妙法蓮華經玄贊 3.12

3.12

The Dharma being praised is, in brief, of two kinds: the first is wisdom, and the second is the gateway to wisdom. Hence the Treatise states: "There are two profundities: the first is the profundity of realization, namely wisdom; the second is the profundity of the āgama, namely the gateway to wisdom." The "gateway to wisdom" is the expressive teaching; the "profundity of wisdom" is the principle expressed. In Sanskrit it is āgama, which here is called "teaching" (教), or is translated as "transmission" (傳), because the buddhas of high antiquity have transmitted it down to the present day. This meaning of "profundity" applies to both the teaching and the principle; yet it is the principle that properly receives the name "profundity," while it is the profundity of the gateway that is called "difficult to see, [difficult to] perceive," and so forth. That the two vehicles do not know it also applies to both of these; as for the rest, they pertain separately to the two dharmas of principle and teaching. Such is the Treatise's intention. When the Treatise speaks of wisdom, it refers to the meaning of "all aspects" (sarvākāra) and "the knowledge of the omniscient" (sarvajñajñāna). The wisdom of the omniscient person is called "the knowledge of the omniscient"; its essence pervades nature and characteristics, so it is called "all aspects"—that is to say, nirvāṇa and bodhi at the fruition-stage of buddhahood. Or else, "all-knowing" (sarvajña) is non-conceptual wisdom (nirvikalpa-jñāna), and the repeated word "knowledge" (jñāna) is the subsequently attained wisdom (pṛṣṭhalabdha-jñāna); "meaning" (artha) is the cognitive object (viṣaya)—that is, the object of the knowledge of the omniscient; hence it is called "the object of the knowledge of the omniscient." What is that object? It means "all aspects." "All aspects" refers to emptiness or existence, conditioned or unconditioned, tainted or untainted, teaching or principle—these are called "all aspects." "Aspects" means categories (jāti); the categories of the essences of phenomena are manifold and not just one, and encompassing them all without remainder is called "all aspects." This means that these "all aspects" are the object of the knowledge of the omniscient; precisely this object of all aspects is called the wisdom that is expressed.