楞伽阿跋多羅寶經 卷一 · 不生·五無間·三自性

Reach up and feel the top of a hare's head: there is no horn there. Reach up and feel the top of a horse's head: there is no horn there either. This "there is not" is a not-being that never, from the first, was.

When people hear "all dharmas are non-arising," what they picture in their hearts is mostly this hare's-horn kind of not-being — as if everything had been emptied out, had never been there at all. Right here the World-Honored One cuts them off: that is the deluded person's annihilation-view, not the non-arising the Buddha teaches. The Buddha's "non-arising" is not that the thing is gone; it is that its nature has never really arisen — because it is only a shadow that your own mind manifests, apart from "existence," and apart from "non-existence" too.

One and the same mind: deluded, it is the real object falsely clung to upon the marks, like a snake seen upon a rope; by conditions, it is the dependent present functioning, appearing as if there, like that length of rope; awakened, it is the true mind disclosed apart from falsity, like knowing the rope is, in itself, hemp — these are the imagined, the dependent, and the truly-perfected, the three natures, one road walked from the false to the true. And that "truly-perfected nature" at the road's end, the scripture says outright: it just is the Tathāgata-womb mind.

As for that "self" you always feel to be there beneath your body and mind, the scripture points it out for you to see: it is restless like a monkey, clutching without a stop; it chases defilement like a fly, never able to settle; it goes on and on unceasing, like that wheel drawing up water, one bucket up, one bucket down, with never a bucket at a stand upon the wheel. Search this whole wheel of unresting water, and you will not find which bucket is the "self."

Now enter this passage, and look: see how the non-being of the hare's horn is not the non-being the Buddha teaches, and how the imagined, the dependent, and the truly-perfected run all the way through to that Tathāgata-womb mind.

Technical terms of this division (all dharmas non-arising, one's own mind's manifestation, the five uninterrupted lineages, the śrāvaka vehicle, the pratyekabuddha vehicle, the Tathāgata vehicle, the indeterminate lineage, the separate lineage, the icchantika, the three natures, the imagined nature, the dependent nature, the truly-perfected nature, the Tathāgata-womb mind, the no-self of persons, the no-self of dharmas) are kept as they stand.

All dharmas are non-arising: because they are one's own mind's manifestation, apart from arising as existent or non-existent

"Furthermore, Mahāmati! that all dharmas are non-arising is what the Tathāgatas of past, future, and present alike have declared. Why is this said? Because all dharmas are only what one's own mind manifests; their nature is not a really-existent nature, being from the first apart from 'existence' and apart from 'non-existence' in what is called arising. Mahāmati! all natures are non-arising, and all dharmas are like the hare's horns, the horse's horns, and their kind — things that have never been — this being only the deluded common person's unreal false imagining, falsely clinging to them as intrinsic nature. Mahāmati! that all dharmas are non-arising is a matter within the ranging-ground into which self-realizing noble wisdom enters: in that ranging-ground, all natures and the marks of all intrinsic natures are non-arising, and it is not the ranging-ground of the two extremes of 'existence' and 'non-existence' that the deluded person's false imagining reckons. Common persons, however, relying on their own body and on possessions, set up all manner of resorts, grasping at the mark of intrinsic nature. Mahāmati! the store consciousness holds and sustains, and the marks of the grasping and the grasped arise from one another turn and turn about; the deluded person then falls into the two-extreme view of 'arising, abiding, and ceasing,' longing with all his heart for all natures truly to have their arising. Thus, upon 'existence' and 'non-existence,' he falsely imagines and gives rise to reckoning and clinging — and this is not the ranging-ground of the worthy and the noble. Mahāmati! in this matter you should train well.

The five uninterrupted lineages: the three vehicles · the indeterminate · the separate

"Furthermore, Mahāmati! there are five kinds of uninterrupted lineage. Which five? They are: the uninterrupted lineage of the śrāvaka vehicle, the uninterrupted lineage of the pratyekabuddha vehicle, the uninterrupted lineage of the Tathāgata vehicle, the indeterminate lineage, and the separate lineage.

