新華嚴經論 2.39

2.39

Tenth, just as the great ocean, by virtue of its purity, can reflect the seven golden mountains, the jeweled Mount Sumeru, the Four Heavenly Kings, and all other adornments, none of which fail to appear clearly therein; this sūtra is also like this: it fully expounds the ocean of the nature of the Tathāgata's dharmakāya, adorned with full virtues—the ten Buddha bodies, the ten Lotus Storehouses, the five stages, the ten wisdoms, the ten pāramitās, the ten concentrations, the ten patiences, and the various dharmas of the factors of the path acquired as karmic fruition in cause and effect—none of which fail to appear clearly in its accounts. In its general substance, this sūtra takes the dharmadhātu of great wisdom of nature-arising as its essence and function; and in the gate of essence and function of the dharmadhātu of great wisdom of nature-arising, it establishes the distinct dharmas for transforming and generating [beings] across the various grounds. Therefore, if one generates faith and gives rise to the great bodhicitta within this Dharma, at the very beginning of the ten abodes one immediately sees the wisdom of the dharmakāya of nature-arising and immediately attains right enlightenment. Only then, from that stage of nature-arising wisdom, does one practice the forms of the various practices to teach and transform sentient beings, being an enlightened-and-practicing-complete Buddha. This is unlike the provisional teachings, where one first practices the bodhisattva practices to learn the provisional, obscured by [their conceptualization of] true suchness: because true suchness, held as an object of contemplation before one's mind, becomes an obstacle, the practices one engages in are all conditioned, the bodhicitta one generates has not yet departed from arising and ceasing, and the discriminative ignorance one severs is merely subdued through contemplation. Only at the rank of the ten grounds can they see the nature, and only after passing through three asaṃkhyeya kalpas do they first become a Buddha, still needing to separately cultivate the marks and signs for a hundred kalpas. If one takes this root vehicle of the Buddha of the *Mahāvaipulya Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra* to be identical with that of nirmāṇakāya [Buddhas], guiding those upper, middle, and lower streams of provisional learners, this is entirely contrary to faithful understanding and is profoundly distant from the Buddha; failing to understand the sūtra's meaning, after vast kalpas of immense duration there will never be a time of becoming a Buddha. If a person of supreme capacity faithfully understands this sūtra and clearly knows it to be unerring, they immediately ride the Tathāgata Vehicle directly to the bodhimaṇḍa. The very moment it is ridden is itself the bodhimaṇḍa—there is nowhere else to reach. The *Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra* is also the Buddha Vehicle, yet it is a nirmāṇa Buddha guiding those of the three vehicles so that they may know the real Dharma. That is, the three vehicles before the gate of the burning house of the triple world—the goat cart, the deer cart, and the great ox cart—are precisely the three vehicles of superior, middling, and inferior capacities. Because a person of superior capacity possesses a portion of compassion, they excel the other two vehicles; yet because they contemplate the provisional, they do not yet have real insight, and are called an untrue bodhisattva. All three of these people of superior, middling, and inferior capacities detest the suffering of the triple world. People of middling and inferior capacities—śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas—detest it and seek escape; the superior-capacity bodhisattva is weary of it but does not leave it, possessing a mind to benefit [others] because their compassion excels that of the other two vehicles. These three kinds of people alike do not know that the essence and characteristics of the triple world are the single real Buddha realm, as explained extensively in the 'Chapter on the Arising of the Tathāgata'. In response to this, the Buddha taught that all the virtues and reward marks possessed by a Buddha are produced through cultivation, causing those provisional learners to cultivate and govern with deliberate intent. Cultivating through three asaṃkhyeya kalpas, there would be no time of becoming a Buddha. Therefore, the carriages before the gate were the Buddha's provisional expedient, and only the white ox in the open ground reveals the dharmadhātu: nature and characteristics are fundamentally only true wisdom, and all distinctions are the activity of wisdom. Therefore, the *Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra* says: 'The meanings of the various natures and characteristics—only I and the Buddhas of the ten directions are able to know these matters. Śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and non-retrogressing bodhisattvas are all unable to know them.' These are precisely the three vehicles before the gate. Because they have not yet clarified that these dharmas abide in their dharma-positions and worldly characteristics are eternally abiding, and because the three vehicles alike possess a mind that detests suffering and accumulation and delights in cultivating cessation and the path, they have not clarified that suffering and accumulation fundamentally arise solely from wisdom, nor realized that cessation and the path are fundamentally devoid of cultivation, making, or action. Transforming the various kinds of beings, they abide in the world like an illusion; their nature having extinguished ignorance, they are precisely Buddhas. In one thought-moment of accord, one is a Buddha for one thought-moment; in one day of accord, one is a Buddha for one day—why must one painfully insist on three asaṃkhyeya [kalpas]? If one simply understands the karma of the triple world for oneself, can empty the locus of karma, and naturally receives and guides beings, that is precisely being a Buddha. Why must there be change and transformation before one speaks of becoming a Buddha? Could the transformations of dragons and devas be considered Buddhahood? People of the three vehicles can also undergo transformation; why should they wait three asaṃkhyeya [kalpas] before becoming a Buddha? Thus only above the ten grounds can they see the nature. Therefore, a verse of the sūtra says: 'If, by means of forms, nature, and great supernormal powers, / one wishes to see the Tamer, / that is an obscured and inverted view; / such a person does not know the most supreme Dharma.' 