廣弘明集 22.42

22.42

The Master of Penetrating Keenness said: 'Since you, sir, have repeatedly and earnestly made this request, I will make an effort to answer you. But examining my own unworthiness, I may fail to expound its essentials and subtleties. In investigating dharmas, they are originally not existent; being not existent, there is no arising. Principle naturally is not non-existent; being not non-existent, there is no cessation. With no arising and no cessation, where do all dharmas reside? Neither existent nor non-existent, upon what do the myriad things rely? Boundlessly pure, the pathway of discursive inquiry is severed; serenely equal, the route of grasping and rejecting has nowhere to turn. How could there be any principle of retribution to be sought, or any notion of good and evil to be grasped? It is solely because ordinary sentient beings have not comprehended this truth that they arbitrarily raise disputations and forcefully produce discriminations. This is what is called a thirsty person chasing a mirage while water is in rivers and ponds, or diseased eyes seeing sky-flowers when the empty sky never had a tree. It is merely to guide and accommodate proximate sentiments and dispel their heavy delusions that causes and effects are subtly indicated and karmic conditions are briefly displayed, causing attachment to fixed natures to be eliminated and spontaneous views to be extinguished. If one reaches the correct principle and awakens to this true Dharma, what then exists, and what does not exist?' Thereupon the several gentlemen looked at one another in astonished reverence and joyfully grasped the meaning. Stepping back from their seats, they respectfully submitted, saying: 'Today we may truly say: having heard the Way in the morning, one may die in the evening; going empty, we return full! The piled-up blockages have all collapsed, like leaves falling before the autumn wind; our manifold doubts have all dispersed, like ice melting in the spring sun. We shall conscientiously cast aside our previous confusions and together follow the subsequent practice.'