宗鏡錄 54.5

54.5

Answer: It is due to having habituated delusions for a long time that there is this perverse clinging; it is not related to words and referents corresponding. Because words and speech perfuse the mind, one inevitably gives rise to discriminative thought and generates false and perverse clingings through this very teaching. As the verse in the Ghanavyūhasūtra says:
‘Then Vajragarbha
again addressed the great assembly:
“From beginningless time, the ālayavijñāna
has been perfused by conceptual proliferation,
bound by all karmas,
and transmigrates without end.
It is like the great ocean
producing waves due to the wind:
constantly arising and constantly perishing,
neither broken nor permanent.
Because of not awakening to one's own mind,
[external realms] appear according to the object-fields of consciousness.
If one understands one's own mind,
it is like fire consuming fuel completely;
penetrating into the undefiled (anāsrava),
one is then called a noble one.
The storehouse consciousness transforms into multiple realms,
encompassing the entire world.
The manas clings to self and mine,
and deliberating, constantly flows on.
The varieties of consciousnesses differ;
each perceives its own realm.
Accumulating karma is called citta;
universal accumulating is called manas;
discrimination is called vijñāna.
The five consciousnesses grasp present realms,
like clouded vision seeing hairs and wheels;
following what is seen, they are bewildered:
in the mind that resembles form,
they impute form where there is no form.
Just like a maṇi jewel
illuminated by the light of the sun and moon
rains down its own kinds of things
according to what should appear,
the ālayavijñāna is likewise:
the pure storehouse of the Tathāgata (tathāgatagarbha),
combined with karmic impressions (vāsanā),
transforms and appears throughout the world;
corresponding with the undefiled,
it rains down all dharmas of merit.
Just as milk transforms,
becoming curds and on to whey,
the storehouse consciousness is also like this,
transforming to resemble various forms.
Just as clouded vision sees hairs and wheels,
sentient beings are also like this:
with the cataract of bad karmic impressions
dwelling in the eye of the storehouse consciousness,
in places where there is no form,
these forms that are seen
are just like a mirage,
far removed from existence and non-existence,
and are all manifested by the ālaya.
O noble ones, dependent on the eye and forms,
consciousness resembling form arises;
like an illusion dwelling in the eye,
it flutters like a shimmering mirage.
Forms are all the storehouse consciousness
corresponding with the karmic impressions of form;
transforming to resemble [them], its substance does not exist;
fools falsely conceptualize [them].
All states of intoxication and heedlessness,
sitting, lying down, and frantic running,
and suddenly undertaking various activities,
are all the ālayavijñāna.
Just like the blazing, radiant sun
spreading its light and illuminating the ground,
with vapors resembling flowing water,
and thirsty beasts running toward it in the distance,
the ālaya is also like this:
its essential nature is truly not form,
yet it appears as if it were form;
with bad discernment one falsely gives rise to attachment.
Like a magnet attracting iron,
swiftly moving and shifting,
though it lacks sentient consciousness,
it moves as if it were sentient consciousness.
Thus the ālayavijñāna
is subsumed by birth and death;
going and coming throughout the various destinies,
it is not a self, yet resembles a self.
Like an object drifting in the ocean,
it follows the flow of water without thought;
the ālaya is free from discrimination,
yet it initiates the subsequent body.
Just as when two elephants fight,
the injured one retreats forever,
the ālaya is also like this:
when defilement is severed, there is no more transmigration.
Just like a pure lotus flower
emerging from the mud, bright and pure,
which gods and humans all enjoy
and none fail to treasure and revere,
so too the ālayavijñāna
emerges from the mud of karmic impressions,
attains purity through the transformation of the basis (āśrayaparavṛtti),
and is treasured by the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.
Just like a supreme jewel,
which is disdained by a rustic,
if used to adorn a crown,
it is worn on the head of a king.
So too the ālayavijñāna
is the pure Buddha-nature;
in the stage of an ordinary person it is always defiled,
while in the fruit of Buddhahood it is constantly cherished.
Just like fine jade in the water
covered and wrapped by moss,
the ālaya dwells in birth and death,
entangled by karmic impressions and not apparent.
In this ālayavijñāna,
the characteristics of the two graspings (grāhya and grāhaka) arise;
like a snake with two heads,
it proceeds together according to what it desires.
The ālaya is also like this,
endowed with all characteristics of form;
all the worlds
grasp it and consider it to be form.
Those of bad discernment are bewildered
and conceive of it as self and mine;
whether existent or non-existent,
it sovereignly creates the world.
Although the ālaya transforms and appears,
its essential nature is ever exceedingly profound;
among all those who lack wisdom,
none are able to perceive or comprehend it.
Just like an illusionist
magically creating various beasts,
some walking and some running,
which resemble sentient beings but are not real,
the ālaya is also like this,
magically creating the world;
the essential nature of all sentient beings
has no reality.
Ordinary fools cannot comprehend it
and falsely give rise to graspings and attachments,
generating [views of] subtle atoms and primordial nature (pradhāna),
discriminations of existence, non-existence, and difference,
as well as various views regarding Brahmā,
the Puruṣa, and so forth.’”