宗鏡錄 66.6

66.6

Answer: Although there is no agent, there is action. Through the power of multiple conditions, it reaches future lifetimes in continuous succession without interruption. Solely with consciousness as the seed, there can be such functions as revulsion, seeking, and recollecting. The Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra says: 'Bodhisattva Siṃhanāda said: "World-Honoured One, the five skandhas of sentient beings are empty and have nothing at all. Who receives the teaching and cultivates the path?" The Buddha said: "Good son, all sentient beings have a mind of mindfulness, a mind of wisdom, an aspiring mind, an energetic mind, a faithful mind, and a concentrated mind. Although dharmas such as these perish from thought-moment to thought-moment, they still continue in unbroken succession through resemblance; therefore it is called cultivating the path. Furthermore, just as a lamp, although perishing thought-moment to thought-moment, nonetheless has light that dispels darkness, dharmas such as mindfulness are also like this. Just as the food of sentient beings, although perishing thought-moment to thought-moment, can still satisfy the hungry; just as superior medicine, although perishing thought-moment to thought-moment, can still cure illnesses; and just as the light of the sun and moon, although perishing thought-moment to thought-moment, can still cause grasses, trees, and forests to grow—good son, as to what you said about perishing thought-moment to thought-moment, how can there be growth? Because the mind is uninterrupted, it is called growth."' As a verse in the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa says: 'Although there is no self, no maker, and no receiver, / The karma of good and evil is never lost.' [Though] the karmic causes of good and evil and the retributions of suffering and pleasure are lost [to an agent], there is no person or self capable of making or receiving them; consciousness alone upholds them, and cause and effect are not lost. As an ancient master said: 'That sentient beings perform good and evil and receive their retributions is entirely due to the citta and vijñāna of sentient beings continuing through the three periods of time, transmitted from thought-moment to thought-moment. Just as the active five skandhas of the present life take the consciousness-seed of the previous life as cause to produce the fruit of the present life, in the present life there is action that perfumes seeds to serve as the cause for the active [skandhas] of future lives, sequentially continuing as cause and effect. Furthermore, karmas of good and evil both arise from the citta and vijñāna. That is to say, the preceding thought-moment creates good or evil karma; then, although this one thought-moment of consciousness perishes, the succeeding thought-moment of citta and vijñāna arises. Since citta and vijñāna are transmitted without interruption, they can sustain the karma of good and evil so that it is not lost, precisely because it is held by consciousness.' The Vijñaptimātratāsiddhiśāstra says: 'However, in sentient beings, body and mind continue, and through the power of defilements and karma they transmigrate through the various destinies; because they loathe suffering, they seek to proceed to nirvāṇa.' From this, it is known that there is definitely no real self; there are only the consciousnesses, which from beginningless time have perished before and arisen after in the succession of cause and effect. Due to false perfuming, the semblance of a self appears, and foolish people falsely cling to it as a self. Therefore, know that loathing suffering and seeking pleasure, abandoning this and being born in that, verifies that there is no self. If there were definitely a self possessing substance, it could not come or go, or arise and perish in accordance with conditions; because it would be definitely existent, it could not be altered. It is solely because the conscious mind is illusory and indefinite that there is the principle of entering the noble from the common, and the gate of loathing the false and seeking the true; thus, without destroying causes and conditions, it can encompass the correct principle.