宗鏡錄 38.7.4

38.7.4

this house would also not be completed. It is just as if the first step arrives, all steps arrive; if there were one step that did not arrive, all steps would not arrive. Therefore a sūtra says: 'Although completing equal, right enlightenment, they do not abandon the initial resolve.' Hence, when one is accomplished, all are accomplished, which constitutes the Dharma-gate of a single limit. Second is the gate of the realm of Indra's net. This is explained by way of metaphor: just as within each and every jewel in the jewel net above Śakra's palace all reflections mutually appear without end, and within a single precious jewel thousands of radiances and myriad colors interreflect in multiple layers, distinctly demarcated—how much more so within this dharmadhātu of the one mind, where all persons, dharmas, realms, and wisdoms interpenetrate in multiple layers! Because the nature of tathatā is ultimately inexhaustible, they are layer upon layer, inexhaustible and yet inexhaustible. A treatise says: 'That there are differences in Indra's net can only be known by wisdom, not seen by the eye.' As for Indra's net, this net is woven together from threads of various jewels. His Dharma Hall of Good Abode, forty yojanas in length and breadth, is likewise composed of various jewels. Within each and every perforation in the net's threads there is a bright jewel. The bodies of these jewels are crystalline and pure; the precious net is interlaced, mutually reflecting and appearing. Within each and every jewel net, there are the complete bodies of the jewel net and the precious palace of forty yojanas, each and every complete body mutually appearing therein. Just as with the reflections of the jewels and the net, within each and every beam and ridgepole, each and every rafter and pillar, each and every wall, each and every bracket and corbel, and each and every mirror-image of that palace, there are the reflections of the complete body of the palace, the net, and the jewels, in multiple layers, mutually reflecting and appearing. Therefore it is said: 'Like the net of the heavenly lord Indra, layer upon layer without end.' Now this Dharma-gate is also just like this: within each and every stage, within each and every dharma, within each and every dust mote, within each and every realm-image, within each and every name, and as for the nine times and ten times, each and every one mutually pervades the dharmadhātu; and with the two wisdoms of the real and conventional, they mutually interpenetrate in substance, completely pervading the dharmadhātu. As it is said in the 'Dharmadhātu Chapter': Sudhana's visits began with Mañjuśrī and ended with Maitreya and Samantabhadra, encompassing fifty-three spiritual friends. Among them were monks and nuns, laymen and laywomen, young boys and girls, ṛṣis and non-Buddhists, brāhmaṇas, householders and lay scholars, deities of heaven and earth, deities of night and day, kings and queens, great bodhisattvas, and the like. Each dwelled in a great bodhimaṇḍa, mutually host and companion, together expounding the realm of Vairocana. Whether a Buddha appears in the world or does not appear in the world, this dharmadhātu is naturally and constantly abiding, without alteration. Furthermore, it is just as when Sudhana arrived at the abode of Maitreya Buddha: when he first ascended to a tower and entered it, he saw within that tower that it was vast and boundless, equal to empty space, and that there were separately ineffable towers arrayed within it, each and every one also equal to empty space. In each and every tower he heard the Bodhisattva Maitreya turning all the Dharma-gates of a bodhisattva in his final lifetime. Within each and every tower, amidst the realm-images, the affairs of the three times were assembled without before or after. Maitreya is to become a Buddha in the future, while Sudhana had just initially generated the resolve, yet in a single thought-moment they were able to meet together. This is becoming a Buddha by relying on the wisdom vehicle of the dharmadhātu, not a matter of before and after: using the ancient to seal the present, using the present to penetrate the ancient, merged into non-duality. Moreover, taking the one tower as the universal, the one wisdom contains its myriad goods; taking the many towers as the particular, substance and function are multifold, free and unhindered. This was Sudhana mounting the vehicle of fundamentally unmoved wisdom, going from ordinary person to enter the noble, arriving in this tower, meeting together as non-dual with the Buddhas of the three times—the gate of Indra's net of universal and particular, identity and difference. For all sentient beings, if there are those who can give rise to the resolve and mount this vehicle, it is also just like this. Before seeing Samantabhadra, one gives rise to a vast mind equal to empty space; upon hearing the name of Samantabhadra, one immediately sees one's own body entering the body of Samantabhadra. Observing that within each and every pore of Samantabhadra there are vast kṣetras, with the discs of earth, water, fire, and wind all contained within them. In a single thought-moment, one takes an ineffable-ineffable number of steps, each step crossing an ineffable-ineffable number of Buddha-kṣetras; passing through an ineffable number of kalpas in this way from thought-moment to thought-moment, one cannot exhaust the bounds of a single pore. Looking back upon each and every pore of one's own body, Samantabhadra is also within them; each and every pore is identical to empty space, not obstructing one another. This is indeed the gate of nature-as-such, the constantly real dharmadhātu: practice manifests based on principle, and function matches the pervasiveness of substance. This is Sudhana's constant practice, the fulfillment of Samantabhadra's conduct. As it is said in the 'Ten Concentrations Chapter' of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra: 'Disciples of the Buddha, this bodhisattva mahāsattva has a lotus flower. That flower is vast, exhausting the limits of the ten directions, adorned with an ineffable number of petals, an ineffable number of jewels, and an ineffable number of fragrances. Those ineffable jewels each further manifest various kinds of jewels, pure, wondrous, and excellent, extremely well-settled. That flower constantly emits lights of various colors, universally illuminating all worlds of the ten directions without hindrance. A net of real gold covers over it; jewel bells gently sway, producing subtle and wondrous sounds. Those sounds expound the Dharma of all-knowledge. This great lotus flower is replete with the pure adornments of the Tathāgata, produced by all roots of goodness, characterized by auspiciousness, manifested by spiritual power, possessing ten thousand asaṃkhyeyas of pure merits, accomplished by the wondrous path of the bodhisattva, flowing forth from the mind of all-knowledge. The reflections of the Buddhas of the ten directions appear within it; the world gazes up at it as if at a stupa; of the sentient beings who see it, none do not pay homage. Produced from the true Dharma that is able to understand illusion, nothing in all worlds can serve as an analogy for it. The bodhisattva mahāsattva sits cross-legged upon this flower; the size of his body corresponds to the flower. Sustained by the spiritual power of all Buddhas, each and every pore of the bodhisattva's body emits rays of light as numerous as the dust motes of a million billion nayuta ineffable Buddha-kṣetras; each and every ray of light manifests mani jewels as numerous as the dust motes of a million billion nayuta ineffable Buddha-kṣetras, all named Treasury of Universal Light.'