宗鏡錄 98.30

98.30

The monk Ganquan said: Those who wish to generate the mind to enter the Way must first recognize their own fundamental mind. The mind is the root of the myriad dharmas and sentient beings, the source of the Buddhas and patriarchs of the three periods of time, and of the twelve divisions of scriptures. Although upon observing it one does not see its form, its applications and functions are sovereign, its operations unobstructed, thoroughly penetrating and clear, lucid and undifferentiated. If one has not yet recognized it, one must take faith as primary. What does the person of faith believe in? One has faith that the mind is Buddha. Due to beginningless ignorance, one transmigrates through birth and death, receiving various forms in the four types of birth and the six destinies, only because one does not dare to acknowledge that one's own mind is Buddha. If one can recognize one's own mind, outside the mind there is no other Buddha, and outside the Buddha there is no other mind. Furthermore, as for lifting movements and actions, who else could it be? Aside from this mind, there is no other mind. If you say there is another, you are just like Yajñadatta seeking his head with his head; it is just like that. The thousands of sūtras and ten thousand treatises exist only because [people] do not recognize their own minds. If one comprehends that one's own mind is originally Buddha, everything is merely a conventional designation, not to mention the various three realms of existence. Thus a bright mirror can reflect a countenance, and the Mahāyāna can seal the mind. He also said: Seeking sūtras and searching for a Buddha is not as good as examining the mind with principle. If you examine and find your own mind to be originally pure, it does not require polishing; it is inherently present and is not obtained on account of sūtras. How then can this be known? A sūtra says: 'The teachings of the sūtras are like a finger pointing to the moon. If you see the moon, you fully know what was pointed to.' If one can understand in this way, with one thought corresponding, one is named a Buddha.