宗鏡錄 48.31

48.31

Answer: It is excluded by the second characteristic. The treatise says: '2. Having indeterminate nature: If a dharma is neutral and without opposition, capable of admitting impressions, it is then the passive recipient of perfuming. This excludes wholesome and defiled dharmas whose force is intense so that they cannot admit anything, and thus are not passive recipients of perfuming.' The commentary explains: 'To be a recipient of perfuming, it must be exclusively of uniform indeterminate nature; thus, not opposing wholesome or evil natures, it can then receive their perfuming. Now, since the eighth [consciousness] in the Buddha-fruit is of wholesome nature, it does not admit unwholesome or indeterminate natures, and is not a recipient of perfuming. Because the Buddha-fruit is consummate, it is like agarwood or musk, which do not receive the perfuming of foul and filthy things. If it were of unwholesome nature, it would be affliction, and would not admit the perfuming of mental factors such as faith, because they mutually do not admit each other. The nature of the recipient of perfuming is like a magnanimous person of equanimous conduct, who can admit all wholesome and unwholesome matters. An evil-minded person will not do. The eighth consciousness is like a magnanimous person of equanimous conduct, capable of admitting all impressions; possessing this characteristic, it is then called a recipient of perfuming. The Tathāgata's eighth undefiled, pure consciousness merely carries these old seeds that were perfumed while on the causal stage; it does not receive new perfuming, because being exclusively wholesome, it opposes the unwholesome and the like.' It also says: 'Wholesome and defiled dharmas are like agarwood and musk, or asafoetida and garlic, and therefore do not receive perfuming. Indeterminate dharmas are like plain white silk, and therefore can receive perfuming. Just as good does not admit evil, like white not receiving black; and evil does not admit good, like foulness not admitting fragrance—only the containment of the fundamental consciousness is vast in its admission, like the great void.'