金剛經纂要刊定記 1.40

1.40

Someone might ask: 'Such arising of afflictions, performing of karma, and undergoing retribution in cyclic turning—how long or short are the time kalpas?' Hence it next says: 'For kalpas like dust motes and sands, it has not been checked or severed.' 'Dust motes' refers to fine dust motes from pulverizing the worlds of the ten directions. 'Sands' refers to the sands fine as flour in the Ganges River; this river is said to be forty leagues in circumference, with sand as fine as flour. 'Kalpa' is a Sanskrit word, here translated as 'time period'; although great kalpas and small kalpas differ in length and brevity, they are all collectively termed time periods. 'None can' (mo zhi) means being unable to. 'Checked or severed' means stopped and extinguished. The meaning is that ever since sentient beings of the six destinies arose afflictions, performed karma, and received rebirth in cyclic turning, if one took a single grain of sand as one kalpa, the sand would be exhausted while the kalpas would not; and if one took a single dust mote as one kalpa, the dust motes would be exhausted while the kalpas would remain endless. The dust motes and sands are finite, but the kalpas are infinite; continuing down to the present, they could not be stopped or extinguished, hence it says 'it has not been checked or severed.' Although the words and sentences of these two passages are numerous, if one speaks of the actual matters, they do not exceed five words: namely, mind, consciousness, affliction, karma, and retribution. The rest are all phrases clearly describing truth and falsity and establishing cyclic existence. The intention is that originally there is only the one mind; through non-enlightenment it becomes consciousness, which gives rise to afflictions and creates karma, with birth and death being endless; therefore, the Tathāgata manifested his body and taught the doctrine. Hence the major section heading calls this 'the occasion for the arising of the teaching.'