宗鏡錄 80.27

80.27

Answer: Being neither identical nor different, it can accord with the gate of the One Vehicle; being both existent and non-existent, it does not slander the nature of the three causes. As the *Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra* states: “The Buddha said: ‘Good son, if anyone says that all sentient beings definitively possess the Buddha-nature—permanent, blissful, self, and pure, unmade and unarisen, and unseen only due to the conditions of kleśas—you should know that such a person slanders the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha. If anyone says that all sentient beings completely lack the Buddha-nature, like a rabbit’s horns, that it arises from skillful means, originally non-existent and now existing, and once existing becoming non-existent again, you should know that such a person slanders the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha. If anyone says that for sentient beings it is not existent like empty space and not non-existent like a rabbit’s horns—why? because empty space is permanent, and a rabbit’s horns are non-existent—therefore one can say it is both existent and non-existent: existence refutes the rabbit’s horns, and non-existence refutes empty space—one who speaks thus does not slander the Three Jewels.’”