起信論疏 1.6

1.6

To explain this treatise, there are summarily three gates: first, indicating the essential doctrine; second, explaining the title; third, elucidating the meaning following the text. As for the first, indicating the essential doctrine: Now, as for the essence of the Mahāyāna, it is serene and quiescent, clear and profoundly abstruse. Profound beyond profound, how could it emerge beyond the myriad forms? Silent beyond silent, it is still within the discourses of the hundred schools. It is not outside forms, yet the five eyes cannot see its body; it is within words, yet the fourfold eloquence cannot describe its shape. If one wishes to call it great, it enters where there is no interior without leaving anything behind; if one wishes to call it subtle, it encompasses where there is no exterior with room to spare. Draw it into existence, and identical with tathatā, its function is empty; find it in nonexistence, and the myriad things ride upon it and are born. Not knowing how to name it, one forcefully terms it the Mahāyāna. If one is not a great being who closes his mouth or a master of direct insight, who could discuss the Mahāyāna beyond words, or awaken deep faith beyond thought? Therefore Bodhisattva Aśvaghoṣa, moved by unconditioned mahākaruṇā, grieved that the delusive wind of avidyā stirs the ocean of mind so easily into drift, and pitied this true nature of original enlightenment sleeping in a long dream difficult to awaken from. Thereupon, by the power of wisdom of identical essence, he was able to compose this treatise, extolling and expounding the profound sūtras and esoteric meanings of the Tathāgata, desiring to cause students momentarily to open a single scroll and comprehensively explore the purport of the Tripiṭaka, and to cause practitioners eternally to rest from the myriad objects and finally return to the source of the One Mind. Although what it expounds is vast, it can be stated briefly: opening the two gates within the One Mind, it summarises the broad declarations of the hundred and eight questions of the Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra; showing nature-purity within phenomenal defilement, it comprehensively synthesises the fifteen profound purports of the Yuqie. As for the single-taste doctrine of the Crane Forest (Kuśinagara), the non-dual purport of Vulture Peak, the ultimate fruit of the three bodies in the Suvarṇaprabhāsa and Tongxing, the deep causes of the four stages in the Avataṃsaka and Yingluo, the vast, supreme path of the Pañcaviṃśati-sāhasrikā and Mahāsaṃnipāta, the subtle, esoteric gates of the Sūryagarbha and Candragarbha—that which strings together the heart and marrow of all such scriptures, is it not this treatise alone? Hence the text below says: "Because I desire to encompass comprehensively the vast, deep Dharma and boundless meanings of the Tathāgata, this treatise should be spoken." Since the intention of this treatise is like this, when opened, boundless and immeasurable meanings are its doctrine; when combined, the principles of the two gates and the One Mind are its essentials. The two gates contain myriad meanings without confusion; the boundless meanings are identical with the One Mind, blending together. Therefore, opening and combining are unobstructed; establishing and refuting are unhindered. Opened, it is not cumbersome; combined, it is not narrow. Established, there is nothing gained; refuted, there is nothing lost. This is Aśvaghoṣa's wondrous skill, the essential doctrine of the Awakening of Faith. However, because the purport of this treatise is profound, commentators from the past have rarely grasped its complete doctrine. This is truly because each adhered to what they had practiced and were dragged by the letter, unable to search out the purport with an open mind. Therefore they did not come near the author's intention: some gazed at the source and lost the stream; some grasped the leaves and forgot the trunk; some cut the collar to patch the sleeves; some snapped the branch and tore away the roots. Now I directly rely upon this treatise text, matching it to the sūtra texts it expounds, hoping that those with the same aspiration will reflect upon it. The indication of the essential doctrine is finished.