大方廣佛華嚴經疏 37.9

37.9

The second major section, the division of purity, subsumes the abiding of noble birth; hence the preceding text says, "Born into the holy teachings of all Buddhas." Why is it "purity"? Because one comes to have increasing power and influence in the family of the Tathāgata. Within the text there are three parts: first, stating generally; next, from "What are..." downwards, querying and explaining; third, "These are the ten," a general conclusion. In the first part, the text has three clauses: the last clause, "born into the family," is the general mark; the first clause, the "ten wisdoms," is the cause capable of producing [birth]; the next clause, the "internal dharmas," is the family that is born into. Because by contemplating the ten dharmas below—such as the various practices—with the ten wisdoms, they attain maturity. When mature, they eliminate the cognitive obstruction concerning the understanding of dharmas of the third stage, gather the supramundane superior wisdom of the fourth stage, and tally with the essence of dharmas; hence it says "obtains those internal dharmas." "Internal dharmas" reveals that they are not external marks; these dharmas are the teaching and transforming dharmas expounded by the Tathāgata, which are named "the family of the Tathāgata." Because this stage serves as the head of the supramundane, it is called "birth."

However, the family of the Tathāgata is, briefly speaking, of three kinds: 1. the family of the bodhicitta, born into at the first abiding; 2. the family of the great teaching, born into at the fourth abiding; 3. the family of the dharmadhātu, born into through realization at the first stage. Now, this [stage] subsumes the fourth abiding; therefore, by tallying wisdom with the teaching dharmas, it unites with the dharmadhātu, and possessing the ten meanings below, it is called "birth." If in the Yogācāra it merely says "growing the family of the Tathāgata," and the treatise's sūtra also merely says "comes to have increasing power in the family of the Tathāgata," the intention is to clarify that one has already been born into the family in the first stage, and in the second and third stages initiated the expedients of cultivation and long possessed power; now, relying on the broad learning of the third stage to accomplish supramundane wisdom, it says "comes to have increasing [power]." The tallying of wisdom here is precisely the wisdom-light of non-active and non-arising practice.

In the second part, querying and listing, ten clauses are listed. The treatise condenses them into four: 1. The wisdom of certainty regarding one's own abode: that is, the Mahāyāna is the bodhisattva's own abode, and abiding corresponds to the profound mind; "certainty" means non-retrogression. 2. The wisdom of certainty in equally revering the Three Jewels: that is, realizing the identical essence of the Three Jewels, thereby accomplishing indestructible faith. The above two are based on the distinctions in practiced virtues, the former being one's own portion and the latter being superior progress. Below there are two wisdoms, based on distinctions in wisdom and understanding, the former realization and the latter teaching. 3. There are two clauses clarifying the wisdom of tathatā: that is, seeing the ultimate truth and realizing the two kinds of selflessness. First, there are merely the various conditioned factors (saṃskāras) such as the aggregates that undergo arising, ceasing, and transmigration; hence there is no personal self. Second, these very dharmas such as the aggregates are originally unproduced; hence there is no phenomenal self. 4. The remaining six clauses clarify the wisdom of differentiated exposition: that is, it is teaching wisdom, and is therefore called "exposition." Because it knows conventional truth, it is called "differentiation," as it differentiates defilement and purity: that is, the first two clauses are defilement; the latter three clauses are purity; the third clause contains both defilement and purity, each possessing cause and effect, which are precisely the Four Truths.

That is, the first two clauses are called "following afflictions": defilement is the dependent and primary two retributions of the truth of suffering, because they are produced following the集-cause of afflictions. The first clause is dependent retribution and the next clause is primary retribution; hence it says "there is birth." Both are caused by karma; karma and afflictions are both集-causes, so the treatise and the sūtra speak of them with complementary omission. In the third clause, first contemplating birth-and-death—which the treatise's sūtra calls "the world"—is the defilement of afflictions. The preceding clause reveals the effect by means of the cause, saying "due to karma there is birth"; this clause reveals the cause by means of the effect, and therefore says "birth-and-death." Because birth-and-death takes afflictions as its essence, it is precisely the truth of the origination [of suffering]; this accords with the treatise's intention. Next, contemplating nirvāṇa is all purity, which is precisely the truth of cessation. If we follow the sūtra text directly, it is also permissible that "due to karma there is birth" is the truth of origination, and "birth-and-death and nirvāṇa" again contemplates both suffering and cessation. The latter three clauses follow that which is purified, which is precisely the truth of the path, because it accords with the preceding cessation. Among the three: the first is the practice of benefiting others; the treatise states, "teaching and transforming sentient beings in the worlds of all Buddhas, because one's own karma has matured." Conforming to the treatise's intention to translate this first clause, one should say "contemplating the karma of transforming sentient beings in all lands"; then it would not be confused with the preceding "due to karma there is birth." The latter two clauses are practices of benefiting oneself, namely contemplating the defilement of afflictions and the purity of nirvāṇa as the path according with cessation. The first clause concerns phenomena: contemplating that afflictions have no beginning, so they are the "prior limit"; nirvāṇa has no end, so it is the "posterior limit." The latter clause accords with noumenon: contemplating that afflictions are fundamentally empty and without decrease, so there is nothing to be exhausted; the nature of nirvāṇa is pure and not newly increased, because its own nature is exhausted; hence both are called "exhaustion of non-existence." Affliction implicitly includes birth-and-death, and nirvāṇa implicitly includes bodhi; the wisdom of bodhi also tallies with noumenon; yet because it is conventional truth, viewed in the middle, it is identical with the preceding wisdom of suchness. Furthermore, the latter two clauses mean "originally existing and now non-existent"; the verse's meaning is also contemplation of the dharmas of dependent origination: ignorance and karmic formations are the prior limit, and birth, aging, and death are the posterior limit. When ignorance ceases, karmic formations cease; because their own nature ceases, it is called "exhaustion of non-existence," as in the sixth stage.