法華文句記 9.59

9.59

Next, regarding treating the eighteen forms of emptiness in terms of general and specific: in the preceding essence and marks, one could also take them as general essence, specific essence, general mark, and specific mark; here, regarding general and specific, one excludes the last two phrases from the preceding nine phrases, and divides the remaining seven phrases into seventeen, further taking the phrase "as true character" to combine them into eighteen. Because among the preceding seven, the first three phrases form pairs of two, the fourth phrase is single, the fifth and sixth phrases form groups of three, and the seventh single phrase forms a group of four phrases, the phrase structures vary in expansion and contraction. These eighteen forms of emptiness receive their names from what is attained; that which empties is merely the one great emptiness. The great having no mark of greatness is precisely the perfect emptiness. Therefore, the subsequent text says "correct wisdom of the middle way," which is precisely that which empties. Thus, in phrase after phrase, there is both that which empties and that which is emptied: that which empties is "like," "not," "without," "severed," and so forth; that which is emptied is "inversion" down to "impediment and hindrance," and so forth. For example, in saying "inversion," inversion is internal, and the internal inversion being empty is therefore called "not"; the rest should be understood accordingly. The reason why that which empties and that which is emptied are first established in emptiness of emptiness—which is absent in the other phrases—is that in this phrase the names for that which empties and that which is emptied are identical, so it is separately clarified; the other passages have different marks, so it is not discussed. Within this, although that which is emptied is called empty, when viewed in relation to the wisdom that empties it is still called existent. Here it is very brief; detailed explanations of the marks and the divisions and combinations are fully set forth in *Notes on Cessation and Contemplation*, fascicle five. Only if one understands the wondrous object and the perfect ten contemplations will one comprehend the eighteen objects of contemplation here; if not, that text of *Cessation and Contemplation* would be established in vain. For that precisely constitutes the method of contemplation for the practitioner of peaceful practices. Therefore, one must know that beginning practitioners must grasp that meaning before they can propagate the sūtra. If one is entirely inadequate, acting for gain, for fame, for followers, or for superiority, would one still be willing to conform to the path of the two vehicles? Practitioners of the Great Vehicle should carefully reflect on their own advance and retreat. The reason for being diligent in propagating the sūtra is simply the wish to share together in this great benefit. Therefore, each of those objects is concluded as the great carriage, and each of those contemplations is based on true character. The secret and essential teaching of over forty years is already difficult to encounter; how could the practice and principle it expounds be easily understood? If not for the power of the four reliances propagating the Dharma, how could later students, mired in delusion and attachment, encounter this text? Encountering it and not seeking it, how does that differ from the sun and moon to the blind? How does that differ from thunderclaps to the deaf! But in the present text the method of contemplation is not fully detailed, belonging properly to that work (*Mohe zhiguan*); though the text is not exhaustive, the characteristics of the chapter are sketched in broad strokes. Now I briefly point them out so that the mind that contemplates will have a focus. What are they? True character is the wondrous object; compassion is the arousal of the mind; cessation and contemplation is the calming of the mind; tearing down everything is tearing down through all; the eighteen are the aids to the path; also not discriminating is the open and obstructed; leaving the ten disturbances is the auxiliary aids; what is seen in dreams represents the final three. Generally encompassing the four practices, the ten contemplations are briefly complete. Discussing them generally, one also uses the four practices to assist the ten. Whether four or ten, they both involve cause and effect: the four are general and the ten are specific; whether general or specific, they both penetrate horizontally and vertically. The ritual forms of the four practices are provisionally at the beginning; the guiding principle of the ten dharmas unfailingly attains the end—how could the practice of nirvāṇa be only at the beginning? Furthermore, the names of these eighteen are found in the *Large Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra*, and the *Great Treatise* explains them in detail. The sūtra spans the three teachings, and the treatise's explanation also embraces them, merely excluding the two vehicles without distinguishing in detail between the shared and distinct bodhisattvas; therefore, the reader must all the more apply the mind, and so must interpret each one perfectly in accordance with the sūtra.