宗鏡錄 65.25

65.25

Answer: The dharmas of the five aggregates are explained in reference to the realm of sentient beings as matters on the side of affective existence. When investigated with wisdom, the five aggregates are all empty. A sūtra states: ‘This body is like a cluster of foam, which cannot be grasped’—this means that the aggregate of form is empty. ‘This body is like a bubble, which cannot last long’—this means that the aggregate of sensation is empty. ‘This body is like a mirage, arising from thirsty craving’—this means that the aggregate of perception is empty. ‘This body is like a plantain tree, with nothing solid inside’—this means that the aggregate of formations is empty. ‘This body is like an illusion, arising from inverted views’—this means that the aggregate of consciousness is empty. Since the five aggregates are empty, who is the master? All conceptual distinctions are the grasping of conditions by deluded consciousness; speech, going, and coming are turned solely by the power of the wind [element]. Apart from emotional attachment, in between there is only the nature of emptiness. Therefore, know that the ‘self’ has only a name, and the name also lacks intrinsic nature; both name and substance are empty, so how could there be a self or dharmas? The Vijñaptimātratāsiddhiśāstra states: ‘Furthermore, regarding the substantial self-entity grasped [by opponents]: does it have functioning, or does it lack functioning? If it has functioning, like hands and feet, it must be impermanent; if it lacks functioning, like a rabbit's horns, it cannot be a real self. Therefore, the grasped self fails in both cases. Furthermore, matters such as memory and recognition are all accomplished through the power of perfuming from the basic consciousness. […] Furthermore, as for the grasped real self, since it would be permanent and unchanging, later should be like earlier, and this phenomenon [of change] would not exist; earlier should be like later, and this phenomenon [of non-cognition] would not be absent; for between later and earlier, there would be no distinction in its substance. If one claims that the functions of the self change before and after while its substance does not, this principle is also incorrect. Since function is not separate from substance, it should be permanent; and since substance is not separate from function, it should be non-permanent. However, sentient beings each have a basic consciousness, a single continuum that sustains seeds, mutually acting as causes with all dharmas. Due to the power of perfuming, there are such matters as memory and recognition.’ Thus a verse in the Ratnakūṭasūtra says: ‘Dharmas are like grasses and trees, devoid of sentience; / Apart from the mind, they cannot be found. / The intrinsic nature of sentient beings does not exist; / All dharmas are likewise thus.’ If one takes the present aggregates, sense-bases, and elements, they do not abide from moment to moment. Why is this? Among mundane dharmas, there is none that abides for even a single thought-moment. If there were a single thought-moment, its abiding within that single moment would also have arising, abiding, and cessation; and this arising, abiding, and cessation would likewise not abide. Just as within arising, abiding, and cessation there are internal and external aggregates, elements, and sense-bases, these internal and external aggregates, elements, and sense-bases likewise have arising, abiding, and cessation. If they are thus non-abiding, then they are neither the self nor what belongs to a self. Furthermore, the Buddha said: ‘From the beginning, there has been no self, no person, and no man; it is merely that the inner mind sees a self and a person. When the inner mind arises, it has already harmed the self, which is called “harm.” And so on, until: among these, there is not a single dharma that, by gathering and assembling, is definitively accomplished so as to be designated a Buddha, designated the Dharma, designated the Saṃgha, designated a father, designated a mother, or designated an arhat, as something definitively graspable.’ Furthermore, a verse states: ‘Bending down, looking up, flexing, extending, standing, going, and coming, / Looking and speaking have no reality within. / Because the wind relies on consciousness, there is activity; / The ceasing characteristic of this consciousness is absent from moment to moment. / The mind grasping a self in this or that, male or female, / Lacks wisdom and therefore falsely sees it as existing. / A chain of bones joined together, covered with skin and flesh, / Like a wooden puppet moving by mechanism. / Though inside there is no reality, outside it resembles a person. / Like hot gold plunged into water, / Or a wildfire burning a bamboo forest, / When causes and conditions combine, a sound comes forth.’ A verse in the Avataṃsakasūtra says: ‘All the karmic retributions of bodhisattvas / Are imprinted by inexhaustible wisdom. / Such inexhaustible self-nature is exhausted, / And therefore inexhaustibility ceases through expedient means. / The bodhisattva observes that the mind is not outside, / Nor can it be found inside. / Knowing that this mind's nature does not exist, / Both self and dharmas are abandoned, eternally quiescent. / Those sons of the Buddha know thus: / The nature of all dharmas is constantly empty and quiescent; / There is not a single dharma capable of acting; / United with all Buddhas, they awaken to selflessness.’ The Mahāsaṃnipātasūtra says: ‘If someone were to say that because of the causes and conditions of the eye and form, there is a self, this meaning is incorrect. Why? In the eye there is no self, and form is likewise thus; and within their combination, there is also no self. Causes and conditions in combination give rise to eye-consciousness; within such consciousness, there is also no self. Within wind and within space, all are likewise without self. Investigating thus, ultimately nothing can be found. This consciousness is merely the twelve links of dependent origination, turning like a ring; apart from the twelve links of dependent origination, consciousness cannot be seen. Merely depending on consciousness, name-and-form arises, and so on, until there is old age, sickness, and death. Such dharmas arise conditioned by eye-consciousness; and this eye-consciousness does not come from the east, nor from the south, west, north, the four intermediate directions, above, or below. The thought that conditions the arising of the sense-faculty and consciousness also ceases; eye-consciousness does not abide in a second thought-moment, nor does it tell the thought: “You abide, and I shall cease.” And this ceasing dharma does not go to the ten directions, nor does it abide exclusively in one place. Therefore, all dharmas arise because of causes and conditions; if apart from causes and conditions, they cannot arise. Arising through causes and conditions, they cease through causes and conditions; such causes and conditions are called dharmas of continuity. Therefore, you should know that there is truly no self; and these causes and conditions also have no agent, no experiencer, no initiator, and no other initiator. Therefore, there is no self. If there is no self, since the self is empty, what belongs to the self is also empty. Why? Because their substance and nature are so. Therefore, the nature of the eye lacks self and what belongs to self; it has no accumulation, neither joining nor separating, because it is instantly arising and ceasing. All dharmas are likewise thus. This condition of wind also enters into the sense-faculties, turning left and rotating right, pure and illuminating; that wind is like an illusion and cannot be grasped. Furthermore, although there seem to be an agent and what is acted upon, these two things completing each other, they merely arise from conditions and both lack intrinsic nature. People who do not understand consciousness-only cling entirely to them as a real self. As the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra states: “The Buddha said: ‘O monks, just as when two hands clap together, sound comes forth from between them, the self is likewise thus.’”’