宗鏡錄 79.17

79.17

Answer: The myriad dharmas are only names; they truly have no substance or characteristics. Characteristics are established because of names, yet the appearance of characteristics is originally empty. Names are applied because of characteristics, yet names are fundamentally tranquil. Established solely through conception (saṃjñā), names and characteristics are both unreal. Inquiring back to the origin of conception, it too is only a name. Since there is no substance to conception, discrimination is empty. Therefore we know that the myriad dharmas emerge from the nameless, and myriad names are born from characteristiclessness. Names do not correspond to characteristics; characteristics do not correspond to names. With neither relying on the other, where do the myriad dharmas abide? When relative names are tranquil, the conceptions of discrimination suddenly become empty. The illusory objects merge with the true, and feelings of clinging unite with awakening. A verse in the *Ghanavyūhasūtra* says: / "Various dharmas of the world / are all merely names, / established only by conception; / apart from names there is no distinct referent." / Another verse says: / "When the cognitive consciousnesses arise, / there are no dharmas to be known; / that which is known is merely names; / worldly dharmas are all like this. / Discriminating dharmas by names, / dharmas do not correspond to names; / the nature of dharmas is like this, / not abiding in discrimination. / Because dharmas are merely names, / conception has no substance; / when conception is absent, names are also absent; / where could there be discrimination? / If one attains non-discrimination, / body and mind are perpetually tranquil, / just as when wood has been burned by fire, / it never arises again ultimately." / Another verse says: / "Like seeing a stump and taking it for a person, / or seeing a person and taking them for a stump, / the two discriminations of person and stump / exist only in names. / In the harmony of the great elements, / one discriminates them as form; / if separated from the great elements, / the nature of form does not exist."