維摩經略疏 4.82

4.82

From "Kāśyapa" onward is the third [section], showing the correct method of eating. The text has two parts: first, showing correct eating; second, reiterating the explanation. The first text also has two parts: first, explaining the substance of the food; second, explaining the function of the food. In the first, on the substance of the food, the state of mind in begging food was faulty precisely because he did not know the method of correct eating; therefore it is explained for him. Below, rebuking Śāriputra, it says: "The Buddha spoke of the eight liberations; you, virtuous one, practice them, but how can you listen to the Dharma with food mixed with desire?" The eight liberations of the Hinayāna are indeed the joy of the true Dharma, but they do not rely on the Buddha's wisdom; abandoning the eight wrongful states to enter the eight liberations is conceivable liberation, and therefore one does not attain the food of the Mahāyāna's joy of the Dharma. Hence the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra says: "Although you monks go begging for food, you have never yet attained the food of the Mahāyāna Dharma." If a bodhisattva can use the Buddha's wisdom to see the principle of the Middle Way, being neither wrongful nor correct yet roaming simultaneously through both the wrongful and the correct, entering the inconceivable eight liberations, this is the Mahāyāna's joy of the true Dharma. Yet wrongful and correct each have phenomena and principle. First, phenomenal wrongness: namely, the fundamental attached dhyānas, all of which give rise to views of craving. That is to say, the four dhyānas and four formless [absorptions], when compared with demonic dhyāna and ghostly concentrations, are still correct dhyānas, but when compared with the [eight] liberations, they are phenomenal wrongness. Second, principle wrongness: when the viewing mind takes principle as its object incorrectly, it is called wrongful; namely, the eight such as wrong view and wrong speech. The two kinds of correctness are: phenomenal correctness, namely the eight liberations breaking through the eight phenomenal wrong states. Second, principle correctness, namely the eight such as right view, which directly break through the eight wrong states taking principle as their object. Śrāvakas do not attain the Buddha's wisdom; they cultivate the eight liberations to sever the eight dhyānas of phenomenal wrongness before they attain the eight liberations—this is abandoning the eight wrong states to enter the eight liberations; and they cultivate the eightfold noble path to break through the eight wrong states taking principle as their object to gain entry into seeing the truths—this is leaving the marks of the wrongful to enter the correct Dharma; all of these are conceivable joy of the Dharma, not the food of the true Mahāyāna joy of the Dharma. The bodhisattva relies on the Buddha's wisdom, and without abandoning the phenomenal wrongness of attached dhyāna, cultivates the liberations to enter the eight liberations, where the wrongful does not obstruct the correct, accomplishing the samādhi of the three truths, which is the dhyāna bliss of the Great Vehicle. Furthermore, he can contemplate the eight wrong states to enter the eight correct states of non-action, where the wrongful does not obstruct the correct, accomplishing the principle of the three wisdoms and three truths in a single mind, which is the Mahāyāna's joy of the Dharma. This is called equality of the Dharma food. Kāśyapa was not so, leading to non-universality. The bodhisattva is definitely able to understand this, and thus attains the inconceivable joy of the true Dharma and dhyāna bliss, which is great compassion without conditions, benefiting both rich and poor as if for a single person, and likewise for a multitude. If one has no partiality in mind toward all sentient beings, one can be equal toward food and also equal toward dharmas.