[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Taishō Tripiṭaka (Chinese Buddhist canon)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho) › [宗鏡錄](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016) › [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt) › 44.3.2 # 宗鏡錄 44.3.2 English (machine translation) 44.3.2 - **Language:** English ### [44.3.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt.44.3.2) '\[thought-moments\] change in every thought-moment. Now, when you were three years old and looked upon this river, and then when you reached thirteen years of age, how was that water?' The King replied, 'It was just as when I was three years old, perfectly the same without difference, even down to the present when I am sixty-two, there is also no difference.' The Buddha said, 'You now lament that your hair is white and your face is wrinkled. Your face is certainly more wrinkled than in your childhood; then when you view this Ganges River now, compared to the sight of viewing the river in childhood past, is there youth and old age \[in that seeing\]?' The King replied, 'No, World-Honoured One.' The Buddha said, 'Great King! Although your face is wrinkled, the nature of this essential seeing has never wrinkled. That which wrinkles undergoes change; that which does not wrinkle does not change. That which changes is subject to cessation; that which does not change originally has no arising or ceasing. How could it undergo your birth and death within it, yet you still cite such \[teachers\] as Maskarin \[Gośālīputra\] and others who all say that this body is completely annihilated after death?' When the King heard these words, he believed and knew that after this body \[perishes\], one abandons this life and proceeds to another life. Together with the great assembly, he danced with joy, having attained what he had never had before. Furthermore, as among the eight consciousnesses of sentient beings, the first five sense-faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body, as well as the eighth consciousness, all take direct perception (pratyakṣa) as their cognitive condition and grasp the self-nature of phenomena without bearing any names or words, and are also without the two kinds of conceptual discrimination—calculative discrimination and recollective discrimination; thus they are immediately manifest, non-arising, and non-ceasing. If it is the sixth and seventh consciousnesses, they fall into the two pramāṇas of inference and non-perception, and possess both calculative and recollective discrimination; thus in every thought-moment they constantly arise and cease. This is also having a non-arising and non-ceasing nature within arising and ceasing. The above is the scriptural text. This is because King Ajātaśatru displayed doubt, and in order to refute the heterodox view of annihilationism, there was this skillful means distinguishing the two natures of arising-and-ceasing and non-arising-and-ceasing. If a person does not cling to annihilationism or eternalism and sees the nature, then the eight consciousnesses as sovereign minds share the identical one true nature; they are all the true mark, devoid of arising and ceasing. As the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa states: 'You should know that when form arises, it is merely emptiness arising; when form ceases, it is merely emptiness ceasing.' A verse in the Madhyamakaśāstra states: 'No thing arises from conditions; no thing ceases from conditions. Arising is merely conditions arising; ceasing is merely conditions ceasing.' Therefore we know that the myriad phenomena neither arise from conditions nor do they not arise from conditions. Furthermore, they are neither non-empty nor do they arise; being empty, they also do not arise. Why is this? If all phenomena were non-empty, then there would be no arising, because it is by their emptiness of self-nature that they are able to follow conditions and form all illusory existences. If all phenomena were empty, there would also be no arising, because lacking self-substance, there would be no mark of arising. Since there is no arising, there is also no ceasing. As the treatise verse states: 'The fruit is not non-empty and does not arise; the fruit is not non-empty and does not cease. Because the fruit is not non-empty, it neither arises nor ceases. The fruit is empty, therefore it does not arise; the fruit is empty, therefore it does not cease. Because the fruit is empty, it neither arises nor ceases.' They merely manifest according to the mind, and are ultimately without arising. As the Śūraṅgamasūtra states: 'The Buddha said: Good men, I have constantly said that all conditions of form and mind, as well as mental factors and all conditioned dharmas, are merely manifestations of the mind. Your bodies and your minds are all objects manifested within the wondrous, luminous, true essence of the wondrous mind. Why do you lose your fundamentally