大方廣佛華嚴經隨疏演義鈔 37.5

37.5

Regarding the Commentary's statement, "If one takes the emptiness of the ultimate truth to be Buddha-nature, it is purely the primary cause": this distinguishes it from the nature of wisdom. However, the Nirvāṇa Sūtra states: "Buddha-nature is named the emptiness of the ultimate truth; the emptiness of the ultimate truth is named wisdom. These two are non-dual and constitute Buddha-nature." Now, the emptiness of the ultimate truth is the essence of Buddha-nature, while being named wisdom is the characteristic of Buddha-nature. When the emptiness of the ultimate truth is not within wisdom, it is merely named dharmatā; because it is within wisdom, it is named Buddha-nature. If one subsumes the essence under the characteristic, then only sentient beings have Buddha-nature, because they have wisdom. Walls, tiles, and gravel have no wisdom, so they lack Buddha-nature. If one subsumes the characteristic under the essence, then since the emptiness of the ultimate truth is nowhere absent, walls and the like are all the emptiness of the ultimate truth—how could they not be the nature? Therefore, a later passage of the sūtra states: "Know that all dharmas are the mind's own nature." A treatise says: "Because the nature of form is itself the nature of wisdom, the essence of form, being formless, is termed the wisdom-body; because the nature of wisdom is itself the nature of form, it is termed the dharmakāya. It pervades all places, clarifying that the essence is fundamentally equal." Here, essence and characteristic are differentiated, and so two meanings are distinguished.