維摩經略疏 10.49

10.49

第二、舍利弗問者，舍利是起教之人，既知大士法身實相同於諸佛，次顯應身隨緣化物無方大用之能，故問也。此問猶挍三藏之意。若三藏之佛沒則不生，若三藏菩薩猶有惑累則有於生。若爾，問其何沒而來生此。就此為二：一彈折身子、二佛發其所居之國。就初彈折為二：一身子問、二答。答中為五：一先反質、二譬顯、三問、四答、五引佛語為釋。反質者，汝解脫之中尚無沒生，我法身中那得沒生？汝既不爾，何得以此為問。二、「譬如幻師幻沒幻生」，此豈是實？若無實錄，不得謂有沒生。第五、引佛語釋中云「菩薩雖沒不盡善本」，不同二乘灰身盡智名盡善本。菩薩不滅，智所作功德亦不可滅，以此善本能益眾生。不長惡，不如凡夫之積集不盡善本。不同二乘之滅沒，由善本不滅，故能應於垢淨之國，俱不長垢淨二國之善惡也。

Second, as for Śāriputra's question: Śāriputra is the person who initiates the teaching; having known that the Great Being's dharmakāya of true reality is identical to that of all buddhas, he next brings forth the capacity of the responsive body to transform beings according to conditions with boundless great function, and therefore asks. This question still reflects the intent of the Tripiṭaka. According to the Tripiṭaka, if a buddha passes away, he is not reborn; if a Tripiṭaka bodhisattva still has the encumbrance of afflictions, he undergoes rebirth. If so, he asks from where he passed away to come and be born here. In this there are two: first, rebuking Śāriputra; second, the Buddha revealing the land where he abides. In the initial rebuke there are two: first, Śāriputra's question; second, the answer. In the answer there are five: first, first cross-examining; second, revealing through analogy; third, question; fourth, answer; fifth, citing the Buddha's words as explanation. As for cross-examining: in your liberation there is no passing away or birth to begin with; in my dharmakāya, how could there be passing away and birth? Since you yourself are not so, how can you take this as a question? Second, "just as a conjurer conjures passing away and conjures birth"—how could this be real? If there is no real record, one cannot say there is passing away and birth. Fifth, in citing the Buddha's words to explain, it says: "Although the bodhisattva passes away, he does not exhaust his roots of goodness"—unlike the two vehicles' reducing the body to ashes and extinguishing consciousness, which is called exhausting roots of goodness. The bodhisattva is not extinguished, and the merits produced by his wisdom are also inextinguishable; by means of these roots of goodness, he can benefit sentient beings. Not increasing evil is unlike ordinary persons' accumulation without exhausting roots of goodness. Being unlike the extinction and passing away of the two vehicles, because the roots of goodness are not extinguished, he is able to respond to defiled and pure lands, without increasing the good or evil of either the defiled or pure lands.