宗鏡錄 51.11

51.11

Answer: In the world, there is not a single dharma that does not arise from conditions. Conditioned dharmas are all impermanent. Only the fundamental citta does not arise from the past boundary, does not abide in the present boundary, and does not cease in the future boundary. It is truly the foundation of the myriad beings and the abode of all buddhas. Therefore, it is likened to a mirror: it can meticulously discern the beautiful and the ugly, and profoundly penetrate the mysterious and subtle. Looking up to it as the source, it is like a vast flood receiving rivers, or empty space containing forms.

The Ghanavyūhasūtra says: 'Mind is of eight kinds, or also of nine. Together with avidyā, it is the cause of the world. The world is entirely the manifestation of citta and caittadharmas. These citta and caittadharmas, along with the sense faculties, arise, cease, and transmigrate, being transformed by avidyā and so forth. Their fundamental citta is firm and unmoving. Wordly causes and conditions have twelve divisions. Whether faculties or objects, the capable of producing and the produced, they break and perish in a kṣaṇa. From the Brahmā world up to [the sphere of] neither-perception-nor-non-perception, all arise from causes and conditions. Only the Tathāgata is free from all causes and conditions. Inner and outer worlds, moving and unmoving dharmas, are all like pots and the like, having destruction as their nature.'

Furthermore, the verses say: / 'Why do you, children of the Buddha, not see and hear / That the substance of the storehouse consciousness is pure, / The support of all bodies? / Sometimes it possesses the thirty-two / Marks of a buddha or a cakravartin; / Sometimes it assumes various forms, / Which are all seen in the world. / Just as the moon in a clear sky / Is encircled by all the stars, / The ālayavijñāna and the [other] consciousnesses / Dwell in this manner within the body. / Just as the lord of the desire gods, / Accompanied by attendants, roams the jeweled palace, / And the deities of rivers and seas / Roam freely in the waters, / The storehouse consciousness dwelling in the world / Should be known to be likewise. / Just as the earth produces myriad things, / This citta manifests many things. / Just as the sun deva, / Splendidly riding his jeweled chariot, / Circles Mount Sumeru / And courses about, illuminating all under heaven, / While the gods and people of the world / Behold and venerate him, / So within the buddha-stage / The characteristics of the storehouse consciousness are also like this. / Practicing myriad practices on the ten stages, / It reveals and manifests the Mahāyāna dharmas, / Universally gives joy to sentient beings, / And constantly praises the Tathāgata. / When in the body of a bodhisattva, / It is designated a bodhisattva. / The Buddha and the bodhisattvas / Are all names for the ālaya. / The Buddha and the children of the Buddha, / Who have received or will receive prediction, / Rely on the vast ālaya / To achieve right awakening. / Practitioners of meditation in the Ghanavyūha, / Being in harmony with wondrous meditation, / Are able to clearly observe / And perceive the ālayavijñāna. / The Buddha, pratyekabuddhas, / Śrāvakas, and various other paths— / Persons undaunted in seeing the principle— / What they contemplate is entirely this consciousness. / The various objects of the consciousnesses / Are all transformed from the citta. / Pots, garments, and other myriad things— / Such entities are all nonexistent in nature. / All rely on the ālayavijñāna, / Yet sentient beings perceive them through delusion. / Due to the various vāsanās, / Grasper and grasped operate. / This nature is not like an illusion, / A mirage, or a hair-ring; / It is neither produced nor unproduced, / Neither empty nor existent. / Just as with long and short and so forth, / Departing from one, all are nonexistent. / The wise contemplate illusory phenomena: / These are all merely illusory arts; / Never has there been a single thing / That arose together with the illusion. / Illusions, mirages, and hair-rings / Can be seen in combination; / Departing from one, there is no combination; / They do not exist in the past or the future either. / Illusions, hair-rings, and the like, / The characteristics of the various things present everywhere, / Are all transformations of citta, / Lacking substance and lacking name. / Deluded people in the world, / Their cittas lacking autonomy, / Falsely speak of that which can produce illusion, / Magically creating various things. / The bricks, tiles, and such of an illusionist, / The classes of myriad things created, / Whether they appear to go or come in various ways— / All such sights are not real. / Just as iron moves in the direction / Induced by a lodestone, / The storehouse consciousness is also like this, / Operating in accordance with discrimination. / Throughout all the worlds, / There is nowhere it does not pervade. / Like the sun and the cintāmaṇi jewel, / It is devoid of thought and discrimination. / This consciousness pervades all places; / Seeing it, one calls it transmigration. / It neither dies nor is born; / Originally it is not a dharma of transmigration. / Practitioners of meditation diligently contemplate: / Birth and death are just like a dream. / At that time there is the transformation of the basis, / Which is called liberation. / This is the supreme / Doctrine and principle of all buddhas, / Assessing all dharmas / Like a scale and like a bright mirror, / Also like a great bright lamp, / And also like a touchstone, / Far removed from annihilationism, / The sign of the right path. / For those who cultivate wondrous meditation, / It is the cause leading to liberation, / Forever free from all defilements, / Manifesting through the transformation of the basis.'