金剛般若論會釋 3.35

3.35

In this treatise's direct explanation of the sūtra: first it explains the verse; next, from 'If so, then the Tathāgata…' onward, it explains the verse; later, the two verses of the sūtra text form two sections. In explaining the first verse: the first half reveals how one should not view [him], and the second half reveals why he cannot be seen. Now, in saying 'If one sees me by form': this adduces the ordinary persons and followers of the two vehicles contemplating the Buddha by the marks of his form-body with marks and secondary signs. 'Or seeks me by sound': this adduces the ordinary persons and followers of the two vehicles contemplating the Buddha by the marks of the eight kinds of wonderful sounds and sixty kinds of ornamental voices of the Buddha's form-body. Because ordinary persons and followers of the two vehicles cannot know or see the Buddhas' four aggregates, the Buddha merely displays the two marks of form and sound to cause them to see and hear them as a cause and condition for entering the Path. Ordinary persons, followers of the two vehicles, and minor bodhisattvas mostly grasp the wondrous marks of form and sound of the Buddhas to contemplate the Buddha; because of turning toward these marks, they are unable to see the markless dharmakāya. Therefore the Buddha refutes their grasping of marks of form and sound, causing them to contemplate the tathatā-dharmakāya of the Buddhas. Why is the initial explanation called 'how one should not view'? It means: like those marks of form and sound they grasp, they merely see the illusory marks of form and sound, and one should not by this awaken to and see the Buddha's tathatā-dharmakāya. Why? Because grasping the Buddha's marks of form and sound does not see the Buddha's dharmakāya. The second half clarifies why he cannot be seen, saying that a mind that grasps marks cannot see the Buddha's markless dharmakāya. Why is he impossible to see? The treatise states: 'Because all views pertain to worldly truth.' The dharmakāya is the ultimate truth, which only supramundane non-conceptual wisdom can directly realize and meet; it is not an object known by the worldly-truth views of seeing form, hearing sound, and the like.