新華嚴經論 36.7

36.7

First, within properly entering the Dharma door of the present stage, from "At that time, the youth Sudhana" down to "I only know this liberation door of the treasury of merit produced at will," the meaning in this section is divided into ten doors: 1. mindfulness of the teachings imparted by the spiritual friend, reflecting and advancing; 2. traveling gradually southward to the city of Dāxing and seeking out the householder Mingzhi; 3. generating thirsty longing in his mind toward the spiritual friend; 4. resolving that he must attend upon the spiritual friends with a mind free of weariness and fatigue; 5. seeing the householder atop a seven-jeweled terrace at the crossroads within the city marketplace, seated upon an adornment seat of countless jewels; 6. Sudhana requesting what he seeks; 7. the elder praising him for being able to generate the great bodhicitta and seek the bodhisattva path; 8. the elder revealing to Sudhana the assembly able to generate the great bodhicitta; 9. the elder telling Sudhana the Dharma door he practices, called the liberation door of the treasury of merit produced at will, where whatever is required is entirely fulfilled; 10. waiting for the assembly to gather to demonstrate his method of giving: looking up into space, whatever they require falls down from the sky and completely satisfies them all, after which he expounds the Dharma. From "I only know this liberation door of the treasury of merit produced at will" downward is the advancement by deferring virtue. The upāsikā in the preceding stage, by means of her small vessel, illustrated the door of patience leaving behind arrogance, laxity, and pride, giving food and drink that filled [all]. In this stage, it symbolizes the mind of vigor and the practice free from despondence, constantly practicing the contemplation of emptiness to eliminate afflictions and attain the supreme mind of wisdom, wherein all circumstantial and primary fruitions, Dharma and reward [bodies], and human and heavenly roots of goodness are entirely subsumed. When the householder says that he was born into the family of the Tathāgata and increases the pure Dharma, this clarifies that this stage is the practice of the fourth abode, the Abode of Noble Birth, and also corresponds to the fourth ground among the ten grounds, where the karma of the three realms is exhausted and one is born into the family of the Tathāgata. There is only the fulfillment of worldly wisdom; in the fifth abode and the fifth ground one studies the six abodes and six grounds, where both ultimate and conventional wisdom are brought to completion, attaining the samādhi of tranquil extinction and the manifestation of the three emptinesses, spontaneously exercising supernormal powers to teach and transform throughout the ten directions. After that, from the seventh abode and the seventh ground onward, one enters into the conventional world and undertakes practices identical to ordinary beings, practicing the gate of great compassion. On the eighth ground one partially attains non-effort. On the tenth ground the Buddha's ten powers are only then perfected. On the eleventh ground one spontaneously benefits sentient beings. Therefore, looking up into space here represents the practiced cultivation of vigor: all karmic suffering is entirely eradicated, and all Buddha-dharmas as well as human and heavenly merits are entirely contained within it. Merely by cultivating the single door of the emptiness of phenomena and understanding the tranquility of dependent origination, all afflictions naturally do not appear, and all luminous wisdom naturally manifests before one. This briefly outlines the main essentials; the full meaning is self-evident as in the sūtra. This fourth practice, the practice free from despondence, takes vigor as the principal and the other nine [pāramitās] as its companions. Within the door of wisdom, the five stages and ten practices are practiced in common; within the door of stages, contemplating the door of the emptiness of phenomena and thoroughly understanding liberation from conditionally arisen phenomena is superior, curing the remaining habitual propensities of the three realms, so that the wisdom of the dharmakāya manifests and one is born into the Tathāgata's family. In the initial mind of the ten abodes, one first opens Buddha-wisdom and is born into the Tathāgata's family; in the fourth abode, one cures the delusions of the three realms, and pure Buddha-wisdom manifests, being born into the Tathāgata's family; in the eighth abode, non-effort wisdom manifests and one is born into the family of the Tathāgata's non-effort wisdom; in the tenth abode, wisdom and compassion universally save [beings] and one receives the Buddha's office, which is also being born into the Tathāgata's family; the stages of the ten grounds are established in complete accordance with this model. The ten abodes are the model for the superior progression of the ten grounds; this is unlike the provisional teachings where the fruit of Buddhahood is placed after the ten grounds, with the forty minds of the three vehicles before the grounds being preliminary application, and the ten grounds being the path of seeing. In this Avataṃsaka Sūtra, the ten abodes are the path of seeing; the ten practices, ten dedications of merit, and eleventh ground are preliminary application, cultivating practices to make them habituated and mastered. The fruit of Buddhahood manifests first at the beginning, so that through Samantabhadra's compassionate vows the great functioning of wisdom and compassion may become habituated, mastered, and unhindered. This is because the fundamental, universal light wisdom of one's own Tathāgata manifests first, and because from beginning to end, root to branch, there is absolutely no division or measure of extended or shortened time, days, or months. Speaking in accord with reality regarding the fundamental wisdom of the dharmakāya, it is not what is understood by the conceptual graspings of the provisional teachings of the three vehicles; all must be viewed with reference to the root: ultimately the habituation of the fruit of Buddhahood has already been accomplished, and Samantabhadra's practices have already been fulfilled. Universally, one simply takes teaching and transforming all sentient beings as eternal and constant; from beginning to end there is no beginning and no end, no creation and no destruction; one merely takes manifesting wisdom universally in response throughout the six destinies of all the ten directions to benefit sentient beings as one's perpetual enterprise. From the time of first giving rise to the mind, generating faith, and cultivating practice, one generates such faith and joy, generates such aspirations, gives rise to such earnest pursuits, and sees such a path. From the Abode of First Aspiration, through the power of samādhi contemplation, one tallies with the dharmakāya and reveals the fundamental, universal light wisdom, illuminating and knowing that the nature of all ocean of saṃsāra of oneself and others is inherently liberated. It is solely to teach and transform sentient beings so that their delusions are resolved and they are freed from the suffering of false thoughts, not seeing whether one's own body attains Buddhahood or does not attain Buddhahood. If one gives rise to a thought scheming to attain Buddhahood, know that this person is far from the Buddha path. If, solely by the power of the naturelessness of the dharmakāya, oneself and others are free of intrinsic nature without any mind of creation or destruction, one gives rise to the power of skillful means, arouses the power of great vows, initiates the door of great compassion, unconditioned yet giving rise to boundless aspirations, to teach and transform all natureless sentient beings in the dharmadhātu so as to resolve their delusions, causing them in turn to awaken to the principle that their own minds are without intrinsic nature, so that false thoughts and attachments naturally disappear—speaking neither of attaining Buddhahood nor of not attaining Buddhahood—one must not produce such calculating and conceiving sentiments. In this way, the five stage teachings established in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra are solely to guide and receive those who claim to have attained what they have not attained, claim to have reached what they have not reached, claim to be fulfilled when they are not fulfilled, and who are stagnant in the defiled and pure obstacles to the bodhi path, as well as those who have a mind of contentment and thoughts of resting in the bodhisattva practices. Thus it establishes fifty tiers of cause and effect and one hundred and ten Dharma doors, so that they will not abide in a mind of stagnation, stopping, or cessation, fulfilling Samantabhadra's vows and practices to the inexhaustible limit.