佛祖統紀 29.5

29.5

Directly pointing to the human mind, seeing one's nature and attaining Buddhahood—how supreme! This is the subtle purport of contemplating the mind in our own tradition. As for calling it "a special transmission outside the teachings," could it truly be outside of these teachings? It is truly because this path takes the mind as its principle and is free from the marks of verbal explanation that it is forcibly given this expedient expression. Otherwise, why would [Bodhidharma] present the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra to make people inspect the teaching and illuminate their minds? Why would it be said that "entering the path through the Great Vehicle relies on the teachings to awaken to the principle"? For the sake of this common principle, I have composed the "Treatise on the Bodhidharma Chan Tradition" (inspecting the teaching and illuminating the mind appears in this treatise; relying on the teachings to awaken to the principle appears in Bodhidharma's Four Practices for Entering the Path).