華嚴經探玄記 8.8.3

8.8.3

First, the bodhisattva gives only after observing that it is beneficial and free from defilement; if there is any fault of defilement, he does not give. Second, since this woman is in reality a fellow-practicing associate of the bodhisattva, she will not cause the recipient to generate greed or defilement from the gift. Third, this woman is able to benefit the other by means of Dharma gates; therefore, he gives her. If the reverse of the above three conditions were the case, he should not give. In the Mahāyānasaṃgraha: beneficial and defiled; not beneficial and not defiled; defiled and not beneficial—these three the bodhisattva does not practice. Beneficial and undefiled, the bodhisattva does practice. The Yogācārabhūmi refers to the first three, while this text is based on the latter one; thus they do not contradict each other. Giving wives, concubines, sons, and daughters: this should also be discussed together. As for Sudāna, it is translated here as 'Well-beloved' or 'Good-beloved'. As the Crown Prince Sūtra explains in detail, giving away his wife, children, and so on. King Vyūharāja means the giving of his wife, children, and so on as spoken of in the Sūtra of the Great King Vyūha. Furthermore, in the Bodhisattvāvadāna Sūtra, Prince Sarvadāna gave the prince's great war elephant to the people of an enemy kingdom; the king and ministers were all enraged and banished the prince to the Snow Mountains. In the mountains, after he had given away his two sons, the king of the gods transformed himself and came to beg for his wife; having obtained her, he returned her in trust to the prince. Later, he also begged for his eyes. The prince was about to gouge them out, but the beggar stopped him, saying: 'For now I return them to you in trust. When I need them I will take them; you may not give them to anyone else.' The prince said: 'How can I now accept two things entrusted to me?'—it is as fully related there. Question: Are the wife, children, and so on given here real karmic fruits, or are they magical creations? And as for that beggar, is he also real, or is he a magical creation? Answer: There are three interpretations here. First, from the superior grade, both are real and given. Like King Sarvadāna: he gave his sons to a brāhmaṇa, and the brāhmaṇa whipped them and led them away. Reaching beneath a tree, he wished to beat them again; a tree spirit raised his hand against the brāhmaṇa, and the brāhmaṇa immediately fell down. The spirit wished to take his life, seize the prince, and send him back. The prince said to the spirit: 'Please do not harm him. If I were to return again, I would cause my father the king's practice of dāna to be incomplete, and I would be an unfilial son.' The spirit then released him. The explanation says: following this, the wife and children are also fellow bodhisattva practitioners; since they must even relinquish their own lives, how could they turn back out of dread of suffering? Second, from the middling grade, there is an alternation between real and magical creation in the practice of giving. As in the Damamūkanidāna Sūtra: when the Buddha was formerly a king, Vaiśravaṇa spoke like a yakṣa, demanding the king's wife and child to eat. Having eaten them, he spoke a verse for him, saying: 'All conditioned things are impermanent; all who are born have suffering. The five aggregates are empty and formless; there is neither self nor what belongs to self.' Having spoken this verse, he resumed his original form, and the wife and child were still there. In this case, the wife and child were real, and the beggar was a magical creation. In the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra, it is mostly bodhisattvas abiding in inconceivable liberation who, in order to train other lesser bodhisattvas and advance their stages of practice, make themselves into such beggars, wishing to completely destroy these bodhisattvas' attachment to wife and children; thus, in their presence, they manifest eating them. Furthermore, in the Mahāyānasaṃgraha, when King Viśvantara gave his son to the brāhmaṇa, it was a matter of distressing another. This son was magically created, and therefore there was no distress. The explanation says: here the beggar was real, and the son was magically created. Because the bodhisattva used upāya to fulfill the brāhmaṇa's wish and extinguish his grudge, he made this magical creation. Again, it is like a bodhisattva transforming into a beautiful woman and giving herself to someone with lustful attachment, in order to train and cause him to be free from desire, and so on. Third, from the inferior grade, both are real and not given. The thirty-ninth fascicle of the Yogācārabhūmi says: with regard to his own wife, children, slaves, servants, relatives, and kin, if the bodhisattva has not first instructed them with proper words so that they are delighted, he will never forcibly compel them to suffer grief and distress by giving them to those who come begging. Even if he has first instructed them with gentle words so that they are delighted and develop a willing desire, he does not give them to enemies, bad friends, yakṣas, rākṣasas, or those of violent deeds; nor does he give delicate wives, children, or youths of noble clans to those who come begging to make them into slaves. The explanation says: this is spoken based on those of dull faculties and initial motivation. Furthermore, if both were magically created, then neither would have any meaningful benefit; hence there is no such proposition. Giving houses and dwellings causes the assembly to obtain the joy of a dwelling place. Giving gardens and groves causes them to obtain the joy of recreation. Instituting a great assembly of giving refers to an unimpeded great assembly, where all kinds of things are given—meaning not limited by material things, not restricted by time, not barring the assembly, giving equally to all without before or after; as below, where a great assembly is instituted at the place of the Fragrant Tusk Grove, and so on. The Sanskrit name is pañcavārṣika, which is translated here as 'unimpeded great assembly'. Giving all requisites for living is the seventieth gate. Because the various gates cannot be exhausted if explained individually, at the end he sums them up collectively into all requisites for living to complete the great giving. The above has seventy gates according to the great gates. If one explains them in finer detail, the varieties among the things given, according to Master Guangtong, number one hundred and twenty. Next, in full, there are eighty-four thousand. How so? Among the one hundred and twenty matters, each contains the ten wholesome karmas in practicing giving, thus making one thousand two hundred; multiplied by the seven methods of giving, this makes eight thousand four hundred; and each individual practice is equipped with the ten dedications, thus making eighty-four thousand gates of the practice of giving. As for the seven methods of giving, according to phenomenal marks there are six, and entering the principle adds one more, making seven. The six according to phenomenal marks: the mind has three kinds, namely the joy of the three times, and so on; the matter has three kinds, namely the giver, the recipient, and the material wealth, and so on. Entering the principle has one: namely contemplating the principle that the three matters are empty and solitary. Another explanation: multiplying them by the seven noble treasures also works. Just as one practice of giving has eighty-four thousand, each of the remaining practices is also like this. If one were to explain the active aspects in dispersed detail, they would be immeasurably inexpressible.