宗鏡錄 66.2

66.2

Now, since there is no self, there is also no person, up to sentient being, soul, the sixteen views, and so forth. As the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra says: 'The Buddha said: "Just as it is said that name-and-form binds sentient beings, if name-and-form ceases, then there are no sentient beings. Apart from name-and-form, there are no separate sentient beings; apart from sentient beings, there is no separate name-and-form. It is both called name-and-form binding sentient beings, and called sentient beings binding name-and-form." Siṃhanāda said: "World-Honoured One, just as the eye does not see itself, a finger does not touch itself, a knife does not cut itself, and love does not receive itself, how can the Tathāgata say that name-and-form binds name-and-form? Why is this? What is called 'name-and-form' is precisely sentient beings; what is called 'sentient beings' is precisely name-and-form. If one says that name-and-form binds sentient beings, that is precisely name-and-form binding name-and-form." The Buddha said: "Good son, just as when two hands clap together, there is no other, different phenomenon that comes to join them; name and form are also like this. For this reason, I say that name-and-form binds sentient beings. If one is free from name-and-form, one attains liberation."' The commentary states: Regarding 'just as when two hands clap together, there is no other, different phenomenon': although the two hands join together, because it is merely the function of a single body, there is no other, different phenomenon. Although they are not different phenomena, if there were only one hand, the joining could not take place. Just so, although name-and-form and sentient beings are not different, sentient beings must be bound on account of name-and-form, and one must be free from name-and-form to attain liberation. The separation and conjunction, binding and liberation of all phenomena are also like this. The Vimalakīrtinirdeśasūtra says: 'Phenomena have no person, because the prior and subsequent limits are severed.' Dharma Master Zhao said: 'Heaven gives birth to the myriad things, and holds humans to be noble. That which does not change from beginning to end is called a "person". Non-Buddhists call the spirit a "person", taking it to be unchanging from beginning to end. If the prior and subsequent limits of phenomena are severed, then they are moment-by-moment renewed and different. If they are moment-by-moment renewed and different, then there is nothing that does not change. If there is nothing that does not change, then there is no person.' Since there is no person in the prior limit, no soul in the subsequent limit, and neither self nor sentient being in the intermediate limit, all worldly phenomena whatsoever are merely conceptual differentiations constructed in words of thought, establishing their names and characteristics, and entirely lack real meaning. Sentient beings do not understand; grasping at their false perceptions, they are submerged therein and unable to escape. Therefore, the Buddhas expediently taught the two kinds of emptiness—of person and of phenomena—the correct doctrine of consciousness-only, so that they can be pulled out from amid false and deceptive names and characteristics. As the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa says: 'Subhūti said to the Buddha: "World-Honoured One, if all phenomena are empty and rootless, like a dream or a phantom, where do sentient beings abide such that the bodhisattva pulls them out?" Subhūti's meaning was like a person sinking in deep mud who is pulled out. The Buddha answered: "Sentient beings merely abide in names, characteristics, false memories, thoughts, and conceptual differentiations." The Buddha's meaning was that among all phenomena, there is nothing definitively real; ordinary persons merely cling to them out of falsehood and deception. It is like someone in the dark who sees something resembling a person and, believing it to be a real person, gives rise to fear. It is also like a vicious dog approaching a well, barking at its own reflection; there is no dog in the water, only its appearance, yet it gives rise to a vicious intention and leaps into the well to its death. Sentient beings are also like this: the four great elements come together, and so it is called a "body"; conditions give rise to consciousness and come together, and so there is motion and speech. Ordinary persons give rise to the notion of a person within this, generating attachment and aversion, creating sinful karma, and falling into the three evil destinies. When bodhisattvas practice the prajñāpāramitā, out of pity for sentient beings, through various causes and conditions they teach and transform them, leading them to know empty phenomena and pulling them out, speaking thus: "These phenomena are all ultimately empty and nonexistent. Because sentient beings are inverted and false, they see what resembles existence, like an apparition, like a phantom, like a city of the Gandharvas; there is no real actuality, they only deceive and mislead human eyes."' Up to: 'The Buddha told Subhūti: "If phenomena were truly existent even to the extent of a hair's breadth, when the bodhisattva sits at the seat of awakening, he would not be able to awaken to all phenomena as empty, without characteristic, and nonexistent, attain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi, nor be able to benefit sentient beings with this teaching."' It also says: 'It is like a traveller who spent the night alone in an empty pavilion. In the night, there was a ghost who carried a corpse and placed it before him. There was another ghost who came from behind, angrily scolding the first ghost, saying: "It is my corpse! Why did you carry