大方廣佛華嚴經疏 4.12

4.12

Second, "I have heard" is the fulfillment of hearing. Intending to transmit it to those who have not yet heard, if there are words but they are not transmitted, they are set forth in vain; the value lies not merely in being able to expound, but in being able to transmit; hence next "I have heard" is clarified. "I" is Ānanda; "heard" means listening and hearing in person. Why call it "I"? It is the provisional person of the aggregates. With what is this hearing done? Relying on the doctrinal marks of the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna, each has three theories: 1. the ear hears, not consciousness; 2. consciousness hears, not the ear; 3. hearing occurs only when conditions combine. However, it may possess four conditions, eight conditions, and so forth; although it depends on the ear organ, setting aside the specific and following the general, it is therefore called "I have heard". Although dharmas are without self, for ease of verbal expression and in conformity with the worldly, it is called "I have heard"; it is not spoken out of a mind of heterodox conceit. If relying on marklessness: since the self is without self, hearing is also without hearing; because it is empty through conditions, it does not destroy conventional designations, which is just hearing without hearing. If regarding dharmatā, the import of this sūtra is that the bodhisattva who transmits the Dharma, with the true self of the non-duality of self and non-self, and the wondrous ear wherein organ and object are neither one nor different, hears the Dharma-gate of the unobstructed dharmadhātu. However, regarding the sūtras that Ānanda did not hear: some say they were transmitted by indirect hearsay; some say the Tathāgata expounded them again; some say he attained deep samādhi; or that he was spontaneously able to penetrate them. All the above are spoken with respect to traces; in truth, he was a bodhisattva of great expedient manifestation who assisted the propagation through his influence, as the *Acintyaviṣayasūtra* provides good proof. It is merely according to the differences in capacities and teachings that seeing and hearing differ. Above, generally revealing what has been heard is completed.