法華玄論 4.64

4.64

Answer: If one's mind has nothing to apprehend and one's speech has nowhere to abide—like planting a tree in space, weaving gauze in the void, like an illusion, like a transformation, according with the illness and according with the person—even if one conducts matters of livelihood and production, nothing fails to be great parinirvāṇa, and all accords with the correct Dharma and wisdom (prajñā); this is called skillful swallowing. Contrary to this is called clumsy swallowing. This meaning has already been explained in the section on determining the central tenets. Furthermore, Nāgārjuna's grand intention in appearing in the world and composing treatises was that he had first to refute and wash away all illnesses of apprehension, leaving nothing whatsoever behind. Whether Mahāyāna or Hīnayāna, internal teachings or non-Buddhist teachings, deriving meaning from texts or fabricating without texts—whenever the mind has the slightest reliance or apprehension, or speech has a single phrase of fixed characteristics, all are washed away to make them completely pure. Yet once the impure is removed, the pure also does not remain; thus the five propositions exhaust speech and still thought. Only then can one provisionally speak with names and marks within that which is devoid of names and marks. Although provisionally speaking with names and marks, the speaking does not stir from non-speaking. Thus the Ratnakūṭa praises: "Able skillfully to distinguish the marks of all dharmas, yet unmoved regarding the ultimate truth." Another sūtra states: "Splendid, World-Honoured One! Without moving from the true limit, you establish the stations for all dharmas." If one can apply all doctrines in this manner, only then is it Nāgārjuna's Mahāyāna treatise. If not, one merely returns to the old attachments. If one retains the slightest attachment in mind, in retreat one does no harm to afflictions, and in advance one does not propagate the Buddhadharma. Furthermore, having refuted and washed away all illnesses of apprehension, great and small, one should then string them together in every doctrine using the four siddhāntas. Now I will briefly raise one principle: The twelve divisions of scripture and the eighty thousand treasuries of Dharma are all according with the conventional, which is why there are these verbal expressions. If one did not accord with the conventional, then in unity there would be no speech and nothing not spoken; therefore whatever is spoken is stated according with the conventional, which is called the worldly siddhānta. The words of the twelve divisions and eighty thousand treasuries of Dharma all contradict each other: sometimes three, sometimes one; sometimes impermanent, sometimes permanent; sometimes the Buddha transcends the two truths, sometimes within the two truths; sometimes existing across the three times, sometimes existing in a single time. As in the thirty-odd disputed gates in the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra, the unwise each grasp one meaning and mutually dispute over right and wrong, raising controversies and increasing afflictions in the present life, even cutting off roots of goodness and falling into evil destinies—the hell of spurious monks is precisely prepared for such persons. If one wishes to avoid this fault, one must use the second siddhānta. Why the eighty thousand treasuries of Dharma and dharmic gates numerous as sands of dust all seem contradictory is because these are the Tathāgata's individual siddhāntas for distinct persons; therefore they do not contradict one another. As the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra states: "Because these sentient beings do not have a single faculty nature, do not have a single good friend, and do not have a single land, the Tathāgata cannot speak in an exclusively fixed manner." Looking at it through this principle, regarding all dharmic gates there is no contradiction or contention, no afflictions arise, and one avoids [the fate of] a spurious monk. The third is called the therapeutic siddhānta. That the Tathāgata speaks for distinct persons, expounding the eighty thousand treasuries of Dharma and dharmic gates numerous as sands of dust, is entirely to remedy the afflictions of sentient beings. As the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra states: "Just as medicinal herbs from the great earth and mountains can serve as excellent medicines for the illnesses of sentient beings, my Dharma is also like this, serving as medicine for the illness of sentient beings' afflictions." Therefore, all teaching approaches have no fixed nature; they merely cause illnesses to cease. Because the illness ceases, nothing fails to be medicine; if the illness does not cease, nothing is medicine. Since it is for ceasing illness, when the illness ceases the medicine is discarded, and one should no longer cling to it. The fourth is called the ultimate-truth siddhānta. The preceding three approaches are skillful means existing for the sake of sentient beings; if one speaks of the correct path, there has never been a single word, let alone eighty thousand! It is not even having speech, let alone having no speech! Therefore it surpasses all speech and extinguishes all conceptual proliferation, like a great blaze that cannot be touched on four sides because it burns the hand. Using these four approaches, one can penetrate all doctrines and texts. Because one attains these four approaches, all sūtras can be constructed and all illnesses can be cured; if one does not attain these four approaches, not a single phrase of scripture can be explored, and not a single affliction can be destroyed.