it here?" The first ghost said again: "It was originally my thing; I carried it here myself." The two ghosts fought over it, each grasping it with one hand. The first ghost said: "We can ask this man." The second ghost then asked: "Whose dead person is this? Who carried it here?" The man thought: "Both of these two ghosts possess great strength. Whether I speak the truth or lie, in either case I cannot escape death. I should not answer the ghost with a lie now." He then answered the second ghost: "The first ghost carried it here." The second ghost was furious, ripped off his hands and feet, and cast them on the ground. The first ghost was ashamed of this, took the corpse's parts, and mended him with them; as soon as he mended him, they adhered. His arms, hands, feet, and so forth—his whole body was replaced. Thereupon the two ghosts together ate the body of the living person that had been replaced, each wiped its mouth, and they parted and went their ways. The man thought: "The body born of my parents, I saw eaten up with my own eyes. My present body is entirely another's flesh. Do I have a body, or do I have no body?" Thinking thus, his mind fell into confusion and he did not know what to do, like a madman. When dawn broke, he followed the road away, and arrived at a country ahead. Seeing a stupa, whenever he saw monks, without discussing any other matters, he only asked whether his own body existed or did not exist. The monks asked: "What sort of person are you?" He answered: "I do not know whether I am a person or not a person either." He then related the above event to the monks in detail. The monks all said: "This man knows for himself that his own body has no self; he can easily be converted." They then said to him: "Your body from the beginning has always naturally lacked a self; it was merely due to the aggregation and gathering of the four great elements that you reckoned it to be your own body. What was your own body is no different from the present one." At that time, the monks ordained him as a śramaṇa. Cutting off afflictions completely, he attained arhatship.' For this reason, there are times when one also reckons another's body to be oneself, because there is already no self; and there are times when, regarding oneself, one takes it to be another person. Thus the Mañjuśrīparipṛcchāsūtra says: 'An old man was lying down at night, holding his two knees in his hands, and then asked: "Where did these two small children come from?" If the body had a self, how could he fail to recognize it and take them to be small children? Therefore we know that arbitrary reckonings all lack definitive reality.' It also says: 'The bodhisattva reflects thus: "Phenomena are empty, without self, and without sentient beings, yet on account of causes and conditions, there are the four great elements and the six consciousnesses. These ten phenomena each have capacity; they can generate, can initiate, and can perform actions. Just as earth generates and sustains, water can dissolve, fire can consume, wind can move and turn, and consciousness can differentiate—these ten phenomena each have their own functions. Sentient beings, being inverted, take them to be done by a person or done by a self. Just as the coming together of skin and bone gives rise to the sound of speech, the deluded call it human speech; just as when fire burns a dry bamboo grove it produces a great sound, yet herein there is no agent. Again, just as wooden puppets, phantom persons, and apparitional persons, although capable of movement, have no agent, these ten phenomena are also like this."' The Guang bai lun says: 'If one grasps that there is a self in accordance with one's own perception, is it not merely that by taking the impermanent body and so forth as conditions, one makes false differentiations and grasps them as a real self? Why is this? It is manifestly seen in the world that merely taking the body and so forth as conditions, varying in states according to conditions over time, one falsely calculates: "I am fat, I am thin; I am superior, I am inferior; I am bright, I am dull; I am suffering, I am happy." For the impermanent body and so forth, such things are possible; a permanent, real self has no such distinctions. By this inference we know that all views of self lack a real self as their objective domain; they only take the false body and so forth as their object, arising in accordance with one's own false thoughts and discerning intellect. It is like taking a rope in the dark as an object and erroneously grasping it as a snake.' A verse in the Ratnāvalī says: / 'Just as a person, relying on a clean mirror, / Is able to see the reflection of their own face; / This reflection can only be seen, / But is completely unreal. / The view of self is also like this: / It appears in reliance upon the aggregates; / When examined as it truly is, it does not exist, / Just like the face's reflection in the mirror.' / The Xianyang lun poses the question: 'If there are only aggregates and no separate self, who sees, who hears, and who can discern?' Up to the verse in reply, which says: / 'Just as light has the function of illuminating, / And apart from the light there is no different substance, / Therefore, internally and externally, / The meaning of being empty and without self is established.' / The treatise says: 'It is manifestly seen in the world that precisely regarding the substance of light, having the function of illuminating, it is called "the illuminator"; apart from the substance of light, there is no separate illuminator. In this way, the eye and so forth having the function of seeing and so on are called "the seer", up to "the discerner"; there is no separate seer and so forth. Therefore, internal and external phenomena alike have no self.'