"How is one to know the uninterrupted lineage of the śrāvaka vehicle? When such a person hears it said that, concerning the particular marks and the shared marks of the aggregates, elements, and sense-fields, there is what can be cut off and what can be known — then the pores over his whole body grow bright with delight, and he takes pleasure in cultivating 'the knowledge of marks,' but does not cultivate the mark of 'awakening through the dependent-arising' — this is called the uninterrupted lineage of the śrāvaka vehicle. The śrāvaka of the uninterrupted lineage, on reaching the eighth ground, gives rise to the cutting-off of the afflictions, yet the affliction of the habit-energy is not cut off; he cannot cross beyond the inconceivable transformational birth-and-death, but crosses only the birth-and-death of allotment and division. He rightly makes the lion's roar: 'My births are exhausted, the holy life is established, I shall not receive further existence.' Knowing this as it truly is, he cultivates the no-self of persons, and reaches at last the awakening of parinirvāṇa. Mahāmati! as for the separate uninterrupted lineage, it is thus: there are those who cling to there being a self, a person, a sentient being, a life-span, a nourisher, a man; these beings frame such a notion and go seeking parinirvāṇa. And there are others, the outsiders, who say that all is made by a single maker; and, having seen all natures, they say: 'This is parinirvāṇa.' They frame such a notion — but of the right view of 'the no-self of dharmas' they have no portion, and they have no liberation. Mahāmati! these — the uninterrupted lineage of the śrāvaka vehicle, and the lineage of the outsiders — are, in a place that is not yet a going-forth, framing the notion of a going-forth. In order to turn them from this evil view, one should train well.

"Mahāmati! as for the uninterrupted lineage of the pratyekabuddha vehicle: when such a person hears it said, of the manifold several conditions and of the uninterruptedness of condition upon condition, then the hairs over his whole body stand up and he weeps and sheds tears; toward the manifold conditions of the world he does not draw near, and to any and all things he does not cling; and when he further hears of the manifold matters of one's own body, of the manifold spiritual penetrations, of parting or joining, and of the manifold transformations — hearing these, his mind enters in accordingly. If it is known that this person is of the uninterrupted lineage of the pratyekabuddha vehicle, then following along with him one expounds for him the vehicle of the pratyekabuddha — this is called the mark of the uninterrupted lineage of the pratyekabuddha vehicle.

"Mahāmati! the uninterrupted lineage of the Tathāgata vehicle has four kinds, namely: the uninterrupted lineage of the dharma of intrinsic nature, the uninterrupted lineage of the dharma apart from particular marks, the uninterrupted lineage of the attainment of self-realizing nobility, and the uninterrupted lineage of the surpassing splendor of outer buddha-lands. Mahāmati! when such a person hears these four matters, each expounded for him, and when there is expounded for him 'the inconceivable ranging-ground that is set up in reliance on body and on possessions, one's own mind's manifestation,' his mind is neither startled nor terrified — this is called the mark of the uninterrupted lineage of the Tathāgata vehicle.

"Mahāmati! as for the indeterminate lineage, it means: when those three kinds of lineage are expounded for him, he enters according to what is expounded and is accomplished according to what is expounded. Mahāmati! this is for the one who first sets to work upon his ground: the setting-up of the lineages, that is, is made in this way in order to bring him up and into the 'ground of nothing whatever.' As for that self-realizing store — namely the person who, his own affliction of the habit-energy purified, has seen the no-self of dharmas and, winning the bliss of samādhi, abides on the śrāvaka ground — he too shall, in time to come, win the Tathāgata's most excellent body."

At that time the World-Honored One, wishing to restate this meaning, spoke in verse:

　　The fruits of the stream-enterer, the once-returner and the non-returner,
　　on down to the winning of arhatship — the minds of all these are still in delusion.
　　The three vehicles and the one vehicle — in truth there is no 'vehicle'; that is my skillful telling;
　　the deluded are scant in wisdom, and the noble ones, far withdrawn, come home to stillness.
　　The gateway of the supreme meaning is far removed from that teaching of 'two';
　　abiding in the place of nothing whatever — what 'three vehicles' are there left to set up?
　　The meditations, the boundless minds and the rest, on to the samādhis of the formless realm,
　　where feeling and perception are stilled away — there too is no more measuring of mind.

