萬善同歸集 3.53

3.53

答：「所作之時，從緣而起，以有施為，而無主宰。所出音聲，猶如風鐸；隨機轉動，惟似木人。但依業力所為，而無我性可得。四大聚散，生滅隨緣；乃至六趣受身，亦復如是。實無有人，而能來往。《華嚴經》云：『如機關木人，能出種種聲；彼無我非我，業性亦如是。』論云：『因緣故生天，因緣故墮地獄。』若言是我，非因緣者，作惡何不生天，乃墮地獄耶？我豈愛彼地獄受苦耶？我既作惡而不受樂者，故知善惡感報，惟是因緣，非是我也。而眾生於無我、無作之中，妄認我、作，強為其主，不知是識所為，決定無有作者。外道皆稱執作，悉有神我；若無神我，誰為所作？《智論》破云：『心是識相，故自能使身，不待神也。如火性能燒物不假人。』《唯識論》云：『諸所執實有我體，為有思慮，為無思慮？有思慮應是無常，非一切時有思慮故；無思慮如虛空，不能作業，亦不受果。故所執我，理俱不成。由此故知，定無實我。但有諸識，無始時來，前滅後生，因果相續；由妄熏習，似我相現；愚者於中，妄執為我。』又無我者，即是無性；性即是體，體是主質義。凡有一法，皆從眾緣所成，實無本體；以無體故空。是以眾生，於性空中，執為實有；內則為我所羈，外則為塵所局，所以修行不出心、境；及至得果，不離所因。昇降雖殊，常繫諸有；互為高下，終始輪迴。眾患所生，我為其本。」

He replied: “At the time an action is performed, it arises from conditions; though there is activity, there is no master. The sounds produced are like wind-chimes; turning and moving in accordance with mechanisms, they are merely like wooden puppets. It is acted solely by relying on karmic power, and no self-nature can be found. The four great elements assemble and disperse, arising and ceasing in accordance with conditions; this is also true all the way up to receiving bodies in the six destinies. Truly there is no person who can come or go. The Avataṃsaka Sūtra says: ‘Like a mechanical wooden puppet that can produce various sounds; it has no self nor non-self, and the nature of karma is also like this.’ A treatise says: ‘Due to causes and conditions one is born in heaven; due to causes and conditions one falls into hell.’ If one says there is a self and it is not causes and conditions, then when doing evil, why does one not get born in heaven, but falls into hell? Could the self cherish suffering in that hell? Since I perform evil and yet do not receive pleasure, we therefore know that the response and retribution of good and evil are solely causes and conditions, not a self. Yet sentient beings, in the midst of selflessness and non-action, falsely recognize a self and action, forcibly making a master of it, not knowing that it is done by consciousness and that there is definitely no agent. Non-Buddhists all claim an agent, asserting that there is a spiritual self; if there is no spiritual self, who performs the action? The Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa refutes this, saying: ‘The mind is the characteristic of consciousness, hence it can spontaneously actuate the body without waiting for a spirit. Just as the nature of fire can burn things without relying on a person.’ The Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi Śāstra says: ‘Does that real substance of the self grasped [by them] have deliberation, or does it lack deliberation? If it has deliberation, it should be impermanent, because it does not possess deliberation at all times; if it lacks deliberation, it is like empty space, unable to perform karma or receive fruit. Therefore, the self grasped is untenable in either principle. From this we know that there is definitely no real self. There are only the consciousnesses, from beginningless time, the former perishing and the latter arising, cause and effect continuing; due to false perfuming, the semblance of a self appears; the foolish, within this, falsely grasp it as a self.’ Furthermore, selflessness is precisely non-nature; nature is substance, and substance has the meaning of a primary substrate. Whatever single phenomenon there is, it is entirely formed from a confluence of conditions, and truly has no fundamental substance; because it lacks substance, it is empty. Therefore, sentient beings, within the emptiness of nature, grasp things as real existents; internally they are shackled by a self, and externally they are confined by dust-objects; hence their cultivation does not go beyond mind and objects; and when they attain a fruit, it does not depart from their causes. Though rising and sinking differ, they are constantly bound to the realms of existence; alternating between high and low, they cycle from end to beginning. The myriad afflictions that arise have the self as their root.”