新華嚴經論 10.2

10.2

First, the assembly radiating light within the bodhi tree explains the assembly that reveals the cause and achieves retribution through establishing practice and benefiting sentient beings, progressing through the five stages from the Buddha's original cause, as explained previously. Second, the assembly within the palace where the Tathāgata resides explains the assembly that reveals the cause and achieves retribution through the Buddha's original cause of perfecting great compassion, sheltering sentient beings, and benefiting beings. Third, among the assemblies of bodhisattvas as numerous as the dust motes of ten Buddha worlds, the ten bodhisattva assemblies whose primary names all share the word "Samanta-", such as Samantabhadra, explain the assembly of Buddhas past and present jointly practicing the conduct of Samantabhadra. These three assemblies above are all the constant practice of the path of Samantabhadra: the myriad practices of great compassion and great wisdom jointly carried out by Buddhas past and present, cultivating the ten pāramitās, the four means of embracing, the four immeasurables, and so forth, progressing through the five stages to benefit oneself and others. All bodhisattvas take this as their essence, and all ordinary persons take this as their vehicle—like a great royal highway, its rule is ever so, and whether one walks it or not does not alter the path. From these ten Samantabhadra assemblies down to the fourth, from the assemblies of the thirty-three heavenly kings down to the kings of the Maheśvara heaven, they are again divided into five according to their stages. First, from "At that time, the World-Honoured One was upon this seat, having attained supreme, correct awakening," together with the ten Samantabhadra assemblies, this is the section that manifests fruition to establish the cause and generate faith. Why is this so? Because the Tathāgata is the fruition of correct awakening, the assemblies of Samantabhadra and the others are the fruitions of the Buddha's practice, and the Lotus Treasury Pure Land where the Tathāgata resides is the circumstantial fruition attained as the Buddha's retribution. It is because all sentient beings, according to their own capacities, contemplate these three kinds of cause and fruition of the Tathāgata and practice the Buddha's own practice of the gate of Samantabhadra, thereby giving rise to faithful devotion. Were it not so, on what basis would they give rise to faith? Therefore, the Tathāgata uses these three kinds of cause and fruition to cause sentient beings to faithfully aspire and cultivate practice. For this reason, this initial assembly, as well as the second assembly in the Hall of Universal Light, down to the Chapter on the Foremost of Worthies—twelve chapters of the sūtra in all—constitute entirely the section that presents fruition to encourage cultivation and generate faith.