"Mahāmati! that which is called an 'icchantika' is in truth not an icchantika; then who is it, in worldly dharmas and in liberation, that turns? Mahāmati! the icchantika is of two kinds. The first is the one who has cast off all roots of goodness, and who had once made a vow concerning the sentient beings of beginningless time. How is 'casting off all roots of goodness' to be understood? It is slandering the bodhisattva-basket, and making such an evil utterance as: 'These do not accord with the teaching of the sūtras, the vinaya, and liberation.' Because he has cast off all roots of goodness, he does not enter parinirvāṇa. The second is the bodhisattva who, out of his own vow and by skillful means, does not — it is not that he does not — enter parinirvāṇa: it is that, in order to bring all sentient beings to parinirvāṇa, he himself does not enter. Mahāmati! his 'parinirvāṇa' of this kind is what is called the dharma-mark of 'not entering parinirvāṇa.' This too counts as one class of the icchantika."

Mahāmati said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One! Among these, which is the one who finally does not enter parinirvāṇa?"

The Buddha told Mahāmati: "That bodhisattva-icchantika, knowing that all dharmas are from the first parinirvāṇa, finally does not enter parinirvāṇa — and it is not the icchantika who has cast off all roots of goodness. Mahāmati! as for the icchantika who has cast off all roots of goodness — again, by the Tathāgata's spiritual power, his roots of goodness may at some time yet be reborn. Why is this said? Because the Tathāgata does not cast off any sentient being. For this reason, it is the bodhisattva-icchantika who does not enter parinirvāṇa.

The three natures: imagined · dependent · truly-perfected — the truly-perfected nature is the Tathāgata-womb mind

"Furthermore, Mahāmati! the bodhisattva-mahāsattva should be well-versed in the three natures. Which are the three natures? They are: the imagined nature, the dependent nature, and the truly-perfected nature. Mahāmati! the imagined nature arises from marks."

Mahāmati said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One! how is it that the imagined nature arises from marks?"

The Buddha told Mahāmati: "Upon that thing-mark of the dependent nature and that thing-mark manifested by activity, reckoning and clinging arise, and there come to be two kinds of imagined nature — these are what the Tathāgata, the Worthy One, the Perfectly Awakened One has set up, namely: the mark of clinging to name, and the mark of clinging to the thing. That which is called the mark of clinging to name means the arising of reckoning and clinging toward the inner and outer dharmas; that which is called the mark of clinging to the thing means the arising of reckoning and clinging toward the particular mark and the shared mark of those very inner and outer [dharmas]. These are called the two kinds of mark of the imagined nature. That which arises upon a support and a condition is called the dependent. What is the truly-perfected nature? It is that which is apart from the false imagining of name-mark and thing-mark — what is won by noble wisdom, and the ranging-ground into which self-realizing noble wisdom enters and ranges — this is called the truly-perfected nature, which is also the Tathāgata-womb mind."

At that time the World-Honored One, wishing to restate this meaning, spoke in verse:

　　Name, mark, and the reckoning-notion — these are the two marks of the imagined nature;
　　right knowledge and suchness-as-such — those, then, are the mark of the truly-perfected nature.

"Mahāmati! this is called the scripture of 'contemplating the marks of the five dharmas and the natures,' the ranging-ground into which self-realizing noble wisdom enters and ranges. You bodhisattva-mahāsattvas should train well in it.

