大方廣佛華嚴經疏 32.5

32.5

Second, as for explaining the reason why it is difficult: the reason why those aforementioned matters of bodhisattva conduct are difficult is that they abide in subtle, wondrous, and profound meaning. Hence the Treatise states: "The meaning of the matters of those bodhisattva practices abides so that it cannot be spoken thus."

In the verse, the first two lines contrast with the inferior to reveal the profundity; the next line approaches the superior to show its wondrousness; the final line adduces that hearing causes delusion to show that it is difficult to preach.
Therein, "difficult" is the general characteristic. Why is it difficult? Because it is difficult to obtain and difficult to realize.
Being difficult to obtain has four [aspects]:
1. It is subtle and difficult to obtain, revealing that it is not the sphere of wisdom born of hearing.
2. It is difficult to see and difficult to obtain, as it also cannot be seen by the mind's eye of wisdom born of thinking.
3. It is free from thought and difficult to obtain, as it is also not the sphere of mundane wisdom born of cultivation. This is because the wisdom of the stages is true cultivation, not the sphere of cultivation conditioned by mental discrimination prior to the stages.
4. It transcends the mental ground and is difficult to obtain. Not only is it not the sphere of [the stages] prior to the grounds, but it is also not the sphere of the wisdom of the path of cultivation (bhāvanā-mārga) attained through the maturation of birth upon entering the stages and above. That is, the ripening consciousness arisen through change is called "maturation of birth"; being able immediately upon birth to know impermanence and so forth is called "the wisdom of the path of cultivation well-attained". Because it is not wisdom that directly illumines reality, it also cannot fathom the wisdom of the stages. Knowing impermanence and so forth without having forgotten mind and object is called the "mental ground", because up through the seventh stage, exiting contemplation is still permissible. Moreover, this "wisdom of the path of cultivation well-attained" is precisely the preparatory and subsequent wisdoms, not the fundamental [wisdom]; hence it is excluded. Therefore, the fifty-fifth [fascicle] of the Yogācārabhūmi states that within the station of the path of cultivation, there is a supramundane path of abandonment and a mundane-supramundane path of abandonment. Since it extends to the mundane, it is not its sphere.

Since it is not the sphere of these four minds, whose sphere is it? It is precisely the sphere of the Buddha's wisdom. What is this wisdom? It sees the true meaning. "Giving birth" has two meanings: first, it produces that Buddha wisdom; second, it transcends birth, being uncontaminated. The final line stating the reason why it is difficult to preach means that listeners, grasping according to what they hear, all become deluded.