大方廣佛華嚴經疏 2.5

2.5

Third, in establishing the teachings and opening up the tenets, there are two parts: first, dividing the teachings according to meaning; second, dividing the tenets on the basis of the teachings. First, dividing the teachings according to meaning: There are five classes of teachings, which were established by Xianshou and are extensively discussed in a separate essay. They are largely the same as Tiantai's, merely adding the Sudden Teaching. Here we use them first and subsequently integrate and harmonize them all, slightly amending whatever is unsatisfactory. As for these five teachings: 1. the Hīnayāna Teaching; 2. the Initial Teaching of the Mahāyāna; 3. the Final Teaching; 4. the Sudden Teaching; 5. the Perfect Teaching. The first is Tiantai's Tripiṭaka Teaching. Second, the Initial Teaching is also called the Fractional Teaching; because the teachings of the second and third periods in the Saṃdhinirmocana both allow that those of the two vehicles with fixed natures will never become Buddhas, we now combine them into a single teaching. Since this does not yet exhaust the doctrinal principles of the Mahāyāna, it is established as the Initial [Teaching]. Because there are those who do not become Buddhas, it is called Fractional. Third, the Final Teaching is also called the Real Teaching. Those of the two vehicles with fixed natures and icchantikas lacking nature will all become Buddhas; only here are the Mahāyāna's utmost explanations exhausted, and so it is established as Final. Because it accords with real principle, it is called Real. The above two teachings both cultivate toward realization gradually according to stages, and so are collectively named the Gradual. Fourth, the Sudden Teaching: when not even a single thought arises, that itself is called a Buddha, which is not spoken of in terms of the succession of stages, and so it is established as Sudden. As the Viseṣacintā says: 'One who attains the correct nature of all dharmas does not go from one stage to another.' The Laṅkāvatāra says: 'The first stage is itself the eighth, up to having no existence whatsoever—what succession could there be?' and so forth. It differs from the earlier gradual cultivation through stages, and it differs from the subsequent perfect interpenetration endowed with virtues; therefore, it is established with the name Sudden. Because it abruptly expresses this principle, it is called the Sudden Teaching. The reason Tiantai did not establish it is that within each of its four teachings there is an aspect beyond words. Now we open it because, by abruptly revealing what is beyond words, it is specifically for a class of capacities free from thought; that is, it accords with the Chan lineage. Fifth, the Perfect Teaching: it clarifies that one station is all stations, and all stations are one station; therefore, with the fulfillment of the mind in the ten faiths, one subsumes the five stations and accomplishes sambodhi, and so forth. Based on the Padmagarbha and Indrajāla of Samantabhadra's dharmadhātu, multi-layered and complete with host and retinue, it is called the Perfect Teaching, as spoken of in this sūtra and others. If we take it in terms of the characteristics of dharmas that are taught: First, in the Hīnayāna, it only teaches seventy-five dharmas and only teaches the emptiness of the person; even if it slightly teaches the emptiness of dharmas, it is still not clear. It establishes the roots of defilement and purity solely based on the six consciousnesses and three poisons; thus the Āgama says: 'Greed, anger, and delusion are the root of the world,' and so forth. Since it does not exhaust the source of dharmas, there is much dispute and sectarian adherence differs. Second, in the Initial Teaching, it extensively teaches dharma-characteristics and rarely teaches dharmatā. The dharmatā it teaches is counted among the dharma-characteristics; it teaches that there are one hundred dharmas with decisive and distinct analysis, and so there is little dispute. It teaches that there are eight consciousnesses which are purely arising and ceasing; based on the arising-and-ceasing consciousness, it establishes the causes of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa. The presence or absence of natural seeds is forever distinct, and therefore the five natures are definitively different. Since the consciousness it establishes is produced solely by karma and affliction, the tathatā it establishes is eternal and unchanging, not allowing for accord with conditions. The other-dependent nature is seemingly existent and not non-existent, not being identical with the