大方廣佛華嚴經願行觀門骨目 1.41

1.41

At that time, Śakra said to Dharmamati: “What is the measure of the merit of generating the aspiration?” He answered: “This meaning is extremely profound, difficult to know, difficult to explain, difficult to distinguish, difficult to believe and understand, difficult to realize, difficult to practice, difficult to contemplate, difficult to measure, and difficult to enter into. Nevertheless, I shall speak of it for you by relying on the Buddha’s power. Suppose someone were to provide offerings to the sentient beings of ten asaṃkhyeya worlds with all kinds of requisites for pleasure throughout one kalpa, and afterward teach them to purely uphold the five precepts; would they obtain much merit?” He answered: “Extremely much.” Dharmamati said: “Compared to the merit of generating the aspiration, it does not equal one part in a hundred, a thousand, or even an upaniṣad part. If one makes offerings in this way for a hundred kalpas and then causes them to uphold the ten good deeds; through a thousand kalpas causes them to abide in the four dhyānas; through a hundred thousand kalpas causes them to abide in the four immeasurables; through a hundred million kalpas causes them to abide in the four formless absorptions; through ten billion kalpas causes them to abide in the first fruit; through a hundred billion kalpas causes them to abide in the second fruit; through ten trillion kalpas causes them to abide in the third fruit; through a nayuta of trillions of kalpas causes them to abide in the fourth fruit; through a hundred thousand nayutas of trillions of kalpas causes them to abide as pratyekabuddhas (question and answer as before).” Dharmamati said: “Compared to the merit of generating the aspiration, it does not equal one part in a hundred or even an upaniṣad part. Why is this? All buddhas generate the aspiration not for such things, but so that the lineage of the Buddha will not be severed, and so forth up to the tenth: knowing the equality of all buddhas' realms; therefore they generate the bodhicitta.” Furthermore, he said: “Let us set aside the preceding metaphor. Suppose someone, in a single thought-moment, were to pass beyond asaṃkhyeya worlds in the eastern direction, continuing thus to the end of an asaṃkhyeya of kalpas; among these worlds, no one would be able to know their limits. A second person in a single thought-moment passes beyond the worlds traversed by the previous person, continuing thus through an asaṃkhyeya of kalpas. Continuing in this manner up to a tenth person, and up to such worlds in the ten directions: their limits could be known, yet the limits of the merit of generating the aspiration cannot be known. Why is this? Because it is not for the sake of abiding in that many worlds, but only in order to thoroughly understand that in the worlds of the ten directions, coarse worlds are identical to subtle worlds, and subtle worlds are identical to coarse worlds; the inverted and upright, large and small, broad and narrow, one and many, pure and defiled, are also mutually identical in this way. All worlds are within the tip of a single hair; within all worlds, the tip of a single hair has one and the same nature; within a single world all [worlds] are generated, yet all are without nature; knowing all vast worlds in a single thought-moment—for this reason one generates the bodhicitta.” Furthermore, he said: “The bodhisattva does not [generate the aspiration] in order to know the creation and destruction of all kalpas in the ten directions, but in order to know the kalpas of creation and destruction completely without remainder; namely, the equality of long and short kalpas, of one and many, of there being a buddha and there being no buddha, of one buddha and many buddhas, of the finite and the infinite, of the exhaustible and the inexhaustible, of a single thought-moment and the ineffable, of the ineffable and a single thought-moment, of all kalpas and non-kalpas, and so forth; equality is also like this. Wishing to know completely the kalpas of creation and destruction of worlds in the three periods of time within a single thought-moment, one generates the bodhicitta. Wishing to know the various distinctions among sentient beings and the like is also like this. All are illustrated using the metaphor of the ten persons in the ten directions as before. The metaphor for making offerings to all buddhas of the ten directions is also as before. The metaphor for liberating sentient beings is also like this. (The objective condition for generating the aspiration is the object of contemplation; the object is endowed with the three truths: non-nature as emptiness, all as conventional, and equality as the middle).”