大般涅槃經集解 32.54

32.54

Daosheng notes: "Although the two vehicles have the four truths, because they lack reality, their delusions become the empty delusions of the eight inversions. Even if they attain understanding, it is not the Mahāyāna. If one embodies the true four truths, then there is no affliction." Sengliang notes: "The Buddha explains reality by means of seven meanings: the true Dharma is because its essence is permanent and immutable; being non-inverted is because both sphere and wisdom are real; being non-false is because the words are free from falsehood; the Mahāyāna is because it definitively exhausts suffering; spoken by the Buddha is because what is uttered is unerring; the single path is because there is no other cause; permanence and bliss are because within the fruit there is nothing higher. This indicates that the real dharma has nothing that is not real." Fayao notes: "Permanence, bliss, self, and purity are the true Dharma; when a bodhisattva embodies them, there is no inversion. His understanding is correct and true, resolute and unchanging, and may be called real. His wisdom leaves nothing unexamined, and his insight leaves nothing unrecognised; the meaning of examining and recognising can be called 'truth'. Therefore the bodhisattva's understanding is called the true Dharma. Being without inversion and without falsehood is called the Mahāyāna, the single path of purity. Endowed with these manifold meanings, it is called the truth of reality." Sengzong notes: "This truth of reality illuminates the principle broadly. Why? The previous two truths merely subsumed the explications, not yet subsuming the purport that forgets the explication. Now the truth of reality distinguishes meaning by directly accessing the essence; the place where explication is forgotten is also real. Thus, from delusion below to understanding above, how could there be a single principle that is not exhausted? Regarding the text, although there are eight lines, their meaning does not exceed six: first, it clarifies that the practitioner of the Buddha-fruit is real; second and third, the two lines on 'inversion' and 'falsehood' clarify the meaning through understanding and delusion; fourth and fifth, clarify reality with respect to the teaching; sixth, clarifies the reality of the cause; seventh, clarifies the reality of the fruit. What is not encompassed by the six lines now is all subsumed again under the reality of the sphere. The first and seventh lines differ in that the former is based on the person and the latter on the Dharma. 'Inversion' and 'falsehood' are spoken with respect to the heavier aspects. 'Falsehood' is spoken with respect to the lighter aspects, from not yet escaping the delusion of marks down through the diamond-like mind." Baoliang notes: "The distinguishing of reality has seven layers. The first clarifies the reality of the essence of the fruit: regarding 'true Dharma', if a dharma is not true, it is not called real. Hence we know that the marvelous essence of the spiritual consciousness is not born of spurious causes. Its principle and marks are empty and tranquil, transcending the realm of speech. Only this single dharma can be called true and real. Second, reality is distinguished with respect to the sphere. Third, reality is determined by correct wisdom, while erroneous understanding is unreal. Fourth, clarifies that the Mahāyāna is real while the Small Vehicle is unreal. Fifth, clarifies the reality of the teaching: what was explicated in past teachings was not necessarily completely real; only what is spoken by the Buddha was beneficial at the time, and therefore real, whereas the teachings of Māra confound the real and can cause practitioners to enter saṃsāra, and hence are called unreal. Sixth, 'the single path is pure' clarifies the reality of the cause: the single path is the single cause; if there were a different cause, it would be unreal. Seventh, 'permanence, self, bliss, and purity' clarifies the reality of the fruit. How does this differ from the first line? That one clarified the essence of the fruit, speaking with reference to the time of attaining the fruit; this clarifies that what the Buddha's disciples practice will definitively attain these four dharmas, and so speaks of the fruit within the cause. In this lies the difference."