[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Taishō Tripiṭaka (Chinese Buddhist canon)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho) › [宗鏡錄](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016) › [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt) › 62.23 # 宗鏡錄 62.23 English (machine translation) 62.23 - **Language:** English ### [62.23](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt.62.23) Answer: The Weishi jing says: 'When Buddhas and bodhisattvas, through the wondrously observing wisdom, bind the great round mirror wisdom and the ripening consciousness (vipākavijñāna), they prevent the seeds of earth from arising and cause the seeds of gold to arise and manifest. Taking this as an empowering condition (adhipatipratyaya), they are able to make the earth of sentient beings cease and gold arise; this is called transformation. It is not that they directly transform earth into gold.' Therefore the Mahāyānasaṃgraha says: 'Due to the practice of contemplation serving as an empowering condition, the consciousnesses of other persons transform.' In the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra, the Buddha says: 'Good sons, when a bodhisattva mahāsattva practices such a Great Nirvāṇa, he contemplates soil as gold, contemplates gold as soil; causes earth to assume the characteristic of water, and water to assume the characteristic of earth; all are accomplished in accordance with his intention without any falsehood. He contemplates real sentient beings as non-sentient beings, and contemplates non-sentient beings as real sentient beings; all are accomplished in accordance with his intention without any falsehood.' Tiāntái teachings say: 'Among all things, in everything there is the principle of transformability. Like Saṅgharakṣita seeing bodies as beds, pots, and so forth, one should know that material phenomena all manifest in accordance with response. Matter has no fixed substance; it transforms in accordance with the mind. This principle is fundamentally an inconceivable phenomenon within the tathāgatagarbha. If one clings to it according to one's mind, one becomes non-Buddhist or Hīnayāna. What you practice is the Bodhisattva Path: in the impartial dharmadhātu, the mind is not deficient in the least.' Regarding the four kinds of consciousness-only knowledge: The first is the knowledge of contradictory appearances of consciousness (viparyāsa-vijñāna-ākāra-jñāna). That is, the respective cognizing consciousnesses of the four classes of sentient beings differ; since their consciousnesses are mutually contradictory, their transformed nimittabhāgas are also mutually contradictory. Thus, devas see it as jeweled ground; fish see it as a cave and dwelling; humans see it as clear, cold water; and pretas see it as a river of pus and raging fire. Because the transforming consciousnesses of these four classes of sentient beings are mutually contradictory, the transformed objects they cause to appear are also contradictory. What is called 'appearance' (ākāra/nimitta) is not the parikalpita characteristic, but merely the appearance of the nimittabhāga. Due to the power of the past karma of the four classes of sentient beings, at one and the same place they each transform distinct nimittabhāgas; hence it is called 'contradictory appearances of consciousness'. What is called 'knowledge' is the cognizing knowledge of the bodhisattvas of the ten bhūmis. Knowledge can clearly comprehend that the nimittabhāgas transformed by the karma-consciousness of those four classes of sentient beings are distinct, and that there are no other four external objects outside of citta. The old saying that 'one object responds to four minds' is incorrect. - [Previous: 62.22](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt.62.22) - [Next: 62.24](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt.62.24) - [Up: 62](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt.62) ## Linked texts (1) - [宗鏡錄](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016.62.23) — Classical Chinese --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt.62.23](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt.62.23) · Pramāṇa