宗鏡錄 51.71

51.71

Answer: The Buddhas, in preaching the Dharma, still relied upon conventional truth; how much more so the three-membered inference, whose principle is in truth one of the five sciences (pañcavidyā)? It takes refutation and proof as its source, and vocal production of cognitive comprehension as its substance. It crushes the divergent attachments of ordinary beings and the Hīnayāna, and settles the fundamental principles of the Buddha's Dharma. Therefore, teaching without wisdom reaching it is not complete, just as wood without a plumb-line is not straight. By comparing it, one can generate sincere faith and subdue the doubting minds of false and inverted views; by measuring it with valid cognition, one can determine the true explanation and block the deluded speech of the reckless and foolish. Thus the wheel of the True Dharma turns forever, and the tenets of consciousness-only are broadly practiced. Then worldly phenomena have the efficacy of revealing the principle, and words have the power to stabilize the realm. As Great Master Ci'en said: 'The treatise on Hetuvidyā was originally spoken only by the Buddha. Its texts are vast and its meanings scattered, fully present across the various sūtras. Thus the Bodhisattvabhūmi states: "Where should a bodhisattva seek the Dharma? One should seek it in all five fields of knowledge. Seeking Hetuvidyā is in order to refute false treatises and establish the right path." At the beginning of the kalpa, Akṣapāda first marked out the genuine and the fallacious; coming down to Vasubandhu, the formal rules were set forth again. Although the guidelines were already arrayed, the profound imports were not yet distinguished, so that when guest and host engaged in debate, they were still in doubt regarding the rules of proof and refutation. There was Bodhisattva Dignāga, acclaimed as an epoch-making figure, one of the thousand Buddhas of the Auspicious Kalpa. Concealing his traces among crags and thickets, perching upon peaks in meditative concentration, he observed the advantages and disadvantages of composition and weighed the prolixity and brevity of text and meaning. At that time, the cliffs and valleys roared and shook, and the clouds and mists changed color. A mountain spirit held up the Bodhisattva's feet hundreds of feet high, calling out: "The Buddha taught Hetuvidyā, abstruse and difficult to fathom. After the Tathāgata's extinction, the great meaning sank into oblivion. Now, fortunate that your blessed wisdom is far-reaching and deeply penetrates the sacred intent, we pray and request you to propagate anew the path of the Hetuvidyā treatises." The Bodhisattva then emitted a spiritual radiance that illuminated the receptive capacities. At that time, the king of the Andhra Kingdom in Southern India, seeing the radiance emitted, suspected he had entered the diamond-like samādhi (vajropamasamādhi) and requested him to realize the fruit of non-learning (aśaikṣaphala). The Bodhisattva said: "Entering meditative concentration and contemplating, I am about to explain the profound sūtras; my mind aspires to the great awakening, not desiring the lesser fruit." The king said: "The fruit of non-learning is that to which all sages look up; I ask the Venerable One to quickly realize it." The Bodhisattva was about to consent and fulfill the king's request, when Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī snapped his fingers and admonished him, saying: "Why abandon the great aspiration and suddenly give rise to a small intention? To broadly benefit others, you should roll forward the Yogācāra expounded by Maitreya, rectify the declining guidelines, and compose works on Hetuvidyā to reconstruct the formal rules." Dignāga reverently received his instructions and adhered to them unswervingly. Thereupon, pondering deeply and investigating thoroughly, he composed the Hetuvidyā-nyāyamukha-śāstra. "Correct principle" (nyāya) is the originally true substance and meaning of all dharmas; "gateway" (mukha) is that by which the balance sheds light and comprehension. Furthermore, the Yogācārabhūmiśāstra states: "Why is it called the domain of Hetuvidyā? It is for investigating matters in the examined object. The dharmas to be established are called the examined object; the dharmas that can accord with them are called all the matters. All the matters are precisely Hetuvidyā, because they illuminate and examine the object through logical reasons." Take, for example, the heterodox holding that sound is eternal. If one does not use inference to refute it, by what means could one break their attachment? As when an outsider sets up the inference: "Sound is the subject; definitely eternal is the thesis; the reason is: because of having the nature of being produced; the positive example is like space." Because space does not have the nature of being produced, the reason does not apply to it; the example cited does not match, and establishing sound as eternal fails. If in the Buddha's Dharma, sound is impermanent, one sets up the inference: "Sound is the subject; definitely impermanent is the thesis; the reason is: because of having the nature of being produced; the positive example is like a vase or a pot, and the negative example is like space, etc." Thus we know that without this inference, how could one reveal the correct and crush the false? Therefore, on the ground of the ultimate principle of reality, not a single dust mote is admitted; within the gateway of the Buddha's work, not a single dharma is abandoned. If one wishes to learn the skillful means of all Buddhas, one must possess the universal practices of bodhisattvas; only when each and every one is clearly understood can the great transformation be accomplished. As cited above at length, the passages concerning the storehouse consciousness are illuminated by patriarchs and Buddhas and established jointly by sūtras and treatises. The eighth fundamental consciousness, tathatā, the one mind, is vast and boundless, its essential nature subtle and fine. It reveals the mind-source without an exterior, and encompasses the nature-treasury to pervade universally. It holds exclusively the name of "holding the seeds," acts as the lord of the total retributive fruition, establishes the substance of sentient beings, and sets up the cause of nirvāṇa. Abiding in the initial stage, it is universally designated ālayavijñāna; dwelling in the ultimate fruit, it is solely termed the untainted consciousness (amalavijñāna). It is replete with the cognitive grounds of both fundamental and subsequent wisdoms, and accomplishes the gates of benefit for oneself and others. In accordance with grasping or non-grasping, many names are established; based on defiled conditions and pure conditions, manifold substances are formed. It conceives everything as great space contains and admits, and manifests all phenomena as the great earth brings forth and generates. Then what dharma does it not collect? Into what gate does it not enter? It is only by being deluded about the understanding of the one reality that one produces the perspective of duality. Initially, on account of the mind capable of comprehending through luminous awareness, the characteristics of internal and external defiling toil are stirred up. From within the one perfect clarity, the sense-faculties and sense-objects are split apart; gathering the internal four great elements, it forms the body; dividing the external four great elements, it forms the realm of objects. Internally, taking consciousness and sentiment as defilement; externally, relying on thoughts and marks to become dust. When there is no-thought, the realm of objects is linked into oneness; when there is thought, reality becomes manifold distinctions. If the mind can merge into the dharmadhātu and the realm of objects opens into true emptiness, the illusory cataracts will completely vanish, and the single path will brightly appear. This can be called tearing open the dense net of the path of delusion and pulling out the heavy bolts of the door of awakening: the confused dream awakes and the great awakening is ever luminous; the manic nature ceases and the original head appears of itself.