金光明經文句記 1.79

1.79

Second, from "contemplation" down, explaining according to the contemplation of mind. The fourfold meanings of "I" and "heard" above are distinguished with respect to the practitioner's contemplation of mind. "Aspiring to what is above" and so forth refers to the contemplation of the six practices in defiled dhyāna. Aspiring to what is above as pure, wondrous, and free, while detesting what is below as suffering, coarse, and obstructive, discusses the higher and lower levels mutually with respect to the nine stages. "Self-self" and "heard-heard" are conventional objects of arising and ceasing within the Tripiṭaka; previously they were contemplated to enter principle according to the three vehicles' knowledge and understanding of arising and ceasing, but now, with respect to ordinary beings who cultivate without knowing, they only constitute worldly dhyāna. Since they are conventional objects, whether known or unknown, dharmas are fundamentally of arising and ceasing, and thus correspond to the proposition of "arising-arising." When our school explains it, whether from the perspective of the capacities being converted or from the contemplation that can contemplate, the two contemplations of analysis and embodiment differ conventionally but are identical in the absolute. Previously, based on conventional difference, analytical contemplation was individually matched with the first proposition; now, based on absolute identity, analytical and embodied contemplations are together matched with the next proposition, and the latter two contemplations do not differ from the previous matching. Furthermore, previously according to the teachings, the four propositions of "I have heard" could be matched with four persons; now, discussing the practice of contemplation, one must illuminate them with respect to one single person in a single thought-moment; hence the *Explanatory Commentary* (*Shīqiān*) says that with the threefold contemplation in a single mind, within a single thought-moment one sees the four kinds of four truths, and it even possesses the four destinies—how could it lack worldly dhyāna? Therefore, the explanation must proceed in sequence, because characteristics are distinguished according to persons; but cultivation has no before and after, solely constituting the perfect contemplation.