non-natured, true emptiness of the fully perfected. When it explains the meaning of emptiness in the sūtras, it is only with reference to the imagined. Since it says the three natures and five natures are different, it says that one portion of sentient beings will definitively never become Buddhas, which is called the non-decrease of the realm of sentient beings. The two truths of ultimate and conventional are distinctly different; neither cut off nor eternal, the effect arises as the cause ceases, and of the four simultaneous marks, cessation indicates subsequent non-existence. The fundamental and subsequently attained [wisdoms], in taking objects as conditions and severing afflictions, are conventionally said to observe both while definitively illuminating distinctly; by means of conditioned wisdom one realizes unconditioned noumenon, conventionally said not to be different yet in reality not one. Since supermundane wisdom relies on the seeds of the arising-and-ceasing consciousness, the mental states of the four wisdoms are shifted by marks, and the Buddha-fruit's saṃbhogakāya is conditioned and undefiled. Categories of meaning such as these are extensively numerous, just as fully explained in the Yogācārabhūmi, Abhidharmasamuccaya, and so forth. Third, in the Final Teaching, it rarely teaches dharma-characteristics and mostly teaches dharmatā; the dharma-characteristics it teaches also resolve back into the nature. The eight consciousnesses it establishes are fully integrated with the tathāgatagarbha and established in accord with conditions: the non-arising-and-ceasing harmonizes with the arising-and-ceasing to form neither one nor different; all sentient beings are of one equal nature, merely tathatā established in accord with conditions. The lack of nature in the other-dependent is itself the fully perfected; the one noumenon is uniformly even, and so it says the realm of sentient beings and the realm of Buddhas neither increase nor decrease. The emptiness of paramārtha extends throughout the real and the deluded; the real is not outside the conventional, and by being identical to the conventional it is real; therefore, though empty, it is not cut off, and though existent, it is not eternal; the four marks are simultaneous, and their essential nature is itself cessation. In taking objects as conditions and severing afflictions, they are two without being two; having that which severs and that which is severed, they are not two though two, which is spoken of as inner realization. Illuminating afflictions as having no basis is itself the essence of wisdom; illuminating the essence as lacking an own-being is itself the realization of tathatā. It is not that tathatā outside of wisdom is realized by wisdom; nor is it that wisdom outside of tathatā is able to realize tathatā. Mundane and supermundane wisdom rely on the tathāgatagarbha; the initial and the fundamental are not two, and thus the conditioned and unconditioned are neither one nor different. Therefore, the Buddha's nirmāṇakāya is itself eternal and itself the Dharma, not falling into any numbers—how much more so for the saṃbhoga essence! Wisdom identical with the essence is not shifted by marks. Categories of meaning such as these are also numerous, corresponding in order to the above, as in sūtras like the Laṅkāvatāra and treatises like the Awakening of Faith. If one harmonizes the above two traditions, it is extensively as explained elsewhere. Fourth, in the Sudden Teaching, it does not teach dharma-characteristics at all; it solely elucidates the true nature, and there are also no differentiated marks of the eight consciousnesses. All that exists is merely false conceptualization; all dharmadhātus are solely beyond words. The five dharmas and three own-natures are both empty; the eight consciousnesses and two kinds of selflessness are both discarded. It chastises the teachings and encourages leaving them behind; it destroys marks and obliterates the mind. To give rise to mind is delusion; not giving rise is Buddha. Nor is there Buddha or non-Buddha, arising or non-arising; like Vimalakīrti's silent dwelling revealing non-duality, such is its purport. Fifth, in the Perfect Teaching, what is taught is solely the inexhaustible dharmadhātu: the ocean of nature in perfect interpenetration, pratītyasamutpāda unobstructed, mutual identity and mutual interpenetration, like Indrajāla multi-layered and boundless, the minute mutually containing, host and retinue inexhaustible, each of the tenfold dharma-gates subsuming the dharmadhātu. In the section on the delimiters of meaning, this will be fully expounded.