svalakṣaṇa) and common characteristics (sāmānyalakṣaṇa); the teachings have negative definition (apoha) and positive presentation." Therefore we know that although they are divided in terms of phenomena, in terms of principle they are always united. Even when opened into dharma-gates numerous as the sands of the Ganges, they ultimately do not depart from the purport of the one mind. If skillful means are opened and revealed from within the one mind to constitute the traces of the teachings, one cannot fix their provisionality and reality, or their temporal sequence of earlier and later, because these are a period of skillful means employed by the Tathāgata to adapt to capacities. One must not secretly give rise to a fixed interpretation and thereby deviate from the true Dharma. As the Fahua xuanyi says: In terms of the mutual completion of the five flavors and the half and full: if one merely discusses the five flavors, it is like the southern masters, who grasped only the skillful means; if one merely discusses the half and full, it is like the northern masters, who grasped only the reality. Now we clarify that the five flavors are not separated from the half and the full, and the half and the full are not separated from the five flavors. When the five flavors possess the half and full, there is understanding of skillful means through wisdom; when the half and full possess the five flavors, there is understanding of wisdom through skillful means. Provisional and real travel together like the two wings of a bird. Although traveling together, activity and concealment find their proper place: in the Avataṃsaka, the sudden and full family business of the Great Vehicle explains only the one reality without needing skillful means; it is solely full and not half, which in the gradual [sequence] corresponds to fresh milk. The guest laborer of the Tripiṭaka is merely skillful means; it is solely half and not full, which in the gradual [sequence] corresponds to curd. In the Vaipulya's reproaches and admonitions, the half and full stand opposite each other, using the full to rebuke the half; in the gradual [sequence] this corresponds to raw butter. In the Great Chapter's (Prajñāpāramitā) taking charge of the teaching, it carries the half to discuss the full: the half applies generally to the three vehicles, while the full applies uniquely to the bodhisattvas; in the gradual [sequence] this corresponds to clarified butter. In the Lotus Sūtra's bequest of property, it discards the half to explain the full: if there were no half-word skillful means to mature the dull-witted, there would also be no full-word revealing of the Buddha's knowledge and vision; in the gradual [sequence] this corresponds to ghee. That the Tathāgata earnestly praised skillful means was because the half possesses the efficacy of completing the full; this was his intention. Next, distinguishing them in terms of contemplation: the Yogācāra school establishes two kinds of contemplation; the Huayan school establishes four contemplations; the Tiantai teaching establishes three contemplations; and the gate of Samantabhadra establishes ten contemplations. As for the two contemplations of Yogācāra: first, the contemplation of mind-and-consciousness-only; second, the contemplation of the reality of tathatā. The Scripture on Skillful Means for Progressing Toward the Great Vehicle says: "If one cultivates faith and understanding based on the realm of the one reality, one should practice two kinds of paths of contemplation: first, the contemplation of mind-and-consciousness-only; second, the contemplation of the reality of tathatā. As for practicing the contemplation of mind-and-consciousness-only: at all times and in all places, following all actions produced by body, speech, and mind, one should observe them all and know that they are consciousness-only. Even regarding all objective realms, if the mind turns toward them in thought, one should observe and know them all, not letting the mind engage in neutral conditions without self-awareness. In thought-moment after thought-moment, one should observe everything: following whatever conditioned thoughts the mind has, one should make the mind follow those thoughts and cause the mind to know itself. Having known, [one realizes that] it is the inner mind itself that produces ideations and thoughts, not that all objective realms possess thought or conceptual distinction. That is, the inner mind itself produces views such as long and short, good and bad, right and wrong, gain and loss, decline and prosperity, existence and non-existence, and countless thoughts, while all objective realms have never had thought or given rise to conceptual distinction. One should know that all objective realms are themselves devoid of conceptual thought; therefore they are intrinsically neither long nor short, neither good nor bad, up to neither existing nor non-existing, separated from all characteristics. Observing all dharmas in this way, they are produced solely from mental ideation. If separated from the mind, not a single dharma or characteristic could see itself as having distinctions." As for the contemplation of the reality of tathatā: contemplating that the nature of mind is without arising and without ceasing, not abiding in seeing, hearing, perceiving, or knowing, forever free from all thoughts of conceptual distinction. As for the four contemplations of Huayan: this is based on the dharmadhātu of tathatā of the one mind; in terms of the distribution and perfect interpenetration of principle and phenomena, four kinds of dharmadhātu are established. In correspondene to these dharmadhātus, there are four kinds of gates of contemplation. As for these four gates of contemplation, dharmas are originally like this, so one contemplates in accordance with the dharmas, hence it is called 'contemplation': 1. The contemplation of phenomena, which means that delusion and awakening, cause and effect, defilement and purity are distinct. 2. The contemplation of principle, which means that self and dharmas are both empty, equal in a single characteristic. 3. The contemplation of the non-obstruction of principle and phenomena, which means that they pervade each other, conceal and reveal, complete and appropriate each other, unobstructed at the same time. 4. The contemplation of the non-obstruction of phenomena and phenomena, which means that observing phenomenal dharmas are merged through principle, they are mutually identical and mutually interpenetrating, endlessly layered without limit. If one relies on this unobstructed contemplation of the one mind, thought-moment after thought-moment is the Huayan dharmadhātu; thought-moment after thought-moment is the Vairocana dharmadhātu. The sūtra says: "If one accords with such practice of contemplation, one does not give rise to dualistic understanding regarding dharmas, and all buddhadharmas swiftly appear before one." As for the three contemplations of the Tiantai teaching: The Meaning of the Three Contemplations says: "A tube of three inches ensures the seasonal vapors do not decay; a gnomon of one foot can measure the morning sun. From this we know that for those who grasp the Way, could it ever be far away?"