大乘起信論義疏 1.6

1.6

As for "Composed by Bodhisattva Aśvaghoṣa": this is to state the name of the treatise master. It is also an explanation of the banner, as in Nāgārjuna's treatise commentary: "As for why the bodhisattva composed this treatise: after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, during the era of the True Dharma, the Great Sage was not long gone, and people's capacities possessed deep faith; thus there were no divergent heresies. After seven hundred years, the Great Sage was long gone, the assembly of holy disciples had followed the Buddha into nirvāṇa, and people's capacities possessed shallow faith. Because the world was in decline, non-Buddhist divergent heresies competed in arising in the world: namely, the Green-Eye ṛṣi produced the Gandha-śāstra in twenty fascicles, taking past absence of cause as its doctrine; the Yellow-Head ṛṣi produced the Chanda-śāstra, taking spontaneity as its doctrine; as well as the eighteenth school of the Vaiśeṣika-śāstra. At that time, there was a śramaṇa disciple of Śākya named Dharmaśreṣṭhin. To refute the non-Buddhists, relying on the Western śramaṇas of the Great Vibhāṣā-śāstra and the Sarvāstivāda, he extracted two hundred and fifty lines of verse and composed a four-fascicle abhidharma. However, because people's capacities were shallow and their minds dull, they could not uphold the Great Vibhāṣā-śāstra; yet the four fascicles were so concise that they could not grasp the essential meaning. Therefore it was necessary to extract from within the Dharmatrāta-mahā-śāstra, relying on the tenets of the Western śramaṇas and the Sautrāntika tenets, adding two hundred and fifty lines of verse, extracting them to compose the eleven-fascicle Saṃyuktābhidharmahṛdaya-śāstra." Therefore the beginning of that treatise states: "The extremely concise is difficult to understand, while the extremely extensive causes wisdom to withdraw. Now I shall speak moderately, adorning it with an extensive explanation of meaning." These two treatise masters both proclaimed the teaching of existent marks in order to turn back divergent vehicles, taking causes and conditions as their doctrine. Although they clarified the principle of emptiness, they merely fabricated fixed natures upon phenomena without settling the essence of dharmas. "Furthermore, eight hundred or nine hundred years later, Harivarman appeared. Although treatises had previously been composed to eliminate heretical non-Buddhists, because they contemplated existent marks, they could not attain the noble path. Relying on the tenets of the śramaṇas of this region in the Vibhāṣā and the tenets of the Dharmaguptaka, he composed the twenty-fascicle Tattvasiddhi-śāstra. In that extensive treatise, he exclusively proclaimed the teaching of marklessness, clarifying the two emptinesses of persons and dharmas, and taking the attainment of the path through contemplating emptiness as doctrine. Although these three treatise masters composed treatises and propagated them, they still spoke of the matters of names and marks of the six consciousnesses, not designating the ultimate principle; yet people competed in studying these treatises, grasping them as ultimate, propagating them widely in the world, about to obscure the great intent of Muni. Therefore, Bodhisattva Aśvaghoṣa again appeared; pitying sentient beings who were carried away into non-human currents, and lamenting that the Buddha's ultimate intent had submerged, he relied on the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra to compose the one-fascicle Awakening of Faith. Although its text is brief, its meaning is entirely comprehensive. It takes the eternal presence of the eight consciousnesses as essence, and cultivation and entry as principal theme. Practicing to eliminate the delusion of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses entirely through cultivation, uprooting the attachments of people to the ultimate root source, it explains that the eighth and ninth consciousnesses are true and therefore serene, pointing out the place of entry for those who have lost their way." Such was the intention behind its composition.