Mahāyāna Sūtra on Revealing 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: Just like a person's face appearing in a mirror—if the mirror is not clean, or the mirror is not bright, the face cannot be reflected in the mirror. When the mirror is clean and bright, and the face is turned toward the mirror, the facial image can appear. The image in the mirror has no feelings and no thoughts, yet it follows the body of the person outside the mirror in performing all kinds of movements, such as bending and stretching, lowering and raising the head, opening the mouth to talk and laugh, moving forward and stopping—various kinds of motion. Whatever the person outside the mirror does, whether speaking or moving about, the mirror will correspondingly display the same movements and forms.

The Buddha asked Bhadrapāla: when the image in the mirror appears, whose power is it? Bhadrapāla replied to the Buddha: 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 in the mirror appear. The facial appearance in the mirror is exactly identical to the facial appearance outside the mirror; whether the person in the mirror has complete or incomplete six faculties is the same as whether the person outside the mirror has complete or incomplete six faculties.