大方廣佛華嚴經隨疏演義鈔 71.29

71.29

Regarding the commentary's phrase "7. Complying with the root of birth..." onward: this discerns birth in contrast to causes. The above is the treatise text. Below "meaning ignorance and craving...", the commentary follows the treatise's explanation. If [one considers what] Master Yuan said: "The phrasing of the treatise is inverted; if corrected, it should say 'conforming to the root causes of birth.' That is, present birth is originally caused by ignorance and craving. Based on this present birth, one again gives rise to ignorance and craving; hence it says 'conforming to the root.'" This also does not contradict principle. Regarding the commentary's phrase "8. The final two lines..." onward: it manifests their production of accumulation in contrast to subsequent fruits, hence it is named "the varieties of the truth of suffering's accumulation." Below "Meaning the three quests...", the commentary takes the treatise's intention to provide an explanation. Therein, first it explains the treatise's name in general, and afterwards, below "The upper line...", it separately interprets the sūtra text. First, it explains the two quests of the upper line. Regarding "desiring sensation": sensation means pleasant sensation. Desiring to produce the five desires, one intensifies grasping and seeking, thereby inviting future suffering. Regarding "desiring birth": its essence is perception; grasping at the superior characteristics of the three realms, one desires to be born [there]. In "The lower line is the quest for false celibacy (brahmacarya)", first it explains in general. The word "transmigration" here corresponds to the treatise's "coming and going, ascending and descending." Next, below "Greedily seeking the three realms...", it explains separately. "Small" is the desire realm; "great" is the form realm; "immeasurable" is the two formless [attainments] of space and consciousness; all as in the eighth stage. "Falsely calling it nirvāṇa" is spoken in terms of general characteristics. "Or patting the belly": that is, the Brahmin Daṇḍin patted his belly and proclaimed: "My body is itself the Way." This is positing the desire realm as the Way. "Non-perception" is positing the form realm as the Way. "Neither-perception" is positing the formless realm as the Way; thus the upper two formless [attainments] are also included therein. That among the two realms these two heavens are singled out is because non-Buddhists mostly grasp them as nirvāṇa. However, the treatise's sūtra text says "greedily attached to the three realms, conceiving perceptions of leaving perception." And the treatise explains the word "perception" in the sūtra by means of the heaven of non-perception, meaning: that realm has subtle perception, which non-Buddhists falsely imagine to be non-perception. Having perception, they call it non-existence; this is called "conceiving perceptions of leaving perception." The Tattvasiddhi-śāstra also maintains that the heaven of non-perception merely lacks coarse perception, but possesses subtle perception. Therefore the treatise concludes: "Non-Buddhists falsely imagine this to be escaping the wheel of existence." Thus we know that the three quests merely increase the causes of accumulation, repeatedly incurring suffering.