大方廣佛華嚴經疏 12.36

12.36

Fourth, questions and answers. Question: The cause and fruit across the five cycles differ in distinction and equality; why does the title of the section combine them into one? Answer: Because it universally generates the understanding of both distinction and equality; and apart from cultivation-arising, what cultivation-manifestation could be spoken of? Question: The previous assembly presented the fruit originally to generate faith; why are the three [matters] such as the names and designations presented again here? Answer: Generally speaking, regarding an object to generate faith has two meanings: 1. Presenting the Dharma of the object to clarify that it has a location; 2. Gathering it into the mind to bring about the practice of faith. The previous assembly pertained to the first meaning; this assembly pertains to the latter meaning. Furthermore, in the previous assembly the fruit was broad and the cause was brief, hence it was named 'presenting the fruit'; in this assembly the cause is broad and the fruit is brief, hence it is collectively subsumed as the cause. First the dependent [environment], then the primary [retribution]; the text simply abbreviates each to imply the other. If considered in terms of interlocking links, it naturally belongs to the fruit of the primary retribution; hence it is unlike the seventh assembly, which speaks of the fruit that is accomplished, while here it naturally discerns that upon which faith relies. Question: Why is there no entering into samādhi? Because having not yet entered the stations, their nature is not yet settled. If so, could the ten samādhis be mere uncollected goodness? However, the protocol for preaching the Dharma generally has four options: 1. Preaching after entering samādhi, as in most assemblies. 2. Entering samādhi after preaching, as in the Anantanirdeśa-sūtra and others. 3. Preaching while in samādhi, as in the ninth assembly, because there are no words of emerging [from samādhi]. 4. Preaching without entering [samādhi], as in this [assembly on] faith and in the seventh assembly. The texts are not uniform. The ninth represents realization: only through realization can one preach, and once obtained it is ever-constant, not obstructing the arising of function. The seventh represents being constantly in samādhi. Furthermore, one enters [samādhi] to receive empowerment; here empowerment is not needed, so there is no need to enter. Those who enter after preaching do so because preaching pertains to practice, and they are about to initiate what follows. Thus we know that movement and stillness pertain solely to [the capacities of] living beings; the sages have no fixed rule. Therefore, later in the text, in discerning the function of the ten faiths, [the bodhisattva] enters correct samādhi in one direction and rises and emerges to preach in other directions, sovereign and unobstructed. In other assemblies, preaching follows the patting of the crown; in this assembly, the patting of the crown follows preaching. Thus we know that the structure and momentum of this sūtra are freely crisscrossing and cannot be fixed to a standard.