新華嚴經論 26.2

26.2

First, there are those who, having long suffered the pains of birth and death, develop revulsion toward suffering and generate the mind [aspiring to awakening], thereby attaining the fruition of the Three Vehicles or the One Vehicle, which is called the holy wisdom of self-realization, and is also called Buddha-wisdom, spontaneous wisdom, and teacherless wisdom. Second, there are those who rely on the exhortation of prior awakened ones that causes them to know the root of suffering, and only then are able to generate the mind. In generating the mind, there are these two kinds. If one claims that generating the mind must depend upon prior Buddhas, then there is the fault of eternalism, which is identical to the eternalist views of non-Buddhists: whom did that first awakened one take as a teacher? Successive transmission from one to another does not escape eternalism. If there were an ancient, eternal Buddha who served as the teacher in succession, then since the ancient Buddha's own essence would be inherently true and would not follow delusion, one could not tread in his ancient footsteps; for the true is inherently and eternally true, and the true cannot follow birth and death. Thus birth and death would be an eternal birth and death, and the Buddha would inherently be an eternal Buddha. If sentient beings definitely possessed birth and death, birth and death would inherently and eternally be birth and death, and could never become the true. This is the annihilationist view. Both of these are incorrect, neither escaping annihilationism or eternalism. For the birth and death of all sentient beings is without self-nature; originally there is no birth and death. It is by false discrimination that birth and death are assumed; originally they are not birth and death. Because all Buddhas originally lack self-nature, in reality there is neither bodhi nor nirvāṇa, yet sentient beings falsely claim that Buddhas have bodhi and nirvāṇa. If there are sentient beings who can know in this way, they are called 'generating the mind,' called 'all Buddhas,' and called 'seeing the path,' and are able to bring awakening to all sentient beings; they are called 'those who have penetrated fundamental ignorance.' Fundamental ignorance originally does not exist, and Buddhas also do not exist; [this] is called 'the awakened one.' Merely by means of non-abiding, essenceless, and natureless wondrous wisdom, they can manifest physical bodies in response [to beings] like an echo answering a sound, and are able to teach and transform sentient beings through this principle; this is called great compassion. Therefore, in generating the bodhicitta, there can be no realization, no longing or revulsion, no grasping or abandonment, no ancient or present, and no true or false. Because generating the bodhicitta in this way is not covered by the long night of fundamental ignorance. As for what the sūtra calls 'moistened by the water of craving,' it is because of craving that there is birth. 'Irrigated by self-conceit': there are eight kinds of conceit: (1) conceit, (2) great conceit, (3) conceit of conceit, (4) self-conceit, (5) superior conceit, (6) conceit of inferiority, (7) wrong conceit, and (8) arrogant conceit. 'The net of views increases': this refers to the five views, the sixty-two views, and so on. 'Sprouting the shoot of name-and-form': because one gives rise to greed due to views, [greed] arises together with name-and-form. 'Name-and-form increases and generates the five sense organs': due to name-and-form, contact arises with eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body in relation to name-and-form, and contact gives rise to sensation. The essence of bodily contact has twelve kinds: rough, smooth, light, heavy, cold, hot, hungry, thirsty, hard, wet, warm, and moving. Visual color-contact has twenty-five [kinds]: blue, yellow, red, white, long, short, square, round, high, low, straight, uneven, light, shadow, bright, dark, smoke, cloud, dust, fog, coarse, fine, distant, manifest, and the color of empty space. The ear hearing sound has eleven kinds of contact: agreeable, disagreeable, both, contrary, caused by assimilated primary elements, caused by unassimilated primary elements, caused by both [kinds of] primary elements, conventional sound, imagined sound, sound included in holy speech, and sound not included in holy speech. The nose has six kinds of olfactory contact: good, bad, neutral, blended, innate, and altered. Taste has twelve kinds of contact: bitter, sour, sweet, pungent, salty, bland, agreeable, disagreeable, both, contrary, blended-innate, and altered. What is obtained at the five sense organs above is conceptually measured according to thought, and these are termed sixty-six mental phenomena. When the mind gives rise to thought, the mental consciousness following what appears in the five sense organs is called contact; the mental organ grasping in accordance [with it] is called sensation; holding fast to sensation without letting go is called craving; craving increases grasping; grasping increases becoming. Once becoming is born, the objects cognized by the mental consciousness regarding the sixty-six kinds upon the preceding six sense organs form a body of the five aggregates within the various destinies; this is birth. Once born, deterioration and change are called aging, and final demise is death; at the time of death, various fevers and distresses arise, up to anxiety, sorrow, grief, and lamentation—all these sufferings gather together. The one and a half lines of the sūtra from 'accumulate due to these causes and conditions' onward explain that what is produced through conditions lacks essence, and is falsely called birth and death. In accordance with the essence of conditions, one should contemplate in this way. It explains that the essence of the twelve conditions exists in the deluded feelings of sentient beings, but in actual principle it does not exist; if one properly penetrates the nature of conditions as non-existent in principle, then birth and death are immediately non-birth and non-death. This preceding section explains that because of attachment to self, the twelve limbs of existence occur; if one cultivates the contemplation of selflessness, one can abandon what belongs to self, and the various false conditions immediately become the great wisdom of the dharmadhātu, which is conditionally produced from the uncreated self-nature.