金剛般若論會釋 3.25

3.25

Next below is the third major section, titled in the treatise "Endowment with the Physical Body of the Secondary Marks and Endowment with the Major Marks." It explains that the Buddha transforms the basis of the form aggregate, and thus attains the physical body endowed with marks and secondary marks of the Buddha stage, causing bodhisattvas to seek the eighty secondary marks. For example, as expounded in sūtras such as the Pañcaviṃśati and the Mahāparinirvāṇa, the mark of the invisible crown of the head is at the beginning of the eighty secondary marks in the Pañcaviṃśati, and at the end of the thirty-two marks in the Mahāparinirvāṇa. If based on the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa and the Bodhisattvabhūmi's comparison of the merit of the marks, the mark of the invisible crown is the greatest, yet various sūtras place it at the head of the eighty secondary marks. The sūtra text has a question first and an answer following, as can be known from the treatise's division. This question has two meanings: first, asking according to the sense of the antidote, refuting the bodhisattva's attachment to grasping the marks of the Buddha's physical body, causing them to seek it with a markless mind; second, asking according to the intent of explaining the marks, revealing that the Buddha's body is endowed with the eighty secondary marks to cause the petitioning bodhisattvas to give rise to aspiration. Regarding "The Tathāgata says endowed physical body, which is not an endowed physical body": this cites the Pañcaviṃśati-sūtra in explanation. The Buddha in several places in the Pañcaviṃśati speaks of the eighty secondary marks as empty; hence it says "the Tathāgata says, which is not." If so, why is it necessary to attend to these eighty secondary marks? The Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra explains that worldly sentient beings serve eighty classes of devas, each of which has an auspicious mark that inspires faith and reverence in people. To transform those beings who worship devas so that they faithfully enter the Buddha-Dharma, and also to cause those devas to eliminate conceit, the Buddha manifests the eighty complete marks in a single body and realm, and poses the question to make them seek them. Subhūti, knowing that the question intends to refute attachment, immediately establishes the physical body as the ultimate truth, and therefore says "which is not an endowed physical body." Regarding "Therefore the Tathāgata calls it an endowed physical body": to accomplish the bodhisattvas' intention of seeking the Buddha's physical body, it is called an endowed physical body according to conventional truth.