華嚴經探玄記 8.5

8.5

Third, the various approaches: there are five tiers. The first is in terms of coarse retribution: namely, having treasures capable of shielding against forty li of rain and so forth; these are semblance seven treasures, as in the Satyaka-nirgrantha Sūtra (and so on). The second is in terms of fine retribution: namely, the real retribution of a golden wheel-turning king, whose seven jewels are as distinguished above. The third is in terms of the conditions for practice: namely, the seven treasures and other articles of a bodhisattva wheel-turning king are all produced by the pure karma of the bodhisattva and can be used for the bodhisattva's cultivation. Following [this], there are five meanings: first, causing the bodhisattva not to generate attachment; second, causing the practice of giving to be accomplished; third, fulfilling the wishes of beggars; fourth, causing beggars to generate the aspiration and engage in practice; fifth, being suitable for teaching and transforming sentient beings. Therefore, the twelfth fascicle of the Dà zhìdù lùn states: "There are three kinds of jewels: first, human jewels, which can rain down things, like the treasures of a wheel-turning king and so forth; second, heavenly jewels, which can understand speech and carry out commands; third, bodhisattva jewels, which can preach the Dharma and transform sentient beings," and so forth. The fourth is in terms of profound retribution: namely, the treasures and so forth belonging to wheel-turning kings from above the nature of realms in the Perfect Teaching up to those possessing ten thousand sons, such as the pure white jewel-net wheel-turning sage king possessing a Dīpaṅkara crystal jewel that illuminates world-oceans as numerous as the dust motes of ten Buddha-kṣetras, produced by the roots of goodness of a wheel-turning king of golden sands of a single Ganges, and so forth. The fifth is in terms of the virtues of practice: as the subsequent sūtra says, "The golden wheel of the pāramitās, the various supernormal knowledges as the elephant jewel, the bases of supernormal power as the horse jewel, the unsurpassed, exquisitely wondrous conduct of pure wisdom as the woman jewel, the skillful means of the treasure-treasury minister of the four means of attraction, and the supreme wheel-turning king as the general jewel." Now, in this text, it is expounded based on the latter three approaches, because it accomplishes Samantabhadra's boundless ocean of practices within the inexhaustible dharmadhātu. Next, from "this mahāsattva" onward explains the peerless virtue of his direct retribution. "Nārāyaṇa" is translated here as "firm and solid strength"; according to the Abhidharmakośa, the capacity to support the wind-wheel of a great trichiliocosm is the measure of a Nārāyaṇa. This may be known from the calibration in the Nirvāṇa Sūtra. Within the second part, initiating practice based on the body, there are three sections: first, briefly designating the acts of practice; second, from "having dedicated all such roots of goodness, the mahāsattva generates this thought" onward, extensively revealing the characteristics of practice; third, from "when the mahāsattva dedicates with these roots of goodness" onward, practice reaches ultimate accord with reality. The former two are dedication toward bodhi and sentient beings; the latter one is dedication toward the limit of reality. Furthermore, the former two are vast dedication, and the latter one is profound dedication. In the first section there are three points: first, briefly designating the seventy objects given—from food and drink to bed and seat, ten; from dwelling place to canopy, (twenty); from banner to eyes, (thirty); from ears to flesh, (forty); from heart to claws, (fifty); from casting oneself into fire for the Dharma to covering the Buddha with one's body, (sixty); from giving one's body to all to being completely able to renounce, (making seventy). Among these, there is internal giving, external giving, and internal-and-external giving. Furthermore, there is giving of wealth, of Dharma, and of fearlessness. Sacrificing one's life to rescue the disabled is the giving of fearlessness. Severing killing has two aspects: in view of the one being killed, it is fearlessness; in view of the killer, causing them to maintain the five precepts and so forth is the giving of Dharma, and universally proclaiming the Buddha's name is also the giving of Dharma. Another explanation: since these are all doorways to the Dharma, they all partake of the three kinds of giving. Furthermore, these are all the unhindered and sovereign practices of Samantabhadra within the great gate of conditioned origination of the inexhaustible dharmadhātu: using these internal or external, sentient or insentient things, as well as the practices of the Dharma doorway, giving them completely to a single sentient being, and just as to a single sentient being, so it is to all. Giving to all sentient beings in a single paramāṇu of a single world, it is also thus in every dust mote. Just as in a single world, so it is throughout all worlds of empty space and the dharmadhātu, simultaneously accomplishing great giving; in a single kṣaṇa, one traverses the worlds of the dharmadhātu practicing this giving. In this way, thought-moment after thought-moment exhausting the anterior and posterior limits, through all kalpas and all kṣaṇas, it is also thus. This single bodhisattva, with a body filling the dharmadhātu, fully sets in motion such boundless great giving, yet with distinctions between pure and mixed approaches. If in terms of the purely giving-of-eyes approach, one sees only the giving of eyes in all the aforementioned places, times, things, and fields, and completely does not see the remaining approaches. Why? Because the remaining approaches are not contemplated, being like empty space. Since this single doorway pervades the dharmadhātu, one does not see the initial boundary of giving eyes, nor does one see the final boundary of giving eyes, because there is neither beginning nor end. The other approaches are also like this; each differs according to whether it is pure or mixed, which may be inferred accordingly. Second, from "if all sentient beings" onward explains accomplishing giving with respect to the field. Third, from "generates this thought" onward reveals what the giving is done for, which contains eight phrases. Someone explained: "This gathering of the three stabilities of the Buddha-fruit is dedication toward bodhi." I now say: this text still distinguishes the bodhisattva's gathering of the objective and subjective retributions that conform to the dharmadhātu; within this gate of firm roots of goodness, it causes him to be endowed with conditions for superior practices, further enabling the accomplishment of practices that conform to the dharmadhātu. The "superior people" are the people of the country; the "retinue" is his own retinue; the remainder of the text is clear.