大方廣佛華嚴經隨疏演義鈔 30.30

30.30

Regarding the commentary's: "The Madhyamakaśāstra states: 'Prapañca destroys the eye of wisdom...'" and so forth: this is from the chapter "Examination of the Tathāgata." Prior to this, there is one and a half stanzas: "In such emptiness of intrinsic nature, / conceptualization cannot be attained. / After the Tathāgata's extinction, / one discriminates between existence and non-existence." Qingmu explains: "All dharmas are in their true mark empty of intrinsic nature; therefore, after the Tathāgata's extinction, one should not conceptualize whether he exists, does not exist, or both exists and does not exist. The Tathāgata has from the very origin been ultimately empty, how much more so after extinction!" Explanation: this stanza collectively eliminates three propositions. The next stanza states: "The Tathāgata transcends prapañca, / yet people generate prapañca. / Prapañca destroys the eye of wisdom; / all such people do not see the Buddha." This stanza has two meanings: first, continuing from the preceding refutation of the third proposition, this refutes the fourth defamatory proposition of prapañca, namely 'neither existence nor non-existence', which is precisely the commentary's present text. Second, it collectively eliminates the four propositions and hundred negations, meaning that the arising of a thought or the stirring of a mental state all constitute prapañca, not confined to the fourth proposition; therefore the commentary subsequently says: "Deluded confusion does not arise, hence it is not an accumulation of aggregates; when the mind arises, it is born and immediately becomes prapañca." Qingmu's commentary there says: "Prapañca is called recollecting and apprehending marks, discriminating this and that. Saying the Buddha is extinguished, not extinguished, and so on—this person is enmeshed in prapañca. Because it veils the eye of wisdom, he cannot see the Tathāgata's dharmakāya."