無心論

As for principle, it is without words; yet it relies on words to make the principle manifest. The Great Way is without form; yet because it engages with coarse things, it takes on a manifest shape. Now let us provisionally set up two persons to discourse together upon No-Mind:

The disciple asks the Master: Is there mind, or is there no mind?

Answer: No mind.

Question: If there is no mind, then what is it that sees, hears, perceives, and knows? What is it that knows there is no mind?

Answer: It is again no mind that sees, hears, perceives, and knows, and it is no mind that is able to know no mind.

Question: If there is already no mind, then there should be no seeing, hearing, perceiving, or knowing. How is it possible to see, hear, perceive, and know?

Answer: Though I am without mind, I am yet able to see, able to hear, able to perceive, able to know.

Question: Since you are able to see, hear, perceive, and know, this is precisely having mind. How can you speak of no mind?

Answer: It is just that this seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing is itself no mind. Where, apart from seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing, is there a separate no mind! Now I fear that you still do not understand, so I shall explain it to you step by step and cause you to awaken to the truth.

Take seeing, for example: all day long there is seeing, yet because there is no seeing, the seeing too is no mind. Hearing: all day long there is hearing, yet because there is no hearing, the hearing too is no mind. Perceiving: all day long there is perceiving, yet because there is no perceiving, the perceiving too is no mind.

Knowing: all day long there is knowing, yet because there is no knowing, the knowing too is no mind. All day long there is doing and acting, yet because there is no acting, the acting is no mind. Therefore it is said: Seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing are all of them no mind.

Question: How is one able to know that it is no mind?

Answer: Investigate carefully and search it out: what form or appearance does mind have? Can that mind be mind? Is it not-mind? Is it within? Is it without? Is it in the space between? Searching in this way, throughout all three places, mind cannot in the end be found; and even searching in every place whatsoever, it cannot be found. You must know that this very thing is no mind.

Question: The Master has said that in every place all is no mind, and that therefore there should be neither sin nor merit. Why then do sentient beings revolve through the six destinies, with birth and death unending?

Answer: Sentient beings, deluded and deceived, within No-Mind falsely give rise to mind, and so create every kind of karma, falsely clinging to the conditioned—enough to cause them to revolve through the six destinies, with birth and death unending. It is like a person in the dark who sees a bare tree-stump and takes it for a ghost, who sees a rope and takes it for a snake, and at once gives rise to fear. The false clinging of sentient beings is likewise just so: within No-Mind they falsely cling to Having Mind, and so create every kind of karma (though it is false), and yet in truth there is none who does not revolve through the six destinies.

Such sentient beings, if they meet a great spiritual benefactor who teaches them seated meditation and to awaken to No-Mind, then all their karmic hindrances are utterly extinguished, and birth and death are at once cut off. It is like the dark: once the light of the sun shines forth, the darkness is wholly gone. If one awakens to No-Mind, then all sinful karma is likewise just so.

Question: This disciple is dull and deluded, and his mind has still not penetrated it: in all the places where the six sense-faculties respond and function—in speech, in every kind of action, in affliction and enlightenment, in birth-and-death and Nirvāṇa—is it certainly No-Mind?

Answer: It is certainly no mind. It is only because sentient beings falsely cling to having mind that there are at once all affliction, birth-and-death, and Nirvāṇa. Therefore the Tathāgata, for the sake of those who have mind, speaks of birth and death; bodhi (enlightenment) gets its name in relation to affliction; Nirvāṇa gets its name in relation to birth and death—all of these are remedial dharmas of mutual correction. If no mind can be attained, then affliction and bodhi too cannot be attained, and even birth-and-death and Nirvāṇa cannot be attained.

Question: If bodhi and Nirvāṇa cannot be attained, then the Buddhas of the past all attained bodhi—what does this mean?

Answer: It is only by reason of the letter of conventional truth that one says it is attained; with respect to ultimate truth, in reality it cannot be attained. Thus the Vimalakīrti Sūtra says: "Bodhi cannot be attained by the body, nor can it be attained by the mind." And the Vajra (Diamond) Sūtra says: "There is not the slightest dharma that can be attained; the Buddhas, the Tathāgatas, attain only by way of not being able to attain." You must know that with mind there is at once everything, and with no mind there is at once nothing.

