大般涅槃經集解 12.28

12.28

Sengliang states: "I took both heat and red color together as an analogy for afflictions. Once the red color is extinguished, the iron is no longer visible; once afflictions are extinguished, the Tathāgata is no longer in the five destinies. This is merely a partial analogy. If it were a comprehensive analogy, iron would have two analogies: returning to redness would illustrate ordinary persons, while not turning red would illustrate the Buddha." Sengzong states: "Previously there were two objections; this first answers the latter objection. You must not apply the iron analogy entirely; the iron on the anvil can serve as an analogy for ordinary persons, because although ordinary persons suppress fetters even up to the stage of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, they arise again afterward; with the Buddha it is not so, for they never arise again." Baoliang states: "The explanation is the same as this." Zhixiu states: "This refutes both analogies together, clarifying that ordinary persons are like this—sometimes being extinguished and then arising again, and therefore having an impermanent body." Mingjun notes: "Kāśyapa's preceding objection was aimed at the place of permanence; in this answer of the Buddha, he has not yet directly resolved that objection, but first applies the analogy to ordinary persons: although ordinary persons extinguish [fetters], it is not an ultimate extinction, and because the extinction is not ultimate, they can arise again; the Tathāgata is not like this, and therefore is not impermanent."