妙法蓮華經玄義 9.5

9.5

First, clarifying interpenetrating and non-interpenetrating: what the four gates of the distinctive teaching rely upon is definitively wondrous existence and wholesome form, which does not relate to emptiness; relying on ultimate emptiness, it does not relate to existence; up to the gate of neither emptiness nor existence, it is also like this. The four gates are distinct and separate; each accesses [the truth] within its own sphere. Those who fail to grasp the intent grasp them as fixed marks, resembling the real substantial nature [of non-Buddhists], almost blurring into the primordial darkness giving rise to consciousness (and so forth). Previously, the tripiṭaka gate of existence already exhausted and shattered the false reckonings of non-Buddhists; next, the three gates of emptiness and so forth shatter few false [views]; furthermore, the skillful four gates of the shared [teaching] shatter the clumsiness of the tripiṭaka; furthermore, the gates of the distinctive teaching shatter the shallowness of the shared gates, already not shared with the two vehicles, so how could they be confused with the non-Buddhist primordial darkness and consciousness, mistaking them for wondrous existence! Wondrous existence distinguishes the four gates based on the tathāgatagarbha; how could it be the same as the real nature of the Nirgranthas? Like the jade of Zhou and the jade of Zheng, their names are identical but their substances differ, as far apart as heaven and earth in value. Nowadays, students of the Daśabhūmika treatise abandon the path and return to the laity, secretly using this meaning to illicitly graft it onto Zhuangzi and Laozi, mixing gold and stone, thereby causing the heterodox and the orthodox to be confused, so that blind and benighted people cannot distinguish the Jing from the Wei river. If one grasps the intent of these four gates and rigorously discerns the genuine from the spurious, such plagiarism will not arise.