大般涅槃經疏 7.5

7.5

The second [section], in which [the Buddha] encourages them a second time, has two parts: first the encouragement, then the declining. As for the first part, encouraging them to ask about the precepts and rules: one view says that it is merely an abbreviation, the full explanation being as given above. Furthermore, taking the sense of the passage below, because the Buddha wished to entrust [the Dharma], he took the precepts and rules as the starting point for encouragement. Next, as for the declining: since they were incapable of asking about the precepts and rules, they declined as being incompetent. This contains the doctrine, the simile, and the application. The doctrinal explanation also has three parts: the direct declining, the explanation, and the conclusion. The direct declining declines on the grounds of lacking wisdom and being incapable of asking about the three titles, as in the text. Next, explaining the declining: it explains that the three titles are all inconceivable. Because the profound and subtle Dharma of the Tathāgata's realm is truly identical with all buddhas, he is titled 'Tathāgata'. My inability to ask is declining [on the ground of] the original nature of emptiness and quiescence above. Because all the samādhis are inconceivable, fully plumb the extremely profound and wondrous dhyāna-contemplations, and are able to serve as fields of merit for all beings, he is named 'One Worthy of Offerings' (Arhat). My inability to ask is declining [on the ground of] clear and penetrating comprehension above. That the teachings and admonitions expounded are inconceivable means that they plumb the very limits of all discourses, showing and guiding sentient beings as to what is the path and what is not the path, hence he is titled 'Fully and Truly Enlightened One' (Samyaksaṃbuddha). My inability to ask is declining [on the ground of] the precepts and rules above. Furthermore, the explanation of the declining is an inability to ask about the three truths: the realm of all buddhas is the inability to ask about the middle; all the samādhis are the inability to ask about the real; the teachings and admonitions expounded are the inability to ask about the conventional. In the third, concluding the declining, 'lacking wisdom' means lacking the three knowledges. Next, the declining through simile has four parts: 1. the śrāvakas are unfit to receive the entrustment; 2. the Tathāgata ought not to entrust them; 3. the śrāvakas forcibly accept the entrustment; 4. the Tathāgata loses that which was entrusted. First, explaining unfitness: 'an old person' refers to the years when the karmic retributions of Jambudvīpa are about to end, analogizing the śrāvakas' contemplation of the twelve links of dependent origination—each link having twelve aspects, spanning past to present, hence one hundred and twenty. Because the past and present are extinguished, old age and death are extinguished; from the extinction of ignorance up to the extinction of old age and death, they are about to enter nirvāṇa. 'Their body beset by chronic illness': although the primary afflictions are exhausted, the lingering traces (vāsanā) still remain. Furthermore, the particular delusions of ignorance have not been touched in the slightest; hence it is called 'chronic illness'. 'Lying prostrate on a bed or mat': sinking into emptiness and stagnating in quiescence, they lose playful mastery of supernatural powers. 'Incapable of rising or resting': unable to enter existence is like being unable to rise; failing to continue the lineage of the Three Jewels is like being unable to rest. 'Their vital energy and strength being frail and feeble': lacking the permanent life-force is like lacking vital energy; lacking the fierce vigor of the ten powers is like lacking strength. Because they possess little of the real, it is called 'frail'; because it is not the supreme cultivation, it is called 'feeble'; with little of their remaining lifespan left, they are about to enter the extinction of the body into ashes. Next, from 'There was a rich man' onwards analogizes that the Tathāgata ought not to entrust [it to them]. 'Rich man' refers to the perfection of wisdom and eradication [of delusions]. 'Bound by business and wishing to travel': because adaptive transformation involves many affairs, it says 'bound by business'; mounting suchness to manifest responsive bodies, it says 'wishing to travel'. 'With a hundred pieces of gold': the hundred lines of liberation. The Book of Han states that ten thousand is considered one piece of gold; having a hundred pieces of gold means one million. Since one line of liberation has ten thousand liberations as its retinue, a hundred lines of liberation have one million liberations as their retinue. 'Perhaps after ten or twenty years': there are three interpretations: 1. It refers to ten kalpas or twenty kalpas. 2. It refers to ten [years] among humans and twenty among gods. 3. It refers to ten for the true Dharma and twenty for the semblance Dharma. This meaning is not correct. If it were so, how could there later be a return and reunion? Now it is explained that common delusions are ten, and particular delusions are twenty. Adapting to conditions to eliminate sentient beings' two delusions, common and particular, is called entrusting household affairs. When the recipient of the entrustment eliminates the common and particular delusions, this prompts my return. 'Upon returning, return it to me': there were formerly two interpretations: 1. It only refers to Śākyamuni; when his responsive manifestation in other lands is exhausted, and the conditions arise in this land, upon returning afterwards one still sees my former Dharma jewel. 2. When Maitreya descends to be born, he still sees the true Dharma of Śākyamuni; because the dharmakāya is not different, it says 'return it to me'. Now it is explained: the exhaustion of common and particular delusions is precisely the time of return, and precisely returning it to me; this meaning is more fitting. Third, from 'This old and sick person' onwards, the śrāvakas mistakenly receive it. 'Having no heir': there were formerly two interpretations: 1. They have no good-hearted real son or compassionate daughter. 2. They have no transformed retinue to continue after them. Now it is said that they have no sons of firm faith in the permanent [Dharma]. 'The disease grows severe and life ends': turning the body to ashes and entering extinction. Fourth, from 'When the property owner returned from the journey' onwards: the Tathāgata loses that which was entrusted, and the Dharma jewel is lost. 'Foolish person': two interpretations: 1. The recipient of the entrustment is the foolish person, unable to measure their capacity and mistakenly receiving another's entrustment. 2. The entrustor is named the foolish person; this is a hypothetical statement: if one were to entrust it to a śrāvaka, one would be a foolish person; if one does not entrust it, one is not a foolish person. Next, from 'World-Honoured One' onwards is the application of the simile. It only applies the mistaken receipt and the loss, not the first two. In applying the latter two, it first applies the third, and next from 'I now' onwards applies the fourth.