金剛般若疏 1.12

1.12

Second, explaining "vajra". Question: Is "vajra" a metaphorical name, or is it a doctrinal name? Answer: Some say that vajra is a metaphor, just as in the worldly realm the vajra-gem is hard and sharp, serving as a metaphor for prajñā's essence being firm and its function being sharp. Now I say this is not so. Why? Because you generate a dualistic view regarding doctrine and metaphor, claiming that vajra is merely a metaphor and not a doctrine, and that prajñā is merely a doctrine and not a metaphor. Thus the metaphor obstructs the doctrine, preventing the metaphor from being the doctrine; and the doctrine obstructs the metaphor, preventing the doctrine from being the metaphor. Furthermore, if you say that worldly vajra is borrowed to illustrate prajñā, then worldly wisdom should also be borrowed to illustrate prajñā. If you say that prajñā possesses its own wisdom, which is not worldly wisdom, then it should also possess its own vajra, which is not worldly vajra. Furthermore, if you say that vajra is a metaphor, the designation mahā should also be a metaphor. If you say that prajñā is vast and its essence is mahā, then prajñā is firm and sharp and its essence should be vajra. Question: Why do you now raise such an objection? Answer: Prajñā is termed the real and true dharma; it has nothing to rely upon. It cannot be called great, nor can it be called small; it cannot be called doctrine, nor can it be called metaphor; it transcends all speech and extinguishes all contemplation. Now, though neither small nor great, it is praised as great; though neither vajra nor non-vajra, it is praised as vajra. Being neither small nor great, the "great" is borrowed to proclaim it; since the "great" is already a doctrine, and being neither vajra nor non-vajra, the "vajra" is borrowed to proclaim it, so vajra may also be a doctrine. Borrowing vajra to designate it, vajra is already a metaphor; borrowing the "great" to designate it, the "great" is also a metaphor. Therefore, speaking from the perspective of metaphor, all are metaphors; speaking from the perspective of doctrine, all are doctrines. Furthermore, vajra is the metaphor and prajñā is the doctrine; vajra is the illustration—non-illustration acting as illustration—and the principle illustrated is non-principle acting as principle. Non-principle acting as principle: though principle, it is concrete fact. Non-illustration acting as illustration: though concrete fact, it is principle. Though principle, it is concrete fact; thus one knows it is non-principle. Though concrete fact, it is principle; thus one knows it is non-fact. Therefore, prajñā was never either principle or concrete fact; it is only within the absence of names and marks that names and marks are provisionally spoken. Thus vajra is concrete fact, and prajñā is principle. This is the two senses of non-duality: for the sake of sentient beings, two are provisionally designated with names and marks; how could there be a definite duality? Question: What is this vajra? Answer: The Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa says, "In foreign lands it is called yue-she (vajra), which here means vajra." Moreover, the Avataṃsaka Sūtra says, "Zhuojialuo (cakravāḍa), translated here as the Iron Enclosing Mountains (Vajra-cakravāḍa)." Again, traditional transmission simply says bajieluo (vajra), while Tripiṭaka Master Paramārtha says bajieluochijia (vajracchedikā). Question: In what text does the old translation of bajieluo as vajra appear? Answer: In the second fascicle of the Xianyu jing (Damamūka-nidāna Sūtra), King Prasenajit's ugly daughter was named Bajieluo, which in the language of Jin is Vajra. Question: You take vajra as a metaphor for prajñā; what meaning does this have? Answer: Just as among worldly treasures, vajra is supreme, so among supramundane treasures, prajñā is supreme. Furthermore, just as all worldly people cannot appraise the value of the vajra-gem, so all worldly people cannot measure the merits possessed and produced by the Dharma-treasure of prajñā. Furthermore, just as the vajra-gem, whether placed on a mountain peak or on flat ground, passes straight through unobstructed until reaching the vajra-boundary, halting only when meeting its own nature, so too is the vajra of prajñā: placed on the mountain peak of merit or on the flat ground of sin, it passes straight through unobstructed until reaching the dharmatā of all dharmas, which is neither sin nor merit, neither existence nor non-existence, halting only when meeting its own nature. Furthermore, just as the worldly vajra-gem shines completely through with clarity and purity—as Kumārajīva said, a square-inch vajra illuminates tens of miles, and all things are reflected within it—prajñā is also like this, illuminating the water of dharmatā, clear and completely pure. Furthermore, just as no sentient being except Nārāyaṇa can wield the vajra-gem, prajñā is also like this: except for people of great contemplative power who have faith in and awakening to non-reliance and non-apprehension, sentient beings who delight in lesser teachings and cling to views cannot faithfully uphold it. As the sūtra says: "It is spoken for those who arouse the Mahāyāna; it is spoken for those who arouse the supreme vehicle." Those who delight in lesser teachings and cling to various views cannot faithfully uphold it. Furthermore, just as a man who ingests a small piece of vajra will not digest it for the rest of his life, prajñā is also like this: if one can achieve awakening to it, it can never decay or be destroyed, and one will certainly become a Buddha. Furthermore, if sentient beings obtain the vajra-gem, they leave behind all poverty, distress, and suffering, and receive all peace and joy; if they obtain prajñā, they leave behind the suffering of saṃsāra and attain great nirvāṇa. Furthermore, wherever the vajra-gem resides, it can dispel evil spirits and all sorcery poisons; prajñā is also like this: wherever it resides, heavenly