宗鏡錄 36.44

36.44

Answer: First, gradual cultivation and sudden awakening; second, sudden awakening and gradual cultivation; third, gradual cultivation and gradual awakening; fourth, sudden awakening and sudden cultivation. In the Laṅkāvatārasūtra, there are the four graduals and the four suddens. The sūtra says: Mahāmati addressed the Buddha, saying: 'World-Honoured One, how is the flowing stream appearing from one's own citta purified? Is it sudden or gradual?' In the answer, the four graduals are explained first, and then the four suddens are expounded. For the gradual, the sūtra says: The Buddha told Mahāmati, 'It is purified gradually, not suddenly. First, it is like the āmra fruit, which ripens gradually, not suddenly. When the Tathāgata gradually eliminates the flowing stream appearing from sentient beings' own cittas, it is also like this: purified gradually, not suddenly. Second, it is like a potter making vessels, which are completed gradually, not suddenly. Third, it is like the great earth, which generates [things] gradually, not suddenly. Fourth, it is like learning the arts, which are accomplished gradually, not suddenly.' The above four graduals are spoken in terms of practice, because the principle has not yet been realized. The below four suddens are spoken in terms of having already realized the principle: First, the simile of the clear mirror suddenly reflecting. The sūtra says: 'For example, it is like a clear mirror suddenly reflecting all formless forms and images; when the Tathāgata purifies the flowing stream appearing from all sentient beings' own cittas, it is also like this: suddenly revealing the pure dharmadhātu, formless and without anything existent.' Second, the simile of the sun and moon suddenly shining. The sūtra says: 'Like the orbs of the sun and moon suddenly shining and displaying all forms and images; when the Tathāgata, for the sake of sentient beings who are free from the faults of the habit-energy appearing from their own cittas, [acts], it is also like this: suddenly displaying the realm of inconceivable, supreme wisdom for them.' Third, the simile of the ālayavijñāna suddenly knowing. The sūtra says: 'For example, it is like the ālayavijñāna suddenly and discriminatively knowing that which appears from its own citta, as well as the realms established and enjoyed by the body; those Sambhogakāya Buddhas are also like this: suddenly maturing the realm where sentient beings dwell, establishing practitioners in that Akaniṣṭha Heaven.' Fourth, the simile of the Buddha's light suddenly shining. The sūtra says: 'For example, what is wrought by the Dharmakāya Buddha relies on the illumination of the Buddha's radiance; the holy state of self-realization is also like this: it shines upon the false imaginings of evil views regarding the existence and non-existence of dharmas, causing them to be eliminated.' Now, taking sudden awakening and gradual cultivation accords deeply with the doctrinal principles. The Śūraṅgamasūtra says: 'Though principle is suddenly awakened to, vanished all at once by virtue of awakening, phenomena entail gradual cultivation, exhausted in sequential order.' It is like a fierce gale on the great ocean suddenly subsiding, while the waves gradually cease; it is like the faculties of a child suddenly being born, while strength is gradually perfected; it is like the dawn's light suddenly bursting forth, while frost and dew gradually melt; it is like text being suddenly completed, yet read in sequence. Or, sudden awakening and sudden cultivation precisely corresponds to the mirror of the source. For instance, the Huayan tradition takes awakening to be like the illumination of the sun: that is, both awakening through understanding and awakening through realization are entirely sudden. Again, it is like polishing a mirror: it is polished all over at one time, but clarity and purity occur gradually. We now argue: clarity is the fundamental clarity, and gradualness is the perfect gradualness. As for 'clarity is the fundamental clarity', it is feared that people may think wiping the mirror is not sudden. 'The clear mirror is fundamentally pure; wherefore wipe away dust and dirt?' This was the Sixth Patriarch directly revealing the fundamental nature and destroying their gradual cultivation. Now, in order to accord with the sūtras and clarify its gradual realization, whatever gradually becomes clear is all the fundamental clarity. Therefore it is said, 'clarity is the fundamental clarity.' That is, upon the substance of thoughtlessness there is naturally true knowing; it is not that there is some other knowing. Knowing is itself the substance of citta. As for 'gradualness is the perfect gradualness', this is the intention of Tiantai's Zhizhe. He said: 'The gradual of the gradual is not the perfect gradual; the perfect of the perfect is not the gradual perfect.' This means that the gradual tradition also has a perfect gradual, and the perfect tradition also has a perfect gradual. The gradual of the gradual tradition is like the river issuing from Mount Min, beginning from a mere trickle filling a ladle. The perfect of the gradual tradition is like the great river flowing for a thousand leagues. The gradual of the perfect tradition is like first entering the ocean: although it is gradually deepening, a single drop of its water already surpasses the great river, not to mention the trickle filling a ladle! The perfect of the perfect tradition