大方廣佛華嚴經隨疏演義鈔 80.41

80.41

On the Commentary's passage from "According to different approaches there are various distinctions" downward: third, concluding by analogy, which brings other approaches under the same principle. Although the approaches are many, they are briefly divided into four: 1. in terms of nature, namely the one true dharmadhātu; 2. in terms of characteristics, namely inexhaustible phenomenal dharmas; 3. in terms of the interpenetration of nature and characteristics, showing that these two approaches are neither identical nor separate; 4. using nature to interpenetrate characteristics, so that virtuous functions are layered and multiply unfolded. Regarding the first approach, in terms of nature: Question: Is the essence the Buddha or not? Answer: It is. If unobstructed, it should form a tetralemma: (1) It is the Buddha, for the dharmatā-body reaches nowhere it does not pervade; hence the sūtra says, "Because the emptiness of nature is precisely the Buddha." (2) It is not the Buddha, as it cuts off the subject and object of awakening; because its nature is the equitable one true dharmadhātu, it is neither Buddha nor sentient being. (3) It is both Buddha and not Buddha, because the dharmatā-body lacks intrinsic nature. (4) It is neither, because both nature and absence of nature are mutually eradicated; the sūtra says, "Within nothingness there is no duality, / nor is there non-duality. / All across the three times is empty: / such is the vision of the Buddhas." Second, regarding the approach in terms of characteristics, there are two aspects: sentient and non-sentient. The true mind accords with conditions, transforming into subject and object. However, each of these two approaches is divided into defiled and pure: avidyā perfuming tathatā constitutes defiled dependent origination, and tathatā perfuming avidyā constitutes pure dependent origination. Defilement forms the myriad kinds; purity culminates in Buddhahood. Only by cultivating pure conditions and cutting off those defiled conditions does one attain Buddhahood. According to these two aspects, sentient beings and Buddhas are distinct. Within pure conditions there are further cause and effect: the cause has pure and mixed, and the effect has the circumstantial and the primary. In terms of the pure approach, any single bodhisattva exhausts the limits of the future cultivating only one practice, and every single one is likewise; in terms of the mixed approach, the myriad practices are cultivated together, exhausting the limits of the future. In terms of the causal approach, one is constantly a bodhisattva exhausting the limits of the future; in terms of the fruitional approach, one is constantly a Tathāgata exhausting the limits of the future. The sūtra says, "For the sake of sentient beings, in thought after thought, newly and afresh he attains equal and perfect enlightenment." If one treats both approaches together, exhausting the limits of the future one cultivates the cause and attains the fruit; if in terms of the negation of both, exhausting the limits of the future there is neither cause nor fruit, which then accords with the true nature. The preceding two approaches both fully possess compassion and wisdom, and both interpenetrate mind and object. In the third approach, the interpenetration of nature and characteristics, there are four intricate sub-approaches: 1. using nature to follow characteristics, identical to the second approach; 2. converging characteristics back into nature, identical to the first approach; 3. preserving both without obstruction, possessing the two approaches above—relying on this, compassion and wisdom are operated together, nature and characteristics proceed side by side, and quiescence and illumination flow in tandem, accomplishing great sovereignty; 4. mutual negating and mutual vanishing, whereby nature and characteristics are both cut off, submerged together into the ocean of fruition, with neither realization nor non-realization. In the fourth approach, using nature to interpenetrate characteristics: although characteristics have myriad differences, none is not identical to nature, and the virtues of the nature contain and fully abide within characteristics. Using nature to interpenetrate characteristics, characteristics are like nature, rendering all the above approaches free from obstruction: cause and effect interpenetrate, the pure and the mixed blend together, and phenomenon by phenomenon they mutually interweave, layered and inexhaustible. Now, within the tetralemma of the approach of nature, it is precisely the approach of being the Buddha, not taking the other three. In the approach of characteristics, in terms of sentient beings, it is pure and not defiled, fruitional and not causal, which is a partial meaning not employed here. In the approach of interpenetration, for the Buddha nature and characteristics are both interpenetrated, while for sentient beings characteristics are converged back into nature. Now the sūtra specifically relies on the fourth, using nature to interpenetrate characteristics, where when one realizes, all realize. That is to say, using the Buddha's pure nature to interpenetrate the defilement of sentient beings, and using the Buddha's single nature to interpenetrate the multiplicity of sentient beings, causes the multiple defiled sentient beings, following the one true nature, to all be like the Buddha, having already attained Buddhahood. Not only sentient beings: converging the characteristics of the myriad kinds and interpenetrating them into the Buddha's essence, there are none that are not all realized. Hence Master Zhao says: "He who converges the myriad things to make them himself—is he not none other than the sage?" He also says: "Therefore the ultimate person is empty, hollow, and formless, yet among things there is nothing that is not himself." Using the Buddha's nature to interpenetrate the nature of things, they are all realized identical to the Buddha; using the nature of things to interpenetrate the Buddha's characteristics, his three karmas are made equal to the myriad kinds. This is precisely the purport of the present sūtra, and not other approaches; hence it says that according to different approaches there are variations, and here it is the approach of realizing Buddhahood. The sudden teaching mostly accords with the four approaches in terms of nature; the final teaching accords with the interpenetration of nature and characteristics; the initial teaching has two aspects: first, illusory existence is immediately empty, identical to converging characteristics back into nature; but because it is only the manifestation of mind, it mostly accords with the second. The Hīnayāna, humans, and gods all accord with the approach of characteristics. For this reason, some say that the non-sentient attain Buddhahood: this is in terms of the mutual interpenetration of nature and characteristics, using the nature of the sentient to interpenetrate the characteristics of the non-sentient, and using the characteristics of the non-sentient following nature to interpenetrate and become identical to the nature of the sentient; therefore it is said that the non-sentient have the meaning of attaining Buddhahood. If one uses the meaning of the non-sentient not attaining Buddhahood to interpenetrate the characteristics of the sentient, one may also say that sentient beings do not attain Buddhahood. Because attaining and not attaining, sentient and non-sentient, have no dual nature; because the dharmadhātu is boundless; because the Buddha's essence is universally pervasive; because form and emptiness are non-dual; because dharmas have no fixed nature; because the ten bodies are completely interfused; because dependent origination is mutually conditioned; because the realm of sentient beings is inexhaustible; because cause and effect are omnipresent; because it is far removed from annihilation and permanence; and because the myriad dharmas are insubstantial and interpenetrated—for these reasons it is said that when one realizes, all realize. It does not mean that the non-sentient also possess an awakening nature that attains Buddhahood identically with the sentient. If one allowed them to attain Buddhahood, this attainment would then be able to cultivate the cause, the non-sentient turning into the sentient, and the sentient turning into the non-sentient, which would then be identical to heterodox views. The remaining meanings are fully explained before and after as stated above.