大般涅槃經疏 5.12

5.12

Second is the response to the entreaties. First is the response to the sorrowful entreaty, which has prose and verses. The prose first halts external sorrow and encourages cultivating internal contemplation. For ordinary beings, the eight worldly winds bring gain and loss, worry and joy; the Path and the secular are contrary, their ascent and descent being vastly different. Why? A loss cannot be pursued with grief and sorrow; joy cannot be attained with grief and affliction. As the text below says: "If you are constantly grieved and distressed, grief will only increase, in vain toil and without benefit." If you can diligently prevent the two evils and diligently generate the two goods—evil is the root of worry and joy, so due to good there is no worry or joy. You should only be pure; therefore, make diligent effort to halt distress, and because distress is halted, there will be no grasping at conditions; calm and unconditioned is called right mindfulness. What is right mindfulness? It is non-thought. If there is non-thought, who is parent, sovereign, or master? Who is minister, son, or disciple? Who departs and who abides? Who is ferried across and who is not? Who is the one who grieves? What is grieved for? Still, without a sign. From this, humans and devas regain the correct path and cease crying. Furthermore, it is illustrated with a parable: the Buddha is the condition for generating goodness; attaining good is like a cherished son, losing good is like losing a son; now hearing the immediate wisdom, they do not worry about losing goodness, hence it says "the burial has already concluded" (and so forth). Next, the verses comprise two parts: the first verse is halting sorrow, and the next verse is encouraging contemplation. Yet they reciprocally contain two meanings and cannot be taken exclusively one way. First, "opening the mind" means that opening the mind of diligence already leaves no worry, how much more so opening concentration and wisdom! Again, "opening" means opening the mind to dharmatā: both extremes of birth-and-death and nirvāṇa are tranquil, so the verse says, "Therefore, you should be silent." Again, "opening" means understanding that both functions are skillful means, hence it says, "Such is the nature of all Buddhas" (and so forth). As for the next verse, "delighting in heedfulness" encourages right mindfulness and wisdom; "guarding the mind" encourages concentration; "distancing" encourages effort; "comforting oneself" concludes the preceding instruction not to grieve; "experiencing bliss" means guarding this mindfulness and wisdom. You should maintain right mindfulness and cultivate your mind, not being like ordinary beings; what is the use of crying out in sorrow? However, these monks are all of the higher fruits, so how could they be identical to low, ordinary beings? This is specifically addressing the noble to rebuke the worldly; this directly responds to their sorrowful entreaty. From "Furthermore, bhikṣus" onward, he responds to their entreaty of prayer and praise. You praise the Buddha as being like the sun and like a mountain. As for the benefits of resting, illuminating, and so forth: the dharmakāya is eternally present, neither rising nor setting, but manifesting as concealed or exposed in accordance with the capacities for the two functions. Although the sun illuminates the world, only those with eyes behold it; although the mountain stands in the ocean, only those who drift into it see it. You are like those without eyes and who do not flow into it, so what further benefit could there be? If you say there is benefit, I now encourage you to ask. Even if you cannot ask, I will now open the inquiry for you; if you are able to ask, I will explain the nectar for you, and only then enter nirvāṇa. Since you cannot ask, what is the benefit of asking me to abide? This belittles their shortcomings, puts an end to their entreaty of prayer, and concurrently reveals the virtues of the bodhisattvas, directly responding to their entreaty of praise and prayer. In the older explanations of the fifteen pairs, they took them purely within the initial teaching in the sense of medicine and illness, saying that emptiness is the medicine and non-emptiness is the illness, and so on up to duality and non-duality being the same. Some took them purely in terms of the present teaching, saying that emptiness is birth-and-death and non-emptiness is nirvāṇa, and so on up to duality and non-duality being the same. If you are able to ask, then the door of nectar is opened and it will be of benefit to you; since you cannot ask, what is the benefit of asking me to abide? Xīnghuáng says: The text below fully contains this meaning, and the text below precisely relies on the meaning of the beginning and the end. Emptiness is the former teaching, non-emptiness is the present teaching, and so on up to duality and non-duality being the same. Now I clarify that this meaning is broad and wide, concurrently opening all inquiries; hence the text says, "Among such various dharmas, I shall follow along and sever them for you." The various commentaries are without fault; now I further categorize them into three kinds: empty, non-empty, and neither empty nor non-empty, and so on up to duality, non-duality, and neither duality nor non-duality being the same. Furthermore, categorize them into four kinds: empty, non-empty, both empty and non-empty, and neither empty nor non-empty, and so on up to duality and non-duality being the same. Both the former teaching and the present teaching can equally be broadly distinguished according to these three and four kinds (and so forth); these are precisely the three gates and four gates of the former teaching and present teaching.