大乘百法明門論疏 1.4

1.4

Second, explaining the title: Regarding the phrase, "A brief record of nominal terms and categories from the Vastusaṃgrahaṇī of the Mahāyāna Treatise on the Gateway to Understanding the Hundred Dharmas": "Mahā" (great) gets its name by excluding the small; "yāna" (vehicle) takes conveying and carrying as its meaning. Calling it "Mahāyāna" here is establishing a title by negative exclusion, not by direct designation. As for "negative exclusion", because it excludes the Hīnayāna, it is called negative exclusion. Ten times ten is called a hundred, as extensively explained below. Because it maintains its own nature, it is called a "dharma". "Understanding" is prajñā; serving as a gateway to understanding, it is called the "gateway to understanding". The exchange of questions and answers is called a "treatise". Regarding "from the Vastusaṃgrahaṇī": that is to say, from the Vastusaṃgrahaṇī of the Mahāyāna Treatise on the Gateway to Understanding the Hundred Dharmas. The text in the Vastusaṃgrahaṇī is intricate, vast, and broad; because the text of this treatise is concise, it says "brief record", which does not mean the doctrine itself is abbreviated. What denotes various dharmas is called "nominal terms", and one, ten, a hundred, a thousand are called "categories". Therefore it says, "A brief record of nominal terms and categories from the Vastusaṃgrahaṇī of the Mahāyāna Treatise on the Gateway to Understanding the Hundred Dharmas". This is the second [section], explaining the title.