成唯識論述記 2.455

2.455

問曰：如一切法皆言不及，而復乃云：言說及者，是為共相，一何乖返？答曰：共相是法自體上義，更無別體，且如名詮火等法時，遮非火等，此義即通一切火上，故言共相得其義也，非苦、空等之共相理。若爾，即一切法不可言，「不可言」言亦不稱理，遮可言故，「言」不可言。非「不可言」即稱法體，法體亦非不可言故。而今乃言「名得自性」者，共相為自性，故今應解，此非法體，其義可然。言「名」等詮共相，非謂即得共相體，但遮得自相故，言「名」詮共相。問曰：若爾，即「名」不詮自性，不得共相之自性故。又准五根、五塵、心、心法得，此義應思，然不得共相之別義名得自性，非詮稱共相之自體也。

Question: If all dharmas are beyond speech, yet you further say that what speech can reach is the common characteristic, isn't that completely contradictory? Answer: A common characteristic is an aspect upon the individual entity of a dharma; it has no separate entity. For instance, when a name expresses 'fire' and so forth, it excludes non-fire; this meaning extends across all instances of fire, and therefore it is said that the common characteristic apprehends its meaning—it does not mean the principle of the common characteristics of suffering, emptiness, and so on. If so, then all dharmas would be ineffable, and the utterance 'ineffable' would also not correspond to the reality; it excludes effability, and so one 'speaks' of the ineffable. It is not that 'ineffable' directly corresponds to the entity of the dharma, because the entity of a dharma is not even 'ineffable'. When it is now said that 'names apprehend intrinsic nature', it is taking the common characteristic as the intrinsic nature; therefore one should understand now that this is not the entity of the dharma, and so this meaning is admissible. Saying that 'names' and so forth express common characteristics does not mean they directly apprehend the entity of the common characteristic; it merely excludes their apprehending the individual characteristic, and so it is said that 'names' express common characteristics. Question: If so, then 'names' do not express intrinsic nature, since they do not apprehend the intrinsic nature of the common characteristic! Furthermore, by the standard of the five sense faculties, five sense objects, mind, and mental factors being apprehended, this meaning should be contemplated. However, not apprehending the differentiated meanings of the common characteristic is called apprehending intrinsic nature; it does not mean expressing the real entity that corresponds to the common characteristic.