宗鏡錄 67.15

67.15

Answer: How wonderful, and how pitiable! Foolish persons of meager merit cannot have faith in or understand the Dharma-principles of the Mahāyāna. If there were an agent of seeing, there could be an object seen. Since an agent of seeing does not exist, who sees the object seen? Because the agents of seeing cannot examine and know that they themselves have an inherent substance, nor can they examine others. At the time of examination, both the agent of seeing and the object seen are completely non-existent. Therefore, one should not cling to directly seen phenomena as definitely having substance, because when the mind reflects back, all perceived objects are fictional. Why is this? When memory arises, there are in truth no various objects of sight and so forth; it is merely that in accordance with causes and conditions, one's own mind transforms into what appears to be various object-characteristics of sight and so forth, and arises. Because what is remembered is not real, only a fictional name of memory arises. Like reflecting back to recall the substances and characteristics of phenomena previously experienced, it is therefore called mindfulness. When one remembers, the previously experienced objects are completely absent; the agent of remembering is also absent, yet it is called 'mindfulness' as a provisional designation in accordance with habitual inverted views. Due to this mindfulness, worldly sentient beings falsely give rise to various conceptual discriminations and disputes, competing to cling to the intrinsic natures and distinctions of phenomena, sinking into the mire of evil views, unable to get out themselves. If there is nothing seen and nothing heard, then all is completely non-existent. How could one nowadays weave stones into a raft?