華嚴經探玄記 3.53

3.53

First, explaining the types: In the Hīnayāna, there is only one type, namely worlds like the Sahā world, and no separate pure land. In the three vehicles there are two categories: First, regarding the Buddha's own dwelling place, there are three: 1. dharmatā land; 2. land of real virtues, meaning wondrous practices and the like; 3. land of visible forms and marks, meaning sublime jewels and the like. The latter two are lands of self-enjoyment. Since these three are not places for gathering and transforming [beings], they are not discerned here. Second, regarding the Buddha's places for gathering and transforming [beings], there are also three: 1. nirmāṇakāya land, which has two kinds: defiled, meaning this Sahā world and so forth, which is from the perspective of Śākyamuni; and pure, meaning transformation lands in other directions, which is from the perspective of other Buddhas. 2. Transformed defiled land, such as pressing the earth with the toe. 3. Other-enjoyment land, meaning the eighteen perfections and so forth. Within the first there are two: According to the Initial Teaching, there are only ten billion Jambudvīpas and ten billion Śākyamunis as the domain of gathering and transformation. According to the Final Teaching, as in the Dà zhìdù lùn, taking a trichiliocosm as one unit, counting up to Ganges sands makes one world-nature; counting these natures again up to Ganges sands makes one world-ocean; counting these again up to Ganges sands makes one world-species; counting these again up to immeasurable Ganges sands makes one Buddha world. As for the bounds of what is transformed, its enjoyment land, according to the Initial Teaching, is at the summit of the form realm, spoken in order to guide the Hīnayāna by sharing the same realm. According to the Final Teaching, it is not within the three realms, as the Nirvāṇa [Sūtra] says: "To the west, separated from here by thirty-two Ganges-sands of Buddha lands, there is a world named Invincible; this is Śākyamuni Buddha's pure land of real reward." Furthermore, at intervals around the borders of all Mount Sumeru worlds, here and there there is frequently a pure Buddha land; this applies to both reward and transformation, in order to guide sentient beings. Third, according to the One Vehicle, there are two categories: 1. In terms of the fruit, dividing the ocean of lands of the ten Buddhas' own essence: this should be ineffable, yet relies on conditions to speak of ten, as explained in the second assembly. 2. In terms of places of gathering and transformation, there are three kinds: (1) from the Mount Sumeru world and tree shapes onward, up to the ocean of worlds shaped like all sentient beings, constitutes the first kind; (2) outside the trichiliocosms there are separately ten worlds: world-nature, world-ocean, world-wheel, world-perfection, world-differentiation, world-rotation, world-revolution, world-lotus, world-Sumeru, and world-marks—these correspond to the realm of a wheel-turning king from ten thousand sons onward, constituting the second kind; (3) the ocean of worlds adorned with the ten Padmagarbahs, fully equipped with host and retinue like Indra's net, which is the Buddha's realm, constituting the third kind. The above three kinds universally possess ten matters that take the lead in forming the worlds: 1. the ocean of spoken worlds; 2. the ocean of worlds whose arising possesses causes and conditions; 3. the ocean of worlds that abide; 4. the ocean of worlds with shapes; 5. the ocean of worlds with substance; 6. the ocean of worlds with adornments; 7. the ocean of worlds with purity; 8. the ocean of worlds where Tathāgatas appear; 9. the ocean of worlds with kalpas; 10. the ocean of worlds with expedients of destruction.