新華嚴經論 7.7

7.7

Fifth, as for the ultimate teaching bodhisattvas' perception of the sphere of the Buddha's transforming embrace: a bodhisattva on the first ground sees multiple hundreds of Buddhas—which means an inexhaustible hundred, not a hundred of a single hundred. A bodhisattva on the second ground sees multiple thousands of Buddhas and so forth, precisely because it is an inexhaustible thousand. A bodhisattva on the third ground is said to see multiple tens of millions, and so on. To discuss it in terms of the ultimate, bodhisattvas of all grounds see equally and completely, like Indra's net and so forth. Bodhisattvas of the three stages of worthies are also like this. It is not merely that the Lotus Treasury [world system] of dust motes of ten Buddha-lands is their retributive sphere; the entire dharmadhātu and space are completely equal. Because upon first seeing the Way at the initial mind of the ten abodes, they are already free from views of large and small, they completely see the Buddha's transforming sphere as identical to the dharmadhātu, without distinguishing large and small, provisionally assigning hierarchical gradations of stages within progressive practice. In this sūtra, when it is said that the first ground sees the sphere of multiple hundreds of Buddhas, it illustrates the meaning of perfection, unlike the single hundred of a hundred in the three vehicles. This 'multiple hundreds' is equal to an inexhaustible number. In the three vehicle teachings, a transformation Buddha embraces one world system of four continents, and a saṃbhogakāya Buddha is said to embrace and transform a hundred billion four-continent worlds as the retributive sphere of a single Śākyamuni, as expounded in the Brahmajāla Sūtra. As for the sphere embraced and transformed by Vairocana expounded in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, it provisionally establishes a great Lotus Treasury world-ocean, vast and boundless, equal to space and the dharmadhātu. Yet, solely for the sake of transforming sentient beings, forms and appearances are provisionally delineated, in order to make sentient beings' minds vast and to expand their narrow and inferior minds. Within this great lotus, it is generally said that there are world-seeds numbering the dust motes of ten ineffable Buddha-lands. Because the scriptural text is limited, it provisionally establishes one hundred and twenty-one world-seeds: in the center there are eleven world-seeds, each having provisionally twenty tiers of Lotus Treasury worlds from bottom to top. In the lowest tier, it is surrounded by vast worlds numbering the dust motes of one Buddha-world; in the next, second tier above, the dust motes of two Buddha-worlds; in the next, third tier above, the dust motes of three Buddha-worlds. These eleven world-seeds are all like this, progressively multiplying from bottom to top. In the topmost tier, it is fully endowed with vast lands numbering the dust motes of twenty Buddha-worlds, each land surrounded by minor lands numbering the dust motes of ten Buddha-lands. Outside these eleven twenty-tiered worlds, there are one hundred single-tiered world-seeds surrounding the eleven twenty-tiered worlds. Outside these one hundred world-seeds, near the Diamond Mountains, there are further ten four-tiered world-seeds, within whose central lands tier upon tier are as described above. Surrounding the aforementioned world-seeds within the Diamond Mountains, they dwell distributed like the divine net of Indra. That which the Tathāgata transforms pervades entirely among these pure, defiled, unmixed, and mixed world-oceans and so forth. As for the world-seeds described in the three vehicles, one counts three-thousand-great-thousand lands up to the sands of one Gaṅgā River to make one world-nature; one counts world-natures up to the sands of the Gaṅgā River to make one world-ocean; one counts ocean-worlds up to the sands of the Gaṅgā River to make one world-seed. In this sūtra, worlds are uniformly counted by dust motes of one Buddha-land, dust motes of two Buddha-lands, and dust motes of three Buddha-lands, thus multiplying up to worlds numbering the dust motes of twenty Buddha-lands in the topmost tier; thus, counting through from bottom to top, only when there is a total of vast lands numbering the dust motes of two hundred and ten Buddha-lands does it constitute a single world-seed, not limiting its number by the sands of the Gaṅgā. Within the three vehicles, they mostly take the number of the sands of the Gaṅgā River as the measure. In this sūtra, it constantly takes the dust of one Buddha-land and the dust of ten Buddha-lands as its numbers to express inexhaustibility. Expanding in this way causes minor, narrow, and inferior sentient beings to know the sphere of the Buddha's transforming embrace and generate the bodhicitta. The sphere of that Buddha's transforming embrace—the sphere within each single dust mote is equal to the dharmadhātu and the realm of space; it is not said that he solely transforms a three-thousand-great-thousand world. The expression of the Dharma within this will be extensively clarified below in the explanation of the 'Chapter on the Flower-Store World.'