華嚴經探玄記 3.10

3.10

Third, as for the four siddhāntas: The first fascicle of the Dà zhìdù lùn states: 'There are four siddhāntas that collectively encompass all twelve divisions of scriptures and eighty-four thousand Dharma stores; all are completely true without mutual contradiction. First, the worldly siddhānta: there are dharmas that exist because of the combination of causes and conditions, without a separate nature. For instance, a cart exists because of the combination of shafts, axles, spokes, rims, and so forth, without a separate cart. A person is also like this: they exist because of the combination of the five aggregates, without a separate person. If there were no worldly siddhānta, then the Buddha being a speaker of truth, why would he say: "With my divine eye I see sentient beings following good and bad karma, dying here and being born there"? You should know that this refers to a person according to the worldly siddhānta, not the ultimate truth siddhānta. Second, the individual siddhānta: observing the mental dispositions of people to teach the Dharma for them, permitting or not permitting with respect to a single dharma. For instance, for one holding the view of annihilationism, he taught mixed karma, whereby they are born in the world in a mixed manner and obtain mixed contact and mixed feeling; whereas for one holding the view of eternalism, he taught that no person obtains contact and no person obtains feeling, and so forth. Third, the antidotal siddhānta: it exists as an antidote, but does not exist in real nature. For instance, sour and salty [tastes] are called medicine for wind disorders, but are not medicine for other disorders. Impurity and the like are also like this with respect to greed and the like, to be understood accordingly. Fourth, the ultimate truth siddhānta: the nature of all dharmas and all distinctions of discourse are entirely equal and of one taste.' The explanation says: Either existence is stated in terms of the worldly and non-existence in terms of the ultimate, as in the first exposition; or existence is in terms of the ultimate and non-existence in terms of the worldly, as in the fourth exposition; or existence is stated for a person of a different capacity and non-existence for another capacity, as in the second exposition; or it is essential for curing this disorder while not so for other disorders, as in the third exposition. In all cases one must attain the original intention, and then the teachings will all have their function; if one conflates them according to the mere words, losing the intention, it turns into slander.