宗鏡錄 5.3

5.3

Answer: The original mind is tranquil and still, beyond characteristics and detached from words. Although its nature is inherently so, because it does not maintain its nature, it becomes defiled or pure according to conditions. It is just like single [body of] water: if a jewel is placed in it, it becomes clear; if dust mixes with it, it becomes turbid. It is also like the single sky: if clouds veil it, it becomes dark; if the moon appears, it becomes pure. Therefore the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa says: 'It is like the pure water of a pool: if a mad elephant enters it, it makes it turbid; if a water-clearing jewel enters it, the water becomes pure. One cannot say that apart from the water there is no elephant and no jewel. The mind is also like this: because kleśas enter it, they can make the mind turbid; when good dharmas such as various [forms of] compassion enter the mind, they make the mind pure.' Yet defilement and purity are not fixed; the real and the false depend on conditions. If one is deluded about it, then from thought to thought one transmigrates, losing the true nature. If one illuminates it, then from mind to mind there is quiescence and extinction, perfectly realizing nirvāṇa. Therefore we know that the real and the false are without cause; words and explanations are in vain. In terms of the real, there is no explanation; in terms of explanation, there is no real. All of this is mad confusion, established by emotional thinking: a thousand paths compete to arise, like being deluded in vain about Yajñadatta's head; the moment a single dharma arises, it merely manifests the shadow of a gandharva[nagara]. Because sentient beings do not exhaust the limit of reality and merely comply with mad emotions, the holy ones bend to accord with capacities and needs, joining in the same activities: using a wedge to remove a wedge, they speak of the false and turn from the false back to the real; using the coarse to receive the coarse, they present characteristics and through characteristics open up the nature. If one did not grasp at the false, one would not even speak of the real; the moment the illusory shadows vanish, the flames of the light of wisdom subside. The Śūraṅgamasūtra says: 'The Buddha told Ānanda: The quintessential, real, marvelous, and luminous original enlightenment is perfectly pure; it does not retain birth and death, nor any defiling dust, up to and including space—all are brought about by false thoughts. This original, marvelously luminous, true essence of original enlightenment falsely brings forth the container worlds, like Yajñadatta who, bewildered about his head, took shadows to be real. The false is originally without cause; within false thought, the nature of causes and conditions is established. Those who are confused about causes and conditions call it spontaneity. That nature of space is yet born from real illusion; causes and conditions and spontaneity are both the false mind's reckonings of sentient beings. Ānanda, knowing whence the false arises, one speaks of the causes and conditions of the false. If the false is originally non-existent, the causes and conditions spoken of for the false are originally non-existent as well—how much more so if one does not know this and attributes it to spontaneity!' Master Zhao, examining the source from which the false arises, established the 'Chapter on the Primal Limit,' saying: 'The primal limit is indeed the nature of unhindered nirvāṇa of all sentient beings. Why is there suddenly such a false mind and various inverted [views]? It is merely due to a single thought of a deluded mind. This single thought arises from the One. Furthermore, this One arises from the inconceivable. The inconceivable is that which has nowhere to arise. Therefore a scripture says: "The Dao first generates the One; the One refers to the unconditioned. The One generates the Two; the Two refers to the false mind, up to the Three generating the myriad dharmas." Since it is conditioned by the unconditioned that there is mind, and conditioned by the existence of mind that there is form, therefore the scripture says: "Various minds and forms." For this reason, the mind generates myriad thoughts, and form gives rise to myriad facets; harmonizing with karmic conditions, they thereupon become the seeds of the triple world. The reason there is a triple world is that because of grasping at the origin and being deluded about the true One, there is turbidity and humiliation generating its false energy. The clear, subtle [energy] is the formless realm, which is what is called the mind. The turbid and humiliating [energy] that settles is the form realm, which is what is called the body. The dispersed dregs and filth are the desire realm, which are what are called the dusts and objects.' Therefore a scripture says: 'The triple world is false and unreal, merely the transformation of a single false mind.' When internally the One arises, externally there is the unconditioned. When internally the Two arises, externally there is the conditioned. When internally the Three arises, externally there is the triple world. Since the internal and external correspond, various dharmas and kleśas like the sands of the Ganges are thereupon produced. Therefore we know that within the triple world, there is not a single dharma that is not born from one's own mind. Due to the mind's thoughts and memories, it discriminates and constructs, like the power of an illusionist's art transforming the myriad things. Externally they seem to appear, but their appearance has no nature of appearance; they are born solely from one's own mind. Deluded and inverted people grasp at them as external objects; distinguishing them according to the objects, beauty and ugliness are naturally differentiated. The moment feelings of attraction and aversion arise, the traces of defilement and toil are produced. Therefore Master Yuan said: 'From where does the primal origin ultimately come? Arising and ceasing have no limit. A single subtle [thought] enters the realm of motion, producing this crumbling mountain's momentum.' If only the internal One does not arise, then the various existences do not exist. If one wishes to plug the cave of kleśas and cut off the root and trunk of birth and death, one needs only to internally contemplate the non-arising of a single thought; then the sky-flowers of the triple world will be like wind rolling up smoke, and the illusory shadows of the six sense-objects will be like hot water poured on snow—vast and boundless, there is solely the one true mind. The Sūtra on the Expedients of Advancing toward the Mahāyāna says: 'The Buddha said: The realm of the one reality refers to the substance of the minds of sentient beings, which from the beginning has never been born and never ceased, up to the minds of all sentient beings, the minds of all of the two vehicles, the minds of all bodhisattvas, and the minds of all buddhas, which