弘明集 5.44

5.44

I reply: What is the spirit? It is that which is utmost in subtlety and thus spiritual. When subtlety is at its utmost, it cannot be figured by the hexagram images; hence the sages spoke of it as a subtle thing. Even those of superior wisdom still cannot determine its bodily appearance or exhaust its hidden drift, yet those who talk about it give rise to doubts with ordinary consciousness and mostly end up confusing themselves. Their delusion is already deep indeed! If one wishes to speak of it, this is speaking of that which cannot be spoken of. Now, amidst the unspeakable, let us again vaguely delineate it together. The spirit is universally responsive without a master, subtly consummated without a name. It is moved by sensing things; it operates by borrowing conditions (shù). Because it senses things yet is not a thing, things transform while it is not extinguished; because it borrows conditions yet is not a condition, conditions are exhausted while it is inexhaustible. Where there is affect, it can be sensed by things; where there is consciousness, it can be sought through conditions. Conditions have the fine and the coarse, so their natures each differ; wisdom has the bright and the dark, so its illumination is not the same. Deducing from this and discussing it, one knows that transformation is transmitted through affect, and spirit is transmitted through transformation. Affect is the mother of transformation; spirit is the root of affect. Affect has the way of converging with the origin; spirit has the efficacy of dark transmission. It is merely that those who penetrate into awakening return to the source, whereas those who are confused about principle pursue things. Among those of ancient times who discussed the Dao, none agreed; allow me to cite them to clarify this. Zhuangzi sounded a profound note in 'The Great Master', saying: 'The Great Clod burdens me with life, rests me with death'; moreover, he took life to be a hanging upside down and death to be returning to truth. This is what is meant by knowing that life is a great affliction, and taking non-arising as returning to the origin. Wenzi cited the words of the Yellow Emperor, saying: 'Form has decay, yet the spirit does not transform; riding upon transformation with the untransforming, its changes are inexhaustible.' Zhuangzi also said: 'Just stumbling into a human form is already cause for joy; but a human form undergoes myriad transformations without ever having an end.' This is what is called knowing that life does not end with a single transformation, yet one then pursues things and does not return. Though the discourses of these two masters did not fully reach its reality, they nevertheless once had some hearing bordering on this core principle. Debaters do not investigate the teaching of 'simultaneous arising and dying', but are bewildered by gathering and dispersing within a single transformation; they do not reflect that the spiritual Dao has the efficacy of a subtle thing, but claim that the refined and coarse perish together—is this not lamentable? The metaphor of fire and wood originally derives from the sacred scriptures. Losing its lineage of transmission, its hidden inspiration could not be sought out, and the subtle words subsequently sank into the mundane teachings, causing interlocutors to rely on them to form doubts. Had there not been at this time a master who awakened to the fundamental principle, no one would know that there was the illumination of the earlier awakened ones, and the skill of dark transmission would never have been heard of in this world. Why is this? The mutual resonance of affect and conditions generates transformations without end; causes and conditions are secretly constructed and covertly transcribe one another. Unless one possesses a far-reaching vision, who could recognize their changes? Let me verify this for the debaters with reality: fire's passing into firewood is like the spirit's passing into form; fire's passing to different firewood is like the spirit's passing to a different form. Since the former firewood is not the latter firewood, one knows the subtlety of the art of exhausting the fuel; since the former form is not the latter form, one realizes the depth of the resonance of affect and conditions. The confused see form decay in a single life and immediately assume spirit and affect both perish, just like seeing fire exhaust a single piece of wood and supposing it has entirely vanished forever. This is a narrow compliance with the discourse of nourishing life, not a far-reaching search into its categories. To take your argument: suppose form and spirit both transform, beginning from the fundamental nature of Heaven, and that the foolish and the wise in supporting life equally receive what is endowed. May I ask: is that which is received received from form, or received from the spirit? If received from form, then all that have form would transform into spirit. If received from the spirit, this would mean passing spirit from spirit: then Danzhu would be equal in sagehood to Emperor Yao, and Chonghua would be identical in spirit to Gusou! Could this be so? Could this be so? If it cannot be so, then one certainly knows that the construction of dark conditions was established in the past, and the division between bright and dark was determined at the beginning of form. Even though the Spiritual Potter turns skillfully, he still cannot change the spontaneous nature [of things]; how much less from this point downward? Verifying this with principle, the subtle words have proof; testing it with affairs, one need not doubt the Great Thoroughfare.