金光明最勝王經疏 4.362

4.362

贊曰：明無際空。為成畢竟利有情故，觀無際空。故《辨中邊》云「生死長遠，無初後際。觀此空故，名無際空。不觀為空便速厭捨，為不厭捨此生死故觀此無際。」《十八空論》云「妄想無法故曰無前，分別無相故稱無後，無前無後是故名空。」此意無明妄想生故云無前，生老死等相未來無故稱無後。又除遍計無常無作，二緣生故所以名空。文段分三：初一頌半總明體空、次兩頌別明緣生、後一頌明輪迴不息即是無終。初也。諸法無常，觀無常緣生。無明力起，觀無作緣生即是無常。無明為緣，餘支得起。彼羯剌藍等諸位，大種顛倒緣生，名為虛妄。不同勝、數諸外道等說體皆實，云本非實有體，皆從緣起，無自然生，故云無生。故說大種性皆空者，結前大種虛妄。由此虛妄，觀若浮漚非實故空。

The Commentary says: This clarifies the emptiness of the boundless (anavaprāgraśūnyatā). In order to achieve the utter benefit of sentient beings, one contemplates boundless emptiness. Thus the *Madhyāntavibhāga* states: "Saṃsāra is long and distant, devoid of beginning or end. Contemplating this as empty is called 'boundless emptiness.' If one does not contemplate it as empty, one would quickly weary of it and abandon it; in order not to weary of and abandon this saṃsāra, one contemplates this boundlessness." The *Treatise on the Eighteen Kinds of Emptiness* (*Aṣṭādaśaśūnyatā-śāstra*) states: "Because false imagination lacks phenomenal existence, it is said to have no beginning; because discrimination lacks characteristics, it is said to have no end. Having neither beginning nor end, it is therefore called empty." The meaning here is: because it arises from the false imagination of ignorance, it is said to have no beginning; because characteristics such as birth, aging, and death will not exist in the future, it is said to have no end. Furthermore, eliminating the imagined, it is impermanent and uncreated; because it arises from two conditions, it is therefore called empty.

The text is divided into three parts: first, a stanza and a half generally clarifies the emptiness of essence; next, two stanzas specifically clarify conditioned arising; finally, one stanza clarifies that transmigration without cease is itself having no end. This is the first part.

"All conditioned phenomena are impermanent" contemplates the conditioned arising of impermanence. "Arising from the power of ignorance" contemplates the uncreated conditioned arising, which is precisely impermanence. With ignorance as condition, the remaining links are able to arise. In those states such as the *kalala*, the great elements arise through perverse conditions and are called false and deceptive. Unlike the non-Buddhists such as the Vaiśeṣikas and Sāṃkhyas who say that their substance is entirely real, it says that originally they have no real existence of substance; they all arise from conditions and are without self-existent arising, and are therefore called "unborn." "Therefore it is taught that the nature of the great elements is completely empty" concludes the preceding point that the great elements are false and deceptive. Because of this falsity, one contemplates them as being like floating foam, unreal and therefore empty.