仁王護國般若經疏 4.8

4.8

From "together contemplating the ultimate truth" downward, second, discerns the elimination of hindrances. The text has three [parts]: first, clarifies the sphere of contemplation. They equally contemplate the ultimate truth, yet with differences in brightness and obscurity, as the Mahā[parinirvāṇa] Sūtra says: "It is like bodhisattvas of the tenth bhūmi seeing buddha-nature by hearing, while the buddhas, the Tathāgatas, see buddha-nature with their eyes." Furthermore, bodhisattvas of the tenth bhūmi are named beings with superiors, while buddhas are named beings without superiors. Furthermore, a bodhisattva is like the moon on the fourteenth night, and a buddha is like the moon on the fifteenth night, and so forth. "Severing the mental traces in the three realms," second, directly discerns the elimination of hindrances: previously, in the patience of non-arising, the coarse traces of mind and form were simultaneously severed; now, in this patience, the subtle traces of mental phenomena are permanently severed. From "the sign of the exhaustion of ignorance" downward, third, clarifies the characteristic difference between the two paths. "The sign of the exhaustion of ignorance is the diamond": this is the path of non-hindrance. Saying "the sign of exhaustion" means not yet exhausted, just as smoke is the sign of fire but is not yet fire. Diamond is a metaphor for concentration. It is the sign of the exhaustion of ignorance, yet ignorance is not yet exhausted.