Lankavatara 2:VII
wàngxiǎng (妄想): delusive constructions arising from karmically perfumed tendencies, appearing as subject-object experience and mistaken as real.
English
Furthermore, Mahāmati: when wàngxiǎng ceases, the suffering of the threefold existence ceases; when ignorance, craving, karma, and conditionality cease, the illusion-like realm manifested by one’s own mind is accordingly seen. I will now explain.
Suppose there are śramaṇas and brāhmaṇas who claim that both seedless and seeded causes can give rise to effects, or that phenomena and time endure, or that arising and abiding depend on the skandhas, dhātus, and āyatanas, or who assert that production has already ceased.
If they assert continuity, phenomena, birth, existence, nirvana, the path, karma, fruition, and truth, this destroys the theory of annihilationism.
Why is this so? Because these are ungraspable through direct experience, and from the beginning, such seeing was never proper.
Mahamati! For example, it is like a broken jar cannot serve as a jar; likewise scorched seeds cannot make sprouts. Thus, if the nature of the skandhas, dhatus, and ayatanas have ceased, presently cease, or will cease, one’s mind’s wàngxiǎng perceptions will not have a cause, and they will not sequentially arise.
Mahāmati, if one further claims that consciousness, whether seeded or seedless, arises through the conjunction of the three conditions (object-condition, faculty-condition, immediately antecedent condition), then turtles should grow hair and sand should produce oil. Your doctrine is thereby destroyed, and it violates the principles of certainty. Seeded or seedless cause assertions lead to such faults; all such undertakings are empty and without meaning.
Mahāmati, the various heterodox teachers assert that things arise through the conjunction of the three conditions. They go on to construct contrived causal systems with self-characterized appearances—seeded and seedless—across past, future, and present. From the beginning, they claim that completed phenomena succeed each other. According to this view, even ground reversal (alaya-paravrtti) would be nothing more than cognition shaped by karmic habit-energy. Thus do they speak.
In this way, Mahāmati, the ignorant and deluded ordinary beings—harmed by false views, twisted, confused, and intoxicated—lacking insight, falsely proclaim the teachings of omniscience.
And Mahāmati, if certain other śramaṇas and brāhmaṇas observe that self-nature is like a drifting cloud, like a wheel of fire, a celestial castle, unborn, illusory, a mirage, a reflection of the moon in water, or a dream—such inner and outer appearances, manifestations of mind, are but the beginningless fabrications of wàngxiǎng inseparable from one’s own mind.
When the wàngxiǎng of causes and conditions ceases, and wanxiang is cut off, speech is speech, and views are views. The storehouse consciousness establishes the body of reception within the domain of consciousness. Grasping what is received and the one who grasps what is received are not establishing each other; this is the realm of non-possession. Free from arising, abiding, and ceasing, one’s mind arises according to the entrance of discernment.
Mahamati! These bodhisattvas will soon realize: the equality of samsara and nirvana, great compassion, and artful skillful means—without developing skillful means. Mahamati! All realms of sentient beings are fully known by these bodhisattvas to be illusory. They do not labor with causes and conditions, and are far removed from inner and outer realms. Outside of mind, nothing can be perceived.
Thus, they enter the domain of no characteristics and then step-by-step through the grounds of samadhi. Discerning investigation liberates them from the illusion of the three worlds and they will realize “as illusion samadhi.”
Passing over the manifestations of one’s mind as not having any self-nature, they obtain and abide in prajnaparamita.
Detached and separated from skillful means based on other-existance; they enter adamantine samadhi. And consequently, they enter the Body of the Tathagata.
Following, they enter: the changeless transformation of suchness, unrestrained supranormal powers, compassionate skillful means, and possess all adornments [of the tathagata].
They enter equally into all buddha-fields, the domains entered by heterodox paths, and become free from citta, manas, and manas-vijñāna. This is the bodhisattva’s gradual turning of embodiment—attaining the body of the Tathāgata.
Mahamati, therefore, one who wishes suchness to infuse their being must abandon: the mind’s apprehension of skandhas, dhātus, and āyatanas; the skillful means fabricated through causes and conditions; and the false, wàngxiǎng of birth, abiding, and cessation.
