大方廣佛華嚴經隨疏演義鈔 37.25

37.25

疏「如迷木見鬼」等者，舉喻以明。如人夜行雲月朦朧，見一杌木，以無月光、情懷怖畏而生鬼想。眾生亦爾，行生死夜，妄想浮雲蔽於慧月，覩緣生法不了性空，謂有定性如生鬼想。鬼喻遍計，木喻依圓。若了知鬼是因迷有，則知所執定性之法皆由妄情，是人名為妄識所執，故名悟人如實知鬼。此釋上半。

Regarding the Commentary's 'Like mistaking a tree for a ghost' and so forth: it presents an analogy to clarify it. It is like a person walking at night when the clouds and moon are hazy, who sees a stump of a tree and, because of the absence of moonlight and harboring fear in their heart, conceives the thought of a ghost. Sentient beings are also like this: walking in the night of saṃsāra, the floating clouds of delusive conception obscure the moon of wisdom; seeing dharmas born of conditions, they fail to understand their emptiness of nature and believe there is a fixed nature, just as conceiving the thought of a ghost. The ghost is a metaphor for the imaginary; the tree is a metaphor for the other-dependent and consummate. If one fully understands that the ghost exists because of delusion, then one knows that the grasped dharmas of fixed nature all stem from delusive emotion; this person is called one grasping through deluded consciousness, hence they are called an awakened person who truly knows the ghost. This explains the upper half.