英語訳
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The Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom states: "The Bodhisattva Mahasattva further contemplates thus: All that exists in the three realms is created by the mind. Following what the mind thinks, one can see everything. With the mind one sees the Buddha, with the mind one creates the Buddha. Mind is the Buddha itself, mind is one's own body. The mind does not know itself nor see itself. If one tries to grasp the characteristics of mind, all becomes nothing. Wisdom is also illusory. All emerges from ignorance. Through these mental characteristics, one enters the true characteristics of all phenomena." The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, Avataṃsaka Sūtra, Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra and other scriptures, as well as the Yogācāra-bhūmi, Madhyānta-vibhāga, Mahāyāna-sūtrālaṃkāra and other treatises all teach the same. Therefore, practitioners take the consciousness-only contemplation as the beginning of the path to enlightenment.
Question: Even if one bases oneself on the sacred teachings to retain objects in the mind and clarify matters in detail, things have contradictions. There are myriad varieties like rivers and mountains covered by the celestial canopy, and countless distinctions like vegetation carried on the earth. Their factual existence is evident. Why do you conclude that in the consciousness-only realm, external objects absolutely do not exist?
Answer: Towering pavilions over the sea are illusory constructions of mirage. The confusion of sense objects arises like phantom mental phenomena. Pavilions are not from mirages, but the deluded cling to mirages as actual buildings. Objects do not depart from mind, but the confused calculate that objects are not consciousness.
Question: The term "consciousness-only" excludes real objects external to the mind. Then does it not exclude apparent phenomena within the mind?
Answer: Objects within the mind are not examples of what is excluded. Only external things are excluded.
Question: Based on objects within the mind, can one speak of "object-only"?
Answer: The essence of those objects extends to both internal and external. There is none externally but there is internally. Consciousness exists only internally. If objects were called "only," there would be danger of confusion with external objects, which would also be truly existent. Because objects have this confusion, they are not called "only." Consciousness lacks this fault, therefore it is called "consciousness-only."
Question: Treatises speak of "consciousness-only" while sutras speak of "mind-only." How do mind and consciousness differ?
Answer: Consciousness is mind itself. What primarily collects and depicts is called mind; it independently establishes the designation "only" and encompasses all other phenomena. What primarily discriminates is called consciousness; it also establishes the designation "only" and encompasses all other phenomena. The word "only" serves to exclude the imagined self and phenomena as existing apart from mind. The word "consciousness" serves to indicate that the nature of causally conditioned phenomena all do not depart from mind. Clarifying that phenomena definitely do not exist apart from mind is called "consciousness-only." This does not mean everything is just one consciousness-mind with nothing else. Good and evil friends, good fruits and causes, principle and phenomena, ultimate and conventional truth are all not non-existent.
Question: Phenomena have three natures: the imagined nature, dependent nature, and perfected nature. Why do you exclusively speak of "consciousness-only" and "mind-only"?
Answer: These too are consciousness-only; there is nothing that is not mind-only.
Question: What is the meaning of this?
Answer: The imagined nature is only false consciousness, the dependent nature is only conventional consciousness, the perfected nature is only ultimate consciousness. All are consciousness-only. What phenomenon is not so?
Question: If so, all three natures are consciousness-only. Why in the five levels of consciousness-only is the imagined nature eliminated and not maintained?
Answer: The five levels have somewhat different meanings. They distinguish the existence and non-existence of phenomena, maintaining the existent and eliminating the non-existent. Therefore they eliminate the imagined while not maintaining it. The three-nature framework has a broader general meaning. It takes both existence and non-existence as consciousness-only.
Question: Though distinguishing existence and non-existence, they do not depart from consciousness. Why does the imagined nature not enter the five levels?
Answer: The five levels have different meanings. First, the false is eliminated and not made consciousness-only; only the real is maintained as consciousness-only. Next, what causes confusion is discarded and not made consciousness-only; only the pure is retained as consciousness-only. Next, branches are gathered but not made consciousness-only; only return to the root is made consciousness-only.
