金剛經纂要刊定記 1.49

1.49

Answer: "Although equally the Buddha's words, there are the deep and the shallow; if they are not contrasted and distinguished, how could one know the shallow and the deep? Now, the Buddha's lifetime teachings do not go beyond the Mahāyāna and the Hīnayāna, and even the Perfect School is subsumed under the Mahāyāna. What they take as their fundamental tenet is invariably dependent origination. Although they equally take dependent origination as their fundamental tenet, within this there are differences in depth. The Hīnayāna is dependent origination of arising and ceasing; the Mahāyāna is dependent origination without intrinsic nature. Regarding dependent origination without intrinsic nature, as the Madhyamakaśāstra says: 'Whatever phenomena arise from conditions, I declare that to be emptiness.' Emptiness is precisely the meaning of lacking intrinsic nature. Here it clarifies the Hīnayāna, hence it speaks of 'dependent origination of arising and ceasing.' Regarding dependent origination of arising and ceasing: when conditions converge, all phenomena arise; when conditions separate, they cease. Having arisen and ceased, this suffices to know impermanence. However, phenomena of arising and ceasing are not absent, because there is attachment to phenomena. Now, when the Buddha appeared in the world, he first taught the Hīnayāna for two antidotes. Thus he taught arising and ceasing as an antidote to the ordinary worldlings and non-Buddhists who grasp at a self; 'self' means a master or controller, and once arising and ceasing are stated, one knows there is no master; having neither master nor controller, there is no self. He taught dependent origination as an antidote to the non-Buddhists' conception of spontaneity. What non-Buddhists grasp is mostly an ātman, holding that there is an agent and an experiencer, and they additionally grasp at spontaneity; once dependent origination is stated, there is neither an ātman nor spontaneity. To cure these two, he therefore first taught the dependent origination of arising and ceasing. That is, from when the Buddha first attained awakening, beginning in the Deer Park where he delivered the group of five [monks], next delivering Śāriputra, Maudgalyāyana, the three Kāśyapa brothers, and so forth, what he taught during those twelve years is precisely the sūtras of the various Āgama sections."