638 henrik h. sørensenin order, including the thousand-pendant silken streamers. The multi-
tude of immortal music is arranged on the side. A hundred thousand
kinds of music, and limitless, wonderful offerings, nothing which cannot
be imagined, widely and orderly arranged. If this is not the complete
vision, how can it carry out the ten thousand dharmas, and yet illu-
mine the One Mind? [How can it] abide in one thing, and yet manifest
the multitude of principles? Through the offerings it transforms the few
and changes the many, and with nothing it makes something, causing
the impure to become pure. This mind-dharma is unobstructed, phe-
nomena (sa ) and principle (ni ) are completely fused, large and
small are harmonized, existence and non-existence are not two, and the
impure and the pure have the same essence. Do not think that the great
assemblies are [just] superior feasts, but participate in them from this
day on. For this reason it is necessary to rely on the complete vision so
that you will be able to adorn the worldly truth [i.e., the relative plane]
and [thereby] complete the offerings of the wonderful dharma.” (HPC
vol. 7, 595a)After this lengthy explanation, Pou goes on to discuss the importance
of the buddha-nature (pulsŏng ) or buddha-mind (pulsim ),
the origin and foundation for all phenomena. This constitutes his point
of departure when arguing for the mutual non-obstruction between
the mind’s two aspects, its essence (ch’e ) and function (yŏng ).
The text reads:
Now, as regards the One Mind (ilsim ), it is the wondrous essence
of the ten thousand phenomena. The ten thousand phenomena [in turn]
are the spiritual activity of the One Mind. Outside the mind there are no
phenomena, and outside phenomena there is no mind. Hence mind is
phenomena, and phenomena are mind. Essence and function are com-
pletely fused. Since the Mind Mirror is without obstruction, the spiritual
activity of the three wisdoms (samban ) accords with the complete
vision of the One Mind. (HPC vol. 7, 596c)The most noteworthy passage makes a full identification between
mind and phenomena. In effect this means that physical appearances
are actually mind-made. Such an understanding takes the original
Yogācāra tenet of “mind-only” (yusim /yusik ) to its logical
extreme, well beyond its original meaning in Indian Mahāyāna. How-
ever, to a Korean Sŏn Buddhist of the sixteenth century, it is precisely
such a doctrinal reduction, no matter how simplistic, that makes the
identification between the mind cultivation of Sŏn and Esoteric Bud-
dhist ritual possible. The text goes on to say:
The mind-dharma is non-dual, wondrously transforming and eternal,
and therefore it cannot be grasped by the intellect. One-pointedly hold