[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) › 62.3 # 宗鏡錄 62.3 English (machine translation) 62.3 - **Language:** English ### [62.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt.62.3) Answer: The extensive and abbreviated teachings, the negative and positive explications, though differing in opening and closing and distinct in their general and specific aspects, nevertheless all make manifest the tenet of mind-only; ultimately there are no texts \[admitting anything\] outside consciousness. Proofs are like the sands of the Ganges—how could there be only one or two? Therefore, a gāthā in the Lotus Sūtra says: / Knowing the foremost quiescence, / By the power of skillful means, / Although various paths are taught, / In truth they are for the Buddha vehicle. / Another gāthā says: / I now am also like this: / For the sake of pacifying sentient beings, / By means of various Dharma approaches, / I proclaim the Buddha path. / Explanation: Regarding 'knowing the foremost quiescence,' the tathatā of the one mind is originally quiescent; it is not the cessation of saṃsāric arising and ceasing, nor is it the cessation \[achieved through\] counteractive practice in contemplation. Hence it is called 'foremost.' Within the quiescence of the one mind, there is no dharma that can be propagated, nor any path that can be established. For the sake of those who have not yet comprehended, by the power of great compassion in skillful means, although various separate approaches and different paths are taught, if discussed strictly according to propriety, they solely point back to the Buddha vehicle of the one mind, and there is no other matter. Regarding 'I now am also like this,' now I and the buddhas of the ten directions have together realized this Dharma, and all are like this; by this means we bring peace and happiness to all sentient beings, revealing the various Dharma approaches of the three vehicles and five lineages, and propagating the Buddha path of mind-only. The Laṅkāvatārasūtra says: 'The Buddha told Mahāmati: The body, requisites for life, the receptacle world, and so forth, are all images of the ālayavijñāna, appearing as the two kinds of characteristics: object grasped and grasper. Because those foolish persons fall into the two views of arising, abiding, and ceasing, they falsely give rise to discriminations of existence and nonexistence therein. Mahāmati, you should diligently train in this meaning.' Furthermore, a gāthā in the Laṅkāvatārasūtra says: / Various things turn following the citta; / There is only citta, not other dharmas. / When citta arises, various things arise; / When citta ceases, various things cease. / Sentient beings falsely discriminate: / Where there are no entities, they see entities. / There are no referents, there is only citta; / Without discrimination, one attains liberation. / Another gāthā says: / There is no earth nor any truths, / No realms and no transformations. / The Buddha, pratyekabuddhas, and śrāvakas / Are only discriminations of the citta. / Human bodies and the five aggregates, / The conditions and subtle particles, / The supreme nature and the creation by Īśvara / Are only discriminations of the citta. / Citta pervades all places; / All places are citta. / Because the citta does not contemplate skillfully, / \[It does not see that\] the nature of citta lacks all characteristics. / A gāthā in the Avataṃsakasūtra says: / In all oceans of directions, / They abide depending on the thoughts of sentient beings' citta. / It also says: 'Knowing the establishment of all dharmadhātus, all abide in the samādhi of the limit of mental thoughts.' The Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa says: 'For example, a trained horse, seeing its own shadow, is not frightened. Why? It knows of itself that the shadow comes from its own body. Like a well-trained person who believes and enters the ekayāna, seeing all frightening objects, he is not frightened, knowing of himself that objects come from the citta.' The Vijñaptimātratāsiddhiśāstra says: 'As a sūtra states: "The three realms are mind-only." It also says that "the cognitive object is only manifested by consciousness." It also says that "all dharmas are not separate from citta." It also says that "sentient beings become defiled or purified in accordance with citta." It also says that "a bodhisattva who accomplishes the four knowledges can readily awaken and enter into consciousness-only without external objects." A verse also says: / The cognitive objects of citta, manas, and vijñāna / Are none of them separate from their own nature; / Therefore I say that all things / Are only consciousness, without remainder.' Such sacred teachings and sincere proofs are not singular. The commentary states: 'Regarding "It also says that the cognitive object is only manifested by consciousness": what you call an external cognitive object outside consciousness, I say is precisely manifested upon internal consciousness.' Vasubandhu said: 'What is called the cognitive object of consciousness is only manifested by consciousness.' Furthermore, the Buddha told Maitreya: 'There is no minor dharma capable of grasping any minor dharma, because there is no agent. But when dharmas arise, the power of dependent origination is great: upon a single substance two images arise, mutually facing each other, neither identical nor separate. All cittas and caittas, by the power of dependent origination, by the intrinsic nature of dharmas, arise in this way.' Regarding 'The cognitive objects of citta, manas, and vijñāna are none of them separate from their own nature': 'own nature' is the dharma of one's own citta, or the ontological substance—that is, the foundational entity relied upon by the referent. That is to say, the cognitive objects of the eighth citta, the seventh manas, and the remaining six consciousnesses all have one's own citta as their object. The Buddha said: 'Due to such a principle, I say that all conditioned and unconditioned \[dharmas\] are only