法華文句記 6.37

6.37

From 'if one knows' onward initiates the contemplation of the applications of mindfulness. The *Kośa* says: 'Having cultivated the five mind-stoppers, one next cultivates the applications of mindfulness, which means cultivating body, feeling, mind, and dharmas through their specific characteristics and common characteristics by means of calming and contemplation; specific characteristics are cultivated separately.' All conditioned things have the characteristic of impermanence; all defiled things have the characteristic of suffering; and all dharmas have the characteristic of emptiness. Excluding these three, all remaining things are subsumed under the application of mindfulness to dharmas. Each has three conditions: self, other, and both, totaling twelve, progressing from coarse to subtle. As for the common characteristic: it may combine two, three, or four. This common characteristic is still distinct; only the mindfulness of dharmas is completely general, fully distinguished as in the four propositions in the *Fāhuá xuányì*. The four modes of birth are: womb, egg, moisture, and miraculous birth, fully clarified as in Chapter Eight, the 'World Chapter' of the *Kośa*. The *Treatise* says: 'Among them are four modes of birth; sentient beings refer to egg-born and the rest. Humans and animals possess all four; the hells and the various heavens, as well as the intermediate state, are solely miraculously born; ghosts encompass both womb and miraculous birth.' As for 'was greatly alarmed and terrified' to 'there is suffering': the elder's great compassion and small response arose simultaneously with their mind of retreating from the Great [Vehicle]. The statement that 'there is no joy, only suffering' bears the meaning of both Great and Small: formerly having heard the Great, in principle there was joy; having retreated from the Great and wandered in transmigration, they lost their contemplative understanding. Compassionately mindful that there is no joy, only suffering—because of suffering, compassion is appropriate; the responsive dharmas of Great and Small must be explained and brought forth. As for 'Although I' to 'the meaning of': although having exited, he enters, thus constituting benevolence and compassion.