宗鏡錄 50.5

50.5

Answer: As the root of defilement and purity, it exists in both conventional and ultimate [truths]. Those who do not comprehend true ripening and correct consciousness-only mostly grasp conventional existence and ultimate nonexistence, forcibly generating divergent views; unaware of the esoteric intention of all buddhas, they grasp the principle of emptiness that eliminates characteristics, taking it to be ultimate. This is merely refuting the emotional attachment to the imagined [nature], which is a negative formulation to protect against errors; they then repudiate the other-dependent and the fully perfected, making them all into the appearance of flowers in the sky. If the other-dependent and the fully perfected did not exist, the root consciousness and all phenomena would lack substance; since they would not be real existents, this would constitute great wrong views. The treatise says: "Non-Buddhists who slander the cause and effect of defilement and purity also do not claim they are completely nonexistent, but only grasp them as not real. If all were not real existents, a bodhisattva should not, in order not to abandon saṃsāra, vigorously cultivate and accumulate the provisions for bodhi. What wise person, in order to eliminate an illusory enemy, would seek the son of a barren woman to use as troops? Therefore, one should believe that there is a mind capable of holding seeds, and based on it establish the cause and effect of defilement and purity. That mind is precisely this eighth consciousness." Furthermore, the sūtra says: "There is a ripening mind, karmically induced by good and evil." If this consciousness did not exist, that ripening mind should not exist, because consciousnesses such as the eye [consciousness] have interruptions, and are not the fruit of karma at all times; like a flash of lightning, they are not the ripening mind. Ripening should not be interrupted and then resume, because apart from the life faculty and so forth, there is no such occurrence. The six consciousnesses such as the eye [consciousness] that are induced by karma are like sound and so forth, not constantly continuous; therefore, they are ripening-born, not true ripening. One must definitely accept that there is a true ripening mind that repays projecting karma, pervasive and without interruption, transforming into the body and the receptacle world, serving as the basis for sentient beings. Because the body and receptacle world apart from mind cannot reasonably exist; because unassociated phenomena lack real substance; because the various evolving consciousnesses do not exist constantly. If this consciousness did not exist, what would transform into the body and receptacle world? And based on what phenomenon could sentient beings constantly be established? The commentary says: Non-Buddhists also do not claim that defilement and purity and so forth are completely nonexistent, because they are presently seen; they only grasp them as not real: defiled causes cannot induce bad results, and good causes cannot induce good results, because they are not real, like flowers in the sky. Cause and effect are not nonexistent; one may believe that this consciousness collectively establishes the three natures. If one distinguishes existence and nonexistence within the two truths: within our ultimate truth, it is also not the case that there are no phenomena, but one cannot speak of them as cause or as effect, because the path of words is cut off. Within conventional truth, because the other-dependent and fully perfected exist, the imagined nature is nonexistent. "The true ripening mind repays projecting karma, pervasive and without interruption" means: the true ripening mind at all times continuously repays projecting karma; it is not the other completing karmas. Those that have interruptions are completing karma; the other evolving consciousnesses cannot project karma, but only come to complete the karmic fruits of good and evil. The consciousness that projects fruition exists pervasively in the three realms; the six consciousnesses do not pervade the formless realm, because in the absorption without mind and so forth, the five consciousnesses and manas do not exist. "Without interruption" means that it is constantly continuous. Therefore, the sūtra says: "Deeply believe in the Mahāyāna and do not slander cause and effect." It is only that within the ultimate truth, because all phenomena are unobtainable, the path of words is cut off, and the path of the mind's cognition is extinguished, it is sometimes said that all phenomena are empty. This is the emptiness of the ultimate truth, unobtainable emptiness; it is not the annihilative emptiness of non-Buddhists or the mere emptiness of the Lesser Vehicle. One must not give rise to the notion of turtle hair and rabbit horns, or grasp the view of snake legs and fragrant salt.