大般涅槃經集解 19.66

19.66

Sengliang comments: This explains that practice is unfruitful when it is not the right time. For example, formerly in the Deer Park, when Koṇḍiñña heard it, he instead intensified eternalist views and cut short his wisdom-life; practicing it today, one attains the dharmakāya. Fayao says: This verse explains that when equally investigating the scriptures of permanence, if one grasps their purport, one's life is long; if one loses their purport, one meets an early death. Sengzong says: If one practices with faith relying on the teaching, one attains deathlessness, like that amṛta; if one goes against it and loses the purport, it becomes a poison. The teachers' expositions differ, and their interpretations are also distinct. There is an interpretation that says: the nature of the perfect teaching itself is poison. This, however, is not correct. Not only is the meaning of exhorting faith lost, but there is also the fault of disparaging the sūtra. Here, an external metaphor is first cited to make clear that the nature of the sūtra is not poison. Like amṛta in the world, it is originally not a poisonous medicine; it is merely because a person cannot digest it that it is figuratively called a poison. It intends to make clear that regarding the perfect teaching, for one who holds inverted understandings it causes injury, premature death, and loss, but this is not [the fault of] the sūtra. Zhixiu says: Intending to reveal the principle, he first evaluates the text of the sūtra with respect to the foolish and the wise. The first one and a half stanzas first point out the persons who take and practice it, whether they are capable or incapable. The next stanza reveals the substance of the medicine. The next four stanzas bring up the metaphor again, explaining that although the medicine is one, there are two different [outcomes]; it is precisely because of being received by the two persons—the foolish and the wise—that it has the sense of becoming either a poison or a medicine. When only 'amṛta' is spoken of, its purport is not yet known; the next stanza directly explains its meaning, clarifying the purport that it causes one to become a Buddha and attain ultimate, everlasting deathlessness. Huidan says: Intending to exhort people to see the nature so as to accomplish good karma, he therefore first clarifies the purport of the sūtra. Why? The meaning of permanence puts an everlasting end to birth and death, just like amṛta. Because it harms those four grades of confused people who slander the Dharma, it is figuratively like a poison. If one can deeply understand both meanings, then the practice of the three refuges is accomplished, like taking amṛta and living long, or drinking poison and not dying; if one does not understand, the three refuges are not accomplished, like taking both medicines and meeting one's end.