宗鏡錄 58.2.2

58.2.2

[he] then entered the room to stay. At dusk, another monk came seeking lodgings, and the karmadāna also told him to stay in this room, likewise telling him that there were ghosts harassing people. This man also said, ‘What can a petty ghost do? I shall subdue it.’ The one who had entered first closed the door and sat upright, awaiting the ghost. The later arrival knocked at the door in the dark of night, seeking to enter. The first arrival took him to be a ghost and would not open the door for him. The later arrival beat upon the door with all his might, while the monk inside resisted him with force. The one outside prevailed, pushed open the door and gained entry. The one inside struck him, and the one outside also beat him thoroughly with all his might. When they saw each other the next morning, they were actually old classmates. Each was ashamed and apologized to the other. The assembly gathered like clouds, laughing at and marveling at them. Sentient beings are also like this: in the five aggregates there is no self and no person, yet in vain they grasp at characteristics, bringing about conflict and contention. If dismembered upon the ground, there is only bone and flesh, with neither person nor self. Therefore the bodhisattva says to sentient beings, ‘Do not contend and commit transgressions within the fundamental emptiness! Because of contending, even a human body cannot be obtained, much less meeting a Buddha!’ It is also said: ‘Although all kleśas are causes and conditions of past karma, avidyā is their root. And so forth, if one knows the karmic causes and conditions of avidyā in a single prior lifetime, then hundreds of millions of lifetimes can be known. Just as present fire is hot, so too was past fire and will future fire be. Furthermore, when the bodhisattva seeks avidyā, its substance is none other than illumination—what is called the true mark of all phenomena, termed the limit of reality. He contemplates all phenomena as like illusions, like apparitions. Due to the causes and conditions of sentient beings’ inversion, they produce all kleśas, commit evil and sinful karma, transmigrate through the five destinies, and undergo the suffering of birth and death. For example, a silkworm exudes silk to wrap and bind itself, and then enters boiling water and the searing of fire. Ordinary sentient beings are also like this: when first born, they do not yet have the various kleśas; later they themselves produce the various kleśas such as greed and anger. Because of the causes and conditions of these kleśas, they obscure true wisdom and, upon transmigrating, undergo the burning of fires and boiling of cauldrons in the hells. The bodhisattva knows that the root and branches of these phenomena are all empty; it is merely that sentient beings, because of inversion and error, undergo such suffering. Toward these sentient beings the bodhisattva gives rise to great compassion, and wishing to destroy this inversion, seeks the real Dharma, practices the perfection of wisdom, thoroughly penetrates the limit of reality, and through various causes and conditions teaches and transforms sentient beings, causing them to abide in the limit of reality. Therefore, abiding in the limit of reality is without fault.’ Commentary: If one realizes that the karmic activity of avidyā in the present life is mind, then one will be able to penetrate that all good and evil karmas of the past and future are entirely one’s own mind. Just as the nature of one fire is hot, so all fires are hot. Once one truly knows this, one will never again touch it with the hand, out of fear that the hand will be burned. If one truly knows that every single dust mote and every single thought at present is entirely one’s own mind, one will never again deliberately give rise to a mind of greedily grasping at external objects, out of concern for losing the source. Therefore the Baocang lun says: ‘All is like an illusion, and the illusion is not real. Knowing the illusion to be an illusion, protect the real and embrace the one.’ In this way, the lamp of wisdom constantly shines, and the ocean of karma dries up of itself; one ultimately abides without fault in the limit of reality of the true nature of vijñaptimātra. Within the limit of reality, one does not see a single phenomenon as either arising or ceasing, either joining or separating. Therefore the Sūtra of the Questions of the Devaputra Praśāntaviniścayapratihārya says: ‘The devaputra Praśāntaviniścayapratihārya said, “Mañjuśrī, is it because there are kleśas that one tames them, or because there are no kleśas that one tames them?” Mañjuśrī said, “Devaputra, it is like a person who dreams of being bitten by a poisonous snake. Oppressed by suffering, he then takes an antidote within the dream. Because he took the medicine, the poisonous vapor is eliminated. Devaputra, what do you think: was this person truly bitten or not?” The devaputra said, “No.” Mañjuśrī said, “Was that poison truly eliminated or not?” The devaputra said, “Mañjuśrī, just as he was not truly bitten, its elimination is also like this.” Mañjuśrī said, “Devaputra, the taming [practiced by] all the worthy and noble ones is also just like this. Devaputra, you spoke thus: ‘Is it because there are kleśas that one tames them, or because there are none that one tames them?’ Devaputra, just as with self and no-self, having kleśas and having no kleśas is also just like this.” And so forth, up to: “All phenomena are without self, because they are without a master. All phenomena are without a master, because they are equal to empty space. All phenomena have no coming, because they have nothing to rely upon. All phenomena have no going, because they have no nest or burrow. All phenomena have no abiding, because they have nothing to be established upon. All phenomena are unestablished, because arising is itself ceasing. All phenomena are unconditioned, because they are undefiled. All phenomena are without feeling, because they are ultimately tamed.” The Sūtra of the Dharma Gate of Great Adornment says: ‘When Mañjuśrī saw that this great assembly had no mind of defilement toward the Golden Woman, he asked the Golden Woman, “Where have you now put your kleśas, so as to cause the princes and even the householders not to give rise to defiled minds?” The Golden Woman said, “All kleśas, as well as the kleśas of sentient beings, all abide on the shore of wisdom and liberation. Within the equal Dharma of the suchness of the dharmadhātu, those kleśas are neither arisen nor ceased, nor are they placed anywhere.”’ As a verse in the Madhyamakaśāstra says: ‘The defiling phenomenon and the defiled one are one: / How could one phenomenon unite? / The defiling phenomenon and the defiled one are different: / How could different phenomena unite?’ An ancient commentary says: ‘The kleśa is that which defiles; the sentient being is that which is defiled. If they are one, subject and object are not established; if they are different, they are just like water and fire—in both cases there is no sense of union.’ The Zhiguan says: ‘If a single thought of a defiled mind arises, it is replete with the ten dharmadhātus and the hundred dharmas without obstructing one another. Though many, they do not exist; though one, it is not non-existent. The many do not accumulate; the one does not disperse. The many are not different; the one is not identical. The many are the one; the one is the many. It is also like the first lamp co-abiding with darkness: light and dark do not obstruct each other, nor do they destroy each other.’ If one thoroughly understands that the nature of kleśas is empty in this manner, then the four floods can only be dried up by the sun of right Dharma practice; the seven tiers of the mound of pride are destroyed by the wind of equal wisdom. That which can harm and that which is harmed both vanish; one’s own binding and the binding of others are alike undone. Encountering conditions is like water on a lotus flower.”