Chinese
「復次，大慧！妄想三有苦滅，無知愛業緣滅，自心所現幻境隨見。今當說。大慧！若有沙門婆羅門，欲令無種有種因果現，及事時住，緣陰界入生住，或言生已滅。大慧！彼若相續、若事、若生、若有、若涅槃、若道、若業、若果、若諦，破壞斷滅論。所以者何？以此現前不可得，及見始非分故。大慧！譬如破瓶，不作瓶事；亦如焦種，不作[10]牙事。如是，大慧！若陰界入性，已滅今滅、當滅，自心妄想見無因故，彼無次第生。大慧！若復說無種有種識，三緣合生者，龜應生毛，沙應出油。汝宗則壞，違決定義。有種無種說有如是過，所作事業，悉空無義。大慧！彼諸外道，說有三緣合生者，所作方便因果自相，過去、未來、現在，有種、無種相。從本已來成事相承，覺想地轉，自見過習氣，作如是說。如是，大慧！愚癡凡夫，惡見所[11]害，邪曲迷醉，無智妄稱一切智說。大慧！若復諸餘沙門婆羅門，見離自性、浮雲、火輪揵闥婆城，無生、幻、焰、水月及夢，內外心現，妄想無始虛偽，不離自心。妄想因緣滅盡，離妄想說所說、觀所觀，受用建立身之藏識。於識境界，攝受及攝受者不相應。無所有境界，離生住滅，自心起隨入分別。大慧！彼菩薩不久當得生死涅槃平等，大悲巧方便，無開發方便。大慧！[12]彼一切眾生界，皆悉如幻，不勤因緣，遠離內外境界，心外無所見。次第隨入無相處，次第隨入從地至地三昧境界，解三界如幻，分別觀察，當得如幻三昧。度自心現無所有，得住般若波羅蜜。捨離彼生所作方便金剛喻三摩提，隨入如來身。隨入如如化，神通自在，慈悲方便，具足莊嚴。等入一切佛剎，外道入處，離心意意識。是菩薩漸次轉身，得如來身。大慧！是故欲得如來隨入[13]身者，當遠離陰界入心，因緣所作方便，生住滅妄想虛偽。
Interlinear
「復次，大慧！妄想三有苦滅，無知愛業緣滅，自心所現幻境隨見。今當說。
Furthermore, Mahāmati: when wàngxiǎng ceases, the suffering of the threefold existence ceases; when ignorance, craving, karma, and conditionality cease, the illusion-like realm manifested by one’s own mind is accordingly seen. I will now explain.
大慧！若有沙門婆羅門，欲令無種有種因果現，及事時住，緣陰界入生住，或言生已滅。
Suppose there are śramaṇas and brāhmaṇas who claim that both seedless and seeded causes can give rise to effects, or that phenomena and time endure, or that arising and abiding depend on the skandhas, dhātus, and āyatanas, or who assert that production has already ceased.
大慧！彼若相續、若事、若生、若有、若涅槃、若道、若業、若果、若諦，破壞斷滅論。
If they assert continuity, phenomena, birth, existence, nirvana, the path, karma, fruition, and truth, this destroys the theory of annihilationism.
所以者何？以此現前不可得，及見始非分故。
Why is this so? Because these are ungraspable through direct experience, and from the beginning, such seeing was never proper.
大慧！譬如破瓶，不作瓶事；亦如焦種，不作[10]牙事。
Mahamati! For example, it is like a broken jar cannot serve as a jar; likewise scorched seeds cannot make sprouts.
如是，大慧！若陰界入性，已滅今滅、當滅，自心妄想見無因故，彼無次第生。
Thus, if the nature of the skandhas, dhatus, and ayatanas have ceased, presently cease, or will cease, one’s mind’s wàngxiǎng perceptions will not have a cause, and they will not sequentially arise.
大慧！若復說無種有種識，三緣合生者，龜應生毛，沙應出油。汝宗則壞，違決定義。
Mahāmati, if one further claims that consciousness, whether seeded or seedless, arises through the conjunction of the three conditions (object-condition, faculty-condition, immediately antecedent condition), then turtles should grow hair and sand should produce oil. Your doctrine is thereby destroyed, and it violates the principles of certainty.
