宗鏡錄 80.3

80.3

Answer: Because the myriad phenomena lack substance and their names and characteristics are fundamentally empty, suddenly existing out of nothing, they are called 'transformations'. As the 'Chapter on the Ten Forbearances' in the Avataṃsakasūtra says: "Sons of the Buddha, what is the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's forbearance of conforming to transformation? Sons of the Buddha, this bodhisattva-mahāsattva knows that all worlds are entirely like transformations. Namely: all sentient beings' mental karma is a transformation, arising from perception and thought. All worldly formations are transformations, arising from conceptual distinction. All pain, pleasure, and inversions are transformations, arising from false grasping. All worldly unreal phenomena are transformations, manifested by verbal discourse. All afflictions and conceptual distinctions are transformations, arising from mental recollections. Furthermore, there are transformations of purification and subduing, manifested by non-discrimination. Transformations that do not turn in the three times, because of non-arising and equality. Transformations of the bodhisattva's vow-power, because of vast cultivation. Transformations of the Tathāgata's great compassion, manifested expediently. Transformations of expedients in turning the wheel of the Dharma, spoken through wisdom, fearlessness, and eloquence. The bodhisattva thus understands worldly and world-transcending transformations: knowing them through immediate realization, knowing them vastly, knowing them boundlessly, knowing them according to facts, knowing them autonomously, knowing them truly, unable to be overturned by false views, and though acting according to the world, remaining undecayed. For example, a transformation does not arise from citta, does not arise from mental factors, does not arise from karma, and does not receive retribution; it is not born in the world, not extinguished in the world, cannot be pursued, cannot be grasped or touched; it does not abide for long, does not abide for an instant; it does not move in the world, does not depart from the world; it is not exclusively bound to one direction, does not universally belong to all directions; it is not finite, not infinite; it does not tire or cease, nor does it not tire or cease; it is neither ordinary nor noble, neither defiled nor pure, neither birth nor death, neither wise nor foolish, neither seen nor unseen; it does not rely on the world, does not enter the dharmadhātu; it is neither clever nor dull; it neither grasps nor does not grasp; it is neither saṃsāra nor nirvāṇa, neither existent nor non-existent. A bodhisattva possessing such skillful expedients acts in the world, cultivates the bodhisattva path, understands worldly phenomena, emanates bodies and travels transformed, does not attach to the world, does not grasp at their own body, makes no distinctions regarding the world or the body, does not abide in the world, does not depart from the world, does not abide in phenomena, does not depart from phenomena, and on account of their original vows, does not abandon a single realm of sentient beings, nor do they subdue only a few realms of sentient beings; they do not discriminate phenomena, yet do not fail to discriminate; they know the nature of all phenomena to have no coming and no going; though they possess nothing, they fulfill the Buddha Dharma; they understand phenomena to be like transformations, neither existent nor non-existent. Sons of the Buddha, when the bodhisattva-mahāsattva abides in the forbearance of conforming to transformation in this way, they are fully able to fulfill the bodhi path of all Buddhas and benefit sentient beings. This is called the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's ninth forbearance, the forbearance of conforming to transformation." Therefore, we know that good and unwholesome phenomena are transformatively produced from the mind: with causes that have no action, they experience results that suddenly appear. Hence the Sixth Patriarch said: "Thinking of evil phenomena, one transforms into the hells; thinking of good phenomena, one transforms into the heavenly realms. Harmful malice transforms into beasts; loving-kindness and compassion transform into bodhisattvas. All are transformations of one's own nature."