宗鏡錄 61.45

61.45

Answer: Like the sick in the world who approach a physician, yet some are cured and some are not; capacity is also like this. As there are the ripe and the unripe, so there are responses that are distant and near. In clarifying the differences in capacity and stimulus: it is simply that the capacities of sentient beings are hundreds of thousands, while the skillful responses of all buddhas are immeasurable; in accord with their diversity, their attainments of deliverance differ. Hence the sūtra says: 'Name and form are each distinct, kinds and varieties are numerous, like superior, middling, and inferior, roots, stems, leaves, and so on; in accordance with their seed-nature, each attains growth.' This is the meaning of the difference in capacity and response. Now to state them briefly as four: first, unseen response; second, unseen capacity; third, apparent capacity and apparent response; fourth, apparent capacity and unseen response. What are their characteristics? If one cultivates the three karmas, but in the present has not yet activated body and speech, relying on the power of past good, this is called unseen capacity. Although one does not see a miraculous response, one is secretly benefited by the dharmakāya; without seeing or hearing, one nevertheless perceives and knows—this is unseen benefit. Second, unseen capacity and apparent benefit: having planted good in the past, the unseen capacity is already formed; one then encounters the Buddha and hears the Dharma, obtaining benefit in the present; this is apparent benefit. As with those whom the Buddha delivered first: when did they ever cultivate good in the present? All buddhas illuminate their past capacities and go of their own accord to deliver them; that is its meaning. Third, apparent capacity and apparent response: being diligent and unflagging with body and speech in the present, one is able to stimulate a descent; as when Sudatta knelt long and the Buddha went to the Jetavana, or when Candrakānta bent his body and the Sage stayed at his threshold; like a practitioner in the place of practice doing prostrations and repentance, being able to stimulate miraculous omens—this is apparent capacity and apparent response. Fourth, apparent capacity and unseen response: although one undergoes hardship throughout a single lifetime, accumulating present good densely, without an apparent stimulus, there is an unseen benefit; this is apparent capacity and unseen benefit. If one understands these four meanings, every lowering of the head and raising of the hand is merit not spent in vain. Though there is no stimulus all day, there is no regret all day. If one sees those fond of killing living long, and those fond of giving being poor, one will not give rise to wrong views. If one does not understand this, one will say that their efforts are in vain and their plans lost, falling into sorrow, regret, and loss of principle. A treatise says: 'Now my illnesses and sufferings are all from the past; the merit cultivated in this life will have its retribution in the future.' With right mindfulness without deviance, one grasps these four meanings.