金剛般若論會釋 1.72

1.72

Next, thirdly, the abode of desire is explained. This is explained according to the eight abodes; according to the eighteen, herein there are two parts: first, the desire to obtain the physical body is the seventh line; later, the desire to obtain the dharmakāya comprises the latter three lines. First, the sūtra text has three parts: first, question; next, answer; and finally, establishing. In the question there are two parts: relying on the meaning, and stating the characteristics; in the establishing there are three kinds: embracing, establishing, and manifesting. In the answer there is nothing at all, because it is not different from the meaning and characteristics of the earlier and later text, and because the Buddha's statement is taken. Regarding the abode of the desire to obtain the physical body: beginning bodhisattvas mostly cultivate with characteristics; hearing abruptly of the non-characterized giving with pure three wheels, they immediately give rise to doubt and perplexity, thinking: "For instance, since Śākyamuni Buddha's body has the characteristics of arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing, one therefore knows that a cause of giving with characteristics turns out to accomplish a fruit with characteristics." Vasubandhu's treatise states: how does doubt arise? "If one practices giving without abiding in dharmas, how does one practice giving for the sake of the Buddha's bodhi?" They take Śākyamuni's body of arising and ceasing as the supporting body for bodhi, obtained through practicing giving with characteristics; if one practices the uncharacterized cause of not abiding in dharmas, one should conversely obtain that fruit of non-abiding characteristics—how could one obtain that fruit of arising and ceasing? Now in this treatise, it is not taken as having doubt; it only states that because the practitioner is newly studying, having not awakened to the uncharacterized, they practice the characterized cause and aspire to the Buddha's stage. Śākyamuni's characterized body of arising and ceasing is the physical body endowed with marks and signs; taking this body with marks as the supreme support for the Buddha's bodhi, the treatise therefore says "desiring to obtain the physical body." That treatise explains the intention as: due to the previously stated uncharacterized cause of giving, doubts and anxieties arose, and to destroy this doubt for them, the subsequent sūtra properly destroys that doubt. The intention of this treatise states: because the initial practitioner through characterized giving desires to obtain the characterized body of Śākyamuni and so forth, they take the transformation-characteristic body as the true physical essence, and obtaining a few merits, they consider it to be the true body with an essence of abundant merits; hence it says "for the sake of desiring to obtain the physical body." It counteracts the pride regarding the physical body: obtaining a body with few characterized merits, one thinks one has obtained the true body with abundant merits, which is presumptuous pride; to destroy this pride, there is the subsequent sūtra. Therefore, combining both treatises, now both follow the preceding text: giving rise to perplexity is termed doubt; longing for false characteristics and taking them as true is termed pride; to destroy the two perplexities of doubt and pride, the subsequent sūtra is spoken. For initial practitioners, whether of determinate or indeterminate lineage, the doubts and perplexities of Mahāyāna ordinary beings are afflictive obscurations and also include cognitive obscurations. For initial practitioners, when āryas generate the aspiration, it extends to both obscurations: those with training extend to afflictions, while those beyond training only have grasping at dharmas. Just as Śāriputra, only upon hearing the Lotus Sūtra, severed doubts, regrets, griefs, and anxieties, this is likewise so.