is like reaching the very limits and bottom of the ocean. Therefore it is now said: the gradual is the gradual of the perfect tradition, which still surpasses the perfect of the gradual tradition, not to mention the gradual of the gradual tradition! The Chanyuan ji says: 'The sudden gate has two aspects: first, the sudden according with capacity; second, the sudden of the conversion method. First, as for the sudden according with capacity: encountering commoners of supreme faculties and sharp wisdom, one directly shows them the true Dharma; upon hearing it, they suddenly awaken, entirely identical with the fruit of buddhahood. For example, in the Huayan, upon first giving rise to the aspiration [for bodhi], one immediately attains anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi; in the Perfect Enlightenment [Sūtra], contemplation and practice immediately constitute buddhahood. Second, as for the sudden of the conversion method: it refers to when the Buddha first attained enlightenment and, for those of superior faculties whose conditions from past lives were ripe, suddenly expounded at one time the nature and characteristics, phenomena and principle, sentient beings' myriad delusions, bodhisattvas' myriad practices, the stages of sages and worthies, and the myriad virtues of all buddhas. The cause encompasses the ocean of fruit; the initial mind immediately attains bodhi. The fruit penetrates the source of causes; when the stages are fulfilled, one is still identical with a bodhisattva. This belongs solely to the single Huayan Sūtra, which is called the Sudden Teaching. The dharmas expounded therein are the dharmas of the entirety of the one mind; the one mind is the one mind of the entirety of dharmas. Nature and characteristics are completely interfused, and the one and the many are unobstructed.' Furthermore, in terms of the differences in sudden and gradual according to capacity, some say: first, through the achievement of gradual cultivation, one suddenly awakens completely. It is like felling a tree: chopped chip by chip, it suddenly topples at one moment. It is also like traveling from afar to the imperial capital: walking step by step, one suddenly arrives in a single day. Some say: first, through sudden cultivation, one afterwards gradually awakens. It is like someone learning archery: 'sudden' means every single arrow is aimed directly with intent on the target; 'gradual' means only after a long time does one gradually draw closer and gradually hit the mark. This speaks of mobilizing the mind in sudden cultivation; it does not say that merit and practice are suddenly finished. Some say: gradual cultivation and gradual awakening. It is like climbing a nine-tiered pavilion: as one's feet tread gradually higher, what one sees becomes gradually farther. The above are all awakening through realization. Some say: one must first suddenly awaken, and only then can one gradually cultivate. This is spoken in terms of awakening through understanding. If spoken in terms of cutting off obstructions, it is like the sun suddenly bursting forth, while frost and dew gradually melt. If spoken in terms of accomplishing virtues, it is like a child newly born, who immediately possesses four limbs and six sense organs, yet only upon growing up gradually develops determination and functional capability. As the Huayan Sūtra says: 'Upon first giving rise to the aspiration, one immediately accomplishes correct enlightenment; the three [ranks of] worthies and ten [stages of] holy ones are cultivated and realized sequentially.' If one cultivates without having awakened, it is not true cultivation. Truly, practices that do not flow from truth have nothing wherewith to match truth; how could there be practices that adorn truth without arising from truth? A sūtra says: 'If one has not heard this Dharma, though one cultivates the six pāramitās and myriad practices for many kalpas, one ultimately does not realize truth.' Some say: sudden awakening and sudden cultivation. This refers to those of supreme wisdom, whose faculties, nature, and aspirations are all superior: hearing once, they awaken to a thousand [things], obtaining the great dhāraṇī; not a single thought arises, and the limits of past and future are severed. If spoken in terms of cutting off obstructions, it is like severing a skein of silk: ten thousand strands are severed all at once. If spoken in terms of cultivating virtue, it is like dyeing a skein of silk: ten thousand strands are colored all at once. Heze said: 'Seeing the substance of thoughtlessness, one does not arise in pursuit of objects.' He also said: 'In one thought corresponding with the fundamental nature, the eighty thousand pāramitā practices function together simultaneously.' Furthermore, one of sudden awakening attains liberation without leaving this very life. It is like a lion cub: at the very moment of its birth, it is a true lion. At the very moment of cultivation, one enters the Buddha's stage. It is like bamboo shooting in spring: without leaving the spring, it already equals its mother. Why is this? Because citta is empty. If one eliminates false thoughts and forever cuts off 'self' and 'person', one is immediately equal to the Buddha. A sūtra says: 'Without destroying the mundane world, one transcends the mundane world; without abandoning kleśa, one enters nirvāṇa.' Not cultivating sudden awakening is like a jackal following behind a lion: though hundreds