consciousness, without remainder.' In truth, there are no objects outside the mind. From this, one knows that whatever is seen or heard is entirely born from one's own mind; in truth, there is not a single dharma confronting the mind that possesses an independent substantial entity. All arise from dependent origination, and all are formed in pursuit of thoughts. Birth-and-death and nirvāṇa are both like an illusion or a dream. Therefore, the Anivartikadharmacakrasūtra says: 'At that time, Ānanda went to the Buddha's place and said: "World-Honored One, the monks were not able to come. Why? They saw that the Jetavana was entirely flooded with great water, pure and without defilement, nor did they see the monastery or the trees. For this reason, none could come." The Buddha told Ānanda: "Those monks, where there was no water, gave rise to the notion of water; where there was no form, they gave rise to the notion of form; where there were no sensation, conception, volition, or consciousness, they gave rise to the notions of sensation, conception, volition, and consciousness; where there were no śrāvakas or pratyekabuddhas, they formed the notions of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas."' The Avataṃsakasūtra says: 'O son of the Buddha, what is the supernatural samādhi of the bodhisattva mahāsattva's sequentially visiting all buddha lands? O son of the Buddha, this bodhisattva mahāsattva passes beyond countless worlds in the eastern direction, and further passes beyond worlds as numerous as the dust particles in that many worlds; within those worlds, he enters this samādhi, up to and including revering, honoring, paying homage with bowed head, prostrating his entire body on the ground, inquiring about the Buddhadharma, praising the equality of the buddhas, extolling the vast virtues of the buddhas, entering the great compassion entered by the buddhas, and attaining the equal, unimpeded power of the buddhas at the place of each and every tathāgata. In a single thought-moment, he diligently seeks the marvelous Dharma at the place of all buddhas. Yet, regarding such characteristics as the buddhas' appearing in the world or entering into parinirvāṇa, none are apprehended. Just as a distracted and agitated mind discerns cognitive objects, when the mind arises it does not know by what cognitive object it arises, and when the mind ceases it does not know by what cognitive object it ceases; this bodhisattva mahāsattva is also like this, ultimately not discriminating the characteristics of the Tathāgata's appearance in the world or nirvāṇa. O son of the Buddha, just as a midday mirage does not arise from clouds, does not arise from ponds, does not dwell on dry land, does not stay in water, is neither existent nor nonexistent, neither good nor bad, neither clear nor turbid, cannot be drunk or rinsed with, cannot be defiled, has no substance, has no lack of substance, has no flavor, has no lack of flavor, yet due to causes and conditions appears as the characteristic of water, being cognized by consciousness: seen from afar it resembles water and stimulates the notion of water, but when approached it is absent and the notion of water ceases of itself; this bodhisattva mahāsattva is also like this: he does not apprehend the characteristics of the Tathāgata's appearing in the world and of his nirvāṇa. The conditioned characteristics and unconditioned characteristics of all buddhas are both discriminated by the conceiving mind. O son of the Buddha, this samādhi is called the practice of the pure deep mind. After entering this samādhi, the bodhisattva mahāsattva emerges, and having emerged, does not lose it.' Thus one knows that not only does the Buddha's teaching take mind as its source, but that to which the three teachings return all say that turning back to oneself is paramount. As in the School Sayings of Confucius: 'Duke Ling of Wei asked Confucius, saying: "Someone told me: 'For one who governs the state, if he is cautious within the ancestral temple and court, the government will be well-ordered.' How is that?" The Master said: "That may be so. Those who love others, then others love them; those who hate others, then others hate them. What is meant by 'knowing the world without going outside a room of ten square feet' refers to knowing how to turn back to oneself."' Thus one knows that if one measures oneself to comply with things, then there is nothing that will not be brought home; naturally, grasping and rejecting are forgotten, and beauty and ugliness are equal in purport. Thus one knows that if one merely understands the one mind, the signless manifests naturally, and one then naturally transcends the dusty prison of the six destinies. 'Going out must be through the door; none can fail to follow this way.' As an ancient master said: 'The confused multitude of the six destinies went out from this gate, and having passed through a thousand kalpas have not returned—how painful!' Therefore, the buddhas were alarmed into entering the burning house, the ancestral master purposely came from the West, and even the thousand sages sighed with grief—all because beings do not reach the essential path of mind-only for liberation. Hence one knows that if one does not comprehend that all dharmas are precisely the tathatā of the one mind, they all become the imagined nature (parikalpita). Because tathatā is without characteristics, seeing characteristics is entirely due to emotional attachment. The Awakening of Faith says: 'All realms exist with distinctions only relying on false thoughts; if one is free from mental thoughts, there are no characteristics of any realms.' - [Previous: 62.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt.62.2) - [Next: 62.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt.62.4) - [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.2016.62.3) — Classical Chinese --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt.62.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2016~en-mt.62.3) · Pramāṇa