宗鏡錄 45.20

45.20

Answer: 'Did not Nāgārjuna and Vasubandhu enter the non-dual Dharma gate together? Now, originally for the sake of the Buddha's teachings, according to the meanings, where there is an opening, it is used for explanation; how could there be a fixed grasp of accepting and rejecting? If discriminating the bound defilements and birth-and-death beyond the triple realm, as well as the names and meanings of the various practices, one should closely investigate what Vasubandhu composed. If it is the contemplation gate of dispelling and emptying, pacifying the citta to enter the Way, what surpasses Nāgārjuna? If one does not take the Daśabhūmivyākhyāna and Mahāyānasaṃgraha to reflect and correlate with each other, others might say that regarding non-principles, one forcefully speaks in various manners.' Therefore we know that the compositions of the bodhisattvas, every single one of them, are connected with the sacred scriptures; they did not emerge from their own minds. Extensively citing them as evidence is to give rise to the wisdom derived from hearing. The grand purpose of compiling the Mirror of the Source is also the same. If one does not first illuminate the treatises on consciousness by Vasubandhu, Dharmapāla, and others, dissecting the subtle birth-and-death of faculties and dusts, how could one rely on Nāgārjuna's contemplation gate to dispel and empty them? If there were no distinction, there would be nothing to harmonize. If one does not first take the pulse and examine the root of the illness, how can one prescribe the wondrous medicine according to the formula? Just take Vimalakīrti: his position approached equal enlightenment, yet he still had the illness of the real cause of uneliminated primal avidyā, and the illness of the real fruit of experiencing a future existence of birth-and-death still remained.