宗鏡錄 94.48

94.48

A verse in the Dharmapada says:

'The dense and varied myriad phenomena / are sealed by a single dharma. / How is it that within the single dharma / one sees diverse varieties?'

It also says:

'Though one recites a thousand verses / whose words and meaning are not correct, / it is not as good as a single essential [verse], / hearing which brings conceptual thought to cessation.'

Explanation: 'Though one recites a thousand verses' means merely following sounds without knowing the correct meaning. 'Not as good as a single essential' means that if one understands the one mind, it is the essential of the myriad dharmas; when one penetrates the source, conceptual thought ceases, and when conceptual thought ceases, objects are empty. Since the myriad dharmas are constantly empty, taking form according to thought, a verse in the Acintyaprabhāsa-bodhisattva-sūtra says:

'All dharmas that are not like [tathatā] / dwell equally within tathatā. / Having awakened to and known this, / there are no faults and no virtues.'

Explanation: 'All dharmas that are not like [tathatā]' refers to dharmas without substantial nature, which are conceptually constructed and falsely grasped outside the mind. If one realizes that delusion has no reality, all dharmas dwell equally in the mind of tathatā. Awakening and knowing in this way, there is no dharma outside awakening that could serve as a counterpart; defilement and purity are both empty. As the Viśeṣacinti-brahma-paripṛcchā-sūtra says: 'The sentient beings transformed by the bodhisattva have no virtues, because there is no place of opposition.' Because there are faults and perils, virtues are then revealed; since the true mind is omnipresent, there is not a single dharma that can be a fault or peril. Since there are no faults and perils to be cured, neither are there virtues capable of curing them. Neither is established; hence it says 'there are no faults and no virtues.'