維摩經略疏 4.98

4.98

問：二乘子果縛斷名得二般，即滅諦涅槃之異名。聲聞教明五逆之人尚不得出家受戒，豈得說為解脫滅諦？圓教不爾，達逆實相即是滅諦。下文云「一切眾生即大涅槃，不可復滅。」《思益》云「法本不生，今則無滅，是滅聖諦。」方廣云「乃至五無間，皆生解脫相。」逆是縛之劇者，尚本是滅，況一切法而非解脫？如調達造逆入無間獄，如三禪樂，常自寂滅，即大涅槃。以五逆相故，不同二乘；而得解脫，不同凡夫。若能如是見無作滅諦，是聖人無上敬田；不爾俱非。

[Regarding the lines: "By means of the five unpardonable sins... yet not bound"]—The question: In the two vehicles, the severing of the entanglements of defilements and retribution (klesa- and vipāka-bandhana) is called attaining the two nirvāṇas, which are alternative names for the truth of cessation, nirvāṇa. The śrāvaka teaching explains that people who commit the five unpardonable sins are not even permitted to leave the household life and receive the precepts, so how could it be said that they [attain] liberation, the truth of cessation? The Perfect Teaching is not like this: penetrating the true reality of the unpardonable sins is itself the truth of cessation. As the text below says: "All sentient beings are already [in] great nirvāṇa and cannot be extinguished again." The *Viśeṣacinti-brahma-paripṛcchā* says: "Dharmas are fundamentally unarisen, and now they do not cease; this is the noble truth of cessation." The *Fangguang [bore jing]* says: "Even the five unpardonable sins all give rise to the characteristics of liberation." The unpardonable sins are the most severe of entanglements, yet they are fundamentally cessation itself; how much more so for all dharmas—how could they not be liberation? Just as when Devadatta committed the unpardonable sins and fell into the Avīci Hell, [his state] was like the bliss of the third dhyāna, constantly quiescent in itself; this is precisely great nirvāṇa. Because [such an adept displays] the characteristics of the five unpardonable sins, he is unlike the two vehicles; yet because he attains liberation, he is unlike ordinary persons. If one can thus see the uncreated truth of cessation, one is a sage, an unsurpassed field of respect; if not, one is neither.