大般涅槃經集解 9.140

9.140

案道生曰：向云滅是法性，似若丈六猶存。丈六若實，故是非法中出也。法性無有非法，何有丈六哉？身與法性不可得竝，而有身所未了也。僧亮曰：執方便為難也。真極無變，謂之法性，必捨身智，然後是耳。今身既不滅，復言是性，霜炎之理二不俱存，云何當得知是義也。法瑤曰：向言涅槃是佛法性，似若都滅涅槃是法性也；今欲明法性乃是法身常住體也。夫法性者即是法身者，若以滅盡為法性者，則為無所有，豈有法身乎？若有法身者，則非滅盡，何有法性乎？二事不得並也。僧宗曰：此第二文也。今教所明法性者，謂圓果無非故稱法、體不可改故稱性，而名與昔同，事須料簡也。

Daosheng comments: It was said just before that extinction is dharmatā, which seems as though the sixteen-foot body still persists. If the sixteen-foot body were real, it would emerge from within non-dharma. Dharmatā has no non-dharma, so how could there be the sixteen-foot body? The body and dharmatā cannot stand side by side, yet that there is a body is not yet understood. Sengliang comments: He raises an objection by grasping at upāya. That which is ultimately true and without change is called dharmatā; one must abandon body and intellect, and only then is it so. Now if the body is not extinguished, and it is again said to be nature, the principles of frost and flame cannot coexist; how can this meaning be understood? Fayao comments: Earlier it was said that nirvāṇa is the Buddha's dharmatā, which seems to imply that utter extinction in nirvāṇa is dharmatā; now it aims to clarify that dharmatā is the permanently abiding essence of the dharmakāya. Dharmatā is precisely the dharmakāya. If complete extinction were taken as dharmatā, it would be nonexistence; how could there be a dharmakāya? If there is a dharmakāya, it is not complete extinction; how could there be dharmatā? The two things cannot stand together. Sengzong comments: This is the second passage. What the present teaching clarifies as dharmatā means: the perfect fruition has nothing wrong, hence it is called 'dharma'; its essence cannot be altered, hence it is called 'nature'. The name is the same as in the past, but the matter must be analyzed.