中觀論疏 2.3

2.3

Beginning with "neither arising nor ceasing", the second part takes up the eight negations again to explain them. Previously, the three vernacular translations were already briefly presented. However, since the eight negations are the great purport of the many sūtras and the central tenet of this treatise, a brief explanation makes them difficult to understand; only an extensive exposition can reveal them. On the second day of the third month in the third year of Renshou, the scholar Zhigai from south of the Yangtze came to the imperial capital and requested to hear an exposition [of this teaching]. I then provided a detailed explanation for him, opening it into ten sections: 1. the section on the general meaning; 2. the section on tracing the origin; 3. the section on benefits and defects; 4. the section on the central tenet; 5. the section on the shallow and the profound; 6. the section on similarities and differences; 7. the section on subsuming dharmas; 8. the section on the sequential order; 9. the section on critical evaluation; 10. the section on new comprehensions.