Māras, non-Buddhists, and evil spirits cannot take advantage of it. Furthermore, just as the vajra-gem shatters all things while the vajra itself suffers no damage, prajñā is also like this: it can shatter all afflictions without suffering damage. Furthermore, just as nothing can shatter a vajra, prajñā is also like this: no disputants or afflictions can shatter it. Furthermore, just as the color of a vajra-gem is unfixed in the sunlight, prajñā is also like this: among the great assembly it is also unfixed, sometimes called cause and sometimes called fruition; among small-minded people it is called small, and among great-minded people it is called great; in the object it is called object, and in the wisdom it is called wisdom; yet this prajñā has no fixed lakṣaṇa. Hence the verse says: / Prajñā is a single dharma; / The Buddha speaks of it with various names, / According to the capacities of sentient beings, / Establishing distinct words for it. / Furthermore, just as the vajra-gem, though having such various superior functions, never has the intention to say of itself, "I am superior," prajñā is also like this: though having immeasurable various merits, it never has such an intention; therefore prajñā is inconceivable. Question: Where does vajra come from? Answer: The Vibhāṣā says, "Just as gold comes from ore, vajra comes from gold." Thus we know that the essence within gold is called vajra. Question: How are vajra and the heavenly wish-fulfilling jewel the same and different? Answer: The Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa says, "Śakra held a vajra in his hand to fight the asuras; broken fragments fell onto Jambudvīpa and turned into wish-fulfilling jewels." The Vibhāṣā says, "Vajra can shatter crystal mountains and wish-fulfilling jewels." Thus we know they are different. Furthermore, this explains that prajñā is identical with vajra, and yet prajñā transcends vajra and cannot be illustrated by metaphor. Vajra is a worldly thing; prajñā is supramundane. If one loses vajra, one grieves; if one obtains it, one rejoices. One who attains prajñā has neither grief nor joy. Vajra is an insentient thing; prajñā is without knowing, yet there is nothing it does not know, possessing immeasurable virtues—here explained only briefly. Furthermore, some say: in the śrāvaka Dharma, from provisional designations and emptiness up through the arhat, all are generally called vajra; in the bodhisattva Dharma, from the thirty stages of mind up through Buddha-wisdom, all are generally called vajra. If distinguished individually, from the first bhūmi upward through Buddha-wisdom, only then is it called the true vajra. Why? Because people of the thirty stages of mind only study delusion and have not yet attained true delusion; they only suppress afflictions and cannot yet sever afflictions; marks still enter the essence, so they cannot yet be weighed as true vajra, though following along they may also be called vajra. From the first bhūmi upward, they attain the understanding of true delusion and can correctly sever afflictions; marks do not enter the essence, so this is the true vajra. Formerly, taking the mind that exhausts training to illustrate vajra was based on Kaishan's doctrine: the suppression of afflictions being complete, there is also the fundamental affliction of ignorance, which is the most difficult to suppress; only the mind that exhausts training can suppress it, and therefore upon reaching the Buddha fruition, Buddha-wisdom arises to sever it. For this reason, the mind that exhausts training is called vajra. Furthermore, some say: the mind that exhausts training can correctly sever afflictions, and is therefore called vajra. Such explanations all assert that there are afflictions that can be severed and an understanding that can sever them; for this reason they are called apprehension. Because of apprehension, one cannot sever afflictions, and there is no vajra. As stated in the sūtra: those who possess apprehension do not proceed from one bhūmi to another bhūmi. Furthermore, you say that before severing afflictions there are afflictions and no understanding, and at the time of severing afflictions there is understanding and no afflictions. This means that afflictions originally existed and now do not, and understanding originally did not exist and now does; this is the view of arising and ceasing. As the sūtra states, all dharmas originally exist and now do not; and it also says, "If all dharmas previously existed and subsequently do not, the Buddhas and bodhisattvas would incur transgression." What is clarified now is knowing that afflictions originally do not exist and now are not non-existent; understanding originally is not non-existent and now does not exist. Therefore, all dharmas are neither existent nor non-existent, neither arising nor ceasing, neither bound nor liberated, without contemplation and without cognitive objects: only this is called prajñā. Question: If it is so, why does the sūtra say, "Wisdom corresponding in a single thought-moment severs afflictions and their residual impressions"? Answer: If one perceives arising and ceasing, one cannot sever them; by understanding that all dharmas are neither understanding nor affliction, neither severed nor unsevered, afflictions are therefore severed. Question: Does vajra only illustrate prajñā, or does it also illustrate other dharmas? Answer: Vajra is borrowed for various metaphors: the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra uses it to illustrate the dharmakāya, calling it the vajra-body, and also uses it to illustrate samādhi, calling it vajrasamādhi—this illustrates meditative concentration as vajra; here it illustrates wisdom, called vajra. Question: Is vajra a treasure of the heavens, or a treasure among humans? Answer: Both humans and devas possess it. Just as a cakravartin's gold wheel is a vajra-gem, whatever it points at is shattered. Śakra holding a vajra to fight the asuras is a treasure of the heavens.