宗鏡錄 40.13.2

40.13.2

The attainment of the fruit merely eradicates the four abidings [of kleśa]. Although persons of the Separate [Teaching] surpass the two vehicles, their cultivation of the cause is biased and their approach is clumsy; they are not praised by the Buddha, and all are inferior to a person of the initial rejoicing with a single thought of complete faith. Furthermore, the Zhiguan says: 'If one can enter the contemplation of mind-only in this way, one is fully endowed with all teaching-gates, comprehensively complete in rules and standards; from the initial mind it conveys practitioners to that parasol of sarvajñatā. That which the Tathāgatas diligently sought through accumulated kalpas and wonderfully awakened to in the place of enlightenment lies precisely herein!' Hence we know that although the myriad paths differ, the one nature is without disparity. If one has not returned to this nature of one's own citta, it is ultimately not consummate; in whatever one undertakes, if mind and object are not extinguished, all falls into saṃsāra and does not enter reality. As the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa says: 'Furthermore, just as water by nature flows downward, gathers and returns to the ocean, merging into a single flavor, all phenomena are also like this: all general characteristics and particular characteristics return to the reality-nature (dharmatā) and become of one same characteristic; this is called the reality-nature. Just as a vajra on a mountain peak gradually bores downward until it reaches the vajra ground-limit, stopping only when it reaches its own nature, all phenomena are also like this: when wisdom's discrimination and analytical inquiry have arrived in Suchness, from Suchness it enters the self-nature; Suchness is without the proliferation of phenomena with beginning and end, arising and ceasing—this is called the reality-nature. Again, just as a calf that wanders about crying stops only when it finds its mother, all phenomena are also like this: diverse and distinct, varying in acceptance and rejection, they stop only upon arriving at their self-nature, beyond which there is no further place—this is called the reality-nature.' Just as when all bodhisattvas seek the path and cultivate practice, if they have not arrived at the mirror of the source, their minds ultimately do not rest. Therefore, the mirror of the source has, in brief, two purports: first, to achieve sudden awakening and know the source; second, to cultivate completely and accomplish the matter. As the Śūraṅgamasūtra says, the Buddha reproached Ānanda, saying: 'It is not that you have through kalpas of toilsome effort realized and cultivated [the path]. Even though you remember and retain the pure, wonderful principles of the twelve divisions of scriptures of the tathāgatas of the ten directions like the sands of the Ganges, it only increases playful proliferation (prapañca). Although you expound causes and conditions and spontaneity, clearly and decisively understood, so that people in the world call you foremost in hearing much, this accumulation of hearing much and perfuming over kalpas could not deliver you from the difficulty with Mātāṅgī. Why did it have to await my Buddha-uṣṇīṣa divine dhāraṇī, so that the fire of lust in Mātāṅgī's citta suddenly subsided, and she attained the anāgāmin fruit, becoming a forest of vigor within my Dharma, with the river of craving drying up and bringing you liberation? Therefore, Ānanda, though you have through kalpas remembered and retained the Tathāgata's secret, wonderful adornments, it is not equal to a single day cultivating untainted karma, leaving far behind the two sufferings of worldly hatred and love. For instance, Mātāṅgī had in past lives been a courtesan; through the power of the divine dhāraṇī her lustful craving was dissolved, and now within the Dharma she is named the bhikṣuṇī Prakṛti. Together with Rāhula's mother, Yaśodharā, they awakened alike to their past causes and knew that the cause across successive lives of lustful desire was suffering. Because of a single thought of perfuming and cultivating untainted good, one escaped the entanglement and one received the prediction [of enlightenment]. Why do you deceive yourself and still tarry in looking and listening?' And further, once Ānanda and the others had awakened, they repeatedly asked again for the wonderful path of practice, as the sūtra says: 'World-Honoured One, though I have now received such Dharma-voice and know the Tathāgatagarbha wonderful enlightened luminous mind pervades the realms of the ten directions, holding and nurturing the Tathāgata's lands of the ten directions, the pure and jewel-adorned lands of the King of Wonderful Enlightenment, the Tathāgata again reproaches much hearing as ineffective and not equaling practical cultivation. I am now like a wandering traveler who is suddenly bestowed a magnificent mansion by a heavenly king; though having obtained the great residence, one must enter through a gate. We only pray that the Tathāgata will not abandon great compassion, but reveal to those of us in the assembly who are benighted the path of original resolve whereby we cast away the lesser vehicle and ultimately attain the Tathāgata's nirvāṇa without remainder.' And then the Buddha told Ānanda: 'If you wish to cast away the śrāvaka [vehicle], cultivate the bodhisattva vehicle, and enter the Buddha's vision and knowledge, you should carefully observe whether the resolve on the causal ground and the enlightenment on the fruitional ground are identical or different. Ānanda, if on the causal ground one takes an arising and ceasing citta as the foundational cause of cultivation and seeks the unarising and unceasing Buddha vehicle, there is no such possibility. For this reason, you should clearly comprehend that the fabricated phenomena of the receptacle worlds all undergo alteration and destruction. Ānanda, look at the fabricated phenomena of the world: which of them is indestructible? Yet one never hears of space rotting away and being destroyed. Why is this? Space is not something that can be fabricated; hence from beginning to end it has no destruction.' Explanation: Examining the correct purport of the various Mahāyāna sūtras, patriarchal teachers, and buddhas, whoever from this day forward succeeds to the Buddha vehicle must first attain the root: awaken to one's own true citta being unarising and unceasing as the cause, and thereafter cure everything universally with the principle of the unarising. Therefore the Huayan lun says: 'If there are residual habit-energies, cure them again with the Buddha's vision and knowledge. If one does not enter the Buddha's vision and knowledge, even if one has practice, it merely results in subjugation; ultimately one cannot enter the swift current of the buddhas.' As the Lotus [Sūtra] clarifies: 'Opening, displaying, awakening to, and entering the vision and knowledge of the buddhas'—it discusses opening and displaying solely within the citta of sentient beings, because the Buddha's vision and knowledge are contained in the citta of sentient beings. If in the Chan lineage, it has also been said from the predecessors down: 'One must first know it exists, and thereafter maintain it.' It is also said: 'Head and tail must match; there must not be any lack in principle or practice, nor should mind and mouth contradict each other. To enter our school [otherwise] is impossible.' If one has not awakened to the unarising principle of one's own citta, but merely takes the arising and ceasing citta as the cause and wishes to seek the unarising fruit, it is like steaming sand to make rice, or planting bitterness to seek sweetness: cause and fruit differ, and substance and function are both lost. Heterodox cultivation and erroneous habituation are like the ninety-six kinds [of non-Buddhists], rubbing the eyes to produce illusory flowers; inclining toward quiescence and grasping the expedient is like the followers of the three vehicles, toiling their spirit and expending their strength. If one enters the mirror of the source, principle and practice are both rounded and complete; it may be called a good physician for the two views, a brilliant sun that reveals the truth. Therefore the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra says: 'For example, although the force of mist and dew wishes to abide, it cannot exceed the rising of the sun; once the sun has risen, they are extinguished without remainder. Good sons, all the evil karma of these sentient beings is also like this: its abiding force in the world cannot exceed beholding the sun of the Great Nirvāṇa; once this sun has risen, it can completely eradicate all evil karma.' When one has not yet encountered the sun of the correct Dharma of the mirror of the source, the ocean of the true wisdom of the one mind—