淨名玄論 5.23

5.23

Encompassing the various sūtras as a whole, there are [altogether] four propositions: (1) real cognition is long and provisional cognition is short; (2) provisional cognition is long and real cognition is short; (3) both are long; and (4) both are short.

As for 'real cognition is long and provisional cognition is short', this divides the two cognitions in terms of movement and stillness. Quietly observing both emptiness and existence is the real; since the real comprehensively illuminates emptiness and existence, it is long. The function of external transformation and movement is the provisional; since the provisional is only the function of existence, it is short.

Question: If real cognition, which inwardly and quietly observes emptiness and existence, is long, the external function of transformation and movement also explains both emptiness and existence, just as it explains the two truths. Moreover, it simultaneously manifests both emptiness and existence, as when Mañjuśrī manifested a body like empty space for King Ajātaśatru, which was manifesting emptiness, and displayed a body of sixteen or a thousand cubits, which was displaying existence. If so, then active function also extends to emptiness and existence, so both cognitions should be long.

Answer: Although externally it explains emptiness and existence and manifests emptiness and existence, this arises only from the cognition that observes existence. Because it inwardly observes and knows the illness and recognizes the medicine, it externally displays emptiness and existence; therefore it is short.

As for 'the provisional is long and the real is short', this divides the two cognitions by taking the observation of emptiness as the real and the illumination of existence as the provisional. Illumination of emptiness is the real; real cognition is exclusively quiet observation and not transformation and movement, and so it is called short. Illumination of existence is the provisional; the provisional possesses both stillness and movement—first observing the faculties and the medicines is stillness, and externally responding to illness to administer medicine is movement. Because the provisional extends to both stillness and movement, it is long. Both of these [first two] propositions determine length and shortness in terms of stillness and movement.

Third, as for 'both cognitions are long', this is decided purely in terms of emptiness and existence. Real cognition illuminates emptiness, and provisional cognition observes existence. Within the observation of existence, both moving and still existence are explained; real cognition's illumination of emptiness explains that both movement and stillness are empty. This being so, between the two cognitions there is neither shortness nor length.

The fourth proposition, 'both cognitions are short', divides the two cognitions purely within the cognition of existence, and therefore both cognitions are short. For instance, taking the knowledge of illness and recognition of medicine as the real, and responding to illness to dispense medicine as the provisional—both of these cognitions are subsumed under the gate of existence, and for this reason both are short. In essence, Vimalakīrti's unailing body is the real, and the meaning of demonstrating illness is the provisional.

Question: If one only unfolds the provisional and the real in reference to the cognition of existence to explain that both are short, can one also establish the provisional and the real with respect to the cognition of emptiness to have shortness and length?

Answer: Real cognition clarifies the meaning of 'two and not two' and constitutes their essence, so one does not unfold the provisional and the real [within it]. Provisional cognition is the meaning of 'not two and yet two' and constitutes their function, so it is what is unfolded. If one wishes to unfold it, the principle may be classified similarly: illuminating the shallowness of the emptiness of persons is the provisional, and illuminating the depth of the emptiness of phenomena is the real. Furthermore, illuminating the emptiness of the two vehicles is called the provisional. Why is this? In reality, there is no emptiness such as that seen by the two vehicles; because it illuminates this provisional emptiness, it is called provisional. Illuminating the emptiness of bodhisattvas is called the real, because the emptiness known by bodhisattvas is real emptiness. Because it illuminates real emptiness, it is called the real.