大方廣佛華嚴經隨疏演義鈔 80.34

80.34

Regarding the commentary's "Now first, there are thirteen bodies" and so forth: the commentary text has three parts: first, briefly explaining the text; second, from "all say 'measure'" downward, specifically explaining the word "measure"; third, from "therefore the sage" downward, concluding with the profound purport. This is text from Master Zhao's "Treatise on the Namelessness of Nirvāṇa: Harmonizing Antiquity," which came out of the preceding section "Exhausting the Source," where it says: "Without sentient beings, there would be nothing with which to steer the triyāna; without the triyāna, there would be nothing with which to accomplish nirvāṇa. Yet there must first be sentient beings, and subsequently nirvāṇa. If so, nirvāṇa has a beginning; having a beginning, it must have an end. Yet the sūtras say: 'Nirvāṇa has neither beginning nor end, serene like empty space.' Then nirvāṇa exists prior, and is no longer something accomplished through study." Commentary: This passage uses cultivation-and-attainment to challenge the idea that nirvāṇa has a beginning and an end; and uses nirvāṇa's lack of beginning and end to challenge its attainment through cultivation. Therefore, "Harmonizing Antiquity" answers: "The unconditioned is called nirvāṇa. The supreme person is cavernously empty and formless, yet nothing is other than myself. Bringing together the myriad things to complete oneself—who could do this but the sage? Why so? Without principle, one is not a sage; without a sage, there is no principle. Being a sage by means of principle, the sage is not different from principle. Therefore the Heavenly Lord asked: 'Where should prajñā be sought?' Śubhūti said: 'Prajñā must not be sought in form, nor must it be sought apart from form.' It is also said: 'Seeing dependent origination is seeing the Dharma; seeing the Dharma is seeing the Buddha.' This is the efficacy of things and self being not different. Therefore the supreme person restrains the profound mechanism before it portends, and conceals the dark operation within transformation itself; he encompasses the six directions to mirror his mind, and unifies past and future to constitute his essence. Past and present connect, beginning and end are identical; exhausting the root and reaching the branch, nothing is dual with it; vast and grandly equal, it is called nirvāṇa." Commentary: Although that [treatise] explains nirvāṇa, it also takes the unity of subject and object through the accord of what can realize and what is realized. Here, although stated in terms of bodhi, it also adopts the unity of subject and object; hence it can employ its text.