法華文句記 3.21

3.21

In the explanation according to contemplation practice, the first sentence is a general indication; next, in the correct explanation, it first explains it through movement as symbolic representation, and next through the number six as symbolic representation. Regarding the first passage: although the words include the six, it primarily speaks of the movement, all of which symbolizes the impending destruction of fundamental ignorance; calling it 'moving the difficult-to-move ground' refers to that which symbolizes, while 'purifying the unpurified faculties' refers to that which is symbolized. Next, regarding the two sets of six, such as 'east' and so forth: both use the number six for symbolic representation. Because symbolizing the purification of the six faculties is explained in terms of contemplative understanding, it applies generally across the stages of contemplation practice, resemblance, and partial realization of the real, all of which purify the six faculties. Within this, regarding the first six: the phenomena of surging in the east and so forth are fully detailed in such texts as the Sūtra on the Intermediate State (Antarābhava-sūtra), and now entering the contemplation of mind, the meanings correspond once again. Saying 'symbolizes the faculties': the eyes and nose have already symbolized the east and west, while the ears and tongue inherently correspond to the south and north; the center is the mind, and the four directions are the body. The body possesses the four faculties, and the mind universally takes conditions from all four; thus, pairing mind with body in terms of surging and sinking—meaning surging in the center while sinking at the edges, or surging at the edges while sinking in the center—can symbolize the six and twelve sense bases (āyatanas). There are also six kinds of movement that implicitly encompass the eighteen [elements]. Among those six, the first three are forms, and the latter three are sounds; forms are solid while sounds are empty, and the six faculties likewise resemble the three forms and three sounds. The explanations of these six phenomena differ between the old and new translations. The new calls them moving, surging, shaking, striking, roaring, and crackling; for now we follow the old: swaying and restless is called 'moving'; rising up from below is called 'arising'; swelling unevenly with mounds and hollows is called 'surging'—appearing and disappearing in the six directions is also called 'surging'; a muffled sound is called 'shaking'; a crashing resonance is called 'roaring'; causing beings to awaken is called 'awakening'. The new says 'striking' is like beating and clapping, and 'crackling' is like the sound of fire; sūtras and treatises generally indicate them in brief mostly as 'quaking and shaking', which indicates one of each of the three forms and three sounds. The Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra says: 'Not long after Cunda departed, the earth suddenly quaked and shook in six ways.' 'Each also having three': this symbolizes that each faculty possesses the three of faculty, consciousness, and object. In the first passage's representation of the six, although the representations alternate, the destruction must be simultaneous. 'Purifying the eighteen elements': next it determines that what is symbolized is the destruction of fundamental ignorance in all cases; thus we know it is simply seeing that the aggregates, elements, and sense bases are all eternally abiding. 'Et cetera': one ought to detail fully what is symbolized so as to accomplish the contemplation of mind; here, however, it merely records the numbers in brief and omits the mind and objects, delineating the wondrous features, whether sequential or non-sequential, and so forth. One may also cultivate the three contemplations in faculty after faculty just like the eighteen movements; here it only addresses the characteristics of that which moves, while that which is moved is merely a single ground. Just as the faculties, though six, are all simultaneously shattered because they are shattered by the mind.