宗鏡錄 39.9

39.9

Answer: It is like gold in a yellow stone, brought to completion through the conditions of a furnace fire fueled by merit: if a person of great merit [works it], they obtain gold; a person of middling merit obtains silver; a person of inferior merit obtains copper. This is just like that: ordinary persons obtain only kleśa and avidyā; śrāvakas merely realize impermanence, arising, and ceasing; only buddhas and bodhisattvas attain ultimate, permanent bliss, nirvāṇa. As the Mahāsaṃnipātasūtra says: 'It is like a vessel for lighting a lamp: if gold, it gives a yellow light; if copper, it gives a red light. Although their colors differ, the lamp is without distinction. The dharmadhātu is also like this: when buddhas light it, its light of wisdom is boundless; when śrāvakas light it, its light of wisdom is bounded. Yet the nature of the dharmadhātu truly has no distinction.' Furthermore, the single dharma of the mind is subtle and profound; views have shallow and deep, and wisdom is divided into superior and inferior. One must rely on extensive learning to reach the source of phenomena. The Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra says: 'Those who do not practice and study cannot comprehend this.' An external text says: 'If jade is not carved, it does not become a vessel; if a person does not study, they do not know the Way.' One need only firm one's resolve, constantly listen to what has not yet been heard, and through perfuming and cultivation the power of contemplation will grow deeper, while through polishing and tempering the gate of practice will become purer. Constantly give rise to the thought that it is difficult to encounter, and one's practice of the Way will remain ever fresh; long harbor a joyous and fortunate mind, and in the end there will be no falling back. Therefore the Avataṃsakasūtra says: 'Day and night, the bodhisattva wishes only to hear the Dharma, delights in the Dharma, enjoys the Dharma, relies on the Dharma, accords with the Dharma, understands the Dharma, follows the Dharma, arrives at the Dharma, abides in the Dharma, and practices the Dharma. Seeking the Buddha-Dharma with such diligence, the bodhisattva has no begrudging attachment to any precious wealth; they do not see any object as hard to obtain or worth prizing, but only produce the thought that a person who can speak the Buddha-Dharma is difficult to encounter. Therefore, in seeking the Buddha-Dharma, the bodhisattva can relinquish and give away internal and external wealth; there is no reverence they cannot practice, no arrogance they cannot abandon, no service they cannot perform, and no hardship they cannot endure. If they hear a single phrase of the Dharma not heard before, they produce great joy, surpassing the obtaining of the great trichiliocosm filled with treasures. If they hear a single gāthā of the true Dharma not heard before, they produce great joy, surpassing the obtaining of the rank of a wheel-turning king. If they obtain a single gāthā of the Dharma not heard before that can purify the bodhisattva practice, it surpasses obtaining the rank of Śakra or a Brahmā king, abiding for immeasurable hundreds of thousands of kalpas. If someone were to say: "I have a single phrase of Dharma spoken by the Buddha that can purify the bodhisattva practice; if you can now enter a great pit of fire and undergo extreme suffering, I will give it to you," the bodhisattva at that time would think: "Because of a single phrase of Dharma spoken by the Buddha that purifies the bodhisattva practice, even if the great trichiliocosm were filled with a great fire, I would still wish to cast myself down from atop the Brahmā heaven to personally receive it; how much more so an insignificant pit of fire, which I could certainly enter! Indeed, for the sake of seeking the Buddha-Dharma, I should now undergo all the sufferings of the hells, not to mention minor afflictions among humans." Bodhisattvas generate such diligent vigor to seek the Buddha-Dharma, and observe and practice in accordance with what they have heard. Having heard the Dharma, this bodhisattva gathers the mind, abides in peace, and in an open, quiet place reflects: "Only by practicing as taught does one attain the Buddha-Dharma; it cannot be purified merely by the words of the mouth."' Again, a verse in the Chapter on the Practices and Vows of Samantabhadra says: 'The ocean of wisdom is vast and hard to measure; / failing to fathom it, one instead increases slander. / A cow drinks water and it becomes milk; / a snake drinks water and it becomes poison. / The wise study and it becomes bodhi; / the foolish study and it becomes saṃsāra. / Failing to comprehend in this way / comes from the fault of scant learning.' A gāthā in the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra says: 'Some take amṛta / and damage life, dying young; / some take amṛta / and attain longevity. / Some take poison and live; / some, due to conditions, take poison and die. / The amṛta of unimpeded wisdom / is the so-called Mahāyāna scriptures. / Such Mahāyāna scriptures / are also called mixed poison. / Like clarified butter, ghee, and the like, / as well as various rock candies, / if digested when taken, they are medicine; / if not digested, they become poison. / The Vaipulya is also like this: / for the wise it is amṛta; / the foolish do not know the buddha-nature, / and taking it, it turns into poison.' Furthermore, it is like the nature of fire in wood, or the nature of curd in milk: if conditions are not yet complete, its presence is the same as absence. The buddha-nature of sentient beings is also like this: if one does not study and does not know, it is not that one does not become a buddha. As the Vajrasamādhisūtra says: 'Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha said: "Venerable One, knowing existence to be unreal is like the water of a mirage; knowing the real to be not non-existent is like the arising of the nature of fire. If one contemplates like this, is this person wise?" The treatise commentary explains: 'As the sūtra says: "If one says phenomena