維摩經略疏 4.17

4.17

Next, explaining the correlation with the ten dharmic approaches to assist the Buddha in propagating the four flourishing [trees] of the full-character [teachings]: Sentient beings were incapable, so through the power of expedient means, he established the teaching of the four withered [trees]. These ten disciples are all dharmakāya beings who conceal [their real attainment] internally and manifest [it] externally. Since the Tathāgata took birth in the royal palace, the disciples also manifested appearances in accordance with conditions. When the Tathāgata attained awakening beneath the tree, the disciples were all intelligent, with sharp wisdom, serving as teachers of non-Buddhists. Thus the *Lotus Sūtra* states, "I was originally attached to wrong views and was a teacher to the brahmins. The World-Honoured One knew my mind, uprooted my errors, and taught nirvāṇa." The reason they served as their teachers was that this made it easier to tame them. Once the Tathāgata attained the Way, they all came to take refuge in him and practice the four withered [trees]. Once the master had submitted, the students followed en masse like grass bending in the wind; after this, their minds mutually trusted and comprehended, entering and emerging without difficulty. Therefore, Vimalakīrti rebuked the two vehicles to make them rejoice in the Mahāyāna and renounce the Hīnayāna; thus they showed themselves residing in insufficiency, acting as the anvil receiving the hammer of rebuke, jointly maturing the capacities of beings to accomplish the great matter. This reveals that under the Tathāgata's expedient, esoteric teaching, sentient beings all feel ashamed of the small and admire the great, open the Buddha's knowledge and vision, attain permanence, bliss, self, and purity, and enter the full-character dharmic approaches—all through the disciples' aiding the accomplishment of the Buddha's work by means of the ten mental factors as dharmic approaches. The meaning of the five flavors is explained in detail in the *Lotus Sūtra*; it is not the main intent here, so it is not fully explained. Furthermore, the *Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra* explains the adornment of the four flourishing [trees], which should properly list ten persons, but selects only six in order to refute the six non-Buddhist teachers who destroy the twin trees. Why? All sentient beings possess the mind king and mental factors, which is the meaning of the three buddha-natures: the king is the direct cause, wisdom is the revealing cause, and the other factors are the conditional causes. The buddha-nature is fully present, but because it is covered by the factors of affliction, it cannot manifest. Therefore, the Tathāgata together with the ten disciples strike and tap with the hammer and anvil, perfecting curd and clarified butter, causing beings to enter the full-character teaching, open the Buddha's knowledge and vision, reveal the three buddha-natures, and enter the secret treasury. Now, correlating the disciples with the mental factors and the Tathāgata with the king accomplishes the benefits of the half and full [teachings]; its meaning is crystal clear. From antiquity to the present, this meaning has not been clarified; how could they know that the intent behind commissioning the disciples was to assist in accomplishing the teaching of inconceivable liberation?