請觀音經疏闡義鈔 3.53

3.53

From "The former one" onward, this treats the Dharma-follower, drawing a parallel to the dragon's rain. When the sūtra explains external fire, it speaks of the dragon king sending down rain, whereas for internal fire it simply speaks of elimination and recovery. Now the Great Master establishes the designation based on the underlying meaning: since bodily illness can be called fire, the illness's recovery is itself the meaning of sending down rain. Since internal fire represents the afflictions of thought, the dragon king represents the mind-king, because the mind's numinous freedom is like that dragon. "The uncontaminated mind-king" refers to the uncontaminated mind contemplated by [practitioners of] the three directions and three fruits. "Producing the Dharma water of meditative absorption" is the sending down of rain. Rain can extinguish fire, just as dhyāna can cut off thought. Question: The previous explanation of external fire represented the path of seeing in terms of the faith-follower, so why is this discussion of the path of cultivation explained in terms of the Dharma-follower? Answer: The path of seeing and the path of cultivation each have both sharp and dull faculties. Sharp faculties entering the path of seeing are called Dharma-followers; dull faculties entering it are called faith-followers. Sharp faculties entering the path of cultivation are called "attained by view"; dull faculties entering it are called "resolved through faith." Thus both seeing and cultivation possess both faith- and Dharma-practices. Now, because upon first entering the path of seeing the aspect of receiving teaching is stronger, it is convenient to treat it in terms of faith; in the path of cultivation, repeated contemplation [of the Dharma] makes it convenient to treat it in terms of Dharma. Grasped according to the inner intent, both meanings are necessarily present. "The seeing and thought of portioned [birth and death] can be understood": among the previous eight kinds of persons, the two belonging to the distinct and perfect [teachings] are still in ordinary stages, so what they sever is still intra-realm seeing and thought; hence it is said to be "understandable." From "Changeable [birth and death]" onward refers to the latter two kinds of persons: namely, persons of the distinct teaching's three stages of the worthy who have completely severed intra-realm delusions and have already been born into [the land of] upāya, and those of the perfect teaching's first abiding stage who have already shattered ignorance and have been born into the land of real reward. Both of these persons illustrate the meaning of internal and external fire in terms of identical-substance seeing and thought beyond the realm. "Exquisite five desires" refers, as in the Avataṃsaka, to the immeasurable clouds of fragrant flowers and the hundreds of thousands of meditative absorptions. The clouds of fragrant flowers are the desire realm within the land of changeable [birth and death]. The meditative absorptions are the form and formless realms; these are the afflictions of thought beyond the realm. The text is elliptical; the meaning of "view" should be understood as in the Bodhisattvabhūmi, where equal enlightenment enters the dhyāna of abandoning views, and in the Nirvāṇa, where Kāśyapa says of himself, "Before this, I was called a person of wrong view"—all of which are afflictions of view beyond the realm. Yet these views and thoughts truly have no different substance; they merely designate fundamental ignorance: when it obstructs principle it is called view, and when it moistens rebirth it is called thought, unlike the distinction between the two delusions within the realm.