宗鏡錄 86.17

86.17

Answer: Those newly awakening first use inference to know it, and afterwards they will believe and verify it. The Mahāyānasaṃgraha says: 'At all times and places, there is only consciousness.' For those who have not yet attained true wisdom and awakening, how do they know consciousness-only through inference? By sacred teachings and correct reasoning. As the teaching says: 'These three realms are all mind-only.' As for reasoning becoming manifest: just as in a meditative mind, whatever images known—such as the blue-bruised corpses and so forth that are contemplated—are completely non-different. Matters such as the blue-bruised are merely seeing one's own mind. It also says: 'External seeds take the internal as condition; the seeds of external dharmas are all seeds perfumed by the karma of sentient beings' experiences of enjoyment, manifested based on the power of the ālayavijñāna. Therefore, apart from the internal, external seeds do not exist separately.' As a verse says: 'Heaven, earth, wind, space, / ponds, moats, and the great ocean— / all are produced by the true internal; / external referents do not exist at all.' Another verse says: 'Sacred teachings and correct reasoning / each have their distinct functions; / to generate faith and wisdom, / not a single one fails to accomplish them.' Therefore, consciousness generating this consciousness is called the nimittabhāga; one knows that this characteristic is merely transformed by the internal mind, because external referents are not established. As a verse says: 'Toward the single body of a graceful courtesan, / the renunciant, the lustful, and the starving dog / [view it as] a stinking corpse, a captivating beauty, and delicious food; / their three kinds of discriminations are each different.' Since prior sensory data have no fixed characteristics, mind alone of itself distinguishes beauty and ugliness. If external dharmas were real, how could they differ according to each one's own perception? Therefore, by inference one knows: it is merely the self-manifestation of the mind, not another's sphere. An ancient master said: 'When a bodhisattva first arouses the mind from initial correct faith, they contemplate the substance of cause and effect in the dependent origination of the fundamental consciousness's own-nature, thereby accomplishing correct faith.' Therefore, the Mahāyānasaṃgraha says: 'Attaining that fundamental consciousness is said to be the bodhisattva's initial arising; they should first contemplate the true causes and conditions of dharmas.' This is what it means. What is 'true' is none other than the one mind; the rest are all false. If there are those who vigorously take it up and enter directly, people of sudden awakening and perfect faith, then at the very moment of first arousing the mind, they immediately achieve perfect awakening; without moving from the station of defilements, they sit universally in all bodhimaṇḍas; without departing from the approaches they have practiced, they roam playfully in the lands of the ten directions. Therefore, a verse of the Lotus Sūtra says: 'Attaining such a vehicle / enables the children, / through days, nights, and kalpas, / always to sport freely, / riding together with bodhisattvas / and the śrāvaka assembly / upon this jeweled vehicle / straight to the bodhimaṇḍa.' For this reason, seeking truly in the ten directions, there is no other vehicle, except as the Buddha's expedients. If one can cultivate according to the real, the fulfillment of the fruit does not depart from a single thought. As the Contemplation of Returning to the Source says: 'Rolling up and unfolding are unobstructed; hiding and revealing are simultaneous. A single limit cuts off beginning and end; exiting and entering obliterates exterior and interior. The initial mind and perfect awakening subsume many lifetimes in a single kṣaṇa; the perfection of the path of the ten faiths encompasses the Buddha stage in a single thought. That is, non-arising becomes manifest and illusory existence is established; both characteristics are obliterated and both events are preserved. Subsuming the dharmadhātu yet subsuming a single speck of dust; holding up a single body yet ten bodies appear.'