大般涅槃經集解 66.112

66.112

Sengliang notes: Having already explained the middle way, he now cites this to clarify what contravenes the middle way. 'Having purity and impurity' explains that the continuation of the learner and non-learner is one. Impure is named the learner, meaning sentient beings. Pure is named the non-learner, meaning the Buddha. How could there be a separate non-learner within the learner? 'Definitively reply: It both arises and does not arise': the import of the middle way having been revealed, this concludes by exhorting one to recognize the essence of a definitive reply. Zhixiu says: This further explains a tacit objection. Hearing the above explanation and the resolution of the tacit objection, one might cling to the view that there is a separate fruit-dharma already existing within the cause. Now it clarifies that sentient beings are precisely this: based on the provisional entity of non-difference, it clarifies that sentient beings will attain and achieve it, hence saying 'they are precisely it'. Deductively inferred through principle, there cannot be a separate fruit-dharma already existing within the cause.