大方廣佛華嚴經疏 16.7

16.7

Second, from 'At that time, Bhadraśrī' downward is Bhadraśrī's extensive exposition. Therein, he first presents a general introduction. Answering in verse briefly has two reasons: first, because few words encompass many meanings; second, because beautiful phrasing praises and expounds so as to bring about pure faith. It is because the initial virtue encompasses the final, and an unsystematic exposition would be difficult to exhaust, and because of revealing these superior and wondrous merits and virtues. Second, the actual revelation: the verse phrases comprise three hundred and fifty-nine and a half gāthās, broadly divided into three parts: first, four gāthās of the section on humble praise and consenting to speak; second, three hundred and forty-six and a half gāthās of the section on the actual exposition of superior virtues; third, nine gāthās of the section on comparison and exhorting upholdance. The first part divides into two: the first gāthā is a general explanation, whose first half praises the question and exhorts cultivation, and whose second half humbles himself regarding expounding only a little. The ocean metaphor will be clarified directly below. The subsequent three open the sections: using the virtues of generating the mind, they analogise and bring forth the cultivation of practice, skilfully revealing its depth and breadth. Therein, the first gāthā presents the section on generating the mind; the next gāthā analogises and brings forth the section on the cultivation of practice. If the initial mind, aspiring toward future realization, already possesses immeasurable virtue, how much more so for one who enters the stages for a long duration and cultivates universally! Hence, many Buddhas cannot fully expound it. The final gāthā marks the scope of consenting to speak. The first half is the doctrinal statement. 'Such as this' points to both generating the mind and cultivating practice, because the text below fully reveals them, and the text above questioned both. The second half clarifies through metaphor, which however has two meanings: first, revealing the metaphor of a minute portion, meaning that the virtue of generating the mind and practice is like vast empty space and the great earth, whereas what is spoken is as narrow as a foot-tread or a single dust mote. Second, an esoteric metaphor of non-difference, meaning that the empty space beneath a bird's foot is not different from vast empty space, and a subtle dust mote is not different from the great earth. Therefore, in this brief exposition, the meaning is entirely comprehensive; whether extensive or brief, both are boundless. The chapter 'The Manifestation of the Tathāgata' says: 'Just as a bird flying in empty space for a hundred years, the places it has traversed and the places it has not traversed are alike immeasurable. Why is this? Because empty space has no boundaries,' and so forth. That passage concerns fruition-practice; this passage concerns causal virtue. Yet the practice and virtue of Samantabhadra seem identical to the Buddha-fruition; therefore, both take empty space as their measure, and the texts above and below all share this explanation. In what way does this initial generation of the mind differ from the Stage of the Initial Aspiration among the ten abodes below and the chapter 'The Merits and Virtues of Generating the Mind'? Here, generating the mind encompasses both beginning and end: taking its accomplished virtue, it is the completion of faith; taking its being the root, it lies in the initial generation. Though like a light feather, the merit belongs to the first basket of earth. The initial generation of the ten abodes is precisely this completion becoming that initial generation. This completion is the active generator, and that is the generated; this is precisely the 'generation' of initiating, its meaning including unfolding; that is the 'generation' of unfolding, its meaning including initiating. The chapter 'The Merits and Virtues of Generating the Mind' specifically reveals the merits and virtues of the initial mind of the ten abodes. Distinguishing them in this way, they are not without difference. Thus the Yingluo jing says: 'As for the Stage of the Initial Aspiration, this person, beginning from being fully bound and not yet knowing the Triratna, up to encountering Buddhas and bodhisattvas and giving rise to a single thought of faith within the teaching, then generates bodhicitta.' Since it says 'beginning from an ordinary person's earliest generation of the mind,' we know clearly that generating the mind here encompasses both beginning and end. Question: Since this is the beginning, how can it fully possess the subsequent stages of practice and the virtues of Samantabhadra? The ancient masters' explanation of this briefly has two approaches: First, the approach of graded sequence, meaning proceeding from subtle to prominent, from shallow to deep, mounting sequentially to reach the other shore, as expounded in texts such as the Yingluo jing, the Renwang jing, the Awakening of Faith, and the Yogācārabhūmi. Second, the approach of consummate interpenetration and universal inclusion, meaning that a single stage fully possesses all stages and so forth, as expounded in this sūtra, and also as in the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā and other