維摩經玄疏 4.55

4.55

Second, clarifying that the ultimate teaching arises and is not discarded: this refers to the perfect teaching, which only arises and is never discarded. If in the *Avataṃsaka*, *Vaipulya*, *Lotus*, and *Nirvāṇa* [sūtras], the perfect teaching preached responds to perfect faculties, so that they long to produce good, sever evil, and see the Middle Way paramārtha-satya, then from the initial aspiration up to the Stainless Ground, in responding to the four roots and conditions, this teaching is constantly preached up to the Buddha of equal enlightenment; hence it is called "arising." Therefore, the thirty-two bodhisattvas, Mañjuśrī, and others all preach entering the dharma-door of non-duality, which is precisely the meaning of the teaching arising. If one realizes marvelous enlightenment, awakening by oneself without a teacher, there is no dharma that can be desired, no good that can be produced, no evil that can be severed, and no further profound principle that can be seen; the characteristics of words are extinguished. Since originally there is no arising, there is no discarding. If one may also speak of discarding where there is no discarding, it is because when the faculties of the four siddhāntas are exhausted, the teaching rests; hence it is named discarding. Thus the *Large Prajñā Sūtra* states, "Beyond *kṣa*, there are no syllables that can be spoken," and the *Nirvāṇa Sūtra* states, "Because non-arising and non-arising cannot be spoken"; therefore Vimalakīrti maintained silence and sealed his mouth, no longer speaking in words of the principle beyond words, and Mañjuśrī praised him, showing the transcendence of speech. Thus, in the causal stage there are both the person and the teaching, but upon reaching the fruit, the teaching is discarded while the person remains. The three virtues of nirvāṇa are calm and pure—how could it be the same as the bodhisattvas of succession and the bodhi-Buddha-fruit of the previous three teachings, which all have the teaching but no person, where once the teaching is discarded, the person is also discarded along with it? The meaning of provisional and ultimate is clearly apparent.