金剛般若論會釋 3.5

3.5

Question: “Earlier it was said that one who is on the stage of the pure mind attains five kinds of equal minds toward oneself and others; then, when they liberate sentient beings, they should be free from the thought ‘I liberate others.’ Why is it necessary to admonish the conceit of liberating others?” Answer: “Earlier it was said that when emerging from contemplation and collecting the scattered mind, one reflects upon the realized equal dharmadhātu, and thus attains an equal mind of liberating self and others. However, innate habitual tendencies of self have not yet been eliminated, and one has not yet ceased falling back from mindfulness; thus, when liberating sentient beings, one may sometimes have that thought and, failing to notice, arouse the self, perceiving the conceit of ‘I liberate others.’ The *Large Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra* states in the ‘Chapter on Setting Forth’ that it teaches the bodhisattvas of the first stage to leave arrogance behind; teaches the bodhisattvas of the fifth stage to contemplate the emptiness of internal and external phenomena, remaining far from self-aggrandizement and slighting others; and up to the seventh stage, it still teaches not being attached to self or sentient beings, and not seeing any phenomenon that can act with conceit. The *Daśabhūmika-sūtra* and the *Sūtrālaṃkāra* both state: on the third stage there is the conceit of self and the conceit of understanding phenomena; on the fourth stage there is the conceit of discriminating physical purity, also named the conceit of succession and difference; on the fifth stage there is the conceit of discriminating suffering, defilement, and purity. The *Sūtrālaṃkāra* assigns the conceit of ‘I shall become a Buddha’ to the seventh stage; this arises because of lapses in mindfulness. The conceit of ‘I liberate others’ admonished here is the conceit of discriminating physical purity up through the fourth stage; if it is the grasping habit of a living being and the conceit of grasping at phenomena, then through the seventh stage, whenever mindfulness is lost, all have the conceit of ‘I liberate others.’ The *Large Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra* teaches bodhisattvas of the seventh stage not to be attached to self, not to be attached to sentient beings, and not to see any phenomenon that can act with conceit; hence we know that only at the end of the seventh stage is the conceit of liberating others completely eliminated. Although there are many kinds of conceit on the stages, the conceit of ‘I liberate others’ directly contradicts the bodhisattva's mind of equally liberating sentient beings; therefore it is singled out for admonition here, while the others should simply be abandoned.”