景德傳燈錄 13.45

English (machine translation) 13.45

Language: English

13.45.1

Chan Master Zongmi of Guifeng on Mount Zhongnan was a native of Xichong in Guozhou whose family name was He. His family was originally noble and prosperous. From childhood he mastered the Confucian classics, and upon capping he explored the Buddhist scriptures. In the second year of the Yuanhe era of the Tang (807 CE), when he was about to take the imperial examination, he encountered the Dharma assembly of Upādhyāya Daoyuan; joyfully matching minds with him, he sought ordination. That same year he took full ordination. One day, accompanying the assembly of monks to a meal at the residence of the prefectural clerk Ren Guan, he sat in a lower seat. Receiving the scriptures in order, he obtained the twelve chapters of the Scripture of Complete Enlightenment. Before he had finished reading the scroll, he was deeply moved and shed tears of realization. Returning, he reported the purport of what he had realized to Daoyuan. Daoyuan stroked him and said, “You shall greatly propagate the complete and sudden teaching. This was bestowed on you by the Buddhas. Go forth, do not linger in a single corner.” Weeping, the master received the command, paid homage, and departed. He subsequently visited Chan Master Zhang of Jingnan (Nanyin). Zhang said, “You are a propagator of the teaching; you should proclaim and guide in the imperial capital.” He again met Chan Master Zhao of Luoyang (Shenzhao of Fengguo). Zhao said, “He is a bodhisattva person; who could fathom him?” Soon he reached Xianghan. There, a sick monk entrusted to him a commentary on the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, which had been composed by Great Master Chengguan of the Upper Capital. The master had never studied it, yet upon a single reading he lectured on it. Reassuring himself of what he had encountered, he said, “In the past, the works of the various masters rarely fathomed its ultimate purport; none is like this commentary, whose river of words flows smoothly and whose hidden subtleties are illuminated. In Chan, I encountered the Southern school; in doctrine, I met the Complete Enlightenment. With a single word, the mind-ground opened up; in a single scroll, the sky of meaning shone brightly. Now, chancing upon this supreme work, my heart is completely poured out.” When the lectures were finished, he wished to see the author of the commentary. At that time, it happened that his disciple Taigong severed his arm to repay his kindness. The master first sent a letter to the commentator, recounting from afar their mutual joy and comfort as master and disciple. Soon after Taigong’s wound healed, he then accompanied him to the Upper Capital to perform the duties of a disciple. Chengguan said, “Could it be you who can roam with me through Vairocana's Flower Treasury?” The master entered Chengguan’s room, and though his virtue renewed daily, the fault of clinging to the fish-trap and grasping at images was extinguished forever. He traveled north to Mount Qingliang, and returning, resided at Caotang Temple in Hu County. Before long, he re-entered the Guifeng hermitage south of the temple. In the Dahe era, he was summoned to the imperial palace and granted a purple robe. The emperor repeatedly inquired about the essentials of the Dharma. The court officials looked up to him with admiration; only Prime Minister Lord Pei Xiu penetrated deeply into the inner sanctum, receiving his teachings and serving as his external protector. Because scholars of Chan and doctrinal studies mutually maligned each other, the master composed the *Collected Explanations of the Sources of Chan*, transcribing what was stated by various masters and explaining the fundamental source and principle of the Chan gate. Gathering their words, sentences, and verses into a single canon (some say one hundred fascicles), he bequeathed it to later generations. His General Preface says in brief: “Chan is an Indic term; spoken fully, it is dhyāna. Translated, it means 'cultivation of thought,' or 'quiet contemplation.' Both are general terms for concentration and wisdom. 'Source' refers to the originally awakened true nature of all sentient beings, also named Buddha-nature, and also named mind-ground. Awakening to it is called wisdom; cultivating it is called concentration. Concentration and wisdom are collectively termed Chan. This nature is the root source of Chan; therefore it is called 'source of Chan.' It is also called dhyāna. 