大乘起信論別記 1.2

1.2

In intending to explain this treatise, there are, briefly, two sections: first, presenting the general meaning of the treatise; second, interpreting the text according to the passages. Regarding the general meaning: Indeed, as for the Buddha's path as a path, it is desolate, empty, and tranquil; deep and unfathomable. It is profound, and yet more profound, going beyond the outward form of all phenomena; it is quiet, and yet more quiet, remaining within the discourses of the hundred schools. Not having outward forms, the five eyes cannot see its body; being within words, the four kinds of unobstructed eloquence cannot speak of its state. If one wishes to say it is great, entering into what has no interior, nothing is left out; if one wishes to say it is minute, enveloping what has no exterior, it has room to spare. Would one consider it to exist? The single thusness is empty on account of it. Would one consider it not to exist? The ten thousand things are born through its function. Not knowing what to call it, one arbitrarily names it the Path. As for its essence: vast, it is like the great void without partiality; boundless, it is like the great ocean with supreme impartiality. Because it has supreme impartiality, movement and stillness are accomplished accordingly; because it lacks partiality, defilement and purity are thereby fused. Because defilement and purity are fused, the ultimate and the conventional are equal; because movement and stillness are accomplished, rising and descending are varied. Because rising and descending are varied, the path of sympathetic resonance is open; because the ultimate and conventional are equal, the path of thinking and deliberation is cut off. Because thinking and deliberation are cut off, those who realize its essence ride shadows and echoes without fixed direction; because sympathetic resonance is open, those who pray to it transcend names and characteristics and have a refuge. What it casts as shadows and echoes is neither physical form nor spoken word. Having already transcended names and characteristics, what is transcended, and what is refuge? This is called the ultimate principle of no principle, the great so-ness of non-so-ness. Were it not for the silent bodhisattvas and the masters who understand at a glance, who could discuss the Mahāyāna where there is no vehicle, and give rise to deep faith where there is no faith? Therefore, Bodhisattva Aśvaghoṣa, with unconditioned great compassion, grieved that the deluded wind of avidyā stirs the ocean of the mind so that it easily drifts, and pitied that this true nature of innate enlightenment sleeps in a long dream and is difficult to awaken; with the power of cognition of identical essence, he was able to compose this treatise, praising and expounding the profound sūtras and esoteric meanings of the Tathāgata, wishing to cause students to open a single scroll for a moment and grasp the essentials of the Tripiṭaka everywhere, and to cause practitioners of the Path to eternally bring an end to the myriad objects and finally return to the source of the One Mind. As a treatise, there is nothing it does not establish, and nothing it does not refute. For example, such works as the Madhyamakaśāstra and the Dvādaśamukhaśāstra comprehensively refute all attachments, and also refute refutation, yet they do not in turn concede what can refute or what is refuted; this is called a treatise that goes forth but is not comprehensive. Such works as the Yogācārabhūmiśāstra and the Mahāyānasaṃgraha broadly establish the profound and the shallow to differentiate dharma-gates, yet they do not harmonize and eliminate what they themselves have established; this is called a treatise that gives but does not take away. Now, this treatise is both wise and benevolent, both profound and widely transmitted; there is nothing it does not establish and yet eliminate of itself, and nothing it does not refute and yet concede in turn. As for conceding in turn, it reveals that those who go forth reach the utmost and establish comprehensively; as for eliminating of itself, it clarifies that those who give exhaust giving and take away. This is called the ancestral progenitor of all treatises, the supreme judge of the host of disputes. Although what it explains is broad, it can be stated briefly: opening two gates within the One Mind, it summarizes the broad proclamations of the hundred and eight [questions] of the Laṅkāvatārasūtra; showing that nature is pure amidst characteristics of defilement, it completely synthesizes the profound import of the fifteen [meanings] of the *Vajrasamādhi. As for the single-taste tenet of the Crane Forest, the non-dual purport of Vulture Peak, the ultimate fruit of the three bodies in the Suvarṇaprabhāsa and the Tongxing [jing], the profound causes of the four stages in the Avataṃsakasūtra and the Yingluo [jing], the vast supreme path of the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā and the Mahāsaṃnipāta, and the esoteric profound gates of the Sūryagarbha and Candragarbha—that which pierces through all these scriptures like a single thread into their very core is solely this treatise! Therefore the text below says: "Because [I] wish to encompass generally the Tathāgata's broad, great, and profound dharma and boundless meanings, this treatise should be spoken." However, because the words of this treatise are close at hand while its principle is far-reaching, its text concise while its meaning is abundant, among those who have explained it up to now, few have grasped its tenet. This is truly because each held to what they had practiced and forced the text, unable to empty their minds and seek its purpose. Consequently, they did not come close to the treatise master's intent: some looked at the source and described the stream, some grasped a leaf and called it the trunk, some cut the collar to patch the sleeve, or broke the staff while retaining the root. Now, strictly relying on the text of this treatise to correspond to the source sūtras it expounds, I briefly present the main points merely to record them for myself, not daring to hope for widespread dissemination in the world. The presentation of the general meaning is concluded.