宗鏡錄 86.5

86.5

Answer: It is simply because the ordinary person turns their back on awakening and joins with dust, separated by the dust, bewildered by truth and pursuing the false, obscured by falsehood. Therefore, in the teachings, they are ridiculed as 'born blind,' not opening the eye of wisdom, and rebuked as 'deaf commoners,' how could they attain true hearing? They understand neither their own mind nor the minds of others; how could they broadly comprehend the myriad kinds and accomplish sarvākārajñatā? As the *Dhāraṇī-sūtra of Protecting the Sovereign of the Realm* says: "The Buddha said: 'Good sons, if sons of the Buddha wish to accomplish anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, if they wish to skillfully know their own minds... up to, they should first generate the great mind of compassion, and on behalf of all sentient beings take refuge in the Three Jewels, receive the bodhisattva precepts, and so forth.'" Therefore, one's own mind is difficult to know, and none are able to examine it skillfully; without entering the mirror of the source, how could it be illumined? If one understands one's own mind, one is someone who has immediately generated the bodhi mind. Therefore, the subtlety of the mind cannot be known by the world. An ancient author in the "Essay on the Hidden Mind" wrote: "The vastness of the two poles (Heaven and Earth) can be calculated by standard models; the movement of the three celestial regulators can be measured by sundials; the sound of thunder can be transmitted by bells and drums; the changes of wind and rain can be known by pitch-pipes. Thus, where there is an image to behold, its measure cannot be concealed; where there is light to see, its trace cannot be hidden; where there is sound to hear, its resonance cannot be kept secret; where there is form to examine, its nature cannot be obliterated. Even with what is difficult to understand in Heaven, Earth, yin, and yang, one can still evaluate them through numbers and know them through ears and eyes. When it comes to the human mind, however, it is different from this. The mind dwells within; emotions lurk inside; it cannot be calculated by numbers. The ordinary person's mind is more perilous than mountains and rivers, and harder to know than Heaven. Heaven has the regular cycles of spring, autumn, winter, summer, morning, and evening; human beings have thick countenances and deep emotions, which cannot be known. Hence some are unyielding in mind yet gentle in expression, resolute in countenance yet weak in substance, strong in intention yet sluggish in action, impetuous in nature yet dilatory in execution. Feigning external adornment to conceal their emotions, their joy does not necessarily mean love, their anger does not necessarily mean hatred, their smile is not necessarily delight, and their weeping is not necessarily grief. Their concealed emotions and hidden actions are not easily fathomable." When the minds of others are already unfathomable, how could external objects be known? Therefore, the *Treatise on the Awakening of Faith* says: "Sentient beings, depending on the defiled mind, are able to perceive and able to manifest, falsely grasping objects and bewildered about the nature of equality. Because all phenomena are eternally quiescent without the characteristic of arising, avidyā does not awaken, falsely conflicting with phenomena; therefore, they cannot conform to all objects of the world and have manifold knowledge." Thus we know that outside the mind there is no phenomenon, and outside phenomena there is no mind. Simply understand the one mind, and all dusts will naturally harmonize. Arising thoughts that turn back on phenomena go against the substance of phenomena; having conflicted with phenomena, one does not penetrate them. If one can accord with the dharmadhātu-nature and conform to the tathatā-mind, then prajñā is without knowing, yet there is nothing it does not know.