菩薩戒本疏 2.54

2.54

Explaining the Dharma upside-down contradicts the way of instruction; hence it is prohibited so that it is not inverted. The preceding precept prohibited concealing the great [vehicle] and teaching the small [vehicle]; this precept prohibits explaining the Mahāyāna while concealing its doctrine and inverted exposition of earlier and later. In the śrāvaka teachings, if one instructs others and conceals [the doctrine] for profit so that the meaning is not understood, one also commits an offense. It is a shared rule for the seven assemblies. In the text, 'One should, with a good mind, first learn the Mahāyāna scriptures and vinaya on deportment, extensively opening up and understanding their doctrines and flavors' means that in order to teach others without inversion, one should first properly study such scriptures oneself. This, along with the Bodhisattva-śīla-sūtra, the Upāliparipṛcchā, the Bodhisattvabhūmi-dhāraṇī, and so forth, constitutes the Mahāyāna scriptures and vinaya on deportment. From 'When one sees later, newly learned bodhisattvas' downward, it directly explains expounding the Dharma for others without inversion. Within this there are two parts: first, explaining painful matters to test their resolve, and second, explaining the true Dharma to open their understanding. To know their great aspiration, one explains painful matters to test their resolve; to arouse their great practice, one explains the true Dharma to open their understanding. In explaining painful matters, one tests them with two things: first, burning one's body to make offerings to the Buddhas; second, giving up one's form to rescue those who suffer hunger. In explaining the Dharma there are also two parts: first, sequentially explaining the Dharma; second, causing spiritual understanding to open. 'Sequentially explaining' means that what is coarse, shallow, and easy to awaken to is explained first, while what is profound, hidden, and difficult to comprehend is explained later. It also means explaining in sequence within the practices of the three trainings. From 'If a bodhisattva' downward, transgressing it constitutes an offense. 'Fails to answer what ought to be answered' means keeping secrets and not explaining completely. 'Inverts the scriptures and vinaya' means contradicting the correct explanation. 'Puts what is before behind and what is behind before' means copying the front and putting it behind, copying the back and putting it before, and so forth. 'Speaks so as to slander the Three Jewels' means grasping the meaning according to mere sound to incur five faults, as stated in the Nirvāṇa [Sūtra]; if one says that sentient beings definitely have a Buddha-nature or definitely lack a Buddha-nature, both slander the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha. This refers broadly to slander; hence it does not incur a parājika offense. The sixth precept in the Bodhisattvabhūmi states: 'If a bodhisattva, when another comes seeking the Dharma, harbors a mind of grudge, harbors a mind of resentment and affliction, or out of jealousy and contrariness does not bestow the Dharma, this is called having an offense, having a transgression; it is a defiled transgression. If out of laziness, indolence, unmindfulness, or an indeterminate mind, one does not bestow the Dharma, this is called having an offense, having a transgression; it is an undefiled transgression. There is no transgression: if non-Buddhists are looking for faults; if there is severe illness; if the mind is deranged; if one wishes to skillfully tame and subdue them, removing them from an unwholesome state and establishing them in a wholesome state; if one is not yet well-versed in this teaching; if one sees that they do not give rise to reverence, lack shame, and approach to listen and receive with bad deportment; if one knows that they are dull-witted and, upon hearing the extensive doctrine, would be terrified of the ultimate Dharma, would give rise to wrong views, increase false grasping, and suffer harm and distress; or if one knows that once the Dharma reaches their hands, they will transmit it to improper people and thus one does not give it to them—in all such cases there is no transgression.'