'Principle and practice': this root source is the principle of Chan; forgetting emotional attachments and according with it is the practice of Chan. Therefore it is said 'principle and practice.' However, the works of various masters collected here mostly discuss the principle of Chan and rarely speak of the practice of Chan; therefore, it is provisionally entitled 'Sources of Chan.' Nowadays, there are those who simply regard the true nature as Chan; this is failing to grasp the purport of principle and practice, and also failing to distinguish the sounds of China and India. Yet the substance of Chan does not exist apart from the true nature. It is only that when sentient beings are confused about the real and unite with dust, it is called distraction; when they turn their backs on dust and unite with the real, it is called Chan concentration. If one directly discusses the original nature, then it is neither real nor false, without turning back or uniting, without concentration or distraction—who speaks of Chan? Moreover, this true nature is not only the source of the Chan gate, but also the source of the ten thousand phenomena; therefore it is called Dharma-nature. It is also the source of the confusion and enlightenment of sentient beings; therefore it is called the Tathāgata-garbha and the storehouse consciousness (appearing in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra). It is also the source of the myriad virtues of all Buddhas; therefore it is called Buddha-nature (appearing in scriptures such as the Nirvāṇa Sūtra). It is also the source of the myriad practices of bodhisattvas; therefore it is called mind-ground (the chapter on the 'Dharma-gate of the Mind-Ground' in the Brahma Net Sūtra says: 'It is the root source of all Buddhas, the foundation of practicing the bodhisattva path, and the foundation of the great assembly of all Buddha sons'). The myriad practices do not go beyond the six pāramitās, and the Chan gate is merely one of the six, being the fifth. How could one universally regard the true nature as merely one practice of Chan? Yet the single practice of Chan concentration is the most wondrously spiritual: it can engender the outflow-free wisdom of one's nature. All wondrous functions, myriad practices, myriad virtues, and even spiritual penetrations and radiance arise from concentration. Therefore, students of the three vehicles who wish to seek the noble path must cultivate Chan. Apart from this, there is no gate; apart from this, there is no road. As for reciting the Buddha's name and seeking birth in the Pure Land, one also cultivates the sixteen contemplative Chans, the Buddha-mindfulness samādhi, and the pratyutpanna samādhi. Furthermore, the true nature is neither defiled nor pure, without distinction between the ordinary and the sacred; yet Chan has shallow and deep, with distinct stages. That which is cultivated with deviant views, delighting in the higher and detesting the lower, is non-Buddhist Chan. That which is cultivated with correct faith in cause and effect, yet also through delight and detestation, is ordinary Chan. That which is cultivated upon awakening to the principle of self-emptiness and biased truth is Hinayana Chan. That which is cultivated upon awakening to the true principle revealed by the emptiness of both self and phenomena is Mahayana Chan (the above four categories all have differences of the four form realms and four formless realms). If one suddenly awakens to one’s own mind as originally pure, fundamentally without defilements, the outflow-free nature of wisdom being intrinsically complete, and that this mind is Buddha, ultimately not different—that which is cultivated relying on this is the Supreme Vehicle Chan, also called the Tathāgata’s Pure Chan, the Samādhi of One Practice, and the Suchness Samādhi. This is the root of all samādhis. If one can cultivate and practice it thought after thought, one will naturally and gradually attain hundreds of thousands of samādhis. What has been transmitted from one to another within Bodhidharma’s lineage is this Chan. Before Bodhidharma arrived, the understanding of the various ancient masters was all the aforementioned four Chans and eight absorptions; various eminent monks cultivated them and all obtained efficacy. Nanyue and Tiantai caused one to cultivate the three cessations and three contemplations according to the principle of the three truths; although their doctrinal meaning was the most complete and wondrous, the order of their entry gates was still merely the forms and practices of the previous Chans. Only what Bodhidharma transmitted is suddenly identical with the Buddha-body and far surpasses all other gates. Therefore, those who follow the tradition find it difficult to grasp its purport. If one grasps it, one becomes a sage and quickly verifies bodhi; if one misses it, one turns heterodox and swiftly enters misery. The ancestral masters, reforming ignorance and guarding against error, therefore transmitted it only from one person to another. Since later generations already had something to rely upon, they allowed a thousand lamps to shine a thousand times. But when the Dharma endured for long, corruptions arose.”

