宗鏡錄 95.4

95.4

The Zhanyao jing says: Bodhisattva Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhin addressed the Buddha, saying: 'World-Honoured One, as for the secret essential gate of dhyāna, is there only one gate or are there multiple gates? If there are multiple ones, then the Dharma would have duality; if there is only one, how could it accommodate limitless and boundless sentient beings without being overcrowded?' The Buddha said: 'Good son, this essential gate of dhyāna is neither one nor many in number. The nature of all sentient beings is identical to empty space. Although identical to empty space, each within their own body and mind possesses their own dhyāna gate, and in truth they do not cultivate it in common. Why is this? Restraining the mouth from speaking and quietly according with the principle—the mouth is the dhyāna gate. Restraining eye discrimination so that it blends without difference—the eye is the dhyāna gate. The sounds heard by the ear are understood to be false and fundamentally quiescent, just as a deaf person [hears nothing]—the ear is the dhyāna gate. And so it is up to the body and the mind. Good son, restraining all defilements and entering the non-dual gate, one is vast, clear, and empty, serenely settled in concentration.'
Explanation: Citta is the dhyāna gate, and the body is the gathering of wisdom. Dhyāna can profoundly still; wisdom can give rise to illumination. When stillness and illumination are without difference, only then does one enter equanimity. As the Yongjia ji says: 'Through śamatha, although still it constantly illuminates; through vipaśyanā, although illuminating it is constantly still; through upekṣā, it is neither illuminating nor still. Because it is illuminating yet constantly still, speaking of the conventional is precisely the real. Because it is still yet constantly illuminating, speaking of the real is precisely the conventional. Because it is neither still nor illuminating, one shuts one's mouth at Vaiśālī.' Thus we know that if one understands that thoughts fundamentally do not arise, one is constantly in samāhita. Failing to observe that objects arise due to thought, one erroneously supposes that the true citta also moves. Therefore the Yuanjue jing says: 'When clouds scud, the moon moves; when a boat travels, the shore shifts.' Not knowing that the clouds of false thinking fly by themselves, how could the true moon move? How could one realize that the boat of condition-grasping constantly drifts, while the shore of awakening does not shift at all? As the preface to the Yuanjue [jing] shu says: 'Citta is fundamentally the Buddha, yet it drifts and sinks due to the arising of thoughts; the shore in truth does not shift, yet it races by because the boat travels.'