大方廣圓覺修多羅了義經略疏 1.1009

1.1009

謂不知華因翳有，妄執從空而生。不知迷真故妄生，橫執真能生妄。既得翳差，都不見華，聞說從翳而生，又執何時更翳？以喻比來迷倒，妄見輪迴，因聞普眼法門，了悟根塵清淨，聞道因除迷心，故得清淨，不是新得妙門。又執早晚更迷，猶如何時更翳。問：「翳差之者，或有他時更生，不必的定永無，如何以此為喻？」答：「夫喻者，但取當日一席之事，不說終身。但以愚人晨旦見華，食時眼差，見華亂生亂滅，謂言翳亦速起速停，念念候之，故云不可。故諸經論喻釋佛云：如大夢覺。豈可難云：睡起夢覺，何妨明夜更睡還夢？若如是難，豈識喻焉？」

This means that not knowing the flowers exist because of the cataract, one falsely grasps that they arise from space; not knowing that delusion arises because of confusion about the true, one arbitrarily grasps that the true is able to generate the false. Once the cataract is cured and flowers are not seen at all, hearing it said that they arose from the cataract, one again clings [to the question of] when it will cataract again. This serves as a simile for beings who have hitherto been confused and inverted, falsely seeing saṃsāra; upon hearing the Dharma approach of Samantacakṣus, they awaken to the purity of the faculties and dusts. Hearing that they attain purity because they have eliminated the deluded mind, and not because they have newly acquired a wondrous gate, they again cling [to the question of] when they will become deluded again, just like asking when it will cataract again. Question: "For someone whose cataract has been cured, it may arise again at another time; it is not necessarily permanently absent. How can this be used as a simile?" Answer: "A simile merely takes an incident of the moment in a single setting; it does not speak of an entire lifetime. It is only because an ignorant person, seeing flowers in the morning, has his eyes cured at mealtime; seeing flowers arise and cease in confusion, he thinks that the cataract will also quickly arise and quickly stop, waiting for it thought after thought. Therefore it says this is impossible. Thus various sūtras and treatises explain the Buddha through the simile: like awakening from a great dream. How could one object: 'After waking from sleep and dreams, what is to prevent sleeping and dreaming again tomorrow night?' If one objects like this, how could one understand similes?"