廣弘明集 22.15

22.15

When an ordinary mortal has a single thought, his seven-foot body is no longer connected to the locus of that thought. The ordinary mortal has a single thought, whereas for the sage, there is no thought that is not exhausted. The sage has no self; his seven-foot body is originally like emptiness. Using a seven-foot body that is like emptiness to encompass the myriad thoughts without leaving any unexhausted, he is able to differ from the ordinary mortal. When an ordinary mortal, in a single thought, forgets that seven-foot body, his eyes cease seeing and his feet cease treading. At the moment he forgets eyes and feet, how does this differ from having no eyes and no feet? For an ordinary mortal, this temporary absence is originally grounded in having; before a blink of an eye has passed, having has already followed it. When thought is disjointed from the physical form, there is temporary forgetting; when thought and mind fade away, they reunite. When thought resides in one part of the seven-foot body, the other parts are the same as another person, not different from what is not-self. But for the ordinary mortal, this temporary absence is very brief; for the sage, the enduring absence is very vast. The paths of the ordinary and the sage are originally the same: to forget temporarily in a single thought is the mortal grade; to forget completely across the myriad thoughts is the great sage. Speaking in these terms, physical form and spirit are almost [separable]. Someone may doubt: cause and effect govern each other without the slightest error, and the coming of good and evil are all fixed karma, whereas the cultivation of the six perfections completely relies on effort; if the cultivation of this effort also has a prior cause, and the ripe cause produces the fruit through mutual resonance, then the efficacy of effort can no longer be established, and the cultivation of the six perfections would be nearly nullified. Śākya surpassed nine kalpas through the accomplishment of vigorous striving; if the cause of this vigorous striving was fixed from the beginningless past and originally did not rely on the nine [kalpas], how could it be said to arise? I consider that cause and effect, on the one hand, and emotional cognition, on the other, are originally two different things. First there is emotional cognition, and only then is there cause and effect. Once emotional cognition stirs, cause and effect follow it; before there is emotional cognition, upon what could cause and effect rely? The two paths of cause and consciousness combine in function, but are fundamentally different. Since their origins are different, their essences are not identical. That emotional cognition arises separately presents no obstruction to principle; thus the difference of the six perfections and the nine kalpas leaves no room for doubt.