大般若波羅蜜多經般若理趣分述讚 1.3

1.3

Fascicle eighty-two of the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra states: "When Dharma masters wish to explain and elucidate, they should first praise the Buddha, either briefly or extensively." Praising the Buddha briefly is through five aspects: first, wondrous physical form, possessing the thirty-two marks of a great man in full adornment, with eighty secondary signs decorating the limbs, radiant with light like a great golden mountain; second, tranquility, dignified and exceptionally wondrous with all faculties serene, his mind placid, having well attained the culmination of supreme subduing and tranquil cessation, having well reached the further shore of foremost subduing and tranquil cessation, skillfully and covertly guarding and subduing the faculties—a nāga among men because of being without error, a bull-king among men because of guiding the great multitude, a fine horse among men because of his mind being well-tamed; pure and undisturbed like a clear spring pool, having forever uprooted defilements and latent impressions; third, supreme wisdom, meaning unhindered and non-attached regarding the three times and non-temporal phenomena; fourth, correct practice, fully perfecting the practices benefiting self and others through the six pāramitās and the four means of embracing; fifth, majestic power, meaning the Tathāgatas' sovereign sports of supernatural faculties of blazing majestic power. Furthermore, there are six praises: because of perfection of merits, because of freedom from defilement, because of absence of turbidity, because of being without equal, because of having only the benefiting of sentient beings as one's activity, and because of having capability regarding this activity and function. The extensive, boundless praises are all as stated there. Having praised the Buddha, one must fulfill ten dharmas to be named a Dharma master. As for the ten dharmas: first, being skilled in the teachings and meanings, meaning skillfully understanding the six dharmas and ten meanings; second, being able to expound extensively, meaning having much learning, retaining what is heard, and accumulating that learning; third, possessing fearlessness, expounding the true Dharma in the midst of a superior assembly without any timidity, the voice neither hoarse nor trembling, the armpits not sweating, mindfulness not lost; fourth, skill in phrasing, speech being fully accomplished with the eight factors, phrasing complete when expounding the Dharma in the assembly; fifth, preaching with skillful means, meaning expounding the true Dharma with twenty kinds of skillful means, such as being timely and earnest; sixth, fully accomplishing practice in accordance with the Dharma, not taking mere listening as the culmination, but practicing precisely as one has spoken; seventh, fully possessing deportment, meaning when expounding the Dharma, hands and feet do not fidget, the head does not sway, the face does not change expression, the nose does not twitch, advancing and halting, coming and going with orderly and composed deportment; eighth, heroic vigor, constantly delighting in hearing dharmas not yet heard, making dharmas already heard ever clearer and purer, not abandoning yoga, not abandoning attention, the mind not abandoning inner śamatha; ninth, being free from weariness, meaning expounding the wondrous Dharma for the fourfold assembly without bodily or mental fatigue; tenth, possessing the power of patience, meaning never retaliating when reviled, ridiculed, or rebuked, and not giving rise to resentment when disparaged, and so on extensively. As for the listeners to the Dharma: when the Dharma master expounds the true Dharma, he should establish the others in reverent, non-erroneous listening, based on one cause or up to ten. First, listening to the Dharma with reverence enables one to realize benefit and peace right in the present. This has four lines, as spoken in the section on the sphere of phenomena in the Bodhisattvabhūmi. Second: (1) skillfully establishing all phenomena, because it is free of faults and possesses great meaning; (2) the exertion put forth by the speaker and listener yields supreme fruit. Third: (1) enabling sentient beings to abandon unfortunate destinies; (2) obtaining good destinies; (3) swiftly leading to the causes of nirvāṇa. These three matters can only be obtained through reverent listening. Fourth: (1) skillfully and thoroughly understanding sūtras and the like; (2) this true Dharma enables sentient beings to abandon all non-virtue and embrace all virtue, since a good listener is able to accept and abandon; (3) by this abandoning and accepting, abandoning the subsequent suffering incurred by evil causes; (4) swiftly realizing nirvāṇa. Fifth: (1) thinking, "I shall now hear what has not yet been heard"; (2) "Having heard it, I shall investigate it"; (3) "I shall sever the net of doubt"; (4) "I shall turn away from all views"; (5) "I shall penetrate all profound words and meanings with wisdom." This clarifies the three wisdoms: the first two clarify hearing, the next two clarify reflection, and the last one clarifies cultivation. Sixth: (1) desiring to respectfully repay the great teacher's kindness, thinking, "The Buddha practiced countless difficult and painful austerities for my sake to seek and attain this Dharma; how could I not listen now?"; (2) observing one's own welfare; (3) ultimately being able to depart from all feverish anguish; (4) skillfully according with correct deportment; (5) easy to discern; (6) known through the inner realization of the wise. Seventh, thinking, "I shall gather the seven kinds of true Dharma, knowing the teaching, knowing the meaning, and so on extensively to the distinction between the noble and the lowly." Eighth: (1) the Buddha-Dharma is easily obtained, being revealed even to caṇḍālas and the like; (2) easy to practice, cultivable while walking, standing, sitting, or lying down; (3) able to give rise to the fruits of higher rebirth and the fruit of definite excellence; (4) good in the beginning; (5) good in the middle; (6) good in the end; (7) bringing about present pleasant fruits; (8) leading to future happiness. Ninth, being able to be liberated from nine kinds of worldly oppressions: (1) able to emerge from the great prison of birth and death; (2) forever severing the firm bonds of greed and the like; (3) abandoning the poverty of lacking the seven riches and establishing the wealth of the seven riches; (4) crossing beyond the famine of good conduct and hearing the true Dharma, and establishing an abundance of good conduct and hearing the true Dharma; (5) extinguishing the darkness of ignorance and giving rise to the light of wisdom; (6) crossing the four floods and ascending to the shore of nirvāṇa; (7) ultimately able to cure the illness of defilement; (8) becoming liberated from all snares of craving; (9) able to cross the vast wilderness and dense forest of beginningless birth and death. Tenth: (1) by reverently listening to the Dharma one attains the power of reflection, thereby receiving the supreme benefits of hearing the Dharma, seeking wealth according to the Dharma and not contrary to the Dharma, deeply seeing faults and yet enjoying it—and so on up to the tenth, being able to induce all worldly and supramundane dhyānas, liberations, samādhis, and samāpattis, extensively as stated there. The speaker and listener must first abide in the above dharmas before speaking and listening; if they do not abide in these, exertion is spent in vain and ultimately yields no great fruit.