有種無種說有如是過，所作事業，悉空無義。
Seeded or seedless cause assertions lead to such faults; all such undertakings are empty and without meaning.
大慧！彼諸外道，說有三緣合生者，所作方便因果自相，過去、未來、現在，有種、無種相。從本已來成事相承，覺想地轉，自見過習氣，作如是說。
Mahāmati, the various heterodox teachers assert that things arise through the conjunction of the three conditions. They go on to construct contrived causal systems with self-characterized appearances—seeded and seedless—across past, future, and present. From the beginning, they claim that completed phenomena succeed each other. According to this view, even ground reversal (alaya-paravrtti) would be nothing more than cognition shaped by karmic habit-energy. Thus do they speak.
如是，大慧！愚癡凡夫，惡見所[11]害，邪曲迷醉，無智妄稱一切智說。
In this way, Mahāmati, the ignorant and deluded ordinary beings—harmed by false views, twisted, confused, and intoxicated—lacking insight, falsely proclaim the teachings of omniscience.
大慧！若復諸餘沙門婆羅門，見離自性、浮雲、火輪揵闥婆城，無生、幻、焰、水月及夢，內外心現，妄想無始虛偽，不離自心。
And Mahāmati, if certain other śramaṇas and brāhmaṇas observe that self-nature is like a drifting cloud, like a wheel of fire, a celestial castle, unborn, illusory, a mirage, a reflection of the moon in water, or a dream—such inner and outer appearances, manifestations of mind, are but the beginningless fabrications of wàngxiǎng inseparable from one’s own mind.
妄想因緣滅盡，離妄想說所說、觀所觀，受用建立身之藏識於識境界，攝受及攝受者不相, 無所有境界，離生住滅，自心起隨入分別。
When the wàngxiǎng of causes and conditions ceases, and wanxiang is cut off, speech is speech, and views are views. The storehouse consciousness establishes the body of reception within the domain of consciousness. Grasping what is received and the one who grasps what is received are not establishing each other; this is the realm of non-possession. Free from arising, abiding, and ceasing, one’s mind arises according to the entrance of discernment.
大慧！彼菩薩不久當得生死涅槃平等，大悲巧方便，無開發方便。大慧！[12]彼一切眾生界，皆悉如幻，不勤因緣，遠離內外境界，心外無所見。
Mahamati! These bodhisattvas will soon realize: the equality of samsara and nirvana, great compassion, and artful skillful means—without developing skillful means. Mahamati! All realms of sentient beings are fully known by these bodhisattvas to be illusory. They do not labor with causes and conditions, and are far removed from inner and outer realms. Outside of mind, nothing can be perceived.
次第隨入無相處，次第隨入從地至地三昧境界。解三界如幻分別觀察，當得如幻三昧。
Thus, they enter the domain of no characteristics and then step-by-step through the grounds of samadhi. Discerning investigation liberates them from the illusion of the three worlds and they will realize “as illusion samadhi.”
度自心現無所有，得住般若波羅蜜。
Passing over the manifestations of one’s mind as not having any self-nature, they obtain and abide in prajnaparamita.
捨離彼生所作方便金剛喻三摩提，隨入如來身。
Detached and separated from skillful means based on other-existance; they enter adamantine samadhi. And consequently, they enter the Body of the Tathagata.
隨入如如化，神通自在，慈悲方便，具足莊嚴。
Following, they enter: the changeless transformation of suchness, unrestrained supranormal powers, compassionate skillful means, and possess all adornments [of the tathagata].
等入一切佛剎，外道入處，離心意意識。是菩薩漸次轉身，得如來身。
They enter equally into all buddha-fields, the domains entered by heterodox paths, and become free from citta, manas, and manas-vijñāna. This is the bodhisattva’s gradual turning of embodiment—attaining the body of the Tathāgata.
大慧！是故欲得如來隨入[13]身者，當遠離陰界入心，因緣所作方便，生住滅妄想虛偽。
Mahamati, therefore, one who wishes suchness to infuse their being must abandon: the mind’s apprehension of skandhas, dhātus, and āyatanas; the skillful means fabricated through causes and conditions; and the false, wàngxiǎng of birth, abiding, and cessation.