宗鏡錄 50.3

50.3

Answer: It is real, and it is provisional; it must not be dogmatically grasped. The Śūraṅgamasūtra says: "The ādāna is a subtle and minute consciousness, / Its habitual propensities becoming a torrent. / Fearing that [people] would be confused about whether it is real or not real, / I have always refrained from expounding it." The explanation says: In Sanskrit, ādāna is translated here as "appropriating consciousness." The substance of this consciousness is pure, but perfumed by avidyā, like water and milk difficult to distinguish; only a buddha can comprehend it. Because of unawakened delusive defilement, it forms habitual propensities, transforming and giving rise to the torrent and waves of the prior seven consciousnesses, surging into an ocean of saṃsāra. If, through great awakening, it is suddenly comprehended, it becomes the untainted pure consciousness, maintaining without interruption, exhaustively throughout future time, performing great buddha-works, capable of accomplishing an ocean of wisdom. "Fearing that [people] would be confused about whether it is real or not real" means the Buddha's intention: If I were to speak purely of it as real, sentient beings would no longer progress in practice and would fall into excessive pride (adhimāna), because while being undefiled it is defiled, and is not without the adventitious defilements. Furthermore, non-Buddhists grasp this consciousness as a self; if one says it is the true self of Buddha-nature, that would support their heterodox grasp, corrupting true cultivation. If I were to speak purely of it as not real, sentient beings would repudiate its existence in their own bodies and give rise to the view of annihilationism, and hence there would be no time when they could attain buddhahood. Therefore, before ordinary beings and the two vehicles, he did not definitively expound it, fearing the arising of confusion and inversion, failing to fathom the Tathāgata's esoteric intention, because this root consciousness is subtle, minute, and difficult to know.