維摩經略疏 5.30

5.30

"I immediately afterwards elaborated on its meanings" is the second [part], Kātyāyana's broad exposition, referring to impermanence and the other five. "Afterwards elaborated": the Buddha explained suffering in its general characteristic for the monks, or explained the five in their general characteristic, precisely in order that they grasp the meaning and advance on the Way, so he did not explain them broadly in specific characteristics, fearing that going against their capacities would cause them to lose the intention of the correct path. Kātyāyana thought the monks did not understand, so after the preaching he broadly elaborated on them. "Elaborated" (fū) means to open; "expanded" (yǎn) means to broaden; he repeatedly opened and broadened the explanation of the five meanings. Furthermore, broad exposition has two kinds: first, horizontal breadth; second, vertical breadth. First, explaining horizontally means traversing the three realms to explain each of the five meanings of the truth of suffering separately. Second, explaining vertically means explaining the five practices individually with respect to the two views of body and extremes, the four views, and the sixty-two views. While ordinary masters of Abhidharma make fine distinctions in explaining the five meanings, this is merely horizontal breadth and cannot attain entry into the Way; our lineage sets aside the horizontal and uses the vertical to effect entry into the Way. But Kātyāyana entered the Way through seeing existence and non-existence, and composed the *Kǒnlè lùn*. As for the meaning clarified in that treatise: if one speaks of the applications of mindfulness, one thereby knows the four inversions; if one speaks of the three poisons, one thereby knows the three noble practices; if one speaks of existence, one thereby knows non-existence. Now, in speaking to the monks, he must have relied on his treatise, following the gates of existence and non-existence to accommodate both extremes and broadly explain the five meanings. However, when the Buddha was in the world, what he preached was without dispute; though the entry gates differed, the attainment of the Way was one. When composing treatises, each recounted his own gate without speaking of other teachings; thus the *Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra* explains that five hundred monks each spoke of the cause of the body, which is just this matter. When Kātyāyana composed his treatise, had he not skillfully penetrated the four gates of the Tripiṭaka and made distinctions without obstruction, how could his treatise have been transmitted to South India? The Abhidharma's gate of existence down to the gate of neither emptiness nor existence each clarify the five meanings; the four gates' clarification of the meanings is fully set forth in the *Xuánwén*. If one closely examines the sūtra, the four kinds of five meanings are clearly evident; setting them forth in full would be too cumbersome.