請觀音經疏闡義鈔 4.21

4.21

"Four great channels" derives its name in contrast to small. Ten channels and a hundred channels are called small channels. Below "Tending toward the four," the Great Master's oral transmission states: "The heart is like a kumuda flower, with four petals joined together; each petal has ten markings, and channels interlace with each other." Therefore, at the tip of the heart there are forty channels. Because the oral transmission directly instructs beginners, it only mentions forty, and does not mention four hundred and forty. The sūtra says, "take one central channel"; the oral transmission states: "It goes straight tending toward the navel and is called the udāna wind." Udāna means middle; hence this channel is called the central channel. "Further take," etc., means that the central channel goes straight down tending toward the navel, and comes out again from the navel to reach the ten channels of the head. Therefore the sūtra says, "issuing from the great channel and reaching beneath the tongue." The oral transmission states: "As for the breath, exhaling it issues from the navel; inhaling it reaches the navel and ceases." Now it explains that the exhalation reaches the tip of the tongue; hence it takes the upper forty channels combined with the four great channels, making fourteen. "From tongue to nose": ying (應) should be cong (從, from); it is a scribal error. This explains the sūtra text: "issuing from the tongue channel, and so on up to reaching the tip of the nose, returning into the heart root and going straight toward the navel, like the flowing and pouring of rivers and oceans." The oral transmission states: "The channels in the body are like the hundred streams communicating with the sea," which is this. The liver belongs to wood, so its qi is blue; the lungs belong to metal, so they are white; the spleen belongs to earth, so it is yellow; the kidneys belong to water, so they are black; the heart belongs to fire, so it is red. "This is an abbreviation" means that the sūtra does not say "not red." "The various qi gather at the nose," etc., means that the various qi are the channel qi of the five visceral organs. When reaching the nose, they lose their original colors such as blue and are merely translucent like vaiḍūrya, not of the five colors. "The breath is subtle, eight inches": this explains the sūtra text's "straight and long, eight inches." Eight inches refers to the subtlety and fineness of the exhalation, not coarse or gross. Straight means upright, not oblique or crooked. "Assisting the scattered": the Guangya says, "Jiang means to support." The Shiming says, "Jiang means to encourage." Now, with the breath of eight inches, one supports, encourages, and protects against scattering and disturbance. "Manifesting the eightfold noble [path]": because the number eight is equivalent. The sūtra's "reaching the tip of the nose": this breath issues from the mouth and enters through the nose. The sūtra's "returning into the heart root": because this breath enters again through the nose and reaches the heart organ. This is the turning-back gate. The Indeterminate Śamatha-Vipaśyanā says: "Cultivating turning-back: once one knows that contemplation arises from the mind, if one follows the objective realm, this fails to converge with the fundamental source. One should turn contemplation inward to contemplate the mind." Here saying "returning into the heart root" precisely corresponds to the meaning of turning contemplation inward to contemplate the mind. The sūtra's "causing the mind to be clear and pure": this is the purification gate. The Indeterminate Śamatha-Vipaśyanā says: "Cultivating purification: knowing that form is pure, one does not give rise to false thoughts and discrimination. Sensation, perception, volition, and consciousness are also like this. Quelling the defilement of false thoughts, quelling the defilement of discrimination, and quelling the defilement of grasping at a self—this is called cultivating purification. To sum up the essentials: if one can make the mind as fundamentally pure, this is called cultivating purification." This is the meaning in the present sūtra of causing the mind to be clear and pure. Yet each of the six gates has cultivation and realization, combining to make twelve. Therefore the Ruiying [benqi jing] says: "Traveling and resting in three and four, giving birth to twelve." "The intention of the ten headings": that is, when the Great Master was at Waguan Monastery in Jianye, he briefly set forth this method for the Minister of Personnel Mao Xi as ten headings, titled Indeterminate Śamatha-Vipaśyanā, which is what is now entitled Six Wondrous Dharma Gates. The ten headings are: first, separately correlating with the various dhyānas; second, successive mutual arising; third, following what is suitable; fourth, counteragents; fifth, mutual inclusion; sixth, shared and distinct; seventh, rotation; eighth, contemplating the mind; ninth, perfect contemplation; tenth, characteristics of realization. What the present sūtra text clarifies is merely the intention of the second heading. "If this" onwards distinguishes the contemplation gate of this sūtra. "Therefore it is called shared": because it is explained generally and pervasively, not yet differentiating the three vehicles. From "Now the three" onwards: since it has not yet been opened and revealed, the differentiated characteristics of the three vehicles must be indicated; thus the later distinct [teaching] must follow to reveal the preceding shared [teaching].