新華嚴經論 2.15

2.15

The first, that of being the same, is like the simile of the nourishing grass of the Snowy Mountains in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra. It is also as stated in the 'Chapter on Bodhisattva Sarvaprabhāśi-rāja-samudgata': 'All sentient beings have the Buddha-nature; the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṃgha are without difference. The nature and characteristics of the Three Jewels are permanence, bliss, self, and purity; all Buddhas never ultimately enter nirvāṇa.' The Avataṃsaka Sūtra says: 'The Tathāgata does not appear in the world, nor does he pass into nirvāṇa.' Just as the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra rebukes the crooked views of the two vehicles—that the Buddha descending his spirit from the Tuṣita palace to abide in the womb, and the eight phases of achieving the Way, are all crooked views—this is precisely like the Avataṃsaka Sūtra where wisdom enters the three times without coming or going, and the Buddhas of the ten directions realize great bodhi through the nature that lacks past and present. When the Way is seen in a single thought, views of past and present are exhausted, and both new and old are utterly absent; one is entirely identical with the Buddhas of hundreds of millions of kalpas and ineffable kalpas past who realized Buddhahood in a single moment, and also with the Buddhas of future ineffable kalpas who realize Buddhahood in a single moment. Because through one's own realization one sees that the three times are devoid of time, by being devoid of time there is no coming or going. Even if sentient beings do not themselves see and know that their own body and mind are originally right awakening, the complete virtue of the right awakening of their own body and mind is originally without extinction. If there are sentient beings who themselves see and know that their own body and mind are originally right awakening, then with respect to their own right awakening there is originally no arising; because it is originally thus, there is originally neither one who awakens nor that which is awakened. If there is one who awakens, they still awaken in this manner, because originally there is neither one who awakens nor that which is awakened. Such an enlightened realm of the Buddha's original awakening is without ordinary person or noble, without meditation or distraction, without practice or realization, without wisdom or foolishness, without arising or ceasing. The provisional teachings of the three vehicles are spoken for the inferior to guide them to this real teaching of the Avataṃsaka, that they may suddenly receive the Buddha gate. Although the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra speaks of the principle of the Buddha-nature and dharmakāya as being identical with the Avataṃsaka, the saṃbhogakāya, Buddha body, marks, and the functioning of wisdom it describes are completely distinct, as should be understood in accordance with the preceding ten gates. Just as with the two corpuses of teachings of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka and the Mahāparinirvāṇa, though set forth by transformation buddhas, both intend to lead those of the two vehicles and of human and heavenly kind to accomplish the teaching of the One Vehicle. Therefore, because the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra shatters the distant attachments of the three vehicles, it causes the dragon girl, through her fundamental Dharma, to attain bodhi in the span of a kṣaṇa. Because the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra shatters the view that icchantikas lack Buddha-nature, it causes the butcher Guang'e to achieve right awakening within the Bhadrakalpa. Furthermore, if a cow eats the nourishing grass of the Snowy Mountains, it yields pure ghee; without going through milk and butter, it directly becomes the wondrous medicine, immediately and suddenly without alteration of essence, just like the fruit attained by that dragon girl. The general import and momentum of these two corpuses of teachings, the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka and the Mahāparinirvāṇa, are both to make the three vehicles abandon the provisional and enter the real, accomplishing the one true and real gate of the dharmadhātu. All the other teachings are provisional explanations; even if they discuss principle and phenomena, they treat it only in small part, and the ceremonial and practical forms therein cannot be fully complete. Only the Avataṃsaka is the fundamental Buddha gate of Vairocana's dharmadhātu, perfectly and completely equipped with principle and phenomena, nature and characteristics, to which all other gradual practices ultimately return. At times students linger along the way, and those who are bound to the provisional teachings take many kalpas to transform their disposition; the inferior and foolish bring difficulty upon themselves, and it is not the holy intention that brings about such an outcome.