妙法蓮華經玄贊 4.148

4.148

Eulogy: These two verses and a half concern their disparity due to seeking perverse emancipation and erring in practice and learning. The first verse and a half explains that giving rise to the view of selfhood, extreme views, and wrong views forms the sixty-two views; the latter verse explains that due to the arising of the adherence to views and the adherence to rules and rituals, the remaining defilements arise. Alternatively, the first verse explains in general the arising of the five views, and the latter verse and a half explains in detail the arising of the five views. Since beginningless time, those sentient beings, being of poor virtue and scant merit, are oppressed by suffering; although praying for a way of escape, they do not realize what is perverse and what is correct, and mistakenly enter the incorrect views of non-Buddhists. Erring in practice and erring in learning is called 'wrong views'; all five views are wrong, according to the latter classification, not only denying [karmic causality] being called wrong view. The defilements of wrong views bind sentient beings so that they can hardly escape and cannot be liberated, which is called a 'dense forest'; this is the general view, after which they are shown specifically. Regarding 'whether existence or non-existence,' etc., there are two explanations. According to the latter classification: among the five views, four views pertain to 'existence', as all cling to existence; wrong view pertains to 'non-existence', as it mostly denies [karmic causality]; the word 'etc.' indicates various defilements. If according to the former classification: 'the dense forest of wrong views' refers to the wrong view that denies causality; 'whether existence' clings to my future existence, which is the view of permanence; 'whether non-existence' clings to my future non-existence, which is the view of annihilation. These two are the extreme views; 'etc.' includes the view of selfhood, the adherence to views, and the adherence to rules and rituals. Because the sixty-two views take wrong view and extreme view as their own-nature, they are singled out, while taking the other two views as retinues, relying on the view of selfhood as the root, as extensively explained in the Chapter on the Sixty-Two Views. What are the sixty-two views? A verse says: / 'Two, four, eight, ten kalpas, / Seeing birth-and-death as universally eternal; / Brahmā, the other great elements, mind, / Playful distraction, indignation as partial; / Possessing form, possessing boundary, and so forth, / Each being the ground of the ideation of death and birth: / Uniform, limited, immeasurable, / Purely happy, etc., having ideation; / Namely, possessing form, boundary, and so forth, / Arising without ideation, and neither; / Human, desire heaven, form realm, / Four formless [realms] as annihilation; / Falling from the Heaven of Non-Ideation, / Through inquiry and investigation speculating on no-cause; / Recollecting above, below, across, together, / Destruction kalpas possessing boundary, etc.; / Fearing lack of knowledge and practicing flattery, / Harboring fear, foolishness, and prevarication; / Human and desire-heaven sensual pleasure, / The four dhyānas as nirvāṇa.' / Among these views, how many are subsumed under the past limit, how many under the future limit, and how many under the present spanning both limits? Universal, partial, uncaused, boundary, and prevarication belong to the past limit; the remaining forty-four are all subsumed under views of the future limit. Sūtras and treatises both state that these sixty-two views are subsumed under two views: wrong view and extreme view. Which ones are subsumed under which views? Universal and partial, four each; those having ideation make sixteen; non-ideation and neither, eight each; the seven annihilations—all are extreme views. Those two uncaused, the four boundary-wrongs, the four prevarications, and the five discourses on present nirvāṇa are all subsumed under wrong view. Having given rise to the view of self by clinging to a spiritual self (puruṣa), they then give rise to these sixty-two views, and subsequently give rise to the adherence to views, grasping phenomena such as these views as supreme and as causes; they also give rise to the adherence to rules and rituals, grasping phenomena such as rules as causes and as supreme. Clinging to these false phenomena and never willing to let go, conceited and self-reliant, boasting and elevating themselves while deprecating others, they flatter and praise each other before their teachers, deceptively seeking fame and gain; how could their minds ever be honest? Endowed with such traits, indulging in desires and clinging to the perverse, they are incapable of being immediately transformed by the Great Dharma.