起信論疏筆削記 1.52

1.52

From "Wishing to..." onward is the second: recounting the intention behind composing the treatise. The text has six lines: the first two lines explain illuminating the teaching and revealing the principle; the next two lines refute the deviant and return to the correct; the last two lines cause beings to obtain sudden benefit. Here is the first. "Wishing" means intending, about to. "Desiring" means hoping and wishing. "Opening" means uncovering. The definitive Mahāyāna is called the "profound sūtras." The ultimate, real, and perfect principle is called the "wondrous purport." When the Buddha preached in person, those of sharp faculties could enter it, just as a person with eyes sees various colors under the brilliant illumination of sunlight. After his extinction, dullness of mind and obstructions of nature made the icchantikas like dark paths; the substance of the dark paths refers to the two obstructions. The Great Being conceived the desire to elucidate the perfect and real purport, causing those deluded ones to lose the darkness of avidyā. The Buddha had broken it in the past, and now it was illuminated once again; hence it says "shining again."