釋摩訶衍論 4.25

4.25

The treatise says: All buddhas of the ten directions and the three times requite the kindness of avidyā to the end of the future without exhaustion. Why is that? Because all awakened ones take avidyā as the unconditioned cause for fully adorning the fruit of the dharmakāya. As is stated in the Mūla-viśuddha-sūtra: Mañjuśrī addressed the Buddha, saying: 'World-Honoured One! For immeasurable kalpas you did not spare body or life, severing all evil and cultivating all good, completing the practice of causes to adorn the ocean of nature, joyful and sovereign, with virtue and function unobstructed. For what reason do you make such a statement: "I have great kindness [received], which cannot be fully repaid to the end of the future"?' The Buddha said: 'Taking avidyā as the material, I accomplished the path of correct awakening; therefore I say there is an extremely heavy debt of kindness, which cannot be fully repaid throughout dust-mote kalpas.' By this meaning, avidyāvāsabhūmi is also called the stage of inexhaustible requital of kindness. As for the stage of beginningless having an end, what are its characteristics according to the distinct meanings of the characters? The verse says: