梵網經菩薩戒本疏 1.8

1.8

Fifth, as for the substance of the teaching that expresses [meaning], it is briefly presented in ten gates: First, the gate of the expressing [elements]: it takes solely names, sentences, and phonemes as its substance, because they express that which is expressed. Second, the gate of returning to reality: it takes solely sound as its substance, because names and the like are provisionally established based on sound and have no separate substance. The sūtra says: 'Sound is used to perform the Buddha-work.' Third, the gate of possessing both: sound together with names and the like—only when possessing both does one accomplish expression, because they are not separate from each other. The Daśabhūmikā-vyākhyāna says: 'The speaker speaks by means of these two matters, and the hearer hears by means of these two matters.' Fourth, the gate of negating both: sound and names are directly empty and both extinguished; words are immediately wordless, and wordless words have nowhere to rest and nowhere to abide. The sūtra says: 'The Tathāgata constantly abides, not having spoken a single word.' Among the four gates above, the first three are common to the Hīnayāna; possessing all four belongs solely to the Mahāyāna; therefore the four propositions are combined into one matter, and it can be known that existence and non-existence are both transcended. Fifth, the gate of all-pervasive universality: all phenomena, such as fragrances, lights, and so on, are entirely the substance of the teaching, with none failing to express the principle and benefit beings; therefore in the sūtras, fragrances, lights, food, and the like perform the Buddha-work. Sixth, the gate of expression and purpose: the expressing and that which is expressed combine to form its nature, because they are inseparable. The treatise says: The substance and nature of the sutras are briefly of two kinds: first, the text; second, the meaning. The text is the basis, and the meaning is based upon it. Seventh, the gate of consciousness-only: names and the like, sound and the like, the expressing and that which is expressed, are all without exception manifested through the mutual conditioning of the minds and consciousnesses of speaker and listener, because apart from this mind-consciousness there is no separate nature. The sūtra says: 'I teach that what is cognized by consciousness is only what is manifested by consciousness.' Eighth, the gate of returning to the true: names and the like, consciousness and the like, are without exception solely suchness, because all false characteristics are fundamentally extinguished of themselves, and the real substance and nature of suchness manifests of itself. The sūtra says: 'All dharmas are identical to suchness,' and so forth. Ninth, the gate of unobstructedness: the characteristics that are identical to the true do not obstruct the persistence of characteristics; the words that are identical to wordlessness are words identical to the dharmadhātu. The true that is identical to characteristics—the true is never not manifest; the wordlessness that is identical to words—in words there was never anything spoken. Since words and wordlessness are non-dual, speaking and not speaking both persist; their unobstructed fusion is taken as the substance of the teaching. Tenth, the gate of dual extinction: principle and phenomena are unobstructed, and nature and characteristics are completely fused; then appearance and deprivation both vanish, and speech and silence are doubly extinguished; it is neither words nor non-words, neither teaching nor non-teaching, neither true nor untrue; all [extremes] are transcended, and it cannot be conceptually distinguished. This is called the unobstructed substance of the teaching in the Mahāyāna.