The Non-existence of Discriminative Perception
Ananda's wrong view
Ananda was moved to tears by the Buddhaís
compassion and profound Teaching, brought his two palms together
and said:
After hearing the Buddhaís wonderful Dharma, I have realized
that the wondrous Bright Mind is fundamentally perfect, so that I
always dwell in my Mind-ground. But if my awakening has been due to
the Buddha's preaching, I have (really) used, my causal mind to
hear it with reverence, thereby merely realizing that mind. I dare
not pretend that it is the fundamental Mind-ground. Will you be
compassionate enough to enlighten me so as to remove my (remaining)
doubts so that I can return to the Supreme Tao?
Unreality of illusory causes
The Buddha said: You are still using your clinging mind to
listen to the Dharma; since, however, this Dharma is also causal,
you fail to realize the Dharma-nature. This is like a man pointing
a finger at the moon to show it to others who should follow the
direction of the finger to look at the moon. If they look at the
finger and mistake it for the moon, they lose (sight of) both the
moon and the finger. Why? Because the bright moon is actually
pointed at; they both lose sight of the finger and fail to
distinguish between (the states of) brightness and darkness. Why?
Because they mistake the finger for the bright moon and are not
clear about brightness and darkness.
Likewise, if you mistake your (intellect which) hears my
preaching voice for your (true mind), the latter's discerning
nature should be independent of that differentiated voice. For
instance, when a traveller spends the night at an inn, he does so
for a time and then leaves, not staying there for ever: as to the
inn-keeper, he has nowhere else to go for he owns the inn. It is
the same with your mind.
Falseness of both sense organs and consciousness
If it is your True Mind, it has nowhere to go. Then why in the
absence of speech has it no discerning nature of its own? This
discriminating (intellect) does not arise only when I speak, but
also when you discern my appearance; it has no discerning nature of
its own when there is no form. (It is not True Mind) even when you
reach the state in which all discrimination ceases, a state that is
neither form nor Voidness, which the heretics call Primordial
Darkness.
All phenomena returnable to causes are unreal
If that which has no discerning nature of its own ceases to
exist in the absence of causal conditions, how can the (so-called)
nature of your mind be an (independent) Host if it disappears when
it returns to its (illusory) causes?
:))