Question: The Master has said that in every place there is altogether no mind. Then trees and stones too are without mind—are they not, in that case, the same as trees and stones?

Answer: The no mind of you and me—that mind is not the same as trees and stones. Why? It is like the drum in the heaven of the Gods: though it is without mind, of itself it sends forth every kind of wondrous Dharma to teach and transform sentient beings.

It is again like the wish-fulfilling jewel (cintāmaṇi): though it is without mind, it is able to manifest in transformation many kinds of things. The no mind of you and me is likewise just so: though it is without mind, it skillfully awakens to and clearly knows the true character of all dharmas, is fully possessed of true prajñā, and with the three bodies (trikāya) responds and functions freely without hindrance. Therefore the Ratnakūṭa (Heap of Jewels) Sūtra says: "By way of having no mind-and-thought, it manifests in action." How could it be the same as trees and stones!

This no mind is precisely the True Mind. The True Mind is precisely no mind.

Question: Here and now, within this mind, how is one to cultivate practice?

Answer: Simply, upon all affairs, to awaken clearly to no mind—this very thing is the cultivation of practice; there is no other separate practice to cultivate. Therefore know: no mind is itself all things, and quiescent extinction (nirvāṇa) is itself no mind.

The disciple, right then and there, suddenly attained great awakening, and for the first time knew that outside of mind there are no things, and outside of things there is no mind; that in every gesture and action there is freedom; that all the nets of doubt are cut through and there is no longer any obstruction. He at once rose and made obeisance, engraving No-Mind deep within, and composed a hymn of praise:

The Master spoke further: Among all the prajñās, the No-Mind Prajñā is held to be the foremost. Therefore the Vimalakīrti Sūtra says: "By way of having no mind-and-thought, no receiving-and-acting, it overthrows and crushes all the heterodox paths." The Dharma-Drum (Fagu) Sūtra says: "If one knows that no mind can be attained, then dharmas cannot be attained, sin and merit cannot be attained, birth-and-death and Nirvāṇa cannot be attained, and even all things cannot be attained; and the 'cannot be attained' too cannot be attained." He then spoke a hymn:

In former days, when deluded, there was having mind;
But now, having awakened, there is wholly no mind.
Though there is no mind, it is able to illumine and function.
No illumining, no functioning—this is the unconditioned (wu-wei).

And continuing:

No mind, no illumining, and also no functioning;
No illumining, no functioning—this is the unconditioned.
This very thing is the Tathāgata's true Dharma-realm,
Not the same as the Bodhisattva who acts as a Pratyekabuddha.

This "no mind" of which we speak is no mind of false imagining.

He asked again: What is meant by "Supreme" (the Highest of the High)?

Answer: "Tai" (太) means vast and great. "Shang" (上) means high. Because the wondrous principle is loftiest and most ultimate, it is called the Supreme.

Furthermore, "Tai" is the rank that is vast and all-penetrating. The gods of the three realms, though they have long and enduring lifespans, yet their merit too is exhausted, and so in the end they still revolve through the six destinies; this is not yet enough to be called the Supreme. The Bodhisattvas of the Ten Abodes (Daśabhūmi/Ten Dwellings), though they have escaped birth and death, yet the wondrous principle is not yet wholly fathomed; this too is not yet called the Supreme.

Those of the Ten Abodes cultivate the mind, forget Existence and enter Emptiness, and further are without even that "Existence and Emptiness," eliminating both yet not forgetting the Middle Way; this too is not yet called the Supreme. Further forgetting the Middle Way, the three places are all utterly cut off, and the stage is that of Wondrous Awakening (Marvelous Enlightenment). The Bodhisattva, though he has utterly eliminated the three places, yet cannot be without that wondrous place; this too is not yet called the Supreme.

Further forgetting even that Wondrous, then the Buddha-Way is utterly ultimate, and there is nothing retained at all; with nothing retained, then thinking is altogether absent; thought and care are both forgotten; mind and intellect are forever cut off; awakening and illumining are both made clean; silent and still and unconditioned—this is called the Supreme. "Tai" is the meaning of the ultimate of principle; "Shang" is the meaning of having no equal.

Therefore it is called the Supreme (Tai-Shang), which is another name for the Buddha, the Tathāgata.