texts where a single practice fully possesses all practices. Within this there are two approaches: first, the approach of mutual dependence through conditioned origination; second, the approach of interpenetrating inclusion of the dharmadhātu. In the former, universally gathering all stages from beginning to end, the ocean of boundless practices is of a single conditioned origination, constituting the practice and virtue of Samantabhadra. Truly, when the various conditions are viewed in relation to one another, there are briefly two meanings: first, regarding functioning, due to mutual relativity, there are the meanings of having efficacy and lacking efficacy; therefore they can mutually gather and mutually enter. Second, regarding essence, due to mutual constitution, there are the meanings of having essence and lacking essence; therefore they can be mutually identical and mutually enter. In this sūtra, relying on these meanings, the mutual gathering of practice and stages has four explanations in all: 1. Either the beginning possesses the end, such as in this gateway possessing all practices and stages, which is the ocean of Samantabhadra's virtues. 2. Or the end possesses the beginning, all residing in the ten stages, as expounded subsequently in chapters such as 'The Ten Samādhis' and 'The Ten Supernormal Powers'. 3. Or all stages are equally gathered together, all residing in the ten abodes and so forth, where each single stage gathers all, all reaching the ultimate, as expounded subsequently in chapters such as 'The Ten Abodes' and 'The Ten Practices'. 4. Or all stages are obliterated and the virtuous practice is manifest, as expounded in the chapter 'Transcending the World'. Second, as for the approach of the interpenetrating inclusion of the dharmadhātu: these various stages and the practices cultivated are all not separate from Samantabhadra's inexhaustible dharmadhātu. Yet this dharmadhātu is consummate, interpenetrating, and boundless; abiding in any single stage, it immediately fully possesses all. Now, within the gateway of faith, there is nothing it does not gather completely. That the stages below all fully possess everything is to be explained according to this. Question: The chapter 'The Merits and Virtues of Generating the Mind' below also states that the initial mind possesses boundless virtues; how does it differ from this? Answer: This is based on what is possessed by the gateway of faith as the head of practice; that is based on what is possessed by bodhicitta as the root of practice. Question: Regarding the mutual gathering of dharmas, it may indeed be so. But regarding a person's cultivation, how could cultivating faith for merely ten thousand kalpas to completion attain such an ocean of boundless virtue? Answer: Because the Dharma is a consummate, interpenetrating Dharma possessing all virtues. If bodhisattvas practice this practice of the Dharma, it is what is gathered by that, whether for immeasurable kalpas or without fixed limit. The phrase 'ten thousand kalpas' is not what is taught here. As with the practices and attainments of the youth Sudhana, the devaputra of Tuṣita, and others below, all are such persons; they are not the same as what is taught in the graded, sequential teachings. Furthermore, 'ten thousand kalpas' belongs to a single sūtra; the Yingluo jing speaks only of one kalpa or two kalpas. Even if this sūtra has graded sequence, it is entirely consummate and interpenetrating. Some also cite the text below to verify that this faith is abandoning the nature of ordinary beings, accomplishing the noble nature, emerging from the ground of ignorance, and being born into the house of the Tathāgata, because there is obtaining abhiṣeka and ascending the stage and so forth, which is not faith. If so, how could the first stage obtain abhiṣeka and ascending the stage, and so forth? If one says that one enters the Buddha-stage progressively, why could one not enter progressively beginning from faith? If one allows entering progressively from faith, why must one judge this as abandoning the ordinary and entering the noble? The text below itself has the assembly of the ten stages; here it is still separated by the abodes, practices, dedications, and so forth; judging this as entering the stages is wild talk. The chapter 'Generating the Mind' below is also judged as generating the mind of the first stage, its meaning being identical to this assembly. Question: Below it says: 'Diligently cultivating and studying for immeasurable koṭis of kalpas, one obtains this unexcelled wisdom of bodhi.' This then is not a single lifetime, nor is ten thousand kalpas taken as immeasurable. To resolve this difficulty, there should be two meanings: first, this is according to the progressive meaning of graded sequence; second, this is according to the meaning of the unobstructed expansion and contraction of consummate interpenetration, as analyzed above. For Sudhana saw the ṛṣi take his hand, and at each Buddha's place traversed immeasurable kalpas. The length or shortness of cultivation being inconceivable is specifically due to this. Therefore Bodhisattva Bhadraśrī says: 'Believing in the Mahāyāna is still easy; being able to believe in this Dharma is doubly difficult.' Because the initial mind immediately fully possesses all merits and virtues, it is difficult to believe.