宗鏡錄 82.19

82.19

Answer: Although one comprehends that the root and branches of the one mind are equal, because the differentiated seeds within the realm of sentient beings' deluded habituations are perfumed without perfuming, being firm and unyielding from beginningless time, they are exceedingly difficult to eliminate. Even up to the stage of the ten bhūmis there still remain the two habituations of form and mind. If one does not exert vigorous diligence, constantly applying the Buddha's knowledge and vision to remedy them thought after thought, there is no way to attain purity. As the Avataṃsaka-sūtra says: 'At that time, Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva asked Vīryasena Bodhisattva: "Son of the Buddha, the Buddha's teaching is one, and sentient beings come to see it; why do they not immediately cut off all the bonds of the kleśas and attain liberation? Yet their form aggregate, feeling aggregate, perception aggregate, formations aggregate, consciousness aggregate, the kāmadhātu, the rūpadhātu, the ārūpyadhātu, avidyā, and rāga have no distinctions. Is it then that the Buddha's teaching is beneficial to some sentient beings and not beneficial to others?" At that time, Vīryasena Bodhisattva replied in verse: / "Son of the Buddha, listen well and carefully; / I shall now reply in accordance with reality. / Some attain liberation swiftly, / While for others escape is difficult. / If one wishes to eliminate / Limitless faults and evils, / Within the Buddha's Dharma / One should always be vigorous and diligent. / Just as with a tiny fire, / Wet firewood quickly extinguishes it; / Within the Buddha's teaching, / The indolent are also like this. / Like drilling wood to seek fire, / Resting frequently before it appears, / The force of fire ceases and dies out accordingly; / The indolent are also like this. / Like a person holding a sun crystal / Who does not catch the shadow with an object, / Fire can never be obtained; / The indolent are also like this. / Just as when the bright sun shines, / A child closes their eyes / And complains, asking why they do not see; / The indolent are also like this. / Like a person without hands or feet / Who wishes to use arrows of cogon grass / To shoot through and destroy the great earth; / The indolent are also like this. / Like using the tip of a single hair / To draw up the water of the great ocean, / Wishing to make it completely dry up; / The indolent are also like this. / Or like when the kalpa fire arises, / Wishing to extinguish it with a little water; / Within the Buddha's teaching, / The indolent are also like this. / Like someone who sees empty space / And, sitting upright without moving, / Claims to have traversed it completely; / The indolent are also like this."' The commentary states: '"Like drilling wood to seek fire, resting frequently before it appears, the force of fire ceases and dies out accordingly; the indolent are also like this": one must use the drill of prajñā focused on a single object, skillfully turning it with the rope of upāya, with citta and prajñā non-abiding and without interruption in the four deportments; then the noble path can arise. A momentary stirring of the mind or temporarily forgetting illumination are both called resting. Therefore the Ratnakūṭa-sūtra says: "It is like colored silk tied to one's head; when fire comes to burn the colored silk, one has no leisure to put out the fire, because rescuing the real principle is urgent." When non-Buddhist texts encourage study, they still say to make light of a foot-long jade disc and value an inch of time; how much more so for studying prajñā to seek the dharma of escaping birth and death—how could one forget it for even an instant?'