宗鏡錄 43.7

43.7

Answer: All activities are nothing other than the work of the Buddha; all are capable of awakening to the Way, and all are entryways. Therefore, in the Buddha-land of Samantabhadra, staring with fixed eyes serves as the work of the Buddha; in Jambudvīpa, sounds serve as the work of the Buddha; up to mountains, seas, pavilions, terraces, clothing, food, drinks, speech and silence, motion and stillness—in their distinct characteristics and activities, when each and every one brings forth the source, all enter the dharmadhātu. One simply accords with conditions to realize the wondrousness of the substance, and confronting objects, recognizes the mind; even seeing forms and hearing sounds can both bring realization of the fruit. Fluttering flowers and clinking bracelets are all entirely capable of lodging the spirit. As a treatise says: There was a king who observed fluttering flowers and moving leaves, thereby attaining the state of a pratyekabuddha. As for the clinking bracelets, a meditation sūtra says: A king ordered palace women to massage his body; because the clinking of their bangles and bracelets was noisy, he had them gradually reduce the bracelets until only one remained, whereupon there was no more sound. Through reflecting that this sound arose from causes and conditions, he was awakened as a pratyekabuddha. It is also like the monkey who saw a pratyekabuddha sitting in meditation; later in another place, seeing various non-Buddhists practicing various austerities, it taught the non-Buddhists to sit cross-legged, hold their mouths with their hands, and close their eyes. The non-Buddhists sighed in admiration, saying, 'There must be a superior teaching [here].' The non-Buddhists accepted the instruction, and all realized the state of a pratyekabuddha. Thus we know that as long as one follows the teaching and practices—relying on the Dharma and not on persons—there is none who does not realize the fruit. Only those who lack faith are excluded, whom even a thousand Buddhas cannot save. As the Avataṃsakasūtra says: Faith is like hands; if a person has hands, upon reaching a place of rare treasures, they gather them at will. If they lack hands, they come away empty-handed with nothing obtained. In the same way, those who enter the Buddhadharma have hands of faithful mind, gathering the treasures of the Dharma of the Way at will. If they lack a faithful mind, they obtain nothing in emptiness. As the ancients said: 'A person without the Way is like a cart without an axle; a cart without an axle cannot be harnessed, and a person without the Way cannot proceed.' It is also said: 'The gentleman has no close associates who do not share the same Way.' How could one solely adopt a slighting attitude of emptiness and not diligently seek the ultimate Way? This Record of the Mirror of the Source is a collection of rare treasures, able to obtain the unexcelled great bodhi Dharma-jewel of all Buddhas and all inconceivable merits; hence it is a pure collection, for it is free from the defilements of the sixty-two wrong views and the turbidities of the eighty-four thousand kleśas. It can fulfill all the wishes of sentient beings and purify the minds of all sentient beings. As the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa says: This prajñāpāramitā is not attached even to ultimate emptiness, nor is it attached to the inconceivable; therefore it is named a pure collection. At that time, Subhūti should have thought: This prajñāpāramitā is a collection of rare treasures, able to fulfill all the wishes of sentient beings—namely the happiness of this present world, the happiness of nirvāṇa, and the happiness of anuttarāsamyaksaṃbodhi. Yet foolish people again wish to destroy it. This prajñāpāramitā is a pure collection, like a wish-fulfilling jewel without blemish or impurity, further like empty space without dust or defilement. Prajñāpāramitā is ultimately a pure collection; yet people themselves give rise to the causes and conditions of wrong views, wishing to create obstacles and destroy it. For example, a person with cataracts in their eyes sees a wondrous rare treasure and calls it impure. Thus we know that flowers in the sky arise from diseased eyes, while the sky is originally without flowers; wrong views arise from a deluded mind, while the Dharma is originally without views. Furthermore, if with an evil mind of disbelief one wishes to disparage and destroy the correct meaning of prajñā in the Mirror of the Source, one will only bring upon oneself the sin of slander; how could the wondrous purport suffer any loss? It is like a person parrying a spear with their bare hand: they only injure their own hand, while the spear suffers no damage. Indeed, when prajñā is spoken of, the blessing is great, but slandering it also incurs profound sin. If one follows emotional sentiments and understands erroneously, up to and including disbelief and the like, all constitute slander. As the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra says: I now speak the Viyākaraṇa Treatise for the śrāvaka disciples and others—namely, that the Tathāgata remains constantly without changing. If anyone says that the Tathāgata is impermanent, how could that person's tongue not fall to the ground? If one can possess right faith and a perfect understanding without deviation, then every realm and all of space will be equally a wondrous realization. In the Śūraṅgama assembly, the Buddha told Ānanda: The Tathāgatas of the ten directions, practicing on each of the eighteen