觀音玄義記 3.25

3.25

Question: The commentary on the sūtra only uses the oneness of the Middle Way to negate the twoness of bondage and liberation, burning and extinguishing. Why does the present text additionally add "not one"? Answer: What is termed the "Middle" has an essence that transcends duality and opposition. If it were definitively one, it would necessarily depend on two. One who speaks well of the Middle must forget the Middle. Therefore the Madhyama-sūtra, while precisely expounding the Middle Way, takes the forgetting of the Middle as the Middle Way. Hence its own commentary states: "'Ma' means negation; 'dhyama' means the Middle. That is, do not cling to the Middle Way." Furthermore, the present text uses the non-duality spoken by Śāntimati to establish the Perfect emptiness that explains the meaning of the universal gate. If the three truths are not thoroughly cleared away, it would not be ultimate emptiness—how could it accomplish the universal? Therefore we know that the four reliances deeply discern the meaning of the Middle; their refutations and applications are free, and one must not cling to the letter to impugn their marvelous understanding.