13.45.2

Because errors are many, those who study the sūtras and treatises also harbour much doubt and slander. In fundamental truth, when the Buddha spoke of sudden and gradual teachings, Chan opened sudden and gradual gates; the two teachings and the two gates tally with each other. Today, the lecturers exclusively promote the meaning of the gradual, while the followers of Chan exclusively propagate the sudden school. When Chan followers and lecturers meet, they are as alienated as the Hu and the Yue. I, Zongmi, do not know what I did in past lives to have perfumed this mind: not yet liberated myself, I wish to untie the bonds of others; for the Dharma I forget body and life, and pity for people touches my deepest feelings. (Just as the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa says: 'If one is oneself bound, to be able to untie the bonds of others is impossible.' Yet wishing to stop, I cannot, proving that past habitual tendencies are hard to change.) I always lament that people diverge from the Dharma and that the Dharma becomes a sickness for people. Therefore I specially compiled commentaries on the sūtras, vinaya, and treatises, opened wide the gate of precepts, concentration, and wisdom, demonstrated that sudden awakening is aided by gradual cultivation, and proved that the masters' teachings tally with the Buddha's intent. Since the intent is thoroughly explained from root to branch, the texts are vast and difficult to search through. Although superficial students are many, those who carry on the aspiration are few; moreover, when tracks tread among names and characteristics, who can distinguish gold from brass? In vain one wearies oneself without seeing responsive capacity. Although the Buddha said that increased compassion is this practice, I personally worried that the views of self and attachment would be hard to guard against. Thereupon I left the community, entered the mountains, practiced concentration, and balanced wisdom. In succession I quelled thoughts for ten years in total. (What is said of 'in total' means: midway through, by imperial order he was summoned to court and lived in the city for two years, after which he submitted a memorial requesting permission to return to the mountains.) Subtle habitual dispositions arising and ceasing were revealed in quiet wisdom; differentiated dharmas and principles arrayed appeared in the empty mind. In a gap, sunlight shows fine dust swirling restlessly; at the bottom of a clear pool, reflections appear brightly. How could this be compared to that foolish Chan that empties itself to maintain silence, or that mad wisdom that only hunts through texts? Yet, originally because of understanding one's own mind one distinguishes the teachings; therefore I devoted my earnest feelings to the Mind School. Again, because of distinguishing the teachings one understands how to cultivate the mind; therefore I placed my sincere faith in the doctrinal meaning. The teachings are the sūtras and treatises left behind by the Buddhas and bodhisattvas; Chan is the verses and sayings expressed by the kalyāṇamitras. However, the Buddha's sūtras unfold broadly to embrace the assemblies of the great chiliocosm and the eight classes; the Chan verses condense and abridge to suit the capacity of a single group in this land. Embracing the multitudes is vast and difficult to rely upon; suiting the capacity points directly and is easy to apply. The intention of the present compilation lies herein.' Pei Xiu wrote a preface to it, saying: 'Under the gates of the various schools there are all accomplished people. Yet each is content with what they are accustomed to; those who are comprehensive are few, and those who are limited are many. Over several decades, the standards of the masters have further decayed. Taking their lineage transmissions as their own private portals, each opens their own shop. Using the sūtras and treatises as shields and spears, they attack one another. Their feelings shift and change according to [whether they make] armor or arrows (The Rites of Zhou says: 'The armor-maker makes armor.' Mencius says: 'Is the arrow-maker less benevolent than the armor-maker? The armor-maker fears only that people will be hurt, while the arrow-maker fears only that people will not be hurt. This is caused by the art they practice. Today's students simply follow their school's partisans, criticizing each other.') and the Dharma follows [the distinction of] self and other into high and low. Right and wrong are in tangled confusion, with none able to distinguish or analyze them. Thus the teachings and schools of the former World-Honoured One, bodhisattvas, and all regions served merely to stir up disputes, causing later people to multiply the sickness of afflictions—what benefit could there be in this? The Great Master of Mount Guifeng lamented for a long time, saying: "Meeting this era, I cannot remain silent." Thereupon, with the Tathāgata's three kinds of doctrinal meanings, he verified the three kinds of dharma-gates of the Chan school. He melted down bowls, platters, hairpins, and bracelets into a single gold; he stirred curd, cheese, and ghee into a