大方廣佛華嚴經隨疏演義鈔 25.10

25.10

疏「思益經」下，即彼經第一。時有五百比丘，聞說法空，從座起去等。網明令思益梵天為作方便（云云）。梵天言：「善男子！縱使令去至恒河沙劫，不能得出如是法門。譬如癡人畏如虛空，捨空而走，在所至處不離虛空。此諸比丘亦復如是，雖復遠去，不出空相、不出無相相、不出無作相。又如一人求索虛空，東西馳走，言：『我欲得空。我欲得空。』是人但說虛空名字而不得空，於空中行而不見空。此諸比丘亦復如是，欲求涅槃行涅槃中，而不得涅槃。所以者何？涅槃者但有名字，猶如虛空但有名字不可得取。涅槃亦爾，但有名字而不可得。」爾時五百比丘聞說是經，不受諸法，漏盡意解，心得解脫，得阿羅漢道。作如是言：「世尊！若人於諸法畢竟滅相中求涅槃者，則於其人佛不出世。」釋曰：上經有二意。一不離空，以有遣空，求空不得，以空遣空。二者不離空，顯空體妙有，求空不得。顯空離相，非有非空，亦非空非不空。而諸比丘但得初意，故成羅漢，令畢竟無求。今疏通用二意皆為理趣，略引初喻以彰體周為真意趣。

Regarding the commentary's "The Viśeṣacintā[-brahma-paripṛcchā]-sūtra" onward: this refers to the first fascicle of that sūtra. At that time, there were five hundred monks who, hearing the exposition of the emptiness of dharmas, rose from their seats and departed, and so forth. Jālinīprabha directed Brahma Viśeṣacintā to employ an upāya for them (and so forth). The Brahmā said: "Good sons! Even if you were caused to depart for kalpas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, you could not exit such a Dharma gate. For example, just as a foolish person, terrified of empty space, flees from space, yet wherever he arrives he is not separate from empty space; these monks are also like this: although they go far away, they do not exit the mark of emptiness, they do not exit the mark of marklessness, and they do not exit the mark of wishlessness. Furthermore, just as a person searching for empty space runs east and west, saying: 'I want to obtain space! I want to obtain space!' That person only speaks the name 'empty space' but does not obtain space; he walks within space but does not see space. These monks are also like this: wishing to seek nirvāṇa, they practice within nirvāṇa yet do not obtain nirvāṇa. Why is this? Nirvāṇa exists only as a name, just as empty space exists only as a name and cannot be grasped; nirvāṇa is likewise: it exists only as a name and cannot be obtained." At that time, hearing this sūtra, the five hundred monks did not grasp at any dharmas; their effluents exhausted and their minds liberated, their minds attained deliverance and they attained the path of the arhat. They made this statement: "World-Honoured One! If a person seeks nirvāṇa within the mark of the ultimate cessation of all dharmas, then for that person no Buddha appears in the world." Explanation: The above sūtra has two meanings. First, not departing from emptiness: using existence to discard emptiness, and failing to obtain emptiness when seeking it, is using emptiness to discard emptiness. Second, not departing from emptiness reveals that the essence of emptiness is wondrous existence; failing to obtain emptiness when seeking it reveals that emptiness is free from marks—neither existent nor empty, and neither empty nor non-empty. But those monks grasped only the first meaning, and thus became arhats, causing them to be ultimately free of seeking. Now the commentary uses both meanings together as the purport, briefly citing the initial metaphor to illuminate that the essence's pervasiveness is the true purport.