宗鏡錄 43.11

43.11

[The Master] replied: If one sees stillness, that itself is an act of intention. Therefore the mental faculty is difficult to transcend; movement and quietude both fall into [the realm of] mental objects. Hence we know that these are all cultivating Chan by clinging to views, proclaiming a sickness to be the Dharma. It is like steaming sand to make rice, or climbing a tree to seek fish—wasting effort and toiling in vain, mistakenly passing through dust-like kalpas. Furthermore, in the sūtras, the Buddha's words are profound and subtle, which means they are expressions of meaning rather than mere letters, unlike the coarse and superficial views of sentient beings' passions, which are mere letters and words rather than real meaning. Moreover, if one clings to allowing things to take their course and being unattached, one falls completely into wrong views; but if one attains the gateways of the siddhānta expedients, all become the correct teaching. Therefore, medicine and sickness are hard to discern, and both grasping and rejecting are wrong. One need only directly awaken to one's own mind, and naturally the path of words and thought is severed, objective realm and wisdom both vanish, and person and phenomena are both empty. Within the three karmas of sentient beings, the vision and knowledge of the Buddha are opened up; inside the five aggregates of birth and death, great bodhi is revealed. Then the golden texts of definitive meaning can serve as a plumb line, and a spiritual guide rooted in reality is worthy of being a true refuge. Thus the torch of wisdom increases its radiance, shining across the bounds of the ten directions; the flower of the mind blossoms with splendor, flourishing within the dharmadhātu. Furthermore, if one deeply penetrates this source, neither gathering nor restraining, then concepts and thoughts become wisdom, and in speech or silence one is united with the real. The samādhis of entering and emerging are difficult to approach; thoughts of delight and revulsion cannot reach it. Thus it is said: delighting in stillness is inappropriate, and laxity is also wrong. As the Huayan lun says: Samantabhadra's three karmas and the realm of his seat could not be seen by Samantaprabha and other bodhisattvas through samādhis of entering and emerging. Therefore, the metaphor of various illusory characteristics in illusory arts and letters having no place of abiding was presented, to clarify that the substance of illusory arts and letters is completely without location. How could it be sought? It cannot be sought through the location of the samādhi of entering and emerging. Casting off that sinking stillness, production and destruction, they were instead made to generate concepts and thoughts, to clarify that the active function of concepts and thoughts is in its substance everywhere pervasive, functioning while constantly still, and not something that must be further extinguished. Therefore Samantabhadra, using diamond-like wisdom, universally entered the dharmadhātu, traversing nothing and abiding nowhere in any world; knowing that the bodies of all sentient beings are non-bodies, without coming or going, he attained unceasing, non-differentiated, sovereign supernormal powers. This clarifies that leaving things to their own reality is called 'divine' (shen); not acting, not thinking, neither concentrated nor distracted, neither coming nor going, wisdom freely pervasively operates, benefiting sentient beings with sovereignty, responding and manifesting according to their faculties—this is called 'penetration' (tong). When the ten thousand dharmas are like this—free from entering or emerging from concentration and distraction—only then does it match the functions of the three karmas and the seat practiced by Samantabhadra. For instance, the size of the seat of a bodhisattva of the tenth bhūmi is only said to measure the size of a trichiliocosm; but the measure of this seat of Samantabhadra is equal in measure to empty space and the great lotus-treasury of all dharmadhātus. Hence we clearly know that the measure of the tenth-bhūmi bodhisattva's wisdom is still separated [from this]. Because they ascended to this stage with such disparity, entering and emerging from such inexpressible gateways of samādhi, they still had the obstruction of the limitations of quietude and function, and had not yet attained the post-tenth-bhūmi fruition stage of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra's great sovereignty. Therefore, they sought Samantabhadra three times, advanced in three stages, and only after generating concepts and thoughts did he finally manifest his body and expound the realm of the ten samādhis. The intention was to reprimand those of the tenth bhūmi for still having a search directed toward the realm of world-transcendence, birth and death, not yet being equal to the sovereign free functioning throughout the ten directions. For this reason, the Tathāgata taught them to generate concepts and thoughts instead, to remove the tenth-bhūmi defiled habit of a world-transcending pure mind. This clarifies that the tenth bhūmi still has the residual affliction of latent habit regarding the true, the conventional, and the world-transcending. The meaning above clarifies that this is to remedy the bodhisattvas of the tenth bhūmi, whose two habits regarding the true and the conventional are not yet eradicated, whose two habits regarding stillness and distraction are not yet exhausted, and who have the habit of entering and emerging with respect to the various samādhis. Thus they had not yet attained the ability to constantly enter birth and death, like empty space, without an agent, yet constantly all-pervading, not grasped by limits and measures, having all sentient beings as well as their realms as substance. Samantabhadra's wisdom is like empty space, taking all sentient beings as its living substance. For those sentient beings who are themselves deluded about wisdom, it is called avidyā. Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, according to their deluded circumstances, manifests physical bodies before them in the worlds of the ten directions. Because wisdom has no substantial body, like empty space, is not of a fabricated nature, has no coming or going, and is neither arising nor ceasing, he merely uses the ocean of wisdom equal to empty space to awaken them from delusion where all sentient beings are. Because wisdom has neither substance nor characteristic, it can follow the great function that equals the dharmadhātu and space. How could the various bodhisattvas of the tenth bhūmi, by using the samādhi of entering and emerging, make deductions and seek it? How could they see it? Therefore, the Tathāgata spoke to the bodhisattvas: Can the substance and characteristics of illusory arts and letters be found when sought? No. Even the mind that seeks the illusion cannot be found; how could there be an illusory characteristic to seek? Therefore, seeking Samantabhadra's body of skillful wisdom, which has great function and is without reliance, through the samādhi of entering and emerging and with an inquiring mind, is entirely unattainable. Therefore, he taught the bodhisattvas to instead generate concepts and thoughts and earnestly make three prostrations. Only then did Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, with supernormal power, manifest his body as appropriate. This clarifies that the wisdom-body cannot be sought through the location of a samādhi, because the substance of wisdom abides nowhere and has no reliance. If there are concepts, thoughts, aspirations, and wishes, then he manifests transformations as appropriate, without having any location or basis, just like an echo in a valley that simply produces a sound responding to things; if there is seeking, there is no location to be found. The Buddha said: 'Bodhisattva Samantabhadra is now present in the assembly of this bodhimanda, abiding close to me, without ever having moved.' This clarifies that by fundamental wisdom, its nature is inherently free from reliance, which is called 'being present in this bodhimanda.' Because it remedies the aggregates of all views that grasp at attainment, using the universally illuminating wisdom of unobstructed universality, particularity, identity, and difference, its substance is identical with the great function of all the buddhas of the ten directions, which is called the 'assembly.' The boundless ocean of differentiated wisdom functions equally at once without moving from the substance of fundamental wisdom; wisdom that neither relies on nor abides anywhere is called 'abiding close to me, without ever having moved.'