新華嚴經論 32.9

32.9

Third, explaining the cause for narrating the initial attainment of right enlightenment: Why does the beginning of the chapter narrate the time and place of the initial attainment of Buddhahood? What is the intention? When the sūtra says, "At that time, the World-Honoured One was in the kingdom of Magadha, in the Universal Light Hall in the aranya bodhimaṇḍa of the Dharma... up to... his wondrous awakening was already fulfilled," the intention is to clarify that the progression from beginning to end through the five stages—in the "Ten Concentrations" and "Leaving the World" chapters and so forth—all takes this substance of Samantabhadra's practice as its progression. Furthermore, although the intentions of the forty chapters are distinct, taken as a whole they do not depart from the substance of the ten concentrations of universal light wisdom, being preached simultaneously at once without prior or subsequent boundaries, identical throughout the ten directions. When ascending to heaven through this, it is merely said that he does not depart from the Universal Light Hall of the bodhimaṇḍa. Just as when the chapter "Ten Concentrations" was preached in one assembly consisting of eleven chapters of sūtra, at the beginning of the ten concentrations, it also opened with the narration as in this chapter, repeating, "At that time, the World-Honoured One was in the kingdom of Magadha... up to... his wondrous awakening was already fulfilled," in order to clarify that the "Ten Concentrations" chapter, through concentration having no prior or subsequent, universally encompasses the beginning and end of the entire sūtra and the three times. Because this "Chapter on Leaving the World," with its two thousand teachings, the substance of Samantabhadra's practice, and the cause and effect of attaining Buddhahood, universally encompasses the prior and subsequent and the eternal path of the three times, it is narrated thus. It clarifies that all of this occurred at the time of first attaining right enlightenment, when all at once, with universal light wisdom, in the human realm, in the heavens, and in the worlds of the ten directions, it was suddenly sealed everywhere at once without prior or subsequent, just as a round mirror suddenly illuminates all objects at once. For this reason, this teaching suddenly presents the sphere of wisdom for sentient beings of great mind, which is not what can be known by the sensory consciousness of those of lesser understanding. Attaining Buddhahood is also accomplished in a single thought; preaching the teaching is also preached in a single thought; it is discussed solely in terms of the substance of wisdom, not being contained within the emotional reckonings of periods, months, and years across the three times.