are all equally unborn and unceasing, because they have the characteristic of tathatā. Even if one were to seek the shape of the mind throughout the space of the ten directions in all worlds, there is not a single division that could be found. It is merely through the conditions of the perfuming of the darkness of ignorance of sentient beings that false realms appear, causing thoughts of attachment to arise. That is, this mind cannot know itself, but falsely considers itself to exist, gives rise to conceptions of awareness and knowing, and calculates "I" and "mine"; yet in reality there is no characteristic of awareness and knowing, because this false mind ultimately has no substance and cannot be seen. If there were no awareness and knowing that could discriminate, then there would be no differentiated characteristics of all realms in the ten directions and the three times. Because all dharmas cannot exist of themselves, they always exist based on the discrimination of the false mind. That is, all realms do not each think of themselves as existing, knowing "this is self" or knowing "that is other." Therefore, all dharmas cannot exist of themselves and have no distinctions; it is solely based on the false mind's failure to comprehend and failure to know—because internally it is inherently non-existent—that it asserts there are external knowable objects before it, falsely producing various conceptions of dharmas: asserting existence, asserting non-existence, asserting good, asserting bad, asserting right, asserting wrong, asserting gain, asserting loss, up to producing immeasurable and boundless conceptions of dharmas. It should be known in this way: all dharmas arise from false thought, taking the false mind as their basis. However, because this false mind has no intrinsic characteristic, it also exists based on objects. That is, because it conditions, thinks of, senses, and knows the objects before it, it is called "mind." Furthermore, although this false mind and the objects before it are mutually dependent and their arising has no before or after, this false mind is able to be the primal master of all objects. Why is this? It is because, based on the false mind's failure to comprehend the single characteristic of the dharmadhātu, the mind is said to have avidyā. Relying on the causal condition of the power of avidyā, false objects appear; also relying on the cessation of avidyā, all objects cease. It is not based on all objects themselves failing to comprehend that objects are said to have avidyā, nor is it based on objects that avidyā arises, because all buddhas do not give rise to avidyā with respect to all objects. Moreover, it is not based on the cessation of objects that the mind of avidyā ceases, because all objects from the beginning have their nature intrinsically extinguished and have never existed. Due to this meaning, therefore it is only said that all dharmas take the mind as their basis. One should know that all dharmas are completely named "mind," because their meaning and substance are not different, being subsumed by the mind. Furthermore, all dharmas arise from the mind, serve as characteristics for the mind, exist in combination, are born together and cease together, and equally have no abiding. Because all objects merely follow that which is conditioned by the mind and continue from thought to thought, they are able to abide and temporarily exist.' As extensively cited above from the Buddha's words, in detail, depth, and precision, it is solely to establish the faith of later students and clarify our own minds. The Baocang lun says: 'When an ancient mirror reflects an essence, that essence forms itself. When the ancient teaching illuminates the mind, that mind clarifies itself.' One should know that the one mind pervades all minds; there is no dust that can be different. All natures contain the one nature; all existing dharmas are the same. It is formless and thoroughly clears space; who distinguishes self and other? Searching for traces, let it exhaust the dharmadhātu; not a hair can be found. Why does it manifest right now in the realm of sentient beings? This is entirely because the accumulation of false thoughts has perfumed and formed it, like dust on a mirror seeming to block the light and reflection, or like fog in the sky temporarily muddying the clear void. As long as there is a single dharma appearing before one, it is all the discrimination of one's own mind. Even if a single thought has just arisen, it is entirely drawn forth by illusory objects; their arising and ceasing are simultaneous, with no before and after. If one knows that the grasper and the grasped have no substance, one suddenly awakens to the emptiness of person and the emptiness of dharmas. When one suddenly comprehends that things and the self have no reliance, one first has faith that objects are quiescent and the mind is quiescent. Moreover, the mind's arising is not caused by that: the object has never arisen; the mind's ceasing is also not caused by the other: the object has never ceased. One should know that objects arise due to the mind and also perish following the mind. It is only that when the mind arises, objects do not arise; when the mind ceases, objects do not cease. It is like a mother fish thinking of her fishlings, or like a queen bee gathering the host of bees: if the mother fish does not think of them, the fishlings die; if the queen bee does not gather them, the host of bees scatters. Therefore, when there is a mind that conditions and thinks, the myriad objects run rampant; when there is no thought remembering and holding, not a speck of dust appears. In the end, there is no dharma outside the mind that can serve as a condition for the mind; it is merely that one's own mind arises and turns back to serve as characteristics for the mind. Therefore the Laṅkāvatārasūtra says: 'Failing to realize the boundaries manifested by one's own mind; failing to realize that internal consciousness transforms and externally manifests as form—it is merely what is manifested by one's own mind; not penetrating such boundaries is called the theory of bad views.' Because of not knowing that it is mind-manifested and giving rise to views of distinction, it is called 'boundaries.' From this we know that if one is not within the correct meaning of the mirror of the source, all the understandings one has are the factions of heterodox paths; even if expressed in speech, they all fall into debates of bad views. This Dharma meaning of the mirror of the source can be relied upon as a standard; its correct principle is without error and can be practiced accordingly. Gaining power in the present, myriad heterodoxies cannot turn its import; a thousand holy ones do not alter its standard. Thus it can wash away the dust of delusion, dissolve stagnant worries, make the hidden heart tranquil, and open the spiritual chest. It is uniquely marvelous and peerless; therefore it is the unequalled.