注維摩詰經 5.58

5.58

Daorong says: Sentient beings undergo delusion, and therefore have attachment; having attachment, they take on a body; taking on a body, they fall ill; and because they are ill, my illness arises. That my illness arises when sentient beings are ill shows that Vimalakīrti arose for the sake of living beings. Since he has come for beings for a long time, we know it is not recent. Below it says that when their illnesses are extinguished, my illness will be extinguished, which clarifies that his undertaking of illness is not confined to a limited group of sentient beings. Newly trained bodhisattvas are not yet able to dwell in saṃsāra for a long time and take on illness for all beings; hence he clarifies the mahāsattva's vast mind in abiding in illness. Traced back to its prior limit, it began with the initial aspiration; traced to its subsequent limit, it is extinguished together with sentient beings. When new trainees hear this, their narrow minds naturally broaden. Though the two clauses on the arising and extinguishing of the illness speak of illness, their intent is to illuminate compassion; thus he only speaks of the duration of the arising and extinguishing of the illness. Once the duration is made clear, great compassion naturally reveals itself; therefore he first answers regarding arising and extinguishing, and afterward answers regarding the arising of great compassion. This compilation takes clarifying the essential principle as fundamental, yet he speaks of great compassion first because there are two gateways into the Buddha-Dharma: first, great compassion, and second, wisdom. Proceeding from the shallow to the deep, propagation has its stages; therefore he speaks first of great compassion and afterward of the true mark. Master [Kumāra]jīva explains it in terms of emptiness, saying: 'Delusion has no prior limit; having no prior limit, it also has no middle or end. Illness is also like this, having no long or short duration.' In this passage there does not seem to be the meaning of emptiness, so I note my personal understanding separately as above. [Seng]zhao says: This answers the question about duration. What illness could a bodhisattva have? It is only out of compassion for them that he contracts an illness. For the illness of living beings, delusion and attachment are the root; for the illness of a bodhisattva, great compassion is the source. The high arises from the low; illness arises because of compassion. Thus, the arising of the illness of compassion stems from delusion and attachment; and since delusion and attachment are beginningless and their source cannot be discerned, the duration of my illness shares the same root with them. This clarifies the beginning of the illness of compassion, and does not necessarily speak solely of himself. [Dao]sheng says: The intention of manifesting illness is to uproot the beginningless delusion and attachment of sentient beings and exhaust their inexhaustible source. Although it arises in me now, in reality there is no arising in me now; the intent resides in their past, so it is essentially their past illness. Thus the illness arose at the time when there was delusion and attachment, not just recently. He does not speak of 'all' because in answering the duration of the illness now, the meaning is not universal; yet by speaking generally of delusion and attachment, the universal is already contained within it. Nor does he speak of 'sentient beings' because the bodhisattva no longer has delusion and attachment, so it naturally belongs to them.