涅槃玄義發源機要 3.2.9

3.2.9

"Near and far are both accessible": those of dull faculties are nearby accessible to the biased true, while those of sharp faculties are far accessible to the Middle Way—namely, those who are received and guided. From "If one can" below, the text of opening the small from the Lotus Sutra is borrowed to establish the principle of people of the shared teaching being received and guided. As for the phenomena and principle practiced: regarding phenomena, it is cultivating for dust-mote eons, entering emptiness, and emerging into the provisional; regarding principle, it is knowing the Middle from the initial mind and awakening upon ascending the stages; therefore, this is not something known by the three vehicles of the two teachings. Since the true principle realized by the bodhisattvas of the two teachings is identical with that of the two vehicles, they are entirely subsumed under the two vehicles. Thus it was said above that it is not shared with the two vehicles, making clear that the former bodhisattvas are shared with the two vehicles, and this is their realm. "Not something known by the two vehicles or the lower stages": the teaching of the perfectly integrated three truths is not something known by the two vehicles of the two teachings, nor by the lower stages of the separate teaching. "Lower stages" means prior to the stages. When the path of realization is identical with the perfect, they have a share of knowledge. "From shallow to deep": the three teachings mutually have shallow and deep, whereas the perfect teaching is solely deep. Bodhisattvas comprehensively cultivate the four teachings, hence it is said "from shallow to deep." "That is, the gradual and sudden teachings," etc.: passing through the biased and gradual of the three teachings to reach the perfect and sudden, it is therefore called gradual-sudden and gradual-perfect. "This is one type in the text": namely, the sequential five practices from the gradual to the perfect, which among the three kinds of calming and contemplation is sequential calming and contemplation. The one line from "There is also" below is the non-sequential five practices, which among the three kinds of calming and contemplation is the perfect and sudden calming and contemplation. "Setting out": the Wen Xuan says, "Setting out (fazhen) from the clear waters of the Luo River," and the commentary notes, "Zhen is a chariot," meaning setting out with chariots from Luoyang. Here, setting out is used as a metaphor for initial cultivation. "There is no further distinction": the perfect dharma has no distinction; because one enters from the gradual, it is called gradual-perfect; it does not mean that the perfect has distinctions of gradual and sudden. "The shared is the miscellaneous pitaka": because in this teaching the three vehicles and those who are received and guided are not of one kind, it is called miscellaneous. "Properly serving as a metaphor for the order of preaching the teachings": taking milk first coming from a cow as an analogy for the Buddha appearing in the world and first preaching the Avataṃsaka, through to finally turning into ghee as an analogy for the Buddha finally preaching the Lotus and Nirvāṇa, as explained in fascicle thirteen. "One should not take it in the sense of shallow and deep": one should not say that milk and the like are definitively shallow and thus regard the Avataṃsaka and others as inferior, nor that ghee is definitively deep and thus regard the Nirvāṇa as superior. One must understand that the five flavors exist with respect to sequential mutual production, and yet within all the flavors there is perfect integration, so there is neither superior nor inferior. In the Deer Park it was explicitly absent, but secretly it was also present; this too is not distinguishing superior and inferior based on the distinction of opened or not yet opened. From "If one says" below, various texts are extensively cited to refute fixed attachments. Regarding the view of the shallow and deep of what is symbolized: if the four flavors were shallow, they should not symbolize what is deep; if ghee were deep, it should not symbolize what is shallow. "The physician examining the king's illness," etc.: the physician symbolizes the Buddha, the king symbolizes sentient beings, the illness symbolizes clinging to impermanence, and the milk symbolizes the present sūtra, using the medicine of permanence to cure the illness of impermanence. "The eight flavors of sweet curd": milk and yogurt are bland, while ghee is rich; curd is situated in between, so it possesses all the flavors: first, the fresh flavor; second, the cooked flavor; third, the curd flavor; fourth, the whey flavor; fifth, the milky flavor; sixth, the sweet flavor; seventh, the bland flavor; and eighth, the rich flavor. These symbolize nirvāṇa possessing the eight virtues of permanence, bliss, self, purity, eternal peace, stainlessness, cool refreshment, and agelessness and immortality. "To compare its depth": kuang means compare. "Cannot be called deep": since it symbolizes the two vehicles, its teaching is indeed shallow. "Just as blood transforms into milk": ignorance is precisely illumination, just as blood transforms into milk. "From the essence of the dharma-realm to the dharmas of the realm": this is preaching the perfect and sudden teaching based on the perfect and sudden principle.