"Furthermore, Mahāmati! the bodhisattva-mahāsattva should contemplate well the marks of the two kinds of no-self. Which are the two marks of no-self? They are: the no-self of persons, and the no-self of dharmas. How is the no-self of persons to be understood? It is this: being apart from 'self and what belongs to self,' apart from the coming-together of the aggregates, elements, and sense-fields. Sentient beings arise from not-knowing, deed, and craving; through the grasping and clinging of eye and form and the rest, consciousness arises; all the faculties, together with the vessel-realm, the body, and the like that one's own mind manifests and stores away, are all set up and displayed by the marks of one's own false imagining. It is like the flow of a river's water, like a seed, like a lamp, like the wind, like a cloud — moment by moment turning and perishing. Its restlessness is like a monkey's, its delight in an unclean place like a fly's, its want of any contentment like a wind-driven fire; and, with the beginningless false and hollow habit-energy for its cause, it is like the wheel that draws up water. It revolves round through the destinies of birth-and-death, showing forth manifold bodily forms and colors, like a conjuring-trick, like things wrought by a spell, and again like an image that rises up when a device is set in motion. Being well able to understand these marks is called the knowledge of the no-self of persons. How is the knowledge of the no-self of dharmas to be understood? It is this: awakening to the fact that the aggregates, elements, and sense-fields are from the first marks of false imagining and are suchness in their own nature; that the aggregates, elements, and sense-fields are all apart from 'self and what belongs to self.' The heap of aggregates, elements, and sense-fields is bound by the cords of deed and craving, and arises from one another turn and turn about in dependence, while its arising is from the first without any stirring. And all dharmas too are thus, apart from particular mark and shared mark. That unreal mark of false imagining, that force of false imagining, is what the common person gives rise to, and is not the ranging-ground of the noble and the worthy — because mind, mentation, and mental consciousness, and the five dharmas and the natures, are from the first apart. Mahāmati! the bodhisattva-mahāsattva should discern well 'the no-self of all dharmas.' The bodhisattva-mahāsattva who knows well the no-self of dharmas will before long win the 'contemplation of nothing whatever' of the bodhisattva's first ground. Through the contemplation of the marks of the grounds, awakening and understanding, he gives rise to gladness; and, advancing gradually in sequence, passing beyond the marks of the ninth ground, he wins the Dharma-Cloud Ground. There he sets up a great jewel-lotus-king throne adorned with measureless jeweled places, and a great jeweled palace — a thing born of the cultivation of the ranging-ground of the 'illusion-nature' — and takes his seat within it. He has as his retinue those most excellent buddha-sons, all of one and the same kind, encircling him; and from all the buddha-fields they come to consecrate him with the buddhas' hands, just as a wheel-turning holy king consecrates his crown prince. He passes beyond the ground of the buddha-sons and reaches the resort into which self-realizing noble dharma enters, and shall then win the Tathāgata's sovereign dharma-body. Because he has seen the no-self of dharmas — this is called the mark of the no-self of dharmas. You bodhisattva-mahāsattvas should train well in it."

Starting from a question one easily turns backward

Hearing "all dharmas are non-arising," what does one first think of? Most likely this: that nothing is there at all, that everything has been emptied out, that nothing ever arose. And with that one thought, one falls straight into the very pit the scripture is about, in the next breath, to break open.

In this passage the World-Honored One opens by saying: that all dharmas are non-arising is what the Tathāgatas of the three times alike have declared. But at once he points out the ground of it — not that all dharmas "were from the first not there at all," but that all dharmas are only what one's own mind manifests; their nature is not a really-existent nature, and so they are apart from "existent-arising" and apart from "non-existent-arising" too. These two kinds of "non-arising" are parted by a hair's breadth and stand a thousand miles apart. The first is annihilation; only the second is the Buddha's teaching. The whole joint of the passage hangs on telling these two "non-arisings" clearly apart; and once they are told apart, the scriptural root of the three great matters — the Yogācāra three natures, lineage, and non-arising — is all at once laid bare in this one passage.

The hare's horn and the horse's horn: the deluded person's "non-arising" is the annihilation-view

The scripture itself gives a most cutting simile, one that shows up the deluded person's kind of "non-arising" with nowhere left to hide: all dharmas are like the hare's horns, the horse's horns.

The hare has, from the first, no horn; the horse has, from the first, no horn — the deluded person's clinging to "all natures being flatly non-arising" is just such a "never-being." He takes "non-arising" to mean "nothing at all," as one cannot find a horn on a hare's head or on a horse's head. Here the ancient master brings down a blade, and draws the line with the utmost sharpness: this is the deluded person's "unawakened false imagining," a false imagining that clings to things as intrinsic nature, and is not what the Buddha means by "non-arising." The Buddha's "non-arising" is the understanding that "arising is itself non-arising" — the dharmas may stand vividly before us, and yet their nature has never really arisen, because they are only one's own mind's manifestation.

