大般涅槃經集解 48.18

48.18

案僧亮曰：第一譬，以假名無明煩惱之主譬王。經稱四大，譬四蛇也。盛有漏身，以譬一篋。使其將護，譬瞻養也。消息失所身壞命終，譬戮之都市也。見老死之苦，譬恐怖。知無實我，譬逃走。寶亮曰：王譬佛也。四毒蛇者，喻四大也。盛一篋者，如說四大以成一身也。令人養食者，令觀此身作苦空無常。若就有中解者，欲依此四大身上得行道進德，故須將養也。摩洗其身者，即教作空觀，令識四大過，便善法續起，喻如摩洗也。若使不觀四大是虛、愛著己身，必斷慧命，義如戮之都市也。其人聞王切令者，菩薩即承佛教，觀四大過也。捨篋逃走者，即諦觀此身，唯見四大常虛假，無有一實，故得假名空。欲論四大五陰及與六入，盡成眾生同得作假名空觀，但隨其初觀，捉法而入空，同之內凡夫。而文不可並說，故階級明之也。

Sengliang comments: The first metaphor uses the master of nominal designation, ignorance, and afflictions to symbolize the king. When the sūtra refers to the four great elements, they symbolize the four snakes. Containing the defiled body is symbolized by a single basket. Causing one to tend and protect it symbolizes caring for and rearing [them]. Failing to adjust properly so that the body breaks down and life ends symbolizes being executed in the marketplace. Seeing the suffering of old age and death symbolizes terror. Knowing that there is no real self symbolizes fleeing. Baoliang comments: The king symbolizes the Buddha. The four poisonous snakes symbolize the four great elements. Being contained in a single basket is like saying that the four great elements constitute a single body. Causing a person to feed and care for them means causing one to contemplate this body as suffering, empty, and impermanent. If understood in terms of [the path], one wishes to rely upon this body of four great elements to practice the Path and advance in virtue; hence one must tend and care for it. Rubbing and washing its body means teaching one to cultivate the contemplation of emptiness, causing one to recognize the faults of the four great elements, whereupon wholesome dharmas will continually arise; this is symbolized by rubbing and washing. If one does not contemplate the four great elements as empty and instead cherishes and clings to one's own body, one will inevitably sever the life of wisdom; this corresponds to being executed in the marketplace. That the person hears the king's strict command means that the bodhisattva receives the Buddha's teaching and contemplates the faults of the four great elements. Abandoning the basket and fleeing means carefully contemplating this body, seeing only that the four great elements are constantly empty and nominal, lacking any single reality; thus one attains the emptiness of nominal designations. To speak of the four great elements, five aggregates, and six sense-bases—all of them allow sentient beings equally to cultivate the contemplation of nominal emptiness. It simply depends on their initial contemplation, grasping a dharma and entering emptiness, which is the same for an internal ordinary person. But because the text cannot state them simultaneously, it explains them in successive stages.