勝鬘寶窟 3.19

3.19

From "The noble truths are spoken of as extremely profound in meaning" onwards: later lecturers take this point as the chapter on the tathāgatagarbha, and what follows this as explaining the chapter on the dharmakāya. The present [reading] differs: according to the ancient tradition, this is still the four truths. Above, it directly explained that the Buddha possesses the noble truths; here below, second, it raises the garbha and the dharmakāya to praise the extremely profound meaning of the truths. Why is this not a separate chapter? This chapter is named the Chapter on the Four Truths; if before the explanation of the four truths was finished, one were again to explain chapters on the tathāgatagarbha and the dharmakāya, the meaning would become confused and disordered. Therefore, raising the garbha and the [dharma]kāya to praise the profundity of the truths still belongs to the Chapter on the Noble Truths. In praising the profundity of the truths, three further distinctions are opened: first, raising the profundity of the garbha to praise the profundity of the truths; second, taking the garbha as analogous to the dharmakāya; third, collectively raising the provisional and real of the [dharma]kāya and the garbha to exhort faith and understanding in the two truths. Since this chapter touches upon the garbha, one may explain the meaning of tathāgatagarbha. It is explained through two gates: as for the gate of the intention behind its appearance, above it was already explained that the Buddha possesses the noble truths, and now the profundity of the garbha is stated in terms of the truths. Wanting to raise the profundity of the garbha to praise the profound meaning of the truths, the tathāgatagarbha is therefore taught. Furthermore, because the ekayāna is accomplished by relying on the garbha, the garbha is necessary. To speak broadly, by virtue of the tathāgatagarbha, all perversions and non-perversions can be established in their meaning. Saying that perversion is accomplished by virtue of the tathāgatagarbha means that sentient beings lose their buddhadhātu and therefore transmigrate in the ocean of suffering. As the Nirvāṇa [Sūtra] says: "It is a single-flavored medicine; following the places it flows, it becomes the flavors of the six destinies." Furthermore, the tathāgatagarbha serves as the support and basis for saṃsāra; therefore perversion is accomplished through the garbha. Saying that non-perversion is accomplished through the garbha means that if there were no buddhadhātu, even if one were to arouse great practices and great vows, one could not attain buddhahood. As Nāgārjuna says: "Iron lacks the nature of gold; even if forged, it ultimately does not become gold." It is necessary that there originally be buddhadhātu, and only then does one arouse great practices and great vows, and only then does one achieve buddhahood. As Nāgārjuna says: "Just as yellow and white stones possess the nature of gold and silver, and due to human effort and smelting furnaces gold and silver come to exist." Therefore non-perverted dharmas are accomplished through the garbha. Furthermore, because perversion is accomplished through the garbha, there are suffering and origination; because non-perversion is accomplished through the garbha, there are cessation and the path. Thus the establishment of the meaning of the four truths depends on the tathāgatagarbha; therefore the meaning of the garbha is explained in terms of the four truths. Furthermore, to refute the attachments of the two vehicles who regard themselves as having reached the ultimate, the tathāgatagarbha is taught: there is only the tathāgatagarbha, and no other vehicle. Furthermore, to refute non-Buddhists, the tathāgatagarbha is taught. As the Laṅkāvatāra says: "Mahāmati, my teaching of the tathāgatagarbha is for the sake of non-Buddhists who cling to a self, in order to gather them in, cause those non-Buddhists to leave behind the attachments of their conceiving minds with erroneous views of an ātman, enter the three gates of liberation, and attain bodhi; therefore I teach the tathāgatagarbha." Furthermore, for sentient beings with the annihilationist view who claim that the nature of sentient beings is identical to grass and trees, exhausted within a single lifetime with no subsequent life, to refute this, the tathāgatagarbha is now clarified: they will definitely become buddhas, unlike grass and trees that are exhausted within a single lifetime. Thus the Nirvāṇa [Sūtra] says: "The buddhadhātu is not like walls, tiles, or stones." Just as Bodhisattva Sadāparibhūta in the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, in order to make people of overweening pride arouse the bodhicitta, stated that sentient beings all possess buddhadhātu. Furthermore, to make sentient beings know that within their own bodies they possess buddhadhātu, arouse bodhicitta, and practice to become buddhas, the buddhadhātu is taught. Furthermore, to make sentient beings know that within the minds and bodies of others there is everywhere buddhadhātu, so that they do not commit the ten evil deeds such as killing. Furthermore, so that regarding sentient beings one does not generate views of the two vehicles and the like: since there is only the buddhadhātu, there are no longer two vehicles; therefore regarding sentient beings one does not arouse the view of the two vehicles. Furthermore, wishing to expound prajñā, the buddhadhātu is taught. Prajñā is the wisdom of the middle way. The wisdom of the middle way causes sentient beings to leave behind the two views of existence and non-existence, and causes them to know that within saṃsāra there is no falsely imagined self, thereby putting an end to the view of existence; and that there is the tathāgatagarbha, thereby putting an end to the view of non-existence. As the Mahāyānasaṃgraha says: "To refute the erroneous self of non-Buddhists, prajñā is taught as the cause of the self." Due to such various causes and conditions, the tathāgatagarbha is taught. This is the great purport of the Buddhadharma.