新華嚴經論 2.12

2.12

Eighth, the distinction in manifesting the marks of taking birth and passing into extinction: This Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, for the sake of humans, devas, śrāvakas, and pratyekabuddhas of the two vehicles, sets forth the eight marks of attaining the Way, descending in spirit from the Tuṣita heaven to take birth and entering nirvāṇa. It also explains for the great vehicle bodhisattvas that [the Buddha] does not descend in spirit from the Tuṣita heaven into a mother's womb, explaining the permanent, blissful, self, and pure, without beginning or end, neither arising nor ceasing. Yet it temporarily conceals his body so that it does not appear, still relegating his saṃbhogakāya land to the west, where beyond thirty-two Ganges sands of Buddha-lands there is Śākyamuni's saṃbhogakāya land. Considering this Sahā [world] to be a nirmāṇakāya land and an impure realm, it employs this circumstantial distinction to attract those of provisional faculties. The Avataṃsaka Sūtra is not like this: it directly reveals the fundamental body and fundamental Dharma, transcending sentiment and view, devoid of beginning or end, with the marks of the three periods of time severed. It is the Dharma-gate of the single, perfect, true saṃbhoga, neither arising nor ceasing, neither permanent nor annihilated, the ocean of fruition wherein nature and marks are unhindered and sovereign, directly conferred upon people of the highest of high faculties. The characteristics of the teaching and practice possess an impetus like this. It is unlike provisional learning, which is accomplished gradually according to sequence. It is just like ascending a peak of nine fathoms: one cannot obliterate one's tracks; one who treads the levels of a ten-tiered flight cannot dispense with their footprints. Seeing ordinary officials of the first rank, they are regarded merely as ministers. Hearing of a gentleman of old suddenly ascending the imperial throne, the bright jewel illuminates at once and sees universally without bounds; the moisture pours into the great ocean, drop by drop completely filled. The empty nature of a single dust mote is the undifferentiated dharmadhātu. Different classes of sentient beings forcibly give rise to attachments; because their capacities are unequal and the provisional and ultimate are different, on this account the teachings are manifold in their thousands of distinctions. One must know the provisional and ultimate, recognize the conventional and cultivate the real, and not remain long in provisional tenets while bewildered about the ultimate teaching.