大方廣佛華嚴經疏 3.11

3.11

Seventh, the divisions, texts, chapters, and assemblies: having understood that the essential purport is profound and deep, it is not yet known whether the expressing texts and words are broad or narrow. Herein there are four points: first, to display the root texts; second, to reveal the chapters and assemblies; third, to clarify the branches and similar works; fourth, to distinguish the treatises and commentaries. Under the first, the expressions of the ocean of nature are constantly spoken and universally spoken; words exhaust the dharmadhātu and can hardly be measured. Now, proceeding from the narrow to the wide, they are briefly classified into ten types: First, the abridged root sūtra, which is the eighty-fascicle version transmitted today and the old sixty-fascicle translation, both of which are abridgments of the hundred-thousand-verse text, as the translation was not complete. Second, the lower root sūtra, which refers to the Mahāyāna treasury compiled by Mañjuśrī and the ocean that is Ānanda between the Iron Enclosing Mountains and gathered into the dragon palace. When Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna went to the dragon palace, he saw that this Great Inconceivable Sūtra had three recensions; the lower recension had a hundred thousand verses and forty-eight chapters. Nāgārjuna memorized it and circulated it in the world; hence the Da zhidu lun calls this the Inconceivable Sūtra of a hundred thousand verses. In the Liang Mahāyānasaṃgraha it is called the Hundred-Thousand-Verse Sūtra. The Xiyu ji states that the kingdom of Cakoka possessed this complete recension. Third, the middle root sūtra, which was what he saw there consisting of 498,800 verses and 1,200 chapters. Fourth, the upper root sūtra, which was what he saw there consisting of as many verses as the paramāṇus of thirteen trichiliocosms and as many chapters as the paramāṇus of one universe with four continents. These upper two recensions could not be retained by the mental capacity of people in Jambudvīpa, and so were not transmitted. Fifth, the Samantacakṣuḥ Sūtra, which was retained by Sāgaramegha: even if one used an ocean of ink and a Sumeru-sized heap of brushes, in trying to write down of this Samantacakṣuḥ dharma-door a single approach within one chapter, a single teaching within one approach, a single meaning within one teaching, and a single sentence within one meaning, one could not record even a minute fraction, let alone exhaust it; it can only be retained by the dhāraṇī power of bodhisattvas who have entered the deep dharmadhātu. All sūtras below this cannot be received by ordinary human power. Sixth, the sūtra spoken identically, which refers to worlds shaped like Mount Sumeru in which, throughout all empty space to the extent of a hair's tip, [the teaching] is spoken by sounds without end. As the chapter 'Inconceivable Dharmas' says: 'Just as a single body of a Buddha uses supernatural powers to turn such manifold wheels of the Dharma, to which no worldly phenomena can serve as an analogy, so in every space the size of a hair's tip throughout the entire realm of empty space, and even in every transformation body, it is spoken in this way, with sounds, letters, phrases, and meanings each filling the dharmadhātu,' and so forth. Furthermore, the chapter 'Asaṃkhyeya' says: 'Within the light, the Buddhas seen are ineffable, and the Dharmas spoken by the Buddhas are ineffable,' up to: 'in each of those sūtras, the discriminated dharma-doors are ineffable,' and so on. This meaning only concerns the preaching of Dharma by one category of sounds, which is already impossible to compile—how then could those of lower stations retain it? Seventh, the sūtra spoken differently: since worlds shaped like trees and the like are different, the types of karmic retribution of the sentient beings within them are also distinct; the Tathāgata manifests bodies, establishes teachings, and makes pedagogical arrangements there differently, and one cannot delimit them to form and non-form, speech and non-speech, and so on; thus its divisions and categories can hardly be measured. Eighth, the sūtra of master and retinue: although what is spoken by Vairocana pervades the dharmadhātu, he and the other Buddhas mutually serve as master and retinue. Just as when the ten abodes were spoken, [Buddhas] came from the ten directions to bear witness, all saying, 'In my land, this is also spoken,' and so forth, so the preceding seven sūtras all have master and retinue. Ninth, the sūtra of attendants: when other capacities cannot hear this comprehensive discourse, teachings are given according to suitability to cause them to enter this portal; because they are all supreme expedients for this sūtra, they are called attendants. Hence the sūtra below says: 'The Samantacakṣuḥ Sūtra has as its attendants sūtras as numerous as the paramāṇus of a Buddha-kṣetra,' and so on; thus the preceding eight all have attendants. Tenth, the sūtra of perfect consummation: all the above recensions completely fuse into a single endless ocean of the great sūtra; any single assembly, single chapter, single phrase, or single sentence subsumes all without limitation. Hence the chapter 'Manifesting the Signs' says: 'The power of Vairocana Buddha's vows pervades the dharmadhātu; / In all Buddha-lands / He constantly turns the unsurpassed wheel,' and so forth; thus in fascicle seventy-three it is called the wheel of complete causes, which is what this refers to.