宗鏡錄 65.7

65.7

Answer: It only sees the unreal; it does not see the reality of the unreal. It is like seeing a tree stump as a thief: it does not see the stump. It is also like the single principle of true emptiness being seen and turning into the two truths: if known by worldly people, it is called the conventional truth; if known by supramundane people, it is called the supreme truth. The locus of what is known is not necessarily far apart; the objects they know each appear from the citta. Like a cataract-affected eye seeing a bright pearl as having flaws, while a clean eye observes it as pure, lustrous, and without blemish. Excellence and ugliness are only differences in their own seeing; the pearl's substance is one and the same from beginning to end.