single flavor. He shook the collar of the garment, and all that was lifted fell into order (Xunzi says: 'It is like shaking the collar of a fur robe; bend the five fingers and snap it, and those [hairs] that fall into order cannot be counted'); he based himself on the essentials, and all who came converged toward the same goal (The Zhouyi lüeli says: 'Residing in the essential to observe what comes from all directions, the convergence from the six directions will not be excessive.' The General Preface relies on the complete teaching to certify the various schools; even a hundred houses are all encompassed). Still fearing that students would find it difficult to understand, he directly showed the roots and branches of the source of the school, the harmonious combination of the true and the false, the concealing and revealing of the empty nature, the differences in dharmas and principles, the sameness and difference of sudden and gradual, the mutual interplay of refutation and affirmation, the depth and shallowness of provisional and ultimate, and the rights and wrongs of commonalities and differences. Someone like our master holds aloft the Buddha-sun to shed full illumination, utterly eliminating doubts and obstructions; he accords with the Buddha's mind to stretch vast great compassion, conferring benefit throughout exhaustive kalpas. Thus the World-Honoured One is the master who opened the teachings, and our master is the person who harmonized the teachings. Root and branch tally with each other; their paths are close and reflect each other. It may be called completing the grand task of the teachings of an entire lifetime! (From the World-Honoured One expounding the teachings down to today, when they are harmonized and integrated, only then is the grand task completed.) Someone said: "Since the Tathāgata never integrated them all on such a grand scale, now if you suddenly contravene the tenets of schools without maintaining them, and abolish the barricades without occupying them, does this not run contrary to the path of secret treasuries and esoteric tallies?" He replied: "Although the Tathāgata initially taught the three vehicles separately, in the end he united them into a single path. (In the first thirty years he taught the Lesser Vehicle, or taught the emptiness teaching, or taught the characteristics teaching, or taught the nature teaching; listeners each attained awakening according to their capacities without knowing of each other. After forty years, he sat on Vulture Peak and harmonized the three vehicles, and went to Kuśinagara to reveal the one nature. This is the sequence of beginning and end.) Therefore, in the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra, Bodhisattva Kāśyapa said: 'The Buddhas have secret words, but no secret treasury.' The World-Honoured One praised him, saying: 'The words of the Tathāgata are open, revealed, pure, and unobscured. Foolish people do not understand and call them a secret treasury; the wise understand them completely, and do not call them a treasury.' This is the proof. Therefore, when the Kingly Way flourishes, outer gates are not shut, and defenses are stationed among the barbarian tribes; when the Buddha Way is complete, all dharmas are held together in dhāraṇī, and defenses are placed against Māra and outsiders. (The complete teaching of Nirvāṇa harmonizes all dharmas, distinguishing only Māra's preachings and the heterodox tenets of outside paths.) One should not again cling to sentiment and roll up one's sleeves to brawl among them." (The master also authored large and small commentaries and sub-commentaries on the Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment, the Gate of Contemplation of the Dharmadhātu, the Treatise on the Origin of Humanity, and others, all of which had prefaces by Pei Xiu and circulated widely in the world.) On the sixth day of the first month of the first year of the Huichang era, the master passed away while sitting at the Stūpa Cloister of Xingfu [Monastery]. On the twenty-second day, monastics and laypeople escorted his whole body to Guifeng. On the twelfth day of the second month, cremation was performed, yielding relics that were white, lustrous, and large. Later his disciples wept and searched for more, finding them in the cold ashes, and then enshrined them in a stone chamber. His age was sixty-two; his monastic age was thirty-four. In his testament he instructed that his corpse be carried out and given to birds and beasts, and that his bones be burned and scattered, warning them not to grieve or yearn so as to disturb their Chan contemplation. Every Qingming festival, when ascending the mountain, they had to lecture on the Way for seven days. The remaining standards for monastic administration were to accord with the disciplinary codes. Those who violated this were not his disciples. Several hundreds and thousands of the fourfold assembly wearing mourning garments wept in sorrow, resounding across the wilderness. When Emperor Xuanzong again opened up the true teachings, he posthumously bestowed the title Chan Master Dinghui (Concentration and Wisdom), and named his stūpa Qinglian (Blue Lotus).

