大方廣佛華嚴經疏 37.22

37.22

Seventh, the eightfold right [path] (aṣṭāṅgamārga): in terms of stations, it is the path arising after direct realization, for the sake of severing all the defilements of the path of cultivation. Because it is free from the eight wrong things, it is called 'eightfold right'. Because it opens the way to nirvāṇa, it is called 'path'. It is also called the eightfold noble path, because it is the path of the noble ones. The intrinsic nature of the eightfold right [path] is right view and so forth. In the text, it also first specifically clarifies right view, and later generally reveals the remaining seven. Speaking of right view: it is the limb of discrimination, because it investigates according to the reality previously realized. Right thought is the limb of instructing others, because according to what has been realized, it establishes expedients, thinking upon names and meanings and giving rise to speech. The next three are the limbs that cause others to have faith: 'right speech' means skillfully posing questions and resolving them based on what has been realized, causing others to have faith that there is purity of view; 'right action' means being fully endowed with right conduct in bodily action, movement, and stopping, causing others to have faith that there is purity of precept; 'right livelihood' means begging in accordance with the Dharma, abiding in the noble lineage, and departing from the five wrong livelihoods, causing others to have faith that there is purity of livelihood. 'Right effort' is the limb that purifies the obstacle of defilements, because through this one permanently severs all fetters. 'Right mindfulness' is the limb that purifies secondary afflictions (upakleśa), because by not forgetting the marks of right calming and uplift, it permanently admits neither depression nor restlessness. 'Right samādhi' is the limb that can purify the obstacles to the most supreme merits, because through this one brings forth boundless superior merits such as psychic superknowledges. If one can discriminate and instruct as above, this is the fruit of the limbs of the path. Among the eight, the three of speech, action, and livelihood are subsumed under the aggregate of morality; mindfulness and samādhi are samādhi; the remaining three are wisdom. Samādhi and wisdom are largely the same as in the various previous sets, only increasing in superiority; regarding morality, previously there were no awakening limbs [for it], and although there was the morality accompanying concentration, its unmanifest mark was subtle; here it is right practice, so it is newly established—this is explained in terms of stations. If we rely on the 'Chapter on Transcending the World' of this sūtra, the eightfold right [path] is the path of the bodhisattva: the first is right view, distancing from wrong views; up to the eighth, right samādhi with skillful means, producing the inconceivable dharmas of the bodhisattva and all samādhis within a single samādhi—which is vastly different in purport from the previous explanation. The above seven categories are generally revealed by an analogy: the nature of phenomena is like the great earth, the applications of mindfulness are like the seed, right striving is the planting, the bases of psychic power are like the sprouting, the five faculties are like taking root, the five powers are like the growth of stems and leaves, blooming the flowers of the seven limbs of awakening, and bearing the fruits of the eightfold right [path].