金剛般若論會釋 1.11

1.11

Therefore, in the lower treatise's explanation of the sūtra's title: "Vajracchedikā" refers to what is severed by hearing, thinking, and cultivating within the prajñāpāramitā, because it severs just as a diamond severs at the point of severance; hence, both hearing and thinking, as subduing [afflictions], are termed "vajracchedikā". Furthermore, when studying superior wisdom in the stage of cultivation, one first realizes the equality of mind, next realizes the clarity and rectitude of mind, and finally realizes the state of mind abiding without effort; hence the three questions are posed. The sūtra states: the first reveals the preceding embracing path, because it embraces those respective practices; the second reveals the path of maturation, because it is the stage of superior cultivated wisdom; the third reveals the path of non-loss, because it does not transgress. The correct explanation is the same as this. Furthermore, the first is the preparatory path; the next is the path of immediate succession and the path of liberation; the last is the path of superior progress. These exist only in the causal [stages], not in the stage of buddhahood. In the stage of practice through faith, all three are tainted; prior to the eighth stage and after the first stage, they include both tainted and untainted; from the eighth stage onward, they are purely untainted, lacking deliberate preparatory practice because they have spontaneous preparatory practice, and without separately initiating superior progress, within a single moment, bodily and verbal actions are also without negligence, so that they possess all three. Alternatively, within a single instant, the ultimate and the conventional are operated simultaneously, moment after moment possessing all three kinds, because one spontaneously aspires toward the inner contemplation of equality while externally producing transformations. However, in Vasubandhu's treatise, the abiding mind first deeply attends to sentient beings, next cultivates the bodhicitta, and then subdues and renounces conditioned phenomena. Moreover, among these three questions, the first is the cause of the virtue of benevolence, the second is the cause of the virtue of wisdom, and the third is the cause of the virtue of abandonment, which are precisely the causes of the nirmāṇakāya, the saṃbhogakāya, and the dharmakāya. In reverse order, they also mean severing evil, cultivating good, and liberating sentient beings. Here the first is called the embracing path, because it embraces sentient beings; the next is the path of maturation, because it cultivates the Buddha-dharmas; the next is the path of non-loss, because evil is completely eliminated. At first glance at this treatise, since it explains them in terms of hearing, thinking, and cultivating, the first two seem distinct; yet they are not separated from the stage of cultivated wisdom and possess these three kinds, so there is no contradiction. However, relying on the Bodhisattvabhūmi, the first answer contains three kinds of sustainment (dhāraṇa): the bodhisattvas' lineage of their own vehicle is the first sustainment of capability, relying on which one is capable of realizing great bodhi; the initial arousal of the mind is the second sustainment of engaging in preparatory practice, relying on which one practices the conduct capable of realizing great bodhi so that all are perfected; all myriad practices such as the factors of bodhi cultivated are the third sustainment of perfecting great bodhi. Hence, one without lineage is not called a "sustainment"; one who possesses the lineage, even if the mind has not yet been aroused, is superior when viewed against such a one. If one relies on Vasubandhu's treatise, it answers the three questions separately, and the texts before and after are distinct. Because the first is capable of sustainment, one can arouse bodhicitta—hence the question on initial abiding; because the second is capable of sustainment, one separately initiates practice—hence the second question on cultivation; because the third is capable of sustainment, one attains great bodhi—hence the third question on subduing the mind. Alternatively, Vasubandhu's text is not different from this: each part of the text contains all three answers, and based on the explicit characteristics in the text, it temporarily speaks from one perspective. Separately matching the sūtra passages does not preclude each and every passage from possessing all three. If the earlier explanation of the causes and conditions of the three bodies of the Buddha were not so, it would contradict the two treatises; the meanings of the three sustainments are distinct and are not matched to the passages in this sequence. Furthermore, the first two questions concern the path of antidotes, while the third question concerns severing what obscures; thus there are only three questions, neither more nor less. Kumārajīva has two questions because he combined them within "abiding".