新華嚴經論 8.30

8.30

Fifth, the "Chapter on Entering the Dharmadhātu" clarifies the all-pervasiveness of the Buddha-fruit of great wisdom that is the fundamental essence of the dharmadhātu. These five kinds of all-pervasiveness all take the dharmadhātu as their essence and are universally one single teaching gate of all-pervasiveness. Because these five kinds of all-pervasiveness completely encompass all stages and all distinctions, fearing that people would fail to understand and thereby lose its intended import, the preface and design are set in five places within the single sūtra, their titles linked and mutually subsuming front and back, in order to clarify that because this sūtra takes the essence of phenomena as originally devoid of sequence, root and branch, two extremes and the middle, or length of duration, it is like a king's precious seal stamping all at once, without forming characters in sequence. Stamping all stages with the precious seal of the Dharma merely clarifies that because the habits of practice in the five stages, the ten abodes, the ten practices, and so forth differ, their nature is without distinction; through the principle of the six characteristics of the ten mysteries—totality and particularity, identity and difference, formation and disintegration—harmoniously merging, the principle becomes self-evident. The meaning of these six characters forms three pairs of pratītyasamutpāda, and the six characters completely encompass the myriad phenomena: first, the pair of totality and particularity; second, the pair of identity and difference; third, the pair of formation and disintegration. Totality is not separated from them; one cannot discard one and retain the other, nor can one establish both or abandon both. All views of annihilationism, eternalism, arising, ceasing, the middle, and the extremes are mental reckonings; they fail to realize that phenomena are self-naturally born from conditions. This can only be understood through the power of unreflective correct wisdom; to know it by conceptual thought is merely faithful mind. This is the first-ground bodhisattva's contemplation of all conditioned phenomena in the world: although entirely simultaneous, they are not bound to co-existence; although entirely possessing particulars, none have self-nature. One cannot bind phenomena to mutual nonexistence. The other two pairs are also like this. They are all bounds imposed by the sentiments of existence, nonexistence, neither existence nor nonexistence, co-existence, non-coexistence, permanence, and impermanence. Like all conditionally arisen phenomena, they are like an echo in the empty sky, originally unconditioned of themselves, yet producing sound in response to things. It is like an expert diviner with yarrow stalks and tortoise shells: without thought and without action, neither ghostly nor divine, yet responding to conditions he is able to know the myriad existences and tell people of good and bad fortune, past and present, as clearly as pointing to his own palm. One should understand it in this way. Spontaneous conditioned arising of phenomena is not like mental conceptions. The gates of the one and the many, totality and particularity, and all identities and differences, as well as all formation and disintegration, are not bound to sequence, simultaneity, or the like. The principle of the teaching gate of the dharmadhātu is also like this: none are sequence, existence, nonexistence, or simultaneity; co-existence or non-coexistence, whether extinguished or retained, are bounds imposed by sentiment. They are all the nature-origination of great compassion and unconditioned great vows, following the conditioned arising of phenomena, matching unconditioned wisdom, neither old nor new. Setting forth the turning of the wheel of the true Dharma, and manifestations of arising and ceasing, cannot be understood through [notions of] old, new, coming, or going; they are all due to the sovereign power of the Tathāgata's wisdom free of arising and ceasing. Although distinct from the Two Vehicles' personal quiescence and grasping of realization—which extinguish sentiments and annihilate wisdom—they immediately give rise to great vows and the like to benefit all sentient beings without notions of vows; although using great loving-kindness and great compassion to benefit sentient beings, they are without notions of attachment; although entering birth and death, they are not submerged in the mire; although abiding in nirvāṇa, they benefit people in the worlds of the ten directions without cessation. These are all the wisdom-power of the Tathāgata that is without self-nature, without reliance, and unconditioned, and none of it can be understood through concepts of past, future, present, ancient, or modern.