all within it. It cannot be comprehended
by any kind of particularization or distinction. It is
only by transcending the range of our intellectual categories of
the comprehension of the limited range of finite phenomena that
we can get a glimpse of it. It cannot be comprehended by the
particularizing consciousness of all beings, and we thus may call
it negation, "s'unyata," in this sense. The truth is that which

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[Footnote 1: I have ventured to translate "_sm@rti_" in the sense of vasana
in preference to Suzuki's "confused subjectivity" because sm@rti in the
sense of vasana is not unfamiliar to the readers of such Buddhist works
as _La@nkavatara_. The word "subjectivity" seems to be too European a
term to be used as a word to represent the Buddhist sense.]

131

subjectively does not exist by itself, that the negation (_s'unyata_) is
also void (_s'unya_) in its nature, that neither that which is negated
nor that which negates is an independent entity. It is the pure
soul that manifests itself as eternal, permanent, immutable, and
completely holds all things within it. On that account it may be
called affirmation. But yet there is no trace of affirmation in it,
because it is not the product of the creative instinctive memory
(_sm@rti_) of conceptual thought and the only way of grasping the
truth--the thatness, is by transcending all conceptual creations.

"The soul as birth and death (_sa@msara_) comes forth from
the Tathagata womb (_tathagatagarbha_), the ultimate reality.
But the immortal and the mortal coincide with each other.
Though they are not identical they are not duality either. Thus
when the absolute soul assumes a relative aspect by its self-affirmation
it is called the all-conserving mind (_alayavijnana_).
It embraces two principles, (1) enlightenment, (2) non-enlightenment.
Enlightenment is the perfection of the mind when it is
free from the corruptions of the creative instinctive incipient
memory (_sm@rti_). It penetrates all and is the unity of all
(_dharmadhatu_). That is to say, it is the universal dharmakaya of all
Tathagatas constituting the ultimate foundation of existence.

"When it is said that all consciousness starts from this fundamental
truth, it should not be thought that consciousness had any
real origin, for it was merely phenomenal existence--a mere imaginary
creation of the perceivers under the influence of the
d