Mahāyāna Sūtra on the Manifestation of Consciousness (58)

Original text:如人面影。现之于镜。非净非明。面像不现。镜明面对。影像乃现。镜中之像。无受无念。而随人身。屈伸俯仰。开口谈谑。行来进止。种种运动。贤护。影像现谁之力也。

贤护白佛言。是人之力。由有面故。而有面影。影像之色。如面之色。根具不具。咸悉如面。

Explanation: It is just like a person's face appearing in a mirror: if the mirror is not clean, or not bright, the face cannot be manifested in the mirror. When the mirror is clean and bright, and the face is turned toward it, the facial image can appear. The image in the mirror has no feeling and no thoughts, yet it follows the body of the person outside the mirror in all sorts of movements—bending and stretching, lowering and raising the head, opening the mouth to talk and laugh, coming and going, stopping and moving, and all kinds of motions. Whatever the person outside the mirror does—whether speaking or moving about—the same actions and forms appear in the mirror in response.

The Buddha asked Bhadrapāla: when the image in the mirror appears, whose power is it? Bhadrapāla replied to the Buddha that it is the power of the person. Because there is a person's face, there is a reflection of the face in the mirror, and only then does the image appear in the mirror. The color and appearance of the face in the mirror is exactly the same as the color and appearance of the face outside the mirror; whether the faculties of the person in the mirror are complete or incomplete is the same as whether the faculties of the person outside the mirror are complete or incomplete.