大般涅槃經集解 22.64

22.64

Sengliang notes: He answers the question, 'How does one abide in a turbid world without being defiled, like a lotus flower?' providing a metaphor for the two kinds of persons. Although they have heavy transgressions, they do not obstruct the resolve, nor are they defiled by sinful conduct. Fayao says: This clarifies that a bodhisattva can be fearless before the assembly, necessarily forgetting body and life to proclaim and propagate permanence. In an evil age, wrong views slander his teaching, but he adheres to understanding without complying and does not alter his integrity; this is abiding in a turbid world without being defiled, like a lotus flower. Being able to refrain from following external wrongness is entirely because one's own fleshy eyes subdue entanglements, so that defilements do not taint one's inner mind; therefore, abiding among defilements, they cannot contaminate him. The four kinds of lotus flowers grow in mud yet are not defiled by that mud, answering 'abiding in the world undefiled'. The next line, 'although having defilements, he is never defiled by them,' is due to the power of knowing the Tathāgata's nature and marks. Down to the metaphor of the skilled physician, it answers 'defilements cannot contaminate'.