新華嚴經論 37.9

37.9

First, within properly entering the teaching gate of the stage at hand, from 'At that time the youth Sudhana...' below down to 'I know only this liberation gate of accomplishing all-knowledge', within this section there are roughly five divisions: first, gradually traveling to that country and city; second, seeking this nun everywhere; third, the multitude informing him of the nun's whereabouts; fourth, Sudhana proceeding to King Prabhootarāja's Sūryaprabha Garden to observe, seeing all the circumstantial fruitions belonging to the nun; fifth, Sudhana joining his palms and presenting his request, and the nun conferring upon Sudhana the teaching of her own practice. As in the fourth, Sudhana proceeding to King Prabhootarāja's Sūryaprabha Garden to observe, where among the circumstantial fruitions belonging to the nun and the adornments of the great assembly there are thirteen kinds: first, adornment of jeweled trees; second, adornment of seven-jeweled flowing springs, ponds, and flowers; third, adornment of the lion throne beneath the jeweled trees; fourth, adornment of the ground with various jewels; fifth, adornment of the grove raining flowers and incense; sixth, adornment of music trees and harmonious chiming of various jeweled bells; seventh, adornment of heavenly garments; eighth, adornment of hundreds of thousands of jeweled towers and jeweled canopies; ninth, light adornment like the peak of Mount Sumeru; tenth, adornment of palaces; eleventh, praising all the nun's merits and world-transcending roots of goodness produced from making offerings to all Buddhas; twelfth, praising the nun's aspiration, virtue, and three karmic activities manifesting responsive functions everywhere, so that those who see her do not do so in vain; thirteenth, clarifying the encirclement by the great assembly. Below this, the thirty kinds of assemblies all clarify that this nun's practice of gathering beings is all-pervading, conferring teachings differently in accordance with their capacities, up to the vajra-like wisdom of the eleventh ground; assemblies bordering upon the Buddha stage and below are all gathered and transformed by her, showing that a single stage pervades the practices of the five stages. Every single stage is like this, all pervading the dharmadhātu. Refining and tempering through successive layers with the fifty-three teachings and the teachings of the one hundred and ten cities in this way, one only then accords with the inexhaustible and unobstructed teachings of the general and specific, sameness and difference, integration and disintegration; within each stage, every other stage is pervaded. This is to reveal that one dharma pervades many dharmas, because a single stage pervades all practices. It is to reveal that many dharmas enter into one dharma, because the five hundred teaching gates of the five stages enter into one dharma. This clarifies that the general is not different from the specific, and the specific is not different from the general, interpenetrating like a net. As for what was relinquished and given above by King Prabhootarāja, that is an event. As for representing phenomena: this clarifies that all wisdom, forbearance, and kindness—these three dharmas—completely converge. A monk leaving home and abandoning ornamentation is the meaning of forbearance; a nun is the meaning of kindness and compassion; King Prabhootarāja is wisdom. This clarifies that by the power of vows one dedicates merit to enter the secular, cultivating the practice of vigor to harmonize forbearance, wisdom, and kindness, comprehensively gathering the practices of the five stages as the essence and function of the single dharmadhātu, because the lion's stretch is the joy of the Dharma within the gate of the dharmadhātu. From within this practice of vigor, converging these three dharmas of forbearance, wisdom, and kindness, only upon reaching Avalokiteśvara and Ananyagāmin Bodhisattva in the seventh and eighth dedication stages do they finally become equal. The subsequent two stages cultivate the functions of the Buddha's ten powers. It is not that the previous three elders lacked this wisdom, forbearance, and kindness; this is spoken in terms of advancement and relative superiority. The elders represent much wisdom and inferior compassion; the nun represents a mind of compassion abiding in the world untainted; the maiden represents being in defilement without being sullied. The pārijāta tree is translated here as 'pervading fragrance'; the trunk, branches, and leaves of this tree thoroughly perfume all the Trāyastriṃśa heavens; this refers to practice thoroughly perfuming the dharmadhātu. Kālindī garments are translated here as fine cotton garments. The deva Varuṇa is translated here as the Water Deva. The ten prajñā gates, such as Universal Eye and Renunciation-Attainment, as fully clarified in the sūtra, are the teachings expounded by the nun, such countless millions of prajñā gates. As for the Sūryaprabha Garden, it takes forbearance, wisdom, and kindness as the garden's essence. Sudhana joined his palms and stood to make his request without offering prostrations, merely circumambulating all the trees in the garden to the right; this demonstrates that the various trees are produced from the retribution of practice, clarifying that the park of diverse practices is fully endowed with the three dharmas of forbearance, wisdom, and kindness. To represent the perfection of the three practices, he merely circled with the practices; because this was the revered Dharma, there was no separate bowing. Circling together with the various trees clarifies converging into the three practices of forbearance, wisdom, and kindness; this is the meaning of vigor in this stage. When Sudhana requested the teaching from the nun, it was named 'accomplishing all-knowledge'; this refers to forbearance, wisdom, kindness, and compassion within fundamental wisdom, from which three dharmas all discriminating wisdom is fully generated. The assembly she gathers and transforms extends up to the spiritual penetrations of vajra-like wisdom after the tenth ground. Sudhana also asked what the realm of this teaching gate was like, as the sūtra states: 'Good man, when I enter this gate of wisdom radiance, I attain the king of samādhis that gives rise to all dharmas, and because of this samādhi I attain the mind-made body...' and so forth; this is the realm of karmic function operated by this teaching gate, as fully clarified in the sūtra. The general meaning is that, relying on fundamental wisdom, one gives rise to the unobstructed discriminating teaching gates of the vast functions of forbearance, wisdom, kindness, compassion, and the myriad practices, according with the realm of the dharmadhātu. Cultivating in conformity with this model, one is called Avalokiteśvara, and also called Ananyagāmin Bodhisattva, because unconditioned wisdom and kindness and compassion are equal. Therefore, in the seventh dedication, Avalokiteśvara and Ananyagāmin meet in the same place. 'Good man, I see all sentient beings without differentiating the marks of sentient beings, because I clearly see with the eye of wisdom; ... up to hearing words, sounds, the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha without any attachment, because of what is seen by the eye of wisdom and known by the Dharma eye...' and so forth, extols virtues to cause Sudhana to advance.