金剛般若論會釋 1.77

1.77

In Vasubandhu's treatise, relying on breaking doubt, he introduces the subsequent sūtra text: the preceding explanation of practicing giving without abiding is the profound meaning of the cause; the subsequent explanation that the dharmakāya does not have conditioned marks is the profound meaning of the result. The cause being profound and the result remote, the principle and purport are difficult to comprehend. In the future, when the Semblance Dharma is about to perish, will sentient beings in the evil age be able to give rise to faith or not? In the earlier, good age of the True Dharma, there is no need to doubt faith; in the evil age of the Final Dharma, sentient beings do not believe and are not perplexed. He only asks whether they can give rise to faith when the Semblance Dharma is about to perish. The sūtra speaks of faith when practicing the ten dharmic practices; this is not the Final Dharma, because those possessing practices such as upholding precepts, concentration, and wisdom are all not superior, and hence this interrogation is made. In the Final Dharma, there are no longer any who possess the three trainings, so he does not ask about it. His treatise relies on the arising of doubt from the preceding text; this treatise relies on the desire to obtain the verbal dharmakāya as the basis for realizing and attaining the dharmakāya, so that it may circulate in the world in the future, in order to introduce the subsequent sūtra; thus there is no contradiction.