大毘盧遮那成佛經疏 1.39

1.39

The sūtra says: “Either Īśvara, or emanation, and time.” This refers to a class of non-Buddhists who impute Īśvara as eternal, and that this sovereign one is able to generate all things. As the Twelve Gate Treatise refutes: “If sentient beings were the sons of Īśvara, he ought only to ward off suffering with joy, not give them suffering; and also, merely by making offerings to Īśvara one should eliminate suffering and attain joy. Yet in reality it is not so; one merely performs the causes and conditions of suffering and joy oneself and receives retribution oneself; it is not made by Īśvara. Furthermore, if Īśvara makes sentient beings, who then made this Īśvara? If Īśvara made himself, that is not correct, just as a thing does not make itself. If there were another creator, he would not be called Īśvara.” It is as explained at length in that treatise. Those who impute emanation are largely similar to positing. Positing is like all dharmas issuing from the mind. Here, emanation is like all dharmas issuing from manual labor. It is just as a potter continuously kneads clay, producing various distinct shapes and forms. Next, the mention of “time” differs slightly from the tenet of the previous non-Buddhist time theorists; they are all of the kind of Īśvara.