仁王護國般若波羅蜜多經疏 2.59

2.59

Explanation: What was explained above regarding cognition illuminating emptiness and existence did not differentiate stages and bhūmis, being only a general discussion; following the text below, it first explains ascending the bhūmis, and shows that the above mostly concerned the stages prior to the bhūmis, because one cultivates non-abiding through cognition free from existence and non-existence. Another interpretation: this explains contemplation and illumination, discussed generally across worthies and nobles; from here downward it belongs specifically to explaining the noble stages. 'In the very first thought-moment when noble cognition appears before one, it is replete with eighty-four thousand pāramitās' refers to the true path of seeing (darśana-mārga), where at the very beginning one directly severs the seeds of the two conceptually constructed graspings from beginningless time, exhausting them forever, and is thus replete with all virtues. For this reason, all the merits of one eon of cultivation in the stages of the three ranks of worthies cannot compare to this initial thought-moment. Why is it said to be replete with eighty-four thousand? In contrast to the afflictions to be cured, there is this number. As the Kośa says: 'In true practice of antidotes, the eighty-thousand distinct practices of greed and so forth to be cured are matched by the same number of paths capable of curing them.' As for the eighty thousand: greed, anger, and so on are ten kinds of afflictions, each with nine expedient means, adding up to one hundred. The prior division has one hundred and the posterior division has one hundred, together making three hundred. Setting aside the root one hundred, and taking the prior division of one hundred, each has nine expedient means, together making one thousand. The posterior division is also like this, again making one thousand. Combined with the root one hundred, they make two thousand one hundred. The already arisen and not yet arisen each have two thousand one hundred, making a full four thousand two hundred. Regarding the five types of persons—those of abundant greed, abundant anger, abundant delusion, attachment to self, and discursive thought—each has four thousand two hundred, making twenty-one thousand. Countering the four types of persons with equal parts of the three poisons, each has twenty-one thousand, thereby becoming eighty-four thousand. These afflictions, if considered in terms of one person's continuous succession over long eons, are also not contradictory to principle. Apart from the true path of seeing, there are no such graded differences; the eighty-four thousand is spoken in terms of the seeds to be cured. Furthermore, the Bhadrakalpika Sūtra explains their characteristics in detail: from the first pāramitā up to the final distribution of relics, there are altogether three hundred and fifty pāramitās, each possessing the six perfections, making two thousand one hundred. Countering the ten afflictions, the four great elements, and the six declines, they combine to make twenty-one thousand. Countering again the four afflictions of abundant greed, anger, delusion, and equal parts, they make eighty-four thousand pāramitās. This universal counteracting is as commonly explained. Another interpretation: because the heavy defilements of the two obscurations from beginningless time obstruct the virtues generated by pure wisdom to such a number, when upon the initial path of seeing the two obscurations are severed, the conditioned and unconditioned virtues are first generated and revealed in this number. 'Named the Bhūmi of Joy': being born into the house of the Tathāgata, one abides in the Bhūmi of Supreme Joy, as explained in detail below. Next is the first [part], explaining the ten bhūmis generally.