宗鏡錄 94.41

94.41

The Fawang jing says: 'If, among phenomena, one speaks of higher and lower, this is called heterodox speech; one's mouth shall be destroyed and one's tongue shall be torn asunder. Why is this? All sentient beings share the same defilement of mind; they share the same purity of mind. If sentient beings are sick, they share the same illness; when sentient beings need medicine, they must need a single medicine. If one speaks of manifold dharmas, this is called invertedness. Why is this? Because of false discrimination, analyzing good and evil dharmas, and destroying all dharmas; and because expounding the Dharma according to individual capacities severs the Buddha Path.'

Explanation: That 'sharing the same illness requires a single medicine' means that taking the one mind as the illness, one takes the one mind in turn as the medicine, because when mind arises, dharmas arise, and when mind ceases, dharmas cease. As for 'if one speaks of manifold dharmas, this is called invertedness': if one examines one's own mind, one cannot even find a single [dharma], much less speak of many! Seeing dharmas outside the mind constitutes invertedness. Like a mad mind seeing ghosts or diseased eyes seeing flowers in the sky, grasping at existence where there is none—how could this be true and correct? As for 'expounding the Dharma according to individual capacities severs the Buddha Path': grasping at the existence of an external capacity already contravenes the great principle; further expounding manifold dharmas truly destroys the correct source. As the Lotus Sūtra says: 'Even if there are those who have a deep love for the Dharma, I do not expound much for them.' Because the mind-dharma is exceedingly profound, it is neither many nor few. Since it cannot be spoken of as many, neither can it be spoken of as few. Because it is not many, it does not increase; because it is not few, it does not decrease. Because it does not increase, it is unarisen; because it does not decrease, it does not cease. Therefore, a verse in the Avataṃsaka-sūtra says:

'All dharmas do not arise; / all dharmas do not cease. / If one can understand in this way, / the buddhas will always be manifest before one.'

Furthermore, the Bodhisattva Bhaiṣajyarāja said: 'Having abandoned both of my arms, I will surely attain the golden body of a buddha.' The 'two arms' are precisely the two dharmas of annihilationism and eternalism. If one abandons the views of arising and ceasing, annihilationism and eternalism, then the mind-buddha manifests before one, and one abruptly accomplishes the body of a buddha. Hence he says: 'I will surely attain the golden body of a buddha.'