大方廣圓覺修多羅了義經 1.25

1.25

「善男子！一切世界始終生滅，前後有無，聚散起止，念念相續，循環往復，種種取捨，皆是輪迴。未出輪迴而辨圓覺，彼圓覺性即同流轉；若免輪迴，無有是處。譬如動目能搖湛水；又如定眼猶迴轉火；雲駛月運，舟行岸移亦復如是。善男子！諸旋未息，彼物先住尚不可得；何況輪轉生死垢心曾未清淨，觀佛圓覺而不旋復？是故汝等便生三惑。

“Son of good family, all worlds begin and end, are born and perish, have

a before and after, come into existence and go out of existence, coalesce and

disperse, arise and cease. Thoughts follow one another in succession, going

and coming in a ceaseless cycle. The sundry forms of grasping and reject-

ing are all within cyclic existence. If one were to discern perfect enlighten-

ment without having left cyclic existence, then the nature of perfect enlight-

enment would be the same as the ever-flowing cycle. If one were to escape

from cyclic existence, then there would be no place where [perfect enlight-

enment] could exist.

“For example, it is like moving the eyes [back and forth rapidly,] thus

making the calm [surface of] water appear to be stirred up [into waves]. Or

it is like holding the eyes steady and whirling a flame around [so that it

appears to form a ring]. It is also the same in the case of the moon seeming

to move when clouds fly past it, or the shore seeming to shift [when seen]

from a moving boat.

“Son of good family, as long as the movements [of thought] have not

yet ceased, its objects cannot be made to stand still. How much less possi-

ble is it for the defiled mind revolving in the cycle of birth and death while

it is still not yet pure to contemplate the perfect enlightenment of the Buddha

and to not revolve again? Therefore you gave rise to your three doubts.

“Son of good family, take the example of an illusory film over the eyes

that causes one delusively to perceive a flower in the sky. Once the illusory

film has been removed, it is impossible to ask, ‘Now that this film has been

extinguished, when will it arise again?’ Why? Because the two things, the

film and flower, do not depend on one another.

“Again, it is like the flower in the sky: once it disappears into the sky it

is impossible to ask, ‘When will empty space give rise to flowers in the sky

Chapter IV

again?’ Why? Because from the beginning the sky contains no flowers, and they are not subject to arising and disappearing. Samsara and nirvana are the same as arising and disappearing, and the perfect radiance of marvelous enlightenment is different from the flowers and films.

“Son of good family, you should realize that empty space is neither something that sometimes exists nor something that sometimes does not exist. How even more true is this in the case of the Tathāgata, whose according with perfect enlightenment constitutes the fundamental nature of the universal equality of empty space [that pervades everywhere].

“Son of good family, it is like the smelting of gold ore: the gold does not come into existence by smelting. Once the gold has been extracted, it does not again become ore. Even after an unimaginably long time has passed, the nature of the gold will not deteriorate. One should not say that it was not perfectly present from the very beginning. The perfect enlightenment of the Tathāgata is also like this.

“Son of good family, in the marvelous, perfectly enlightened mind of all Tathāgatas, from the very beginning there is neither bodhi nor nirvana, neither the attaining of buddhahood nor the not attaining of buddhahood, and neither the delusive cycle of existence nor the absence of cyclic existence.

“Son of good family, since the sphere perfected by the śrāvakas—in which body, speech, and mind have been utterly eradicated—can never reach the nirvana that is revealed in personal realization, how much less could it use the thinking mind to comprehend the sphere of the Tathāgata’s perfect enlightenment?

“Just as if one were to use the glimmer of a firefly to try to light up Mount Sumeru, one would never be able to illuminate it, so if one uses the mind caught in cyclic existence and gives rise to views conceived in terms of cyclic existence to try to enter into the great quiescent sea of the Tathāgata, one would never be able to succeed. Therefore I say that all bodhisattvas and sentient beings in the final age must first cut off the root of the beginningless cycle of existence.

“Son of good family, the occurrence of such thoughts arises from mental activity. In all cases they belong to the six types of sense objects, that which is cognized by delusive thoughts, and are not the true mind itself. They