宗鏡錄 87.8

87.8

Answer: Because when the confusion of the grasper is extinguished, one immediately enters without interval; therefore it receives this name. This entering without interval is the bodhisattva's stage of supreme worldly dharmas (laukikāgradharma). And so forth, down to the five stages: The first is the stage of provisions (sambhāramārga). Initially studying consciousness-only marks the beginning of generating the aspiration (bodhicitta); it is the division of the initial generation of aspiration, because one generates the aspiration in reliance upon great bodhi. The bodhisattva's noble birth has four meanings: first, the seed is superior, because bodhicitta serves as the seed; second, the birth mother is superior, because prajñāpāramitā serves as the birth mother; third, the womb is superior, because the maintenance of the two collections of merit and wisdom serves as the womb; fourth, the wet nurse is superior, because nurturing by great compassion serves as the wet nurse. The verse for the second, the stage of penetration (nirvedhabhāgīya), states: / 'Having known the nature of the categories of objects, / One well abides in the radiance of mind-only; / Because one directly sees the dharmadhātu, / One is liberated from the two characteristics.' / The treatise says: In this stage, through understanding that all objects have only the speech of the mind as their nature, one then understands that all objects are merely the radiance of the mind. The bodhisattva at that time is called 'well abiding in consciousness-only'. After that, directly seeing the dharmadhātu, they penetrate all the two characteristics and are liberated from the grasper and the grasped. The verse for the third, the path of seeing (darśanamārga), states: / 'Outside the mind there are no things; / Since things are absent, the mind is also absent; / Through understanding the non-existence of both, / One well abides in the true dharmadhātu.' / The treatise says: In this stage, because they directly see the dharmadhātu as such, they understand that outside the mind there are no grasped objects; because grasped objects do not exist, the grasping mind also does not exist. Through freedom from the two characteristics of the grasped and the grasper, one should know that they well abide in the self-nature of the dharmadhātu. The verse for the fourth, the path of cultivation (bhāvanāmārga), states: / 'The power of non-conceptual wisdom / Constantly acts with equality and universal reach; / In order to destroy the substance of accumulated faults, / Like medicine capable of dispelling poison.' / The treatise says: The bodhisattva in this stage, having entered the transformation of the basis of supreme wisdom, constantly acts with equality and engages in universal reach through non-conceptual wisdom. Why? In order to destroy the characteristics of accumulated faults in the dense forest of habitual tendencies that rely on the other-dependent nature. The power of this wisdom is like the agada medicine, which can dispel all poisons. The verse for the fifth, the ultimate stage, states: / 'Taking the Buddha's well-established Dharma as object, / The root of mind rests in the dharmadhātu; / Understanding that thoughts are mere conceptual discrimination, / One swiftly exhausts the ocean of merit.' / The treatise says: 'Taking the Buddha's well-established Dharma as object' means that the bodhisattvas form an aggregate object-cognition among all the wondrous dharmas well established by the Buddha.