Hold up the Yogācāra mirror to this passage, and the boundary is at once clear. The deluded person errs on two counts. First, not knowing that the object-marks are all one's own mind's manifestation, he takes the shadow for something really out there — this is the imagined-and-clung-to, and the "real object" so clung to has never had substance, like the non-being of the hare's horn. Second, not knowing that this manifested shadow, though it has no real substance, arises in dependence on conditions and appears as if truly present, he misses the dependent — which is not a flat nothingness. The deluded person either clings to the shadow of the dependent as the reality of the imagined (falling into "existence"), or else strikes out even the shadow with a single stroke (falling into "non-existence," like reckoning a hare's horn). Both ends are in error. The scripture says it flatly: the deluded person falls into the two-extreme view of "arising, abiding, and ceasing," longing with all his heart for all natures truly to have their arising; upon "existence" and "non-existence" he falsely imagines and clings — and this is not the ranging-ground of the worthy and the noble. The place of the worthy and the noble is that middle way "apart from arising as existent or non-existent." The non-being of the hare's horn is the annihilation-view; only the non-arising of "one's own mind's manifestation, the nature being no [real] nature" is right view.

The five uninterrupted lineages: the five kinds of capacity, not the five uninterrupted deeds

Having told the "non-arising" clearly apart, the scripture goes on to open five kinds of uninterrupted lineage: the three vehicles of śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, and Tathāgata, plus the indeterminate and the separate — five kinds in all.

Here one must first take apart a word easily confused. The two graphs "uninterrupted" easily bring to mind the five uninterrupted deeds, and the Uninterrupted Hell — that is the "uninterrupted" of deeds that draw down suffering. But the "uninterrupted" here means nothing of the sort. The ancient master marks it plainly: considered in itself, lineage is fundamentally without differentiation, and only through beginningless perfuming does it come to be sorted as now inner, now outer, now great, now small, now determinate, now indeterminate; and the reason it is called "uninterrupted" is that each lineage is "pure and unmixed, without interruption" — the śrāvaka is purely of the śrāvaka lineage, mixed with nothing else, and that is all. It is the uninterruptedness of "purity," not the uninterruptedness of "deeds," nor the uninterruptedness of "time." The name is the same, the sense is other; confuse them, and the whole thing turns backward.

Seen with Yogācāra eyes, these five kinds are one scriptural root of the "five natures separate" doctrine: the innate uncontaminated seeds of sentient beings differ, and so their capacities come out as five kinds, and their cultivation and realization then part ways in their fruit. The scripture writes it most vividly. The person of the śrāvaka lineage, on hearing that "the particular and shared marks of the aggregates, elements, and sense-fields can be cut off and can be known," at once grows bright with delight in every pore — what he delights in is the "analyzing of dharmas and cutting off of delusion." The person of the pratyekabuddha lineage, on hearing of "the several dependent-arisings," at once bristles in every hair and weeps and sheds tears — what answers in him is the "contemplating of conditions and letting go of clinging." The person of the Tathāgata lineage, on hearing of "one's own mind's manifestation, the inconceivable ranging-ground set up on body and possessions," is neither startled nor terrified — what he is fit to bear is "mind-only, vast and great." At one and the same session of dharma, the three capacities each raise their own answering response; the seeds being different, even the response of the pores differs. This is no partiality in the Buddha; it is that the seeds differ from the first, as a vessel receives water — the great vessel receiving much, the small receiving little.

And what, then, is the separate lineage? It is those who cling to there being a self, a person, a sentient being, a life-span, and, hugging this one "self," go seeking nirvāṇa; and the outsiders too, who cling to "all being made by a single maker" and, having seen the natures, say "this is nirvāṇa." This class the scripture judges heavily: of the right view of "the no-self of dharmas" they have no portion, and they have no liberation. Why so? The "self" that does the seeking of nirvāṇa is still firmly in place, which is to say the imagined-and-clung-to is unbroken; and while the clung-to "self" is unbroken, nirvāṇa cannot be found — it is only "framing the notion of a going-forth in a place that is not yet a going-forth." This points out precisely: three vehicles or outsiders alike, if they do not pass this one barrier of "the no-self of dharmas," then, however separate their lineage, are in the end held off by one layer.

