大般涅槃經集解 65.16

65.16

Sengliang comments: This speaks of the fruit of arhatship. It has nowhere to abide in the desire realm, being an arhat. The absorptions of the three realms can all cultivate the supreme worldly dharma and enter the path of seeing the truths, with the sole exception of the stage of neither-perception-nor-non-perception. The lower three can all be done in the desire realm; the Buddha taught differently according to circumstances, but the confused each take what they heard, clinging one-sidedly and generating disputes. When cultivating the supreme worldly dharma, being able to suppress the fetters of views is called 'far removed'; not yet having seen the four truths and not yet having definitively severed them, one has not yet attained liberation, residing in the first dhyāna. As for 'up to the fourth dhyāna', the desire realm has little concentration and much wisdom, the formless realm has much concentration and little wisdom, and the form realm has equal concentration and wisdom and is easy to apply; therefore its easy stages are taught. The confused then assume that neither the higher nor the lower realms are capable. As for 'attaining the fruit of anāgāmin', this sūtra has no doctrine of skipping stages. For those who attain the third fruit, the lower fetters of the three formless stages are already suppressed and severed; when seeing the true truth, their undefiled contemplation is sharp, and although passing through the first fruit, they never abide there. Here it merely states where they abide. Sengzong says: This is the ninth disputed thesis. In terms of the correct doctrine, both the desire-realm mind and the four dhyāna minds can all make the contemplation of the supreme worldly dharma. It can also occur in the three formless absorptions, but the minds in those stages are difficult to employ; therefore, practitioners do not follow the difficult but mostly take the easy. Every single stage merely suppresses the fetters; at that time one has not yet attained true undefiledness. If one is of sharp faculties, while one's body is in the desire realm, one can fully anticipate the minds of higher stages and suppress the fetters of higher stages. Those of dull faculties cannot necessarily do so; they must take birth sequentially. For the sake of the sharp-rooted, it is taught that the supreme worldly dharma is in the desire realm. Failing to understand the Buddha's intention, they claim it is solely in the desire realm and that one cannot use the mind of the dhyāna stages. If they hear it taught that the four dhyānas perform the contemplation of the four dharmas, taking it to be from the fundamental stage mind, they claim that one definitely cannot use the desire realm; contradicting the middle path, disputes arise. Baoliang says: Speaking from principle, when the minds of the three realms are exhausted, one is able to perform the supreme worldly dharma. There are those who have not yet attained the eight dhyānas, but only the lightning-like concentration of the desire realm, and still use this concentration to contemplate the emptiness of dharmas as conventional designations. Therefore the Buddha taught that such a person uses the desire-realm mind to perform it. There are also those who have attained the eight dhyāna concentrations to contemplate the emptiness of dharmas as conventional designations. There are further those who have previously suppressed fetters up to the three formless stages, encounter the sage in that stage, and immediately use the three formless concentrations to perform the supreme worldly dharma. Yet the confused do not understand: hearing that it is performed with the desire-realm mind, they say that the upper two realms cannot; hearing that the upper three realms can perform it, they again say that the desire realm cannot; hence disputes are formed. Zhixiu says: Both realms can perform the supreme worldly dharma. Mingjun comments: The explanations above all rely on the doctrine of the Tattvasiddhi-śāstra (*Ch'eng-shih lun). If one relies on the Abhidharma doctrine, only two realms can perform it; the four formless concentrations definitely cannot. Why? Because even from the superior patience upward, one cannot take them as objects; how much less could the supreme worldly dharma, which resembles the undefiled, be performed there? The doctrines conflict; let the discerning examine this.