wondrous, completely wondrous luminous mind and your precious luminous wondrous nature, accepting delusion within awakening? It is dimmed and clouded into emptiness; within the dim and clouded emptiness, darkness congeals into form. Form is intermingled with false thoughts, and thoughts take form as the body. Condensing conditions stir internally, and rush outwardly in pursuit; taking the confused and turbulent characteristics to be the mind-nature, once you are deluded regarding the mind, you determinately mistake it to be inside the physical body. You do not know that the physical body, outward to the mountains, rivers, empty space, and the great earth, are all objects within the wondrous luminous true mind. It is like abandoning hundreds of thousands of clear and calm great oceans, only grasping at the body of a single floating bubble and regarding it as the entire ocean, exhausting all the vast seas. You are indeed doubly deluded among the deluded. Just as my hand hanging down has no difference \[from hanging up\], the Tathāgata calls such people pitiable.' As stated above, the seeing-nature is all-pervading and serene, like a mirror constantly bright, like empty space unmoving. The myriad images naturally appear and disappear, while the single nature has never come or gone. Merely following the conditions of arising and ceasing, one abandons this wondrous luminous nature. Therefore all ancestral teachings point to seeing the nature and recognizing the mind; it is not produced by generative causes, but is only revealed by revealing causes. The characteristics are coarse and easy to distinguish; the nature is subtle and hard to comprehend. Where it follows transformations, it is not known; when in illumination, it is then understood. Those who do not see it now are all led astray by the mind of the three delusions, shifted by the objects of the six sense-dusts, not knowing that the objective realms are originally oneself, turning around so that the host is deluded by the guest. If one can merely grasp the nature while following the flow, naturally there will be no doubt. Furthermore, there are those who say: 'Prajñā is only united through spiritual resonance; transmitting mind with mind, it only then forms the secret transmission; it cannot be sought through verbal traces or phenomenal appearances.' This was stated for those who have not yet entered, to reveal the source and break attachments, fearing that they would grasp marks, turn their backs on the mind, and seek understanding through sentimental concepts; hence this was said. If we discuss it synthetically, then following conditions, its substance is wondrous, and identical with characteristics, it is ever true. Furthermore, when one correctly sees a characteristic, who is it that sees the characteristic? Because the six sense-dusts are dull, names do not establish themselves, and characteristics do not display themselves. Because the six sense-faculties are sharp, they forcibly establish themselves as cognitive objects. If one can understand that the objective realm is fundamentally quiescent, consciousness is naturally unproduced; then entering equal true emptiness, this alone can be called the ultimate seeing of the nature. Therefore it is said: 'The seeing-nature is all-pervading; if it is not you, who is it?' As for the hearing-nature: the present hearing-nature possesses three realities. Mañjuśrī selected it, and it can be known by immediate realization. Avalokiteśvara entered the gate, and the perfect penetration was immediately verified. It is not obtained through practice; it does not fall into the conditioned; how could it rely on effort to be accomplished? It is fundamentally like this. A verse in the Śūraṅgamasūtra states: 'For example, when a person resides quietly, / and drums are beaten simultaneously in the ten directions, / they are heard at once in the ten places; / this then is the reality of roundness. / The eyes cannot see beyond an obstruction, / and the mouth and nose are likewise so; / the body knows only by contact, / and mental thoughts are tangled without order. / Hearing sounds across a wall, / both far and near can be heard; / the five faculties are not equal \[to it\]— / this then is the reality of penetration. / The nature of sound is movement and stillness, / which in hearing are presence and absence. / Absence of sound is called not hearing, / not that hearing truly lacks its nature. / Since the absence of sound does not perish...' - [Previous: 44.3.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt.44.3.1) - [Next: 44.3.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt.44.3.3) - [Up: 44.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt.44.3) ## Linked texts (1) - [宗鏡錄](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016.44.3.2) — Classical Chinese --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt.44.3.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt.44.3.2) · Pramāṇa