13.45.3

Prime Minister Xiao Mian presented his own understanding and requested the Chan Master to comment on and explain it, saying: "Heze said: 'Seeing the pure essence, among the various samādhis and eighty-four thousand pāramitā-gates, functions are all simultaneously activated upon seeing; this is called the wisdom eye.' The above refers to when one is in accord with suchness (neither thinking of good and evil, nor dwelling upon emptiness and existence), all myriad transformations are extinguished (the myriad phenomena all arise from thoughts and conditioning recollections; they are all empty space, hence termed 'transformations'. Since a single thought does not arise, the myriad phenomena do not emerge; therefore, without waiting to eliminate them, they are naturally extinguished of themselves). At this time, nothing further is seen (the essence of illumination stands alone; dreaming and wisdom leave behind all gradations); the samādhis and various pāramitā-gates are also simultaneously empty and tranquil, with nothing further to be attained (distraction versus samādhi, this shore versus the other shore, are teachings of relative antidotes. If one knows that the mind is devoid of thoughts and the seeing-nature is unarisen, then concentration and distraction, truth and delusion are simultaneously empty and tranquil; hence nothing is attained). I wonder whether this is what is meant by functions being simultaneously activated upon seeing? (Yet the seeing-nature is completely luminous, its principle beyond all entanglement of marks. Transcending marks is itself wonderful function; abiding in marks is clinging sentiment. Among the eighty thousand dharma-gates, each and every one is like this: one conditioned dharma constitutes one dust-speck; one empty dharma constitutes one function. Therefore it is said: seeing the pure essence, functions are simultaneously activated.) I hope that after this, you will instruct me accordingly." [Here follows] Mian's document answering the hermit Shi's ten questions (the questions and answers were originally separate texts; they are now collated and recorded together). The first question asks: "What is the Way? How does one cultivate it? Must it be completed through cultivation, or does it not depend on effort?" The answer: "Non-obstruction is the Way. Awakening to delusion is cultivation. Although the Way is fundamentally complete, the arising of delusion constitutes a burden. When delusional thoughts are entirely exhausted, that is completion through cultivation." The second question asks: "If the Way is completed due to cultivation, then it is fabricated, and thus identical to worldly dharmas—false and not real. Completed and then ruined again, how can it be called world-transcending?" The answer: "Fabrication binds karma and is called the false and worldly. Non-fabrication is cultivation and is the truly world-transcending." The third question asks: "Is that which is cultivated sudden or gradual? If gradual, one forgets what came before and loses what comes after; how could it be gathered together and completed? If sudden, the myriad practices take many directions; how could it be perfected simultaneously?" The answer: "The true principle is awakened to and suddenly perfected; delusional feelings are stilled and gradually exhausted. Sudden perfection is like a newborn child: in a single day, its limbs and body are already complete. Gradual cultivation is like raising [the child] to adulthood: only after many years are its ambitions established." The fourth question asks: "Whenever cultivating the method of the mind-ground, should one simply awaken to the mind and be done, or should there be other gates of practice? If there are other gates of practice, why is it called the sudden tenet of the Southern School? If upon awakening one is identical to the Buddhas, why does one not emit supernormal powers and radiance?" The answer: "One recognizes the ice pond as wholly water, yet relies on the warmth of the sun to melt it. One awakens to the fact that the ordinary person is identical to the real, yet relies on the power of the Dharma to cultivate and train. When the ice melts, the water flows and moistens, only then displaying the function of irrigating and washing. When delusion is exhausted, the mind is spiritually unobstructed, only then emitting the manifestation of supernormal powers and radiance. Outside cultivating the mind, there is no other gate of practice." The fifth question asks: "If one attains Buddhahood merely by cultivating the mind, why do the various sūtras also state that one must adorn the Buddha-lands and transform sentient beings before it can be called realizing the Way?" The answer: "When the mirror is clear, reflections appear in a thousand differences; when the mind is pure, supernormal powers respond in ten thousand ways. The