楞伽阿跋多羅寶經註解 4.7

4.7

In the answer, the Buddha first addresses what was asked. "Neither effect nor cause" means neither cause nor fruit; taken together it means neither made nor unmade. Saying that "both entail faults" does not merely refer to effect and cause; it precisely means that if the Tathāgata were solely effect and cause, he would fall into the fault of being created; if he were not effect and cause, he would fall into the fault of nonexistence. The passage stating that "If the Tathāgata were an effect..." means that if the Tathāgata were necessarily bound to things like cause and fruit, he would be impermanent; and if he were impermanent, all created dharmas would be the Tathāgata, yet neither I nor the Buddhas wish to be equated with such things. "If he were not something created..." examines the preceding line of "neither effect nor cause," meaning that if he were uncreated then nothing would be attained, and if nothing were attained, wisdom and skillful means would be set up in vain, identical to a rabbit's horn or a barren woman's son. Furthermore, regarding "neither effect nor cause," since the dharmakāya is not created, it is free from the faults of existence and nonexistence; being free from the faults of existence and nonexistence, it transcends the catuṣkoṭi. The catuṣkoṭi refers to the four propositions: identity and difference, both and neither, existence and nonexistence/neither existence nor nonexistence, permanence and impermanence. Not falling into this catuṣkoṭi is the meaning of the phrases concerning the Tathāgata, and is what is grasped by the wise.