宗鏡錄 36.30

36.30

Answer: For the sake of those who have not realized original unproducedness and desire to practice falsely toward external things, causing them to contemplate internally and secretly tally with the true nature. As the Yongjia ji states, in admonishing the neglectful and indolent: 'Yet to cross the ocean, one must first board a boat; without a boat, how can one cross? To cultivate the mind, one must enter contemplation; without contemplation, how can the mind be clarified? If the mind is not yet clarified, when will there be accord?' This encourages those who cling to ignorance and sit in vain without aspiring to advance in cultivation, like wishing to cross a mountain pass or ford: without a boat, nothing can ferry one across; if one is about to exhaust birth and death, without wisdom how can it be clarified? It also states, regarding the wondrous tallying with the dark source: 'Now, would a person who understands the mind cling to contemplation and lose the point? How could one who has penetrated the teachings be stuck on words and confused about the principle? When the principle is clear, the path of words is cut off—what words could debate it? When the point is realized, the place of mental activity is extinguished—what contemplation could ponder it? That which cannot be conceived or spoken of by mind and words can be called wondrously tallying within the universe.' Such a person has attained the point; why would they need words and objects? Having arrived at the place of jewels, one no longer asks the way; having already seen the jade hare [of the moon], would one cling to the pointing finger? Therefore the Song of Prajñā says: 'Seeing the moon, stop looking at the finger; returning home, cease asking the way. Mind itself is Buddha; what other Buddha could be accomplished?'