宗鏡錄 69.3

69.3

Answer: 'Skandha' (aggregate) means 'storehouse'. It is also called the 'five aggregates' (yin, concealment). 'Concealment' means 'covering', namely storing delusive seeds and covering over the true mind. The *Samuccaya* says: '"Aggregate" has the meaning of accumulation. Furthermore, carrying the burden of defilement is why they are called aggregates, like carrying a load on the shoulder.' This is the explanation according to conventional truth. If discussed according to ultimate truth, there is not a single dharma that can be accumulated, because each lacks its own essence and also lacks any function. Therefore, the *Laṅkāvatārasūtra* states: 'The Buddha told Mahāmati: "One should be skilled in the four great elements and derived matter. How is a bodhisattva skilled in the four great elements and derived matter? Mahāmati, the bodhisattva-mahāsattva trains in this way: regarding that ultimate truth, the four great elements do not arise. Toward those four great elements being unarisen, he makes such an observation. Having completed this observation, the delimitation of delusive conceptualization of name and mark is just the delimitation manifested by one's own mind. And so on, until: Mahāmati, how do those four great elements produce derived matter? Namely, the great element of delusive conceptualization of moisture produces the internal and external water elements; the great element of delusive conceptualization of capacity produces the internal and external fire elements; the great element of delusive conceptualization of fluttering movement produces the internal and external wind elements; and the great element of delusive conceptualization of solid matter produces the internal and external earth elements."' The commentary says: 'The delusive conceptualization of capacity refers to grasping the nature of the fire element as capable of ripening all things. The delusive conceptualization of solid matter refers to grasping the cuttable nature as the earth element.' Since the four great elements are already empty, the five aggregates have no master. For this reason, one first contemplates the aggregate of form as produced by the four great elements, arising mutually dependent on one another. Since there is no controller within the four great elements, who could assemble them to form matter? Observed in this way, the aggregate of form is immediately empty. Since the aggregate of form is already empty, how could the [other] four aggregates exist? Skillfully training in ultimate truth, the foremost pure mind does not abide in a single mark, and thus there are no four great elements that can arise. Therefore we know that everything is nothing other than true awakening; thus, with one awakening, all is awakened, because subsumed in the one mind, there is nothing unawakened. External dharmas originally have no names or marks; the delimitations seen are all merely the measure of mind. Illuminating with prajñā that the five aggregates are all empty: the form of a cluster of foam being already void, how could the sensation of a water bubble exist? The conception of a mirage is not real; the formations of a plantain tree are purely empty. Illusory consciousness is suddenly without support; the space element is serene and unmoving. Investigating the root of the four great elements, nature and characteristics do not even exist; how then could the branches and twigs of the six sense faculties cast a shadow? Since the view of self is not established, delusive consciousness also has nowhere to come from. There is only the one true mind, its spiritual nature standing alone. The ocean-treasury of Ganges-sands [dharmas], the limitless gates of meaning—all are gathered and point back here, the principle culminating in this. It does not go beyond a single thought: person and dharmas are both empty. As the *Sūtra on the Dharani of the Earth's Essence* (持地經) says: 'The Buddha said: "All worldlings, within the dharmas of seeing, hearing, sensing, and cognizing, grasp the aggregate of consciousness and greedily cling to it, thinking it exists. These people greedily cling to the dharmas of seeing, hearing, sensing, and cognizing, and are bound by the aggregate of consciousness. Treasuring what they know, bound by the combination of citta, manas, and vijñāna, they rush to and fro—namely, from this world to that world, from that world to this world—all because they are bound by the aggregate of consciousness. They are unable to truly know the aggregate of consciousness: that the aggregate of consciousness is false, unreal, and associated with error, arising because of the dharmas of seeing, hearing, sensing, and cognizing; within it there is no real conscious entity. If they cannot truly contemplate like this, they may generate wholesome consciousness, unwholesome consciousness, or wholesome-and-unwholesome consciousness. Such people always follow along with consciousness, not knowing where consciousness arises, not knowing the true characteristic of consciousness. Vasudhara, all bodhisattva-mahāsattvas in this regard contemplate correctly in this way: they know that the aggregate of consciousness arises from delusive consciousness, namely arising from various causes and conditions within the dharmas of seeing, hearing, sensing, and cognizing; because they produce the thought of 'dharmas' where there are no dharmas, they greedily cling to the aggregate of consciousness."' Therefore we know that the various aggregates do not go beyond the mind of the emptiness of dharmas in a single thought. Hence the *Yongjia ji* says: 'Clearly recognizing the five aggregates within a single thought: being distinctly vivid is the aggregate of consciousness; reception in the mind is the aggregate of sensation; the mind taking this principle as object is the aggregate of conception; the functioning of this principle is the aggregate of formations; defiling the true nature is the aggregate of form. As for these five aggregates, their entire substance is just a single thought; as for a single thought, its entire substance is completely the five aggregates. Distinctly seeing that within this single thought there is no controller is the wisdom of the emptiness of persons; seeing it as like an illusion or transformation is the wisdom of the emptiness of dharmas.' Therefore the *Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtra* states: 'The Buddha told the Good Goddess: "The five aggregates can manifest the dharmadhātu; the dharmadhātu is just the five aggregates."'