大毘盧遮那成佛經疏 1.35

1.35

The sūtra says: “Master of Mysteries, immature, ordinary people throughout beginningless saṃsāra cling to the name of a self and to what belongs to a self, discriminating countless parts of the self. Master of Mysteries, if they do not contemplate the nature of the self, the self and what belongs to the self arise.” What follows answers the meaning of the succession of minds. In order to explain the cause for the initial arising of the pure mind, [the text] first speaks of the mind of immature, ordinary people, which goes against the principle. “Beginningless saṃsāra”: the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa says, “In the world, whether sentient beings or dharmas, all are without a beginning. In the sūtra the Buddha says: ‘Enveloped by ignorance and bound by craving, roaming through saṃsāra, a beginning cannot be found. Even up to a bodhisattva contemplating that the beginningless is also empty, without falling into the view of a beginning.’” The meaning of “immature” is as explained before. “Ordinary person” should correctly be translated as “differently born” (pṛthagjana), meaning that due to ignorance, one receives retribution in accordance with karma without being master of oneself, falling into various realms of rebirth where bodily forms and mental characteristics are individually distinct; therefore they are called “differently born.” The self they impute has only a verbal expression without any actual reality; therefore it is said that they “cling to the name of a self.” Saying “what I have” refers to “what belongs to a self” (ātmiya). Such graspings at self and what belongs to the self, like the sixteen views and so forth, vary countlessly according to the difference of things; therefore they are called “parts.” Next, explaining that from which false discrimination arises, [the sūtra] says: “Master of Mysteries, if they do not contemplate the nature of the self, the self and what belongs to the self arise.” If they were to observe that all the aggregates arise from a combination of causes and conditions, which among them is the self? Where does the self abide? Is it identical to the aggregates, distinct from the aggregates, or mutual containment? If one can truly investigate in this way, one will obtain the correct eye. However, they do not observe themselves, but merely transmit it from one to another; from long ago they have practiced this view as an ancestral habit, claiming that the self is within the body, capable of actions, and nourishes and accomplishes the faculties. They hold that this alone is the ultimate path and all else is false speech. For this reason, they are called “immature.” The sūtra says: “They further impute time.” This means they impute that all the beauties and ugliness of heaven and earth take time as their cause. As their verse says: “When time arrives, sentient beings ripen; when time comes, it presses them on. Time can awaken humans; therefore time is the cause.” Still others say: although all persons and things are not created by time, time is an unchanging cause, an existent real dharma; being subtle, it cannot be seen, but through results such as flowers and fruits, one can know that time exists. Why is that? Because seeing the fruit, one knows the cause exists. Because this dharma of time is indestructible, it is eternal. Also, because they do not contemplate the intrinsic nature of time, they give rise to such false imputations.