of thousands of kalpas pass, it will never become a lion. Therefore, know that if one does not directly comprehend one's own citta, how could one accomplish the perfect and sudden? Following others in false learning, one will never achieve truth. This Record of the Mirror of the Source is the gate of the perfect and sudden: approaching it in citta, comprehending it without boundary, there is no longer before or after, and the myriad dharmas are simultaneous. Therefore the Song of Realizing the Way says: 'Therefore the Chan gate comprehends citta, / Suddenly entering the power of the gentle kṣānti of non-arising.' Furthermore, if one uses awakening to cultivate, that is awakening through understanding; if one awakens on account of cultivation, that is awakening through realization. Furthermore, the Sudden Teaching was initially like the Huayan ocean assembly: in the Jetavana, entering the Siṃhavikrīḍita Samādhi, the great assembly all suddenly realized the dharmadhātu without any difference. Later, up until the Buddha was about to pass into extinction, between the twin śāla trees in the city of Kuśinagara, he made the great lion's roar, revealing the eternally abiding Dharma, and decisively expounded: 'All sentient beings have the Buddha-nature. Whoever has a citta will definitely become a Buddha.' He caused them all to dwell peacefully in the secret treasury of ultimate nirvāṇa, eternal, blissful, self, and pure. Because these doctrinal teachings fundamentally flowed forth from the World-Honoured One's substance of the one true citta, they are also merely the true substance of the one mind upon which ordinary beings and sages rely, flowing forth according to conditions, progressively pervading all places, within the bodies and minds of all sentient beings. If one merely calms one's thoughts in one's own citta and contemplates according to principle, it will manifest just so, vividly and clearly in the mirror of the source. Arising as this single, boundless illumination, it pervades the limitless space of the dharmadhātu; there is not a single dust mote that is not touched by its light, nor a single thought that does not receive its illumination. This is indeed the illumination of prajñā's non-knowing—how could illumination have a boundary? It is the source of nirvāṇa's great quiescence—how could the source have an end? Therefore, as the Treatise on Prajñā Being Without Knowing states: 'The Pañcaviṃśati says: Prajñā has no characteristic of existence, and no characteristic of arising and ceasing. The Aṣṭasāhasrikā says: Prajñā is without knowing and without seeing. This discourses upon the function of wisdom's illumination; why then is it called formless and without knowing? Truly there is formless knowing and unknowing illumination—this is clear! Why so? Now, if there is something known, then there is something not known. Because the holy citta is without knowing, there is nothing it does not know. The knowing of non-knowing is called all-knowing. Hence the sūtra says: The holy citta is without knowing, yet there is nothing it does not know—this is trustworthy indeed! Therefore the sage empties his citta while making substantial his illumination; all day he knows, yet has never known. Thus he can silently radiate and veil his light, empty his citta in dark reflection, close off wisdom and stop up hearing, yet alone be awakened in the dark recesses. Thus, while wisdom has the reflection that plumbs the depths, it is without knowing; while spirit has the function of responding and meeting, it is without deliberation. Because spirit is without deliberation, it can uniquely reign beyond the world; because wisdom is without knowing, it can profoundly illuminate outside phenomena. Although wisdom is outside phenomena, it has never been without phenomena; although spirit is beyond the world, it is all day within its domain. Therefore, looking down and up it accords with transformation, responding and meeting boundlessly; there is no obscurity it does not discern, yet it has no achievement of illumination. This, then, is the knowing of non-knowing, and the meeting of holy spirit. Now, as for this thing, real yet not existing, empty yet not non-existent, present yet impossible to discourse upon—is it not solely holy wisdom? Why so? If one wishes to say it exists, it has no shape and no name; if one wishes to say it is non-existent, the sage is numinous by means of it. Because the sage is numinous by means of it, emptiness does not lose illumination; because it has no shape and no name, illumination does not lose emptiness. Because illumination does not lose emptiness, it blends without changing; because emptiness does not lose illumination, it moves so as to meet the coarse. Therefore, the function of holy wisdom has never ceased for an instant, yet seeking it in shapes and characteristics, it can never be found. Thus the Ratnakūṭa says: Through having no citta or manas, active practice is manifested. The Pañcaviṃśati says: Without moving from equal awakening, all dharmas are established. Therefore, though the sage's traces are of myriad kinds, their purport is only one! Therefore, prajñā can be empty and illuminate; the true truth can be forgotten and known; myriad movements can be approached and stilled; holy responses can be non-acting and yet act. This, then, is to know naturally without knowing, and to act naturally without acting. What more is there to know? What more is there to act?'