維摩經略疏 1.87

1.87

Question: How can one correlate with Dharma gates and apply the contemplation of mind at every point? Could the Buddha's intention really be like this? Answer: The Buddha's mind is like an ocean into which all streams flow; like a wish-fulfilling jewel that rains down gems in accordance with thought; like a clean mirror that produces images corresponding to what faces it; and like the great earth where growth corresponds to the seeds. In the Great [Nirvāṇa] Sūtra, each person groping the elephant could not know it; grasping at their views, they claimed their own understanding was correct and disputed right and wrong—how could they accord with the Buddha's intention? If you say there are no correspondences to Dharma gates in the sūtras, consider when Universal Manifestation of the Physical Body asked Vimalakīrti: "Parents, wife and children, relatives and kin—who are all of these?" The Great Being replied: "The perfection of wisdom is the bodhisattva's mother, expedient means is the father," and so on. Since Vimalakīrti was a lay bodhisattva, how could he not have parents and family members, and yet not answer according to worldly phenomena, but entirely in terms of Dharma gates? One should know that without departing from path-dharmas, he manifested the matters of ordinary people; though manifesting the matters of ordinary people, inwardly they all signify path-dharmas. It is also like the Buddha's place of nirvāṇa being between the withered and flourishing [trees]—how could one understand it merely as trees? Furthermore, the Buddha's sincere words always signify the partial or the perfect; now, wishing to preach the Dharma gate of inconceivable liberation, without abandoning path-dharmas he manifested traces identical to the ordinary and dwelt in Vaiśālī—how could this not signify the Dharma gate in which the ultimate stage abides? The Avataṃsaka explains ten cities and ten groves; how could they merely be worldly cities and groves? Below in this sūtra, the chapter "Bodhisattva Practice" says: "In all the bodily comportment, movements, and pauses of the buddhas, there is nothing that is not buddha-work." How can one treat them merely as worldly matters, without considering the matters signified and expressed by the holy ones' skillful expedients and esoteric depths? Moreover, the Lotus Sūtra says: "If one wishes to preach this sūtra, one should enter the Tathāgata's room, put on the Tathāgata's robe, sit on the Tathāgata's seat, and only then preach among the four assemblies with a mind free of fear." If that sūtra did not correlate with Dharma gates, when wishing to lecture on it, would one enter the Buddha's hall, ascend the Buddha's seat, drape oneself in the Buddha's robe, and preach the Dharma among the assembly in order to attain the Buddha's intention?