維摩經略疏垂裕記 9.6

9.6

Second, the specific explanation, which has two parts: first, explaining that the three feelings are endowed with dharmas, which has two parts: first, labeling; second, explaining, which has three parts: first, ordinary beings, which has two parts: first, craving, which has two parts: first, evil. Jingxi says: "From 'A bodhisattva, with regard to all unwholesome...' to 'penetrating the Buddha path'"—within this evil, because of knowing evil, it becomes the object of contemplation. Within that which contemplates, there are four kinds, which, divided according to medicine and disease, make eight different kinds; each is divided into cause and effect, making sixteen truths. The evil objects of contemplation are different. Since this is so, for wholesome objects up to the two vehicles and bodhisattvas, graded steps decrease them to know the disease and recognize the medicine. Because the medicinal treatments decrease, it is explained according to the decrease. From "limbs of the path" downward, each speaks of self and other; because there is illness and because one is practicing the provisional, one must cultivate it oneself. Second, wholesome. "Heavenly patterns" refers to the courses and degrees of the stars. "Earthly order" refers to the contours of mountains and rivers; here 'order' also means patterns. "Vedas" is as recorded earlier. "Writings and histories": "writings" generally refers to the Six Classics, fully as recorded earlier. "Histories" means Sima Qian's *Records of the Grand Historian*, Ban Gu's *Book of Han*, and Liu Zhen's *Han Records of the Eastern Tower*, which the world calls the Three Histories. Later, when the Three Kingdoms were divided, Wei and Wu each had official historians, while Shu had no such office. In the early Jin, Chen Shou gathered their affairs and called it the *Records of the Three Kingdoms*. From then onward, the world has had historical books. "Five sciences": both Buddhist and non-Buddhist have the five sciences. The five Buddhist sciences are linguistics, medicine, arts and crafts, incantations, and logic. For the five non-Buddhist ones, the first four are the same, while the last is talismans and seals. "Six arts" are rites, music, calligraphy, mathematics, archery, and charioteering. The Vedas and five sciences pertain to the Western Land (India); the writings, histories, and six arts pertain to this land (China). "Treatises on immortals": the *Shiming* says, "Those who grow old and do not die are called *xian* (immortals). *Xian* means *qian* (to move/shift). Hence, the character was fashioned with a person beside a mountain." The *Baopuzi* says, "Those who seek immortality must take loyalty, filial piety, harmony, compliance, benevolence, and trustworthiness as fundamental. If one does not cultivate virtue and merely applies oneself to esoteric techniques, one will never attain longevity. For those who commit great evil, the Director of Destinies reduces their lifespan by a twelve-year period (*ji*); for small faults, he reduces it by a hundred days (*suan*). The reduction is greater or lesser according to the gravity of the infraction." These are also this land's treatises on immortals. The *Śūraṅgama Sūtra* explains seven destinies, adding the destiny of immortals to the six destinies. "Treatises on the good": Śakra still dwells in the desire realm, merely teaching the ten wholesome actions of the distracted mind as the cause for heaven. The Brahma kings all teach dhyāna meditation to cause beings to leave the desire realm; hence, they are called treatises on transcending desire. "None that they do not understand" means that for the bodhisattva emerging from emptiness into the provisional, with regard to the above heavenly patterns, earthly order, up to the Brahma treatises, in order to transform sentient beings, they are thoroughly versed in each and every one. Second, views. Second, the two vehicles. "By analogy with evil above" should be stated as: by analogy with the previous explanation within the sharp-rooted emerging into the provisional. Third, bodhisattvas.