宗鏡錄 57.25

57.25

Answer: Past and future have no substantial entity; momentary perfuming belongs only to the present. The very time when false thought arises in the present, with false thought contravening the true, is called the 'initial consciousness.' It does not mean that there was a consciousness originally arising in the past that is called the 'initial consciousness.' Hence we know that horizontally encompassing all places and vertically extending through limitless time, everything is just the one mind of the present moment; there is no other principle. Therefore, the Lotus Sūtra says: 'I view distant kalpas as if they were today.' Then the sentiments concerning the three periods of time vanish, tallying with the correct norm of timelessness; the one true path appears, verifying the perfect source of mere-consciousness.