法華玄論 5.19

5.19

Answer: At the beginning of the "Skillful Means Chapter", the advantages and disadvantages of skillful means are detailed; the matter is evident in that text. Now we shall explain the meaning of "gate" (gateways). In this sūtra, from beginning to end, there are briefly fifteen gates: the "Skillful Means Chapter" has two gates; the "Parable Chapter" has six gates; the "Belief and Understanding Chapter" has three gates; the "Conjured City Chapter" has two gates; the "Dharma Master Chapter" has one gate; and the "Universal Gate Chapter" has one gate. Together, these make fifteen gates. As for the two gates in the "Skillful Means Chapter": first, it says, "The gate of their wisdom is difficult to understand and difficult to enter"; thus provisional wisdom is the gate to real wisdom. Dharma Master [Dao]sheng says: "The spoken teaching is the gate." For the spoken teaching to be the gate means that it explains real wisdom, so the spoken teaching is indeed the gate to real wisdom. The *Saddharmapuṇḍarīkopadeśa* interprets it as Master Sheng does. Next, it says, "Expounding the Buddha-path through various Dharma gates"; this takes the Mahāyāna teaching as the gate. As for the six gates in the "Parable Chapter": first, it says, "That house is vast and wide, with only one gate"; this again takes the Mahāyāna teaching as the gate. Second, it says, "Emerging safely from this burning gate"; this considers the bounded realm of the three realms as the gate, just as calling the house itself the gate. Third, it says, "There is only one gate, and it is narrow and small"; this again takes the Mahāyāna teaching as the gate. Fourth, it says, "Such three carriages are now outside the gate"; this again takes the three realms as the gate. Fifth, it says, "Through the gate of the Buddha's teaching, escaping the suffering of the three realms"; this uses the Hīnayāna teaching as the gate. Sixth, it says, "At that time the elder stood outside the gate"; according to the Mahāyāna meaning, this takes the boundary of the two kinds of death as the gate. The Hīnayāna meaning explains that the Buddha has gone beyond all afflictions, and thus the active defilements and latent impressions of ignorance of the three realms have all been severed and exhausted by the Buddha of the Tripiṭaka [teachings], which is why he stands outside the gate. Furthermore, as for the three gates in the "Belief and Understanding Chapter": first, it says, "Arriving at his father's house, he stopped and stood beside the gate"; this takes the Mahāyāna principle and teaching as the gate. Second, it says, "Still outside the gate, dwelling in a grass hut"; this also broadly takes the Mahāyāna principle and teaching as the gate. Third, it says, "At that time the elder was inside his gate"; this also broadly takes the Mahāyāna principle and teaching as the gate. As for the two gates in the "Conjured City Chapter": first, the Brahmā king requests the Buddha, praying that he open the gate of nectar (amṛta); this broadly takes the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna teachings as the gate. Second, it says, "Layered gates and high towers"; this uses the Hīnayāna understanding of the three emptinesses as the gate. As for the one gate in the "Dharma Master Chapter", it is indeed "opening the gate of skillful means and demonstrating the true mark", as has already been distinguished in the text. As for the "Universal Gate Chapter" being one gate, it takes the Mahāyāna as the gate. This gate has two kinds: first, universality of supernatural powers; second, universality of preaching the Dharma. Both of these two wheels are the bodhisattva's unobstructed emptiness and openness; hence they are called "gates". Furthermore, both of these universal [functions] cause sentient beings to awaken and enter; hence they are called "gates".