宗鏡錄 79.21

79.21

Answer: The various five skandhas all arise from the mind. What appears as characteristics from the mind is designated as form. A sūtra verse says:
‘In all the worlds,
There are only name and form.
If one wishes to observe in accordance with reality,
One should only observe name and form.’
Form encompasses all the insentient lands; name encompasses all the worlds of consciousness. This is because the five skandhas are the world. If one realizes that the five skandhas are all empty, that is the supramundane. Thus we know that both mundane and supramundane arise from the mind. Why? If a mind of greed and anger arises in the mental ground, it embraces the five skandhas of the three evil destinies, and sentient beings of sin and suffering appear. If a mind cultivating the precepts and the wholesome arises in the mental ground, it embraces the five skandhas of humans and devas, and sentient beings experiencing pleasure appear. If a mind realizing personal emptiness arises in the mental ground, it embraces the undefiled five skandhas, and sentient beings who are true sages appear. If a mind establishing the great vows arises in the mental ground, it embraces the five skandhas of kindness and compassion, and sentient beings who are great beings (mahāsattvas) appear. If an impartial mind is brought forth in the mental ground, it embraces the permanently abiding five skandhas, and sentient beings of supreme veneration appear. Now, the reason we set aside the former four skandhas and only observe the consciousness skandha is that it is like felling a tree by removing its roots or moxibusting an illness by finding the acupoint: then the bitter sprouts of birth and death are cut off forever, and the deep-seated disease of kleśas does not arise. Furthermore, it is like the Vairambha wind, sweeping away all doubts completely; it is like the fire of the aeon’s end, burning away divergent attachments without remainder. Therefore, wherever ordinary beings and sages dwell together in all worlds, there is nothing that is not one’s own mind. Awakening and entering like this is called dwelling in a true araṇya, a place of correct cultivation. It does not speak of seclusion in small or large places, nor does it fall into the views of bustle and quietude. Hence an ancient worthy said: ‘Dwelling amidst the crowd, one sees no clamor; being alone, there is also no loneliness.’ Why does one see neither clamor nor quietude? Because one only realizes the one mind. As the Mahāyāna Mūlajātahṛdayabhūmidhyānasūtra says: ‘At that time, the Buddha said to Maitreya Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva: “Good man, among those who cultivate and learn, if there is just one virtue, that person should dwell in an araṇya to seek the unexcelled path. What is this one? It means observing that the root source of all kleśas is one’s own mind. Understanding this Dharma, one is capable of dwelling in an araṇya. Why is this? It is like a mad dog driven and beaten by people, which only chases the tiles and stones, not the person. In future ages, those of newly generated aspiration who dwell in an araṇya are also like this. If they see sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tangibles, or dharmas, and their minds become attached in defilement, these people do not know the root of kleśas; they do not know that the five sense-objects are born from their own minds. This is called being unable to dwell properly in an araṇya. For this reason, all bodhisattva-mahāsattvas who delight in dwelling in quietude to seek the unexcelled path, when the objects of the five desires appear before them, should observe their own minds and form this thought: ‘From beginningless time down to the present day, I have transmigrated through the six destinies with no time of escape; this is all due to my own deluded mind producing confusion and delusion, and feeling greed, love, and defiled attachment toward the objects of the five desires.’ A bodhisattva such as this is called one capable of dwelling in an araṇya.”’ From this we know that if one does not awaken to one’s own mind, dwelling in distant valleys in vain to escape clamor and seek quietude—as an ancient said, throughout the world there has never been such a method. If one suddenly realizes one’s own mind, that is the true araṇya, extending to the light shining everywhere and the myriad virtues being completely perfected. If one is not clear about oneself, one transmigrates through the various destinies. As the Ritual Manual of the Letter-Wheel Yoga for the Sudden Realization of the Vairocana Dharmakāya explains regarding the contemplation of the Tathāgata’s dharmakāya: ‘First, contemplate the arousing of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva’s wondrous practices and vows; next, one should empower body and mind with the three mysteries, thereby being able to enter the great wisdom-ocean of Mañjuśrī. However, at the very beginning of cultivation, in a quiet place, collect your thoughts and pacify your mind, close your eyes and sit upright in the full lotus posture. Bring forth your mind to universally take as objects the boundless oceans of lands, closely observing all the Tathāgatas of the three times. Everywhere before each Buddha and bodhisattva, earnestly and reverently pay homage and circumambulate. Further, with clouds and oceans of various offering implements, present them to all such holy assemblies. Having made this vast offering, one should again observe one’s own mind: the mind is originally unborn, accomplished by its own nature, its light shining everywhere, just like empty space. Again, one should deeply arouse compassionate thoughts, pitying sentient beings who do not awaken to their own minds and transmigrate through the various destinies: ‘I shall universally transform and deliver them, causing them to awaken without exception.’ Again, one should observe that one’s own mind, the minds of all sentient beings, and the minds of all Buddhas originally have no difference, being of one equal characteristic, accomplishing the great bodhicitta, crystalline, pure, vast, and pervasive, round, bright, and dazzling, forming a great moon-wheel whose measure equals empty space without boundary.’ Thus we know that because the mind is boundless, it is like empty space; how could there be a beginning or an end? As a verse in the Avataṃsakasūtra says:
‘Mind abides in the world,
The world abides in mind;
Herein do not falsely produce
Discriminations of duality and non-duality.’
Therefore, speaking of one or speaking of two is worldly language; establishing right or establishing wrong belongs to discrimination in the mental ground. If one suddenly awakens to one’s own mind and directly enters the mirror of the source, one does not even see non-discrimination, how much less could one produce discrimination? As a sūtra verse says:
‘Fully knowing it is neither one nor two,
Neither defiled nor pure,
Nor again confused and chaotic—
All arise from one’s own ideation.’
Not only the actions and operations of worldly dharmas, but even the activities of all the sages—the root source of their arising and ceasing does not go beyond the mirror of the source. Therefore a sūtra verse says:
‘The ocean of lands has boundless wondrous adornments;
Within a single speck of dust, there are none that do not enter.
Such supernatural powers of all the Buddhas
All arise from the nature of karma.’
Such a wondrous principle is a Dharma gate of direct realization. Merely giving rise to inferential faith at first can still empty the mind; how much more so when one realizes and enters it, naturally severing remaining perplexities, where words perish and images are extinguished, consciousness is eradicated and emotional attachments dissolve! Thus the patriarch said: ‘Only by realization is it known; it is difficult to fathom.’ The Awakening of Faith says: ‘Regarding realization-based aspiration: from the stage of the pure mind up to the ultimate stage of a bodhisattva, what realm of objects is realized? It is what is called tathatā. It is in reference to that evolving consciousness that it is called a realm of objects; yet for this realizer, there is no realm of objects: only the wisdom of tathatā is called the dharmakāya.’