法華文句記 4.9

4.9

Next, regarding “specifically citing a single chapter”: first, concluding what came before and introducing what follows; from “the buddhas” downward is directly citing, which must be explained one by one so that the meaning matches the ten pairs and accords with the intention of this sūtra (and so on). First citing the two phrases “the buddhas,” etc.: the upper phrase clarifies what is known by the Buddha's wisdom, hence saying “profound,” which is principle. The lower phrase cites the door, the door being the teaching. Since what is expressed is wondrous, it says “difficult to understand.” What is known and what is expressed are not different in their principle. As for “all,” etc.: phenomenon and principle are both the object, and the object is principle. Wisdom is the subject that knows; viewed with respect to what expresses it, all are termed principle, because both are what is expressed. This directly uses the character “door,” hence the words “difficult to understand”; from “further apportioned to” downward, the śrāvakas do not know, which is termed a bond in relation to the great; this adducing of not knowing directly reveals being able to know, hence being able to know is termed liberation. Next, from “for what reason” downward explains the above difficulty in knowing, proving teaching and practice: because being able to know belongs to the Buddha, truly because receiving the teaching entails practice. Because by drawing close to the Buddha one must hear the teaching, and by fame being universally heard practice is surely complete. Next, from “accomplished” downward proves essence and function: “accomplishing the profound” is having the essence complete. “Spoken according to what is fitting” is function. One should know that the character “according to what is fitting” is omitted in the text. Next, from “I, since” downward proves cause and effect: it directly takes the character “accomplished” to prove the cause of obtaining the effect, and it is also the effect that has a cause. From “various kinds” downward proves gradual and sudden: “various kinds” proves the gradual, and “causing to abandon” proves the sudden. From “why is this” downward proves opening and merging: “skillful means” proves opening, and “fully endowed” proves merging; this is provisionally discussed in terms of one's own practice: since one's own practice is complete, benefiting others is necessarily so. From “the great matter of the buddhas” downward proves benefit: “great matter” follows the specific, and the specific must converge into the general. From “to state the essential” downward proves the four siddhāntas: taking the words “immeasurable and boundless” to prove the three siddhāntas, and “stop, stop, there is no need to speak” to prove the supreme meaning, directly pointing to the unspeakable principle. As for the characters proving “such appearance and nature,” etc.: the ten realms are phenomenon, and the true character is principle. If one takes “ultimate,” etc., the empty, middle, and so on are principle, while the provisional, etc., are phenomenon; if this text is compared to the provisional and real, etc., below, all are discussed within the essence, because the present text has already opened them. As for saying “each and every buddha is also thus”: when all buddhas reveal the real, they all adduce the five buddhas as phenomenal identity. Next, in citing the treatise, there is a slight difference from the Treatise: it has only eight pairs, lacking opening and merging, and bond and liberation. Benefit is general and specific, opening the specific to bring out the general for the sake of benefiting beings. Bond and liberation are slightly different from cause and effect, so they are not separately matched. The Treatise explains that the wisdom of all buddhas is profound as proving profundity. As for “having five”: now, being based on what is realized, they are judged to belong to principle; although separated into five, they do not go beyond realization. “Meaning” means the flavor of meaning, because the Buddha's wisdom attains realization having real meaning. “Real essence” means the principle realized; “internal realization” means one's own practice tallying with the object; “dependence” directly clarifies the principle relied upon; “unsurpassed” praises the principle realized. When reaching the effect, it exceeds the three, five, seven, and nine vehicles, and the Treatise itself turns to explain unsurpassed profundity. As for saying “great bodhi”: the Treatise uses the character “great” to explain unsurpassed, not citing bodhi to prove unsurpassed. Since the third itself has profundity of realization, earlier, regarding the present chapter, the upper phrase also proved principle and the lower phrase proved teaching. As for “āgama”: here it means incomparable dharma, which is verbal teaching. The preceding five prove principle and can give rise to teaching, termed “principle and teaching”; now principle extends to the cause, while the text of the Treatise