exist, this is an error and delusion like the water of a mirage; if one sees phenomena as non-existent, this is an error like a blind person [asserting there is] no sun. Therefore one knows the real is not non-existent." The meaning of "not non-existent" is like the arising of the nature of fire; that is, just as there is the nature of fire in wood, yet if one analyzes and seeks it, one does not find the characteristic of fire, but it is truly not non-existent—the nature of fire in the wood, when drilled and sought, will inevitably manifest—the one mind is also like this: analyzing all characteristics, one does not find the nature of mind, but the mind within all phenomena is truly not non-existent; when one cultivates the Way and seeks it, the one mind becomes manifest.' Therefore, within the realm of sentient beings, from beginningless time, internally they are tethered by the five skandhas, and externally they are shackled by the six sense dusts. At every turn, conditions appear; wherever the eye rests, passions arise. Like a monkey stuck in five places, like a water beetle clinging to every speck of dust. Therefore, their seeing does not transcend the realm of form, and their hearing does not go beyond the sense dust of sound. Like a fish thrown into a net, like a bird kept in a cage, their advance and retreat are both blocked, like a ram butting a fence; terror and fear arrive together, like swallow chicks nesting in a curtain. If one can know that dust is consciousness and realize that things are only mind, one will not be bound by duration or brevity, and how could one be turned by great or small? One will then be able to manifest traces in accord with conditions, responding to resonance and complying with capacities, without moving from the bodhimanda yet dividing one's body throughout the dharmadhātu, constantly here yet ever there, not abiding in a location yet not departing from a location. Entering this gate of the source is vast like this: it gathers the traces of distinctions and penetrates to the source of equality. Like Mount Vajra, pure with golden light; like the lion king, surrounded by lions; like within the Malaya mountains, producing only sandalwood; like in a campaka forest, smelling only fragrance; comparable to the southern face of Sumeru, where no mixed forms appear; like the great river of golden sand, without any more bends; identical to the power of the vajra axe, where whatever it aims at is reduced to emptiness; equal to the sunlight without obscuration, where everything it shines upon is illuminated. It is like the realm manifested within the Jeta Grove in the Chapter on Entering the Dharmadhātu, where a gāthā says: 'You should contemplate this Jeta Grove: / by the Buddha's spiritual power it is boundless, / all adornments are displayed, / filling the dharmadhātu of the ten directions. / All the lands of the ten directions / with great adornments of boundless varieties, / within the realm of its seats and the like, / all appear clearly in form and image.' It is also like within the hall of the Vairocana Treasury of the maiden Samantamukhā: within every wall, every pillar, every mirror, every characteristic, every form, every maṇi jewel, every ornament, every golden bell, every jewel tree, every jewel image, and every jewel necklace, one sees all the tathāgatas of the dharmadhātu, from their first resolve, cultivating bodhisattva practice, fulfilling great vows, completing virtues, attaining equal and right awakening, turning the wondrous wheel of Dharma, up to displaying their entry into nirvāṇa—all such images appear without exception, just as in pure water one universally sees the space of the sky, the sun, moon, stars, constellations, and all images. It is also like within the residence of the elder Ratnacūḍa, who attained the bodhisattva liberation gate of the inexhaustible treasure of merits: his residence was vast and broad, with ten stories and eight gates. After Sudhana entered, he observed them in sequence, seeing on the lowest story the giving of food and drink; on the second story, the giving of precious garments; on the third story, the giving of all precious ornaments; up to seeing on the tenth story all the tathāgatas filling its interior, from their first resolve, cultivating bodhisattva practice, transcending birth and death, fulfilling great vows, and their spiritual powers, purifying buddha-lands, the assemblies of the bodhimaṇḍa, turning the wheel of the true Dharma, and subduing sentient beings—all of this was seen clearly. Explanation: The boundlessness of the Jeta Grove, the manifestation of the Vairocana Treasury, and the vastness of Ratnacūḍa's residence are all the inconceivable mind, harmonizing and encompassing without obstruction. The ten stories are the ten pāramitās; the eight gates are the eight limbs of the noble path; up to displaying buddha-activities within all ornamental implements—all are the Dharma-gate of the one mind. Substance and function are all-pervading; layer upon layer, they reveal the Way; one by one, they bring forward the source. Because those who are deluded do not awaken and are not clear, and because those who cling make them conditions and objects: just as a blind person does not see, yet it is not that the patterns of the five colors do not exist; just as a deaf person does not hear, how could the sounds of the five notes be cut off? It is also like the śrāvakas in the Jeta Grove not knowing, and the hungry ghosts not seeing the water in the Ganges River: these are all obstructed by their own karma, not that the Dharma is hidden. I now urge those who have not yet awakened to enter directly through observing and listening, like hearing an echo in a valley, where in the end there is no different sound; like seeing a form in a mirror, which is no other substance. Clearly verifiable, it cuts off thought on its own; directly verified without doubt, what before and after is there? How could one say the sage is far away? Realizing it, one is immediately spiritual. How could one say the Way is far away? Touching affairs, it is genuine!