reflections are akin to adorning the Buddha-lands; the supernormal powers are the transforming of sentient beings. Adornment is itself non-adornment; reflections are both form and non-form." The sixth question asks: "The various sūtras all speak of delivering sentient beings. Sentient beings are themselves non-sentient beings; why should one further labor to deliver them?" The answer: "If sentient beings were real, delivering them would be labor. Since you yourself say they are non-sentient beings, why not likewise deliver them without delivering?" The seventh question asks: "The various sūtras say that the Buddha is eternally abiding, or they say that the Buddha enters extinction. If eternal, then not extinguished; if extinguished, then not eternal. Are these not contradictory?" The answer: "Being apart from all marks is what is called the Buddhas. How could there be any reality of appearing in the world or entering extinction? Seeing emergence and disappearance depends on the faculties and conditions. When faculties and conditions correspond, he appears beneath the Bodhi tree; when faculties and conditions are exhausted, he enters nirvāṇa amidst the Śāla grove. It is like pure water, which has no intention and no image; that images are not manifested is not due to the water itself, for it is the coming and going of external forms. The marks are not the Buddha's body; how could there be the Tathāgata's emergence and disappearance?" The eighth question asks: "Why is it said: 'Born as the Buddha's transformation, I am born like that'? Since the Buddha is unarisen, what is the meaning of birth? If it is said that when mind arises dharmas arise, and when mind ceases dharmas cease, how does one attain the forbearance of the unarisen dharmas?" The answer: "Since it is said to be 'like a transformation', a transformation is itself empty. Emptiness is itself unarisen; why interrogate the meaning of birth? 'When arising and ceasing have ceased, tranquil extinction is the truth.' Recognizing and assenting to this dharma as unarisen is called the forbearance of the unarisen dharmas." The ninth question asks: "The realization of the Way and preaching of the Dharma by the various Buddhas is only to deliver sentient beings. Since sentient beings exist in the six destinies, why did the Buddha only abide among humans to manifest transformations? Furthermore, after the Buddha's extinction, he entrusted the Dharma to Kāśyapa, transmitting mind with mind, and down to the seven patriarchs of this land, only one person was transmitted to in each generation. Since it is said that toward all sentient beings he attains the ground of an only child, why was the transmission not universal?" The answer: "The sun and moon shine gloriously in the sky, illuminating the six directions together; yet the blind do not see them, and those beneath an overturned basin are unaware of them. It is not that the sun and moon are not universal; it is the fault of obstruction. Delivering and not delivering are of this kind; it is not confined to humans and devas while excluding ghosts and beasts. It is simply that the human destiny is able to compile [the teachings] and transmit them without interruption, and therefore one only knows of the Buddha appearing among humans. His entrusting [the Dharma] to Kāśyapa after his extinction and its passing down from one to another to a single person was also only to designate the master of the religious tenet for that generation, just as a realm has no two kings; it is not that those who attained deliverance were limited to this number." The tenth question asks: "Why did the Upādhyāya arouse the mind [for bodhi]? Yearning for what dharma did you go forth from the household life? How do you cultivate now, and what Dharma flavor do you attain? What level of stage does your practice reach? Do you make the mind abide, or do you cultivate the mind? If you make the mind abide, it hinders cultivating the mind. If you cultivate the mind, thoughts stir and are restless. How is this called studying the Way? If you pacify the mind in a single concentration, how does it differ from those of fixed nature? We humbly pray that the Venerable, mobilizing great compassion, will explain this in proper order in accordance with principle and suchness." The answer: "Awakening to the four elements as fragile illusions, penetrating the six dusts as flowers in the sky, realizing one's own mind to be the Buddha-mind, and seeing one's fundamental nature as the Dharma-nature—this is arousing the mind. Knowing that the mind is without abiding is itself cultivation; knowing without abiding is itself the Dharma flavor. Clinging to dharmas is the stirring of thoughts; hence it is like a person entering darkness who sees nothing. Now there is nowhere to abide, unsoiled and unattached;

13.45.4

