淨名玄論 1.7

1.7

It is said: Now, the dharmakāya originally has no image, yet responding to the affection of beings, forms appear; the ultimate purport is ineffable, yet profound scriptures are widely spread. Thus we know that being formless, there is nothing it does not form, and being ineffable, there is nothing it does not speak. Because being formless there is nothing it does not form, it abides in illusion-like cognition and roams playfully through the five destinies; because being ineffable there is nothing it does not speak, it spreads the great net of teaching and stretches across the stream of saṃsāra. Hence we know that this sūtra puts forward both person and Dharma. As for the person, it refers to Vimalakīrti. Because pure virtue fills him within and good fame abounds without, making him renowned throughout the world, he is called Vimalakīrti. How could it merely be that he subdues Māra's hordes and curbs the non-Buddhists? The five hundred śrāvakas declared themselves incompetent, and the eight thousand bodhisattvas were at a loss for words at that time. As for what is called Dharma, it refers to inconceivable liberation. Comprehending its general import, there are three kinds altogether: 1. inconceivable object; 2. inconceivable cognition; 3. inconceivable teaching. From the inconceivable object, inconceivable cognition arises; by means of inconceivable cognition, the inconceivable teaching is promulgated. Desiring to cause the followers who receive conversion to penetrate the principle by relying on the teaching, and to generate cognition by virtue of the principle, there is therefore nothing of the principle that these three gates do not subsume. Yet although there are three gates, their meaning encompasses root and trace. The object and the arising of cognition are called the inconceivable root; the teaching is called the inconceivable trace. It is necessary that from the object cognition arises, and only then in response to beings is the teaching dispensed, which is called putting forth the trace on the basis of the root; penetrating the principle by relying on the teaching is called revealing the root through the trace. That which is called 'inconceivable' means that internally there is no effortful activity and no resort to deliberation, while externally the transformation is subtle and beings cannot measure it; hence it is called 'inconceivable'. Liberation briefly has two [kinds]: first, ascending to the stage of the dharmakāya and discarding the form of afflictive karma, which is called the liberation of the fruit; second, the Path runs through both streams, the two wisdoms are ever conjoined, freely unconstrained and unbound by defilements, which is called the liberation of the cause.