dhātus, all attained the consummation of unexcelled bodhi; between them there is neither superior nor inferior. It is only that you are inferior, unable to consummate sovereign wisdom among them; therefore I proclaim [this] to make you enter deeply through a single gate. Entering one without falsity, those six cognitive faculties are purified simultaneously. Thus, Kauṇḍinya was awakened to the Way through sound; Upaniṣad was awakened to the Way through form; the youth Gandhavat was awakened to the Way through scent; up to Ākāśagarbha Bodhisattva who was awakened to the Way through empty space. Thus we know that one's own nature pervades all places; all are paths of entry. How could it be confined to a single gate, so that one exclusively relies on the ignorance of a gnat and conversely relies on the capacity of a wren? Moreover, the Dharma has neither slowness nor swiftness, but views have shallowness and depth; each gate of obstruction depends on its own lightness or heaviness. Thus Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī's verse says: / In returning to the origin, the nature is not two; / Yet expedient means have many gates. / The nature of the sage is unobstructed everywhere; / Conforming or reversing are all expedient means. / When beginners enter samādhi, / Slowness and swiftness are not of the same order. / Within this Record of the Mirror of the Source, all are the inconceivable Dharma-gates of great majestic virtue of the Buddhas of the ten directions. Like the blazing disc of the sun, how could it be looked upon by an infant? Like a high and lofty Dharma-seat, it cannot be mounted by the short and base. Only Mañjuśrī the great personage, Samantabhadra the eldest son, and those of the highest faculties can be capable of this. As the Huayan lun says: King Prabhāsa entered the samādhi headed by the bodhisattva's great compassion, manifesting the beneficial sovereignty of the functioning of his compassionate mind in order to let later practitioners emulate it, so as to clarify that unattached wisdom enters into the minds of all sentient beings, having the same substance with them without a different nature. The sentient and the insentient are completely identical in substance. Due to the karma induced by entering this samādhi, he caused all sentient beings, as well as forests and gushing springs, to all flow toward him, all lower their branches, and all bow their heads; yakṣas and rākṣasas all ceased their evils. This clarifies that wisdom follows all sentient beings, having the same function with them in one single nature without duality. Just as an earthly monarch possesses compassion toward people, dragon spirits submit in obedience, and phoenixes gather and qilin soar; how much more so with humans—how could they not turn to him in reverence? How much more so for this King Prabhāsa, whose wisdom penetrated the true origin, whose practice equaled the dharmadhātu, who was headed by a compassionate mind, whose spirit united with all sentient creatures, who shared the same light with all things, and who served as the root and branch of all existence! Like a mani jewel sharing the color of an object while its original color is not violated; like sage wisdom having no mind of its own, taking the mind of things as its mind without violating things. This clarifies that the great compassionate mind of identical substance functions together with things, manifesting a physical body before them to cause them to be enlightened. Therefore, mountains, plains, and all grasses and trees all turned toward the king in homage; ponds, pools, springs, wells, and rivers and oceans all surged, overflowed, and poured before the king—because in the realm of wisdom and great compassion, the Dharma inherently functions like this. If it were a realm transformed by the emotional consciousness of sentient beings, sentient beings could not do this. Just as the realms within the Lotus Treasury World all perform the work of the Buddha because they are the realm of wisdom and not produced by emotion, so the sage uses wisdom to integrate emotion, causing the insentient grasses, trees, mountains, springs, rivers, and oceans obtained as retribution by sentient beings to all turn in accord with wisdom, taking the branches as the root. Just as in the mundane world, when someone has devotion and filial piety in their heart, a frozen pond surges with fish and winter bamboo sprouts shoots—even mundane things are still like this; how much more so for true wisdom that follows compassion? Thus we know that if one attains the wondrous function of the dharmadhātu, how could its function ever be exhausted? Arising dependently from within the true nature, nothing that arises is not wondrous; then there is no principle that is not phenomenon. The Buddhadharma is precisely mundane dharmas; how could one select the right and reject the wrong? There is no phenomenon that is not principle; mundane dharmas are precisely the Buddhadharma; why must one reject the secular and exalt the true? It is only because they have not entered the Mirror of the Source that their objects and wisdom have not vanished; giving rise to dream-like thoughts, distinct dharmas appear before them; producing flame-like notions, disparate paths encounter each other in response. This leads to grasping and rejecting, which runs contrary to the perfect and eternal. Therefore, that they cannot view clamor and stillness as identical, nor transform good and evil alike, is only because they have not yet heard the Mirror of the Source.