"Hence it is like a person with eyes who, under the sunlight, sees all kinds of dharmas. How could this be one of fixed nature? Since there is nowhere to abide and cling, why discuss stages or abodes?" Furthermore, Minister Wen Zao of Shannan asked: "For one who has awakened to principle and stilled delusion, they do not bind karma. After the end of their single lifespan, where does their spiritual nature rely upon?" The answer: "All sentient beings invariably possess the awakening nature; spiritually luminous, empty and tranquil, it is not different from the Buddhas. Yet, because from beginningless kalpas they have never understood and awakened, they deludedly cling to the body as the mark of self; hence they give rise to feelings of love and hatred. In accord with feelings they create karma, and in accord with karma they receive retribution, undergoing birth, aging, sickness, and death in transmigration for long kalpas. Yet the awakening nature within the body has never been born or died: it is like being driven to hard labor in a dream while the body itself remains at ease; it is like water turning into ice while its wet nature does not change. If one can awaken to this nature, it is itself the Dharma-body; fundamentally unarisen of itself, how could it have any reliance? Spiritually sharp and unclouded, clearly and ever cognizant, it has nowhere from which it comes, and nowhere to which it goes. However, the delusional clingings of many lifetimes have through habit become second nature, and joy, anger, sorrow, and delight flow in subtle undercurrents. Although the true principle is suddenly understood, these feelings are difficult to eliminate at once. One must continually observe and reduce them again and again, just as when the wind suddenly stops, the waves only gradually subside. How could the cultivation of a single lifetime immediately equal the power and function of the Buddhas? One should simply take emptiness and tranquility as one's own essence and not identify with the physical body; take spiritual cognizance as one's own mind and not identify with delusional thoughts. If delusional thoughts arise, do not follow them at all; then at the approach of death, karma will naturally be unable to bind you. Even though there is an intermediate state, wherever you head you will be free, relying at will upon heaven or the human realm. If thoughts of love and hatred are already eliminated, you will not receive a body of fragmented limitation; you will naturally be able to exchange the short for the long, and exchange the coarse for the subtle. If the subtle flows are all entirely extinguished, only the great wisdom of complete awakening will remain brilliantly and uniquely present; then, responding to faculties, you will manifest hundreds of thousands of myriads of bodies to deliver sentient beings who have karmic affinity, and be named a Buddha." Respectfully commenting in explanation, [Zongmi] states: "Bodhisattva Aśvaghoṣa summarized the tenets of a hundred Mahāyāna sūtras to compose the Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna. In that treatise, he established the tenet, stating that within the mind of all sentient beings there is the meaning of awakening and the meaning of non-awakening. Within awakening, there are further the meaning of original awakening and the meaning of initial awakening. What was stated above, although only spoken in terms of illuminating principle and contemplating the mind, has Dharma-meanings that are also identical to that treatise. Namely, from the beginning up to 'not different from the Buddhas' is original awakening. From 'Yet, because from beginningless' downward is non-awakening. From 'If one can awaken to this' downward is initial awakening. Within initial awakening there are further sudden awakening and gradual cultivation: from this point down to 'nowhere to which it goes' is sudden awakening. From 'However, the delusional clingings of many lifetimes' downward is gradual cultivation. Within gradual cultivation, from initial arousing of the mind up to the attainment of Buddhahood, there are three stages of mastery: from this point down to 'relying at will' is mastery over receiving birth. From 'If thoughts of love and hatred' downward is mastery over transformation. From 'If the subtle flows' down to the end is ultimate mastery. Furthermore, from 'One should simply take emptiness and tranquility as one's own essence' down to 'karma will naturally be unable to bind you' is precisely the key method for cultivating calm and insight, practiced day and night by one who has awakened to principle. Zongmi previously had an eight-line gāthā that clearly stated this meaning, which I once recited at the Minister's place. Having received the order to explain it, I now respectfully comment on it, as in the following gāthā:"

Linked texts (1)

景德傳燈錄 — Classical Chinese