The three natures: imagined · dependent · truly-perfected — one road from the false to the true

The foregoing establishing of non-arising and of lineage was all paving the way for this passage. Come to the three natures, and the scripture says of itself: the bodhisattva-mahāsattva should be well-versed in the three natures — the imagined nature, the dependent nature, and the truly-perfected nature. The ancient master marks it as "the very essential of this scripture"; the whole bone of the Laṅkā is here.

How are these three natures told apart? The clue the scripture gives is most exact, one graph, one sense. The imagined nature "arises from marks" — it arises from clinging upon the two layers of name-mark and thing-mark: to grasp at the name is the clinging to name; to grasp at the mark is the clinging to the thing. The dependent nature "arises upon a support and a condition" — it manifests in reliance on a support and a condition. The truly-perfected nature "is apart from name-mark and thing-mark false imagining · is won by noble wisdom" — it is that ranging-ground, apart from all the foregoing false clinging, that noble wisdom itself directly realizes. Joined together, the three are just one road: the imagined clinging by marks (having no real substance), the dependent arising by conditions (appearing as if present, yet not really existent), the truly-perfected disclosed apart from falsity (apart from the two foregoing falsehoods, the true is seen).

This is the scriptural type of the Yogācāra three natures, not off by a hair. The imagined nature is the imagined-and-clung-to: the clung-to real object and real self, like a snake falsely seen upon a rope — the snake was never there. The dependent nature is the dependent: like that length of rope, appearing as if present in reliance on cause and condition, not a flat nothingness. The truly-perfected nature is the truly-perfected: the suchness disclosed when, upon the dependent, one is far removed from the falseness of the imagined. The deluded see a snake upon the rope and are afraid (the imagined); the wise know the snake was never there and see the rope (dispelling the imagined, awakening to the dependent); ultimately one knows that the rope too is made of hemp, its very substance the true (realizing the truly-perfected). The three natures are not three separate things, but three layers of seeing — delusion and awakening — upon one and the same dharma: deluded, it is the imagined; by conditions, the dependent; awakened, the truly-perfected.

And the most crucial line of this passage, the one that most shows the Laṅkā's own colors, is the pronouncement it makes upon the truly-perfected nature: the truly-perfected nature "is the Tathāgata-womb mind." This one ruling brings two great rivers into one confluence. The truly-perfected, elsewhere, is "the suchness disclosed by the two emptinesses"; here the scripture says outright that it just is the Tathāgata-womb mind. And so the truly-perfected end of "the three natures" and the pure-mind end of "the Tathāgata-womb" flow together upon this one line. That Yogācāra can, by the three natures, subsume all dharmas without going outside a single mind, that the seeds can have some constant support to rest on — for this, "the truly-perfected nature is the Tathāgata-womb mind" is the very scriptural warrant. The preceding passage established "the store consciousness does not perish"; this passage establishes "the truly-perfected nature is the Tathāgata-womb mind" — the true-aspect side of the store consciousness and the pure side of the truly-perfected point, from the first, to this one same mind.

The twofold no-self: only when both "self" and "dharma" are seen through does the road reach its end

The three natures told, the scripture comes home to the two kinds of no-self: the no-self of persons, and the no-self of dharmas. This is no fresh doctrine started up; it is the on-the-ground work of the three natures — the imagined-and-clung-to has two, one clinging to a self of persons, one to a self of dharmas; break these two clingings, and it is just the twofold no-self.

