法華玄論 3.38

3.38

Answer: The text departs from the ordinary conventions, and its meaning runs contrary to traditional formulations; though I wish to reconcile and harmonize them, I truly fear it might not readily suit your mind. Now I shall roughly set forth the essential principles for you. The first passage says that the Prajñāpāramitā is the greatest among the ten kinds of scriptures. However, when examining the ultimate reach of all scriptures, the true mark is taken as the principle; and when governing the mental function of all sages, wondrous wisdom is taken as primary. The ten thousand transformations are not without a source, yet that which is their source is markless; the vacuous source is not without realization, yet that which realizes it is mindless. Therefore, the sage, with mindless wondrous wisdom, realizes that markless vacuous source: internal and external are both obscured, and object and cognition are both tranquil. How could names and numbers find room between them? These two fathom the origin of attaining the One and exhaust the marvel of the profound beyond profound; there is no principle they do not govern, and no teaching they do not encompass. Like space containing the myriad forms, or like the ocean receiving the hundred rivers, the Prajñāpāramitā abundantly clarifies this meaning. When the treatise calls it the greatest, how could that be a hollow fabrication?