金剛般若論會釋 2.10

2.10

The sūtra text has two parts: first, a question; second, an answer. The treatise also has two parts: first, indicating and correlating with the sūtra; second, explaining by question and answer. The latter text has two parts: first, explaining the question text; from "the sūtra says" onward, it explains the answer text. "What does this show?" is the question. The meaning of the question here is: the saṃbhogakāya buddha seen by bodhisattvas on the first stage sits on a hundred-petaled flower, his body matching the flower seat, while the nirmāṇakāya is unfixed; what does the metaphor spoken of here show? This speaks of the saṃbhogakāya to refute others' doubts; speaking by raising a great body, the metaphor has nothing to show, but temporarily raises a metaphor of a small measure of the saṃbhogakāya: in order to bring to maturity sentient beings of the desire realm, it temporarily raises the saṃbhogakāya. "Like Rāhu the asura king and others" includes Vemacitrin and others. A verse in the fiftieth fascicle of the Avataṃsaka-sūtra says: / "As the asura manifests a transformed body, / Placing his feet upon the vajra ground, / The sea water, reaching its greatest depth, comes only to half his body, / And his head is vast like Mount Sumeru." / In order to transform sentient beings of the desire realm, the Buddha's saṃbhogakāya manifests in a measure like that of Mount Sumeru. Because of non-discrimination, one should not even see its own substance, let alone the rest. In order to transform the ten stages, he manifests a great body; giving rise to wild discrimination, they see his own substance. Now the treatise explains: when the Buddha's sūtra speaks pointing to [a body] like Sumeru, who is it? Indeed, the transformed body of Rāhu the asura king is truly of the measure of Mount Sumeru; therefore the Buddha pointed to the metaphor of a transformed body. Although the measure of a transformation can be great, the humans and devas to be transformed reside in a small realm and should not see a great one, so a body like Sumeru is merely a saṃbhogakāya; here it is provisionally spoken of as a saṃbhogakāya manifested to transform humans and devas of the desire realm. In this way, by far analogy, Amitābha Buddha's body is sixty trillion nayutas of yojanas in height, which is not a nirmāṇakāya buddha seen by ordinary beings prior to the stages.