The no-self of persons is seeing through the fact that beneath body-and-mind there is no real self. Here the scripture brings down a whole string of cutting similes, taking that "self" apart until it is clean gone. Body and mind are like the flow of a river's water, wave after wave in succession, and no one wave is the "self"; like a seed, like a lamp, like the wind, like a cloud, moment by moment turning and perishing, with never an instant standing still to be clung to as a self. Its restlessness is like a monkey's, clutching east and west and never resting; its delight in the unclean is like a fly's, gathering to a stench; its want of any contentment is like a fire in the wind, blazing higher the more it is fed; and the reason it goes on and on unceasingly, revolving without break, is that "the beginningless false and hollow habit-energy is its cause, like the wheel that draws up water" — that water-wheel, bucket after bucket, dipping up and pouring down, pouring down and dipping up, circling on without rest and yet with never a bucket at a stand upon the wheel. Ask, in that ever-turning water-wheel, which bucket is the "self," and it cannot be pointed to. This string of similes, every one, says one thing: because it is a continuum, it is not cut off; because there is no abiding, there is no self. Watch this string through, and the self of persons is broken.

The no-self of dharmas goes one layer deeper: not only is there no "self," but even these "dharmas" — the aggregates, elements, and sense-fields — have no intrinsic nature. The scripture says: awaken to the fact that the aggregates, elements, and sense-fields are from the first marks of false imagining and suchness in their own nature; they are bound by the cords of deed and craving, arise from one another turn and turn about in dependence, and are apart from particular mark and shared mark — that unreal mark of false imagining, that force of false imagining, is what the common person gives rise to, not the ranging-ground of the noble and worthy. Why so? "Mind, mentation, and mental consciousness, and the five dharmas and the natures, are from the first apart." Seen with Yogācāra eyes, this is just the no-self of dharmas running through the imagined, the dependent, and the truly-perfected: the aggregates, elements, and sense-fields, as clung-to real dharmas, have never been (dispelling the imagined); as the present functioning of dependent-arising, they are illusion-like (awakening to the dependent); their own nature being suchness, that is the truly-perfected. The bodhisattva who knows well the no-self of dharmas, the scripture says, will before long enter the "contemplation of nothing whatever" of the first ground, passing in sequence beyond the ninth ground to the Dharma-Cloud Ground, on to consecration by the buddhas' hands and the winning of the Tathāgata's sovereign dharma-body — and the whole ranking of this road is rooted in "seeing the no-self of dharmas." When the twofold no-self is broken through to the last, then the imagined-and-clung-to is empty, the dependent is illusion-like, the truly-perfected stands disclosed alone — the three natures seen through all at once. This, then, is that one line "all dharmas are non-arising," come down to the solid ground of cultivation and realization.

Onward Transmission

The three matters established in this passage are each taken up by the later Yogācāra treatises. The most direct inheritance is the doctrine of the three natures: the imagined, the dependent, and the truly-perfected natures come in later time to be fixed by the names imagined-and-clung-to, dependent, and truly-perfected; and that verse, "name, mark, and the reckoning-notion are the two marks of the imagined; right knowledge and suchness-as-such, then, are the mark of the truly-perfected," is the very scriptural type of the later three-natures verses — the imagined clinging by marks, the dependent arising by conditions, the truly-perfected apart from falsity, all the way down inherited from here. And that one line, "the truly-perfected nature is the Tathāgata-womb mind," is all the more the scriptural root for reconciling the truly-perfected with the Tathāgata-womb; when the later treatise-masters establish the truly-perfected as suchness, and yet not outside a single mind, what they inherit is just this. At the lineage end, the three vehicles and five natures opened by the five uninterrupted lineages are one scriptural warrant for the later doctrine that "the five natures are separate, the innate seeds differing"; at the non-arising end, "one's own mind's manifestation, apart from arising as existent or non-existent" is the forerunner of "consciousness-only, no [outer] object, the object not really arising."

Chan reception sources must remain stratified. Jingjue T2837 records Bodhidharma telling Huike to practice in reliance on the four-scroll Laṅkā and thereby attain deliverance〔T85n2837 1284c24–25〕; Daoxuan T2060 records entrustment of the four-scroll Laṅkā〔T50n2060 0552b20–22〕. The formula "it may seal the mind" belongs to the Song preface〔T16n0670 0479c10–13〕. This movement may therefore be read within later Chan reception, but the Song formula cannot be backfilled into Tang sources and the movement cannot be declared Patriarchal Chan’s unique foundation.