大方廣佛華嚴經隨疏演義鈔 1.8

1.8

Fourth, 'surpassing words and thought and towering far beyond' harmonizes and eliminates the previous three. Harmonizing means the three and the one mutually subsume each other; eliminating means the three and the one are both quiescent. How does it surpass them? Principle is round while words are partial; when words arise, principle is lost. Dharmas are without marks or conceptual thoughts; when one thinks, confusion arises. Both are surpassed, hence it says 'towering far beyond'. Thus Master Zhao said: 'The mouth desires to speak, but words fail; the mind is about to condition, but thought vanishes.' Thus it towers far beyond the realm of words and images. Why? If one wishes to speak of characteristics and function, they are identical to the quiescence of essence; if one wishes to say it is the quiescence of essence, characteristics and function are manifold. Being identical to the one, the three characteristics are not identical; being identical to the three, the one essence is not two. The three and the one are unobstructed, mutually negating and both vanishing; their preservation and extinction are unconstrained—how could words and images reach them? Hence it says 'towering far beyond'. Furthermore, one borrows this vanishing and elimination to dismiss words and thought; it is not that there is a wordlessness upon which one can rely. Hence the sūtra below says: 'Although not relying on the path of verbal expression, / one also does not cling to wordlessness.' Moreover, since verbal characteristics are fundamentally quiescent, vanishing and elimination also vanish; here, words and the vanishing of words are relatively quiescent. Therefore, the appellation 'towering far beyond' is provisionally used to sweep away the traces of words and wordlessness.