大般涅槃經疏 26.4

26.4

At the opening of the third section of the fascicle, bondage and liberation are explained. Although sentient beings possess the buddhadhātu, they are covered by delusion and cannot perceive it; they must cultivate the ten thousand practices, so that understanding arises and delusion is exhausted, whereupon the principle of the buddhadhātu becomes evident. Hence bondage and liberation are explained. The text has five rounds of questions and answers. In the first round of question and answer, the initial question has two parts: first, taking up the underlying principle to proclaim that there is none; next, from "these five aggregates" downward, raising a challenge based on arising and ceasing. If the real nature is unarisen and unceasing, then there is no bondage or liberation. If the conditioned nature does not abide from thought-moment to thought-moment, there is likewise no bondage or liberation. The essential nature of this delusion arises and ceases in an instant; how could this delusion bind sentient beings? Since there is no bondage, there is likewise no liberation. There are the phenomenon, the parable, and the application. The answer has two parts: first, the admonition and permission; next, the main answer, which also has two parts: first, explaining bondage, and later, explaining liberation. As for the first, explaining bondage, there are three parts: first, the death-aggregate; second, the intermediate aggregate; third, the birth-aggregate. Under the first, the death-aggregate, there are three: the phenomenon, the parable, and the application. The initial phenomenon is as in the text. Next, in the parable, it says that once the sun has set in the west, although residual light shines eastward, it ultimately never returns to the east. When a person's life is about to end, although residual breath remains, they ultimately will not revive. When this aggregate ceases, that aggregate arises in succession; this is explaining birth right within death. From "sentient beings" downward is the application, which again has two parts: first, the direct application; next, like a lamp arising and darkness ceasing, citing another parable again. Next, from "like a wax seal stamping clay" downward is the second part, explaining the intermediate aggregate (antarābhava), which again has two parts: first the parable, and later the application. The wax is a parable for the death-aggregate; the clay is a parable for the intermediate aggregate. That "the seal is destroyed and the impression is formed" is a parable that if the death-aggregate ceases, the intermediate aggregate immediately arises. That "the impression does not come out of the clay" means that this body does not emerge from the intermediate aggregate, nor is it without a cause, nor does it come from somewhere else; it appears by relying on the death-aggregate. Its location cannot be sought; it exists solely through causes and conditions. Question: Are there also those who do not undergo the intermediate aggregate? Answer: Speaking generally, all undergo it. Just as the Court of Judicial Review determines the sentencing and executes the punishment, so too is the intermediate aggregate: it scrutinizes and determines good and evil, so that the evil fall and the good ascend. If there are those who distinctly follow fierce good or evil, such as those [guilty of] the five heinous offenses who fall directly, or those [practicing] the ten good deeds who ascend directly—just as a spear leaves the hand and instantly reaches the other side—then the intermediate aggregate is not spoken of. From "when the present aggregates cease" downward is the second part, applying the parable: first the direct application, and next the two eyes and three foods. The first again has two parts: first the direct application, and next presenting the parable to match the application. Second, as for clarifying the two eyes and three foods: there is naturally no solid food; since this is a change of retribution, how could there be cooked grain to form mouthfuls? Since there is the aggregate of ideation, there is food of volition; because there is a body, there is food of contact; and because there is mind, there is food of consciousness. In the *Kośa* the intermediate aggregate and so on are broadly explained, and ancient masters had treatises on the four foods and the like, which are not essential here. From "when the parents unite" downward is the third part, explaining the birth-aggregate. Speaking generally, all six destinies have the birth-aggregate; taking just the human destiny for now, it first explains the arising of the three afflictions, and next explains the endowment with the four inversions, which constitute bondage; one must not object by saying that because it ceases from thought-moment to thought-moment, there is no bondage. As for the three afflictions: first, craving; second, aversion; third, conceiving [the self] as possessing, which is the view of self and is also delusion.