宗鏡錄 54.13

54.13

Answer: Worldly dharmas are the Buddha Dharma; the Buddha Dharma is worldly dharmas. Why should one further cite events to make an analogy? However, for those who have not yet formed resolute faith, how could there be no expedient means? In terms of inferential knowledge, whatever meets the eye is entirely this. Let us cite one or two to broadly categorize this principle: for instance, when Brahmins in the western lands sought intelligence, they constantly made offerings to devas and the like. Later, in dreams, they saw heavenly beings conferring dhāraṇīs, treatises, and other teachings upon them. Yet in the dream there were truly no heavenly beings preaching teachings, treatises, and dhāraṇīs of intelligence to them; taking the devas as a sovereign condition, their own conscious minds transformed and produced the understanding of treatises and dhāraṇīs. Now, the seeing and hearing of sentient beings is also like this. Among analogies, the dream analogy is the closest, because within one's own dream there are truly no external realms; they are all transformed and raised by the dreaming mind, which can serve as direct evidence. Again, in this land, when Zhou Chang was plowing the field, his mother wished for her son to return, so his mother bit her finger; Zhou Chang felt pain in his heart while in the field, and thought, 'My mother is calling me.' When he returned, it was indeed as she said. Although the mother had the intention to call her son, she did not utter a sound. The Tathāgata merely has the mind to preach the Dharma, but does not speak; it is naturally transformed and raised within the minds of sentient beings. When correctly understood: the compassionate vows of the Buddhas are the response, and the readiness and appropriateness of the capacities to hear is the resonance. The mutual resonance of stimulus and response is neither identical nor different; only through Mind is it revealed, falling neither into annihilationism nor eternalism. One must not grasp either side, contradicting the Middle Way.