觀無量壽佛經疏 1.5

1.5

Next, to distinguish the substance: substance is the principal reality. The Treatise [on the Great Prajñāpāramitā] says: "Apart from the true reality of all dharmas, all else is the work of Māra." Mahāyāna sūtras take true reality as their seal and as the proper substance of the sūtra. Immeasurable merits together adorn it, manifold practices return and tend toward it, and verbal explanations and questions and answers expound and clarify it. It is like the host of stars revolving around the Northern Polestar, or like the ten thousand streams taking the Eastern Sea as their source; therefore, true reality is taken as the substance of the sūtra. When classical scholars explain propriety (lǐ), they gloss it as substance (tǐ). Substance has the exalted and the lowly, the elder and the young: the substance of ruler and father is exalted; the substance of minister and son is lowly. One should know that this explanation of substance as propriety is the utmost noble Dharma. Furthermore, substance means base (dǐ): exhausting the source and reaching the utmost base, with principle fully plumbed in its deep repository and ultimate reality completely penetrated—only this is called the base. The Treatise says: "Only the Buddha exhausts the base of the great ocean of wisdom (prajñāpāramitā)"; hence substance is explained as base. Furthermore, substance has the sense of penetration (dá): when one attains the intent of this substance, one penetrates without obstruction, just as wind moves freely through empty space without hindrance, and all different names and diverse explanations are not contrary to true reality. The Treatise says: "Prajñā is one single dharma, yet the Buddha speaks of it with manifold names"; hence the substance of the sūtra is explained as penetrative understanding.