維摩經略疏 7.41

7.41

"One should recognise the sufferings of countless kalpas in past lives": pitying all through the sufferings of the past. It is like a commoner ascending to the throne and knowing people's suffering and joy. "One should be mindful of benefiting all sentient beings": the second clarifies consoling to exhort the generating of vast vows. "One should be mindful" means making vows based on compassion; being mindful of desiring to benefit all sentient beings is the superior condition for entering provisionality. "Recalling the blessings one has cultivated and being mindful of pure livelihood": the third clarifies consoling to cause the cultivation of blessings and wisdom. Entering emptiness, there are no blessings and no life; this is entering provisionality to cultivate the myriad practices, like planting trees in the void. Cultivating blessings is the adornment of merit; pure livelihood is the adornment of wisdom, just as the Da zhidu lun explains the four kinds and five kinds of right livelihood, which are all this matter. If one lacks right view, the wisdom life is entirely wrong—how could one pity them without giving rise to distress? Fourth, consoling to exhort the generation of a valiant mind. Hearing of birth and death for immeasurable kalpas, if the mind is valiant, with the mind of the Śūraṅgama, one can then enter provisionality to transform sentient beings. If one fears and becomes distressed, one may regress and fall into the two stages; hence it says, "Do not give rise to distress, always arouse vigor." Fifth, consoling to exhort the cultivation of vigor. If an ill bodhisattva wishes to enter provisionality, they must be vigorous and not rest; before fulfilling the buddha-dharmas, they should not realize cessation. Furthermore, just as they are about to shoulder the burden, they should not become weary or lax; this is entering provisionality from emptiness to benefit all. If one says emptiness has nothing at all and does not cultivate vigor, one will regress and fall into the two stages; how could one enter provisionality from emptiness to benefit all? "One should act as a king of physicians to cure all illnesses": the third clarifies using the perfect teaching to console. For bodhisattvas who have the actual illness of intrinsic causal aggregation, it causes them to cultivate the threefold contemplation in a single mind of emptiness and provisionality, attaining the wisdom of all modes and the Buddha eye. As for the various expedient teachings, these are not the great physician and are not called the king. In the perfect teaching, resolving to become a buddha and the perfect contemplation of the three truths, if one opens the Buddha's knowledge and vision, one is the great king of physicians, capable of perfectly gathering the medicine of Dharma to treat illnesses of the Dharma realm; hence it says "One should act as a king of physicians to cure all illnesses," so that both one's own illness and the illness of others are ultimately healed. This consoling text fully clarifies the four teachings and threefold contemplation; its meaning is summarized and the text not yet made explicit, until the commentary explaining the threefold contemplation below, where it is fully manifested.