金剛般若論會釋 3.24

3.24

The sūtra text has four parts: first, the question; second, the answer; third, the Buddha's endorsement; fourth, from "if there were an accumulation of merit" onward, refuting attachment to words and designations. Kumārajīva's version lacks the passage of endorsement and also differs below in having "because merit does not exist." The treatise text has two parts: first, identifying the name and relating it to the sūtra; second, explaining it by addressing the difficulty. As for "how one could give the seven precious jewels filling the trichiliocosm in generosity": the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā-sūtra explains that an avaivartika bodhisattva can give the seven precious jewels filling the three-thousandfold great chiliocosm in generosity. In its thirty-eighth chapter, it also states that a bodhisattva may give the precious jewels of a trichiliocosm to the Three Jewels, and next gives clothing, food and drink, kingdoms, wives, children, heads, eyes, flesh, and so forth, as well as the gift of Dharma, the gift of fearlessness, rejoicing, and dedicating merit, up to dutifully serving parents, honoring masters, and merits of benevolence, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity, which are equal in measure to the dharmadhātu and space. Here, the question simply poses giving seven precious jewels filling the trichiliocosm to the two fields of compassion and respect. If it says "if there were someone," it adduces a person in the past who cultivated meritorious karma. In addressing the difficulty, fearing that people might generate attachment by pursuing the name "merit," it establishes merit in the ultimate truth, instructing the petitioning bodhisattvas to cultivate merit without clinging, thus avoiding the two faults of increase and decrease. Vasubandhu's treatise states: "Because this heap of merit is tainted, the Tathāgata does not speak of a heap of merit." Another explanation states: If it is a heap of merit consisting of wholesome factors belonging to the path, then it is a heap of merit; if it is not a heap of merit belonging to the path, the Tathāgata does not describe it as the basis of wisdom. Because there are distinctions between the factors of merit and the factors of the path, or tainted and untainted, the sūtra therefore reiterates "heap of merit."