【Left Page】
Next, the inferior is concealed and not made consciousness-only; only the superior is revealed as consciousness-only. The fifth level eliminates the conditioned, because phenomena have characteristics. Only the unconditioned is realized, with principle as consciousness-only. The one true dharma realm is without characteristics. The first level removes the non-existent without taking it; only maintaining the existent as consciousness-only. The second level discards confusion without taking it; only retaining the pure as consciousness-only. The third level removes the derivative, making the fundamental consciousness-only. The fourth level removes the inferior, establishing the superior as consciousness-only. The fifth level removes characteristics, making the nature consciousness-only. Therefore in the five levels: first removing the non-existence of the imagined, next discarding the confusion of the dependent, next distinguishing the derivative aspects of perceiver and perceived, next removing the inferior mental factors, finally eliminating conditioned characteristics. Having established consciousness-only, there is acceptance and rejection, therefore the meanings differ. If discussing generally, whether eliminating or maintaining, both are based on consciousness; all do not depart from consciousness in being consciousness-only.
Question: The Buddha taught the hundred dharmas: namely the eight consciousness kings, fifty-one mental factors, eleven material phenomena, twenty-four non-associated formations, and six unconditioned phenomena. Why do you now say "there is only consciousness"?
Answer: The eight consciousnesses are consciousness's own characteristics, therefore they are consciousness-only. Mental factors correspond with consciousness, therefore they are consciousness-only. Material phenomena are transformations of consciousness, therefore they are consciousness-only. Non-associated formations are positional states of consciousness, therefore they are consciousness-only. Unconditioned phenomena are the true nature of consciousness, therefore they are consciousness-only. Thus the principles and phenomena of the five categories are all consciousness; there is nothing that is not consciousness-only.
Question: Within consciousness's own characteristics there are already eight consciousnesses. Why does the root verse list the transforming consciousnesses, saying "These transforming consciousnesses are only three: namely ālaya, manas, and the consciousnesses that discriminate objects"?
Answer: Those eight consciousnesses are collectively the three transforming consciousnesses, therefore there is no fault.
Question: Why are those eight consciousnesses made into three transforming consciousnesses?
Answer: Ālayavijñāna is the maturation-transformation, manas is the cogitation-transformation, and collectively the six consciousnesses are the object-discrimination-transformation.
Question: If the root verse said "these transforming consciousnesses are only eight," what fault would there be in making them collectively three?
Answer: Due to different modes of activity, they form three categories. To reveal those differences, they are collectively made three. The eighth consciousness, though having many names, is called "maturation" because it has particular superior capacity. This represents it. The seventh, manas, has superior cogitative function, therefore this name represents it. The six consciousnesses all have the function of understanding object-characteristics, so they are collectively treated as one. Ālaya means "storehouse." Manas means "mind."
Question: The seventh is called "mind-consciousness" and the sixth is called "mind-consciousness." How do these two names differ?
Answer: The mind of the seventh is a possessive compound name - mind which is consciousness. The mind of the sixth is a dependent compound name - consciousness that depends on mind.
Regarding consciousness-association: Question: Why does the Hundred Dharmas treatise speak of fifty-one mental factors while the Yogācāra treatise speaks of fifty-three?
Answer: The Hundred Dharmas treatise's intention is to reverse the five object-determining factors and establish afflictions. Desire and determination are not reversed and separately established. That is, it reverses mindfulness to establish forgetfulness, reverses concentration to establish distraction, reverses wisdom to establish incorrect knowing. Why not reverse desire? Why not reverse determination? Therefore the Yogācāra treatise reverses two and establishes two: reversing desire to establish wrong desire, reversing determination to establish wrong determination. Then among the twenty secondary afflictions, twenty-two are added.
Within consciousness-transformations: Question: Why does Sthiramati regard the two divisions of perceiver and perceived as the imagined nature, calling them "non-existent phenomena," while Dharmapāla calls the two divisions "dependent nature," making them "existent phenomena"?