注維摩詰經 1.3

1.3

The Inconceivable Sūtra of Vimalakīrti: this is indeed a designation that exhausts the subtle and reaches the utmost of transformation, unmatched and wondrous. Its purport is unfathomably profound, not to be measured by words or images; its Way surpasses the three emptinesses, not to be debated by the two vehicles; it transcends the realm of all enumerations and cuts off the domain of the deliberate mind. Dim and vast, it is non-action yet leaves nothing undone; not knowing how it is so, yet able to be so—this is the inconceivable. Why is this? Holy wisdom is without cognition, yet all kinds of things are simultaneously illuminated; the dharmakāya has no image, yet distinct forms concurrently respond; the ultimate tone has no words, yet the arcane scriptures spread everywhere; dark expedients involve no contrivance, yet their movements accord with circumstances. Therefore, it can universally deliver all realms, open up beings, and accomplish affairs, benefiting the world while remaining in non-action for oneself. Yet the deluded, observing the resonance and illumination, call it wisdom; seeing the responsive forms, call it a body; beholding the arcane scriptures, call it words; and watching transformations, call it expedients. How could the utmost of the Way be spoken of in its divine realm through forms, words, expedients, or wisdom! Yet sentient beings sleep for a long night, and without words they cannot be awakened; the Way does not operate in isolation, and its propagation depends on people. For this reason, the Tathāgata commanded Mañjuśrī from a different direction and summoned Vimalakīrti from another land, gathering them in Vaiśālī to propagate this Way together. What this sūtra illuminates takes expedients and wisdom as primary in unifying all practices, establishes the six pāramitās as the root for planting virtuous foundations, places loving-kindness and compassion at the head for delivering the ignorant and deluded, and takes non-duality as the gate for speaking of the ultimate principle. All these various teachings are the fundamental basis of the inconceivable. As for borrowing seats from Pradīparāja, requesting food from the land of fragrances, lifting the chiliocosm in hand, and enclosing the cosmic heavens in a single room—these are the manifest traces of the inconceivable. Yet the profound portals are difficult to open, and holy responses vary. Without the fundamental basis, there would be no means to manifest traces; without the manifest traces, there would be no means to reveal the fundamental basis. Although the fundamental basis and manifest traces differ, the inconceivable is one; therefore, [the Buddha] commanded his attendant to designate this as the title.