resides in the effect; the door is teaching-wisdom, termed the wisdom-door. The single pair of bond and liberation here is absent in the text of the Treatise; if established now, it is “difficult to understand and difficult to enter,” further adding “difficult to see, difficult to perceive, and difficult to know.” Above “difficult to understand,” it says “beyond the understanding of all śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas”; this is precisely the sense of liberation. Liberation must be paired with bond, so it is the same in meaning as bond and liberation. The text of the Treatise is subsumed under the meaning of āgama; the Treatise further opens eight manifestations in the meaning of āgama: namely, first from “the Buddha once drew close to” onward is the profundity of receiving, retaining, reading, and reciting. Second, the bodhi cultivated under hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of nayutas of buddhas is the profundity of cultivation. Third, from “courageous and vigorous” is the profundity of the practice of the effect. Fourth, “fame universally heard” is the fourth, the profundity of increasing merits. Now these four texts of the Treatise are combined as the provisional and real of teaching and practice. From “the Treatise on accomplishment” downward is the fifth, the profundity of the exquisite phenomenal mind; from “the Treatise on intention” downward is the sixth, unsurpassed profundity; the Treatise takes speaking the Dharma according to what is fitting as the seventh and eighth profundities; now these three of the Treatise are combined as the provisional and real of essence and function. The Treatise takes the two vehicles' not knowing as the eighth, the profundity of upholding; since the sūtra has no text, there is nothing matched now. From here onward, the Treatise further establishes the four kinds of merits of the Tathāgata: the provisional and real of cause and effect is the first, accomplishment of the initial dwelling; the provisional and real of gradual and sudden is the second, accomplishment of teaching and transformation; here one is missing, the provisional and real of opening and merging; the remainder differ from the Treatise and need not be harmonized; because the text of the Treatise adds phrases, now they are just directly matched, as in citing the text of the present chapter before. Therefore, now we further explain the present text: from proving teaching and practice, drawing close necessarily entails cultivation, and vigor necessarily entails increase. Without vigor and increase, how could there be fame universally heard? Therefore, the two forming practice are both due to hearing the teaching. Next, in proving essence and function, phenomenon is function; unsurpassed and entering attain the essence. Since it says “accomplishment,” function is trusted to derive from essence. Next, in proving cause and effect, saying that it speaks of the accomplishment of the Tathāgata's merits: merits belong to the cause, accomplishment resides in the effect; the Sūtra says “since I attained buddhahood,” verifying that the effect is attained through the cause. Next, in proving gradual and sudden, saying teaching, transforming, and speaking the Dharma: teaching and transformation generally subsume all modes of transformation, encompassing both defiance and accord; speaking the Dharma resides only in the wheel of speech, restricted to transformation through accord; one should know that all three wheels are said to be accomplished, not only bestowing the sudden. Next, in proving benefit, it explains “benefit” by self-realization and “advantage” by benefiting others; because self-realization is real, it says “accomplishing the inconceivable”; because following others is provisional, it says “words”; earlier it was said that “speaking the Dharma pertains to both self and other,” while here it says “words reside solely in others.” Next, in proving the four siddhāntas, saying “transformable”: the four siddhāntas are all named according to having capacity, hence said to be transformable. Earlier it was said that teaching and transformation pervade planting, ripening, and liberating; here “transformable” mostly resides in ripening and liberating. Now saying “untransformable” comes in contrast, meaning those without capacity for the four siddhāntas. In proving phenomenon and principle, it says accomplishing the essence of the dharmakāya that all buddhas can know; this points to the dharmakāya of the fruit-ground as principle, and naming it according to following sentient beings as phenomenon; it is also that the wondrous realm of the dharmakāya is provisionally complete in phenomenon and principle. The present intention extends to ordinary beings, whereas the text of the Treatise is restricted to the fruit; because the fruit is attained by ordinary beings, the meaning is also the same; this matches elegantly in principle with the Buddha's sūtra and the Bodhisattva's treatise, hence saying “matching with the sūtras,” etc.