大般涅槃經集解 68.72

68.72

Sengliang comments: The seventh is the section analyzing causes. The reason for analyzing causes is that above it was said that only three phenomena are permanent and all the rest are impermanent, which differs from the world, and difference engenders dispute. Now, by analyzing that different causes lead to different effects, speaking of difference according with principle, one speaks in unison with worldly wisdom and does not dispute with the world. Sengzong says: Below this is the fourth section, clarifying the cultivation of the Path. Baoliang says: When the Buddha says that the wise of the world are precisely the bodhisattvas, this begins the seventh text in the major section below, explaining the difference between the two causes. Intending to clarify this principle, he first takes up the preceding thesis to pose an objection: The wise people of the world say that the five aggregates are impermanent, whereas the Buddha alone says that the self is permanent. Since the teachings do not accord, this becomes a dispute with the world. How then can the Buddha say he is far removed from inversions and does not dispute with the world? The Buddha now replies: Ordinary beings take the three outflows as causes and thus incur suffering and impermanence. The Buddha uses true understanding of non-arising as condition, eliminating the cause of outflows so that there is no longer impermanence; thus the essence itself is permanent. Their causes being each different, how could they be identical to the world? Thus, when speaking in accordance with principle, how could conflict and dispute arise? Now, within this text, there are in total three rounds, extensive and brief, explaining that saṃsāra takes the three outflows as causes and is therefore impermanent; the Buddha does not take these as causes, and is therefore permanent. The first directly clarifies that ordinary beings do not recognize the fault of the three outflows; the second analyzes the source from which their outflows arise; the third clarifies that the fruit incurred by the outflows is purely suffering without bliss. Yet in these three rounds, the noble ones recognize the fault, penetrate the source of outflows, and contemplate it to produce understanding; thus they can eliminate the three outflows and accomplish the Eightfold Noble Path.