'Buddha' means awake: awakening to the fact that the nature of karma is real, that karma is without arising or ceasing, without attainment and without realization, neither emerging nor submerging, its nature free of transformation and originally as-such—this is precisely the Buddha. In accordance with conditions, one practices bodhisattva practices in the six destinies, using transformations and supernormal powers to receive and guide straying streams. The Buddha is not transformation. The *Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra* says: 'Although attaining right enlightenment and turning the wheel of the Dharma, not abandoning the bodhisattva path—this is the bodhisattva practice.' Because of this, at the initial mind of the ten abodes, on the summit of Mount Sugopita, from the monk Meghaśrī, Sudhana attained the dharma gate of the universal sight of the wisdom-radiance of recollecting the realms of all Buddhas, and thereupon immediately attained right enlightenment. Only afterwards did he begin to visit the various spiritual friends to seek the bodhisattva path and practice the bodhisattva conduct. You should know that at the time of the essence and function of right enlightenment, that very place where the mind is without action is precisely the Buddha; hence there is no need for cultivation. Even when practices are completed, they do not deviate from the present moment. Just as when a nirmāṇa Buddha displays the signs of manifestation—ascetic practices, eating hemp and wheat, shaving the head and wearing robes, abandoning all ornaments, sitting on grass, and so forth—it was for the sake of transforming non-Buddhists who delighted in asceticism, and those of capacities of the three vehicles who were indolent. In the sūtras the Buddha has already harmonized this: it was not that the Buddha himself required such practices. For those without haughtiness, how could such things be necessary? In a single thought-moment, letting go into the nature of non-action, the Buddha's wisdom appears before one; being without attainment and without realization is precisely the Buddha. It is just like Sudhana, who only after realizing enlightenment sought the bodhi path and bodhisattva practice. Why is this so? Because only after awakening to the path is one fit to enter entanglement; abiding in entanglement without bondage, one can only then preach the Dharma for sentient beings to untie their bonds. If one were bound oneself, to be able to untie the bonds of others would be impossible. Although there is a before and after in the preaching, the Dharma is simultaneous. You should know that if one wishes to practice the bodhisattva conduct, one must first attain right enlightenment. For this reason, Sudhana, at the beginning of the ten abodes, atop the summit of Mount Sugopita—this is like expounding the dharma gate of the ten abodes atop the summit of Mount Sumeru—obtained from the monk Meghaśrī the dharma gate of the universal sight of the wisdom-radiance of recollecting the realms of all Buddhas. In explanation: the use of place to represent the Dharma is because reaching the ultimate limit of dharmas, there are no marks to be found, just as climbing a high mountain reaches the place where marks are exhausted. Because the markless nature can manifest physical bodies, and within the nature of no-mind knowledge and vision are sovereign, observing capacities to gather and benefit them is called 'wondrous' (sugo-). Skillfully slaying afflictions is called 'peak' (-pita). Fully possessing knowledge and vision that transcend emotional objects, with wisdom ever higher, further, and immovable, is 'mountain'. In explaining the dharma gate: 'recollecting' means being constantly without thought. As for 'the realms of all Buddhas': when without thought, there is no inside, outside, or in-between; because there is no inside, outside, or in-between, that is the Buddha realm. As for 'wisdom-radiance': responding to things and observing capacities is called 'discriminating wisdom' (zhi); distinguishing the provisional and ultimate capacities is called 'insight' (hui); responding to capacities to smash delusions is called 'light' (guang); the mind being liberated from defilement is called 'radiance' (ming); the Dharma eye shining far, equal to the realm of sentient beings, is called 'universal'; being constantly without anything to attain is called 'sight'; and initially realizing this principle is called 'dharma gate'. Within this single stage, compassion and wisdom are equally complete; endowed with discriminating wisdom, one enters the secular to receive ordinary beings, exactly according to the model practiced by Sudhana. From the stage of the first abode, one shares radiance equally with the Buddha; within the stage of equal enlightenment, one's practice is purely humble, beginning by sharing the seats of ordinary people, maidens, and youths. Those unskilled in the traces of the teachings falsely slander its marks, yet for one who reaches the mind and clarifies the essence, the guide and mirror are vivid.