宗鏡錄 67.49

67.49

Answer: For those who have not attained it and grasp at the Middle to give rise to delusion, there must be the absence of truths. For those who truly attain it, it exists; for those who engage in conceptual proliferation, it does not. Furthermore, the Vijñaptimātratāsiddhiśāstra unfolds four tiers for the names of the two truths, the ultimate and the conventional, completely forming eight truths. The four conventional truths are: First, the truth of nominal designation without reality, referring to pots, basins, and the like, which have only nominal designations without real substances; because they are spoken of based on expressing designations, they are named truths. Second, the truth of distinction according to phenomena, referring to the aggregates, realms, and the like, where dharmas such as the aggregates are established according to those respective phenomena. Third, the truth of convenient establishment, referring to suffering, origination, and the like, established by virtue of the realized principle. Fourth, the truth of nominal designation without establishment, referring to the principle of the two emptineses, which, relying on that gate of emptiness, is spoken of as the true nature; because that true nature is an object of inward realization by wisdom and is ineffable, it is called the tathatā of the two emptineses, merely provisionally spoken. The four ultimate truths are: First, the truth of manifestation of substance and function, referring to the aggregates, realms, and the like, which possess real substantial natures; surpassing the initial conventional truth, they are named ultimate; spoken of as aggregates and the like according to distinct phenomena, they are named manifestation. Second, the truth of distinction in cause and effect, referring to suffering, origination, and the like, in their distinctions of cause and effect through wisdom, eradication, realization, and cultivation. Third, the truth of revealing the real relying on the gate, referring to the principle of the two emptineses, which surpasses the conventional and is realized, and is therefore named ultimate; relying on emptiness as that which is able to realize in order to reveal the real, it is therefore named relying on the gate. Fourth, the truth of abandoning expression to discuss the intent, referring to the one real tathatā whose marvelous substance transcends words, already named ultimate. Furthermore, the ultimate is not ultimate of itself, but is ultimate in relation to the conventional; thus the former three ultimates are also spoken of as conventional. The conventional is not conventional of itself, but is conventional in relation to the ultimate; thus the latter three conventionals are also named ultimate. The ultimate principle is profound and sublime, all the more verified in this. Furthermore, the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, in accordance with its perfect numbers, establishes ten truths, and so on, extending even to each and every dharma being completely interfused and inexhaustible.