大方廣佛華嚴經疏 8.14

8.14

The fifth is the knowledge power of various realms (nānādhātu-jñāna-bala). Realm (dhātu) means nature (prakṛti)—that is, having the nature of one, two, three, four, or five vehicles, or the dispositions of lust, hatred, delusion, and equal parts, up to the eighty-four thousand dispositions, which are called diverse natures. Nature is seeds, while inclination is active functioning. Thus the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa states: "Nature is called the mark of accumulation"; and in fascicle 90 it says: "Nature is internal and desire is external; performing actions with nature inevitably incurs karmic retribution, whereas desire may not." The Yogācārabhūmi states: "Illuminating the similar seeds arisen from superior inclinations is due to the power of inclination; illuminating the differences of those very seeds is due to the knowledge power of realms. If habituating desire forms one's nature, how are they distinguished again? Desire is merely one mental factor among the universal factors (mahābhūmika), while nature extends across various mental factors; thus their scope is broad or narrow, which is not the same." The Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa states: "Habituating desire forms nature; nature is called deep mind (adhyāśaya), while desires regarding things are called arising in accord with conditions." If nature is seeds, how does it differ from faculties? Faculties refer only to the superiority or inferiority of faith and the rest, whereas nature extends to differences between good and evil. Because faith and the rest are broad and enduring with respect to the fruit, able to generate the holy paths of humans, devas, and the three vehicles, they are the roots of the path. The three wholesome roots are merely counterparts [to the three unwholesome roots] and do not take into account the meaning of fruit, so they are not yet called faculties. How much less could nature, which extends to evil, be considered identical? The verse saying, "all can be made to appear within a pore," means that not only does the Buddha's wisdom encompass the nature of sentient beings like space, but the space within a pore also manifests the realms of sentient beings.