成唯識論述記 4.111

4.111

The Commentary states: If they give rise to conceptually constructed views of self and dharmas, the ordinary fall into bad destinies, and the foolish are obstructed from the noble path, since the ordinary have no noble path, while the foolish can produce noble [realization]; thus each is spoken of from a distinct perspective. Fearing such faults, I, the World-Honoured One, do not disclose it to them. Yet even if it is not spoken to them, the seventh consciousness of the ordinary and the foolish constantly takes the eighth as an object, and the two views of grasping it as a self and dharmas still arise. Why not speak of it to the ordinary and foolish? This refers to a monk of the Saṃmatīya school in the country of Lāḍha in South India named Prajñāgupta (translated here as Huizang, a disciple of Sthiramati and preceptor to three generations of emperors), who composed seven hundred verses denigrating the Mahāyāna, arguing in his treatise in this manner: 'If it were spoken by the Buddha, why is there this contradiction?'—dismissing the principles of the Mahāyāna as not being good teaching. This fails to grasp the meaning, claiming that it should not be unspoken. Their seventh consciousness only gives rise to innate view of self, which does not cause rebirth in bad destinies nor yet obstruct the noble path. If it were spoken to them, it would increase the conceptually constructed views of self and dharmas of the afflictive and cognitive hindrances. The sixth consciousness arising would obstruct the generation of the noble path and lead to birth in bad destinies; therefore it is not spoken to them. Why would it unleash the innate view of self of the seventh? The latter is only veiled-unindeterminate, while the former is unwholesome; hence the previous distinction in explaining it. Yet you do not understand the faults of the two kinds of delusion—innate and conceptually constructed—and make this challenge groundlessly. This was precisely the distinction made by our Great Master [Xuanzang] in refuting evil views, which the masters of the West all revered. Later, King Śīlāditya summoned Prajñāgupta three times, wishing him to debate with our Great Master, but he declined and refused to come: once he declined on the ground that he could not ride a horse; once he declined on the ground that the carriage was too hot. When [the king] again sent a female elephant to welcome him, he declined on the ground of old age. From afar, he sighed in deep reverence and submission to the Great Master, for his wisdom exhausted the depths of the ocean and his learning plumbed the mysterious source, so that his words became models for a thousand ages. Now, observing that both the ordinary and the foolish are foolish regarding the Dharma, therefore it is not spoken to them. If they are not foolish regarding the Dharma, even if of determinate nature, it is spoken to them. Then there is an objection: Just as non-Buddhists and others, though ādāna is not spoken to them, also have conceptually constructed [views of] self and dharmas that obstruct [virtue] from arising, why is it not spoken to them? This is not so. They falsely project a self and sink into bad destinies; one hopes that they will cultivate non-self and be able to eliminate it. If one were now to speak of it to them, it would contrarily increase their grave illness: they would then grasp it as a distinct, real substance, conceptually construct self and dharmas, and deeply increase [their fall into] bad destinies; therefore it is not spoken to them. Although there are those with gotra who could hear and faithfully understand, because their faculties are not yet mature, it is also not spoken to them, just as the Dharma of the One Vehicle is spoken of only when the faculty of faith has matured. Here the treatise is formulated in terms of the five gotras in full, not in terms of a small portion; hence it does not say that. Although there are those with gotra whose faculties are not yet mature who would give rise to denigration, the profound and subtle meanings are not spoken to others.