大乘起信論義記 3.392

3.392

In the answer there are the dharma, the simile, and their combination. Because the dharmakāya pervades the minds of sentient beings, as long as there is the receptive capacity of renunciation and seeking, its coarse and subtle activities are made apparent, not brought about by effort. This meaning has already been shown in the text above. That 'the mirror has dirt' explains that they lack the receptive capacity to evoke the Buddha; it does not mean the active presence of defilements, since Sunakkhatta and others were able to see the Buddha despite their defiled minds. As for 'the dharmakāya does not appear,' the dharmakāya is able to manifest the functions of the reward and transformation [bodies]; here it speaks in terms of the root, and thus says that the dharmakāya does not appear. As stated in the Mahāyānasaṃgraha: 'The twelve profundities are all virtues of the dharmakāya; the profundity of manifestation.' There it says: 'Due to faults, the Lord does not appear, / Just as the moon [does not appear] in a broken vessel.' The commentary explains: 'The Buddhas do not appear in the world, yet the bodies of the Buddhas are eternally abiding in the world. How is it that they do not appear? For example, water cannot remain in a broken vessel; because water does not remain, although the moon truly exists, it cannot appear in the broken vessel. In this way, all sentient beings lack the pliant continuum of śamatha and have only a continuum of faults; although the Buddhas truly exist, they do not appear to them.' Water is a simile for the pliant nature of śamatha; here, it is by relying on concentration that one is able to see the Buddha. Those who see the Buddha had cultivated the buddha-mindfulness samādhi in the past, and thus in this life are able to see the Buddha's body; it does not mean that one must rely on a concentrated mind in the present life to be able to see the Buddha, since one can also see the Buddha with a distracted mind. In that Mahāyānasaṃgraha, past practice of concentration is taken as the cause, not the present life. In this treatise, the maturation of faculties is taken as the cause, not the absence of defilements. There is this difference in perspective. The 'Section on Explanation' is concluded.