大方廣佛華嚴經疏 12.5

12.5

The third major section, from Fascicle 10 onwards, explains the seas governed by the ten seas. Each single sea governs inexpressibly many Buddha-kṣetra paramāṇus [of seas], yet the present text only speaks of ten for each, which makes one hundred seas, which also have kṣetra-seeds and the worlds they uphold. The ten seas constitute ten passages; one need only note the names of the immediately preceding ten seas, and this text will certainly be easy to understand. Each of the ten passages has two parts: first, indicating the governing sea to determine the cardinal direction; second, from "Next there is..." onward, listing the sequence of the governed seas. In [each list of] governed seas there are three subsections: first, listing nine in succession adjacent to the governing sea—only the nine in the first passage lack one; second, from "Such as these..." onward, summarizing the grand total governed by one sea; third, from "The one closest to..." onward, explaining in detail the one sea closest to the Cakravāḍa rim. Therein, each text has two parts: first, adducing the name and essence of the sea-seed; second, from "At the lowest position in this..." onward, the worlds upheld by it, which also consist of twenty tiers. Within this, the skipped intervals in the text contain four steps: first, adducing the lowest tier; second, jumping to the tenth, etc. The Vajradhvaja is the tenth-tier world within the kṣetra-seed of the central fragrant ocean. Third, jumping further to the thirteenth, because it equals this central Sahā. Fourth, jumping further to the twentieth tier, because it is the uppermost. "Uppermost" refers to the uppermost of the kṣetra-seed. If one says the twentieth tier is the uppermost, how does it acquire this name "uppermost"? If it were not to avoid prolixity, why not add "and so on, up to the uppermost"? The skipping of intervals was intended for abbreviation. Saying they are "equal" was for fear of losing the sequence, and also because their upper and lower, horizontal and vertical [positions] all correspond. Furthermore, as to the inexpressibly many governed seas, all are laid out in a single straight line facing the direction of the original governing sea; hence below it merely says "beyond this sea" without speaking of rotating to the right, etc. For the fragrant ocean with an adamantine-wheel-adorned bed, the fifth, its governed [seas] only list nine seas and conclude the text; and the nine lines or so of sūtra regarding the sea closest to the Cakravāḍa rim are likewise missing in all Sanskrit manuscripts. Following the preceding and following examples, this definitely had a tenth governed sea. Within the twenty tiers of worlds upheld by the sea close to the Cakravāḍa rim, the initial text says, "At the lowest position in this, there is a fragrant water ocean named Indrapadmagarbha"; the words from "fragrant" (xiang) to "garbha" (zang) are all redundant, because a fragrant water ocean was already mentioned before, and none of the preceding seas followed this pattern. Even if resting upon a sea is not an error, it is awkward in the text. In the governed seas of the first sea above, one of the nine was missing; this redundancy here is likely due to an omission in the Sanskrit manuscript which later scribes annotated, mistakenly copying it onto similar palm leaves. The rest can all be understood. For the sequence of the ten seas, one need only look at the immediately preceding commentary without waiting for me to repeat it. The third [part] summarizes and explains [the whole], divided into five: first, summarizing the grand total, meaning each sea governs one inexpressible number, so the ten seas have ten inexpressible numbers; with one seed to one sea, the numbers are identical. Second, from "All rely on..." onward, concluding the basis on which the sea-seeds rely. This refers to the original great lotus that upholds the kṣetra-seas mentioned before, which was named Various-Radiance-Stamen-Fragrance-Dhvaja. Here it says "manifesting bodhisattva forms," etc., which is a different name for this single lotus according to its meaning, because it has this function. Its name is the same as that of the ocean floor in the very center mentioned before, because the central ocean floor is the essence of this great lotus, receiving a general designation; hence it takes the name of the great lotus's essence, or perhaps it was a translator's error. Third, from "Each and every..." onward, concluding the different aspects of the seeds. This broadly agrees with the previous chapter explaining the kṣetra-seeds and the ten marks in the Chapter on the Formation of Worlds. Fourth, from "These individual..." onward, concluding the worlds within the seeds. In stating that they form a network of worlds, each world is like the mesh of a net, interconnecting with one another; as if held by a net, horizontally and vertically interlaced, all correspond to one another, like a celestial net of pearls. Fifth, from "In the Padmagarbha..." onward, concluding by returning to Padmagarbha, which is the locus of establishment. The above completes the dual explanation of the prose of the two chapters.