宗鏡錄 67.3

67.3

Answer: Attachment to dharmas is difficult to eliminate and is even more subtle. Attachment to dharmas is the root, and attachment to a person is the branch. Therefore, when love of dharmas is not exhausted, [practitioners] all become those who fall from the peak; even those who perfectly realize nirvāṇa are still those with a view of a self. As in the Sūtra of Perfect Awakening, Bodhisattva Purifier of All Karmic Hindrances addressed the Buddha, saying: "O World-Honoured One of Great Compassion, you have extensively expounded for us such inconceivable matters, the characteristics of the causal practices of all Tathāgatas, causing the great assembly to attain what they had never had before, beholding the Tamer, whose painstaking realms over kalpas numerous as the sands of the Ganges and whose total functions are like a single thought. We bodhisattvas deeply rejoice. World-Honoured One, if this mind of awakening is originally and eternally pure, by what defilement are sentient beings caused to be deluded, distraught, and unable to enter?" Down to where the Buddha said: "Good sons, all sentient beings, from beginningless time, have falsely conceptualized and grasped a self, a person, a sentient being, and a life span, taking the four inversions to be the real substance of the self. From this, they immediately give rise to the two states of hatred and love. Over a false and unreal substance, they repeatedly grasp at what is false and unreal. The two falsehoods rely on each other, producing the path of false karmic deeds. Because of false karma, they falsely perceive transmigration; those who loathe transmigration falsely perceive nirvāṇa. Because of this, they are unable to enter pure awakening. It is not that awakening rejects and opposes those capable of entering; rather, that there are those capable of entering means they have not entered by means of awakening. Therefore, both the stirring of thought and the cessation of thought return to delusion and distraction. Why is this? Because there is the beginningless, fundamentally arisen avidyā acting as their own master. All sentient beings are born without the eye of prajñā, and the nature of their bodies and minds is entirely avidyā. It is just as when a person does not take their own life. Therefore, you should know that towards what loves oneself, one complies; towards what does not comply, one gives rise to hatred and resentment. Because the mind of hatred and love nourishes avidyā, though one continually seeks the Way, none achieve success. Good sons, what is the characteristic of a self? It refers to what is realized in the minds of sentient beings. Good sons, it is like a person whose hundred joints are well-attuned, suddenly forgetting their own body; but when the four limbs are slack and sluggish, or regimen and care are mismanaged, the slight application of needle or moxibustion makes them know there is a self. Therefore, only when grasping what is realized does the substance of the self appear. Good sons, even if their mind realizes the Tathāgata and ultimately understands pure nirvāṇa, this is all the characteristic of a self. Good sons, what is the characteristic of a person? It refers to what sentient beings comprehend in their minds regarding realization. Good sons, having comprehended that there is a self, one no longer identifies with the self. That which is comprehended is not the self, and the comprehension is also like this. Comprehension having surpassed all that is realized, this is entirely the characteristic of a person. Good sons, even if their mind perfectly comprehends that nirvāṇa is entirely the self, as long as the mind retains a slight comprehension that fully exhausts the realized principle, this is all called the characteristic of a person. Good sons, what is the characteristic of a sentient being? It refers to what is not reached by the realization and comprehension of the minds of sentient beings. Good sons, it is like someone making this statement: 'I am a sentient being.' Then one knows that when that person speaks of a 'sentient being,' it is neither self nor other. Why is it not the self? 'I am a sentient being,' so it is not the self. Why is it not other? 'I am a sentient being,' so it is not another's self. Good sons, sentient beings' understanding realization and understanding comprehension are all [the characteristics of] a self and a person; that which is not reached by the characteristics of a self and a person, yet where there remains something understood, is called the characteristic of a sentient being. Good sons, what is the characteristic of a life span? It refers to what the mind of sentient beings illuminates as pure and what is understood by awakening, which cannot be seen by any karmic cognition, just like the life faculty. Good sons, if the mind illuminates and sees all that awakens, it is all dust and defilement; for that which awakens and that which is awakened do not depart from dust. Just as when hot water melts ice, there is no separate ice to know that the ice has melted; retaining a self that awakens to the self is also like this. Good sons, sentient beings of the final age do not understand the four characteristics. Though they cultivate the Way painstakingly for many kalpas, it is merely called conditioned [action], and in the end they cannot accomplish any noble fruit." These two attachments to self and dharmas are specially treated in the sūtras and śāstras: they assist karma and moisten rebirth, comply with feelings and generate love, falsely arise from the sixth and seventh consciousnesses, and forcefully act as a master among the dharmas of faculties and dusts. They solidify the boundaries of ordinary beings, serve as the guide of kleśas, establish the root source of birth-and-death, and make the foundation of all sufferings. They ruin the treasure store of the true Dharma, go against the wondrous source of achieving Buddhahood, block the essential crossing to nirvāṇa, blind the wisdom eye of prajñā, obstruct the great path of bodhi, and sever the correct cause of liberation. In turning one's back on awakening and aligning with dust, nothing comes before these. As widely cited above, the refutations are distinct and clear. May you sever the root of doubt and suddenly dissolve the icy attachments; then there will be a path for correct cultivation, your efforts will not be in vain, and realizing the real in a single thought, you will entirely accomplish the path of awakening.