起信論疏筆削記 14.30

14.30

Third, the explanation. The commentary states: "clarifying the inferiority of practice, and so forth" means that the mental consciousness and the five consciousnesses are all conceptual differentiations of subject and object in the deluded mind, not yet tallying with equal tathatā, but merely relying on the power of faith to cultivate, advance, and accord with it. "Ordinary beings" refers to those who have not yet entered the stages of faith; "bodhisattvas" refers to those from the ten faiths and three [levels of] worthies onward; this meaning is just as expounded above in the passage on the deluded mind perfuming tathatā. In the treatise, "not yet attained, and so forth" means that because they have not yet attained the non-conceptual mind, they do not correspond with the essence of tathatā; because bodhisattvas prior to the stages have not yet extinguished the conceptual differentiation of subject and object, the generated practice has not yet unified with the perfuming essence. The commentary states: "fundamental wisdom" is the non-conceptual mind; the wisdom that directly accords with principle is called fundamental wisdom. "Embodying" (ti) has the sense of according and unifying; the wisdom that directly embodies is called fundamental wisdom, deriving its name as a karmadhāraya compound. If one takes the "correct essence" as tathatā, it is interpreted as a tatpuruṣa compound, where the essence of the dharmakāya is tathatā. However, when expounded in terms of persons, one speaks of the dharmakāya, nirmāṇakāya, and so forth; when expounded in terms of dharmas, one speaks of the essence and function of tathatā, and so forth. In the treatise, "not yet attained sovereign actions" means that after realizing the truth, all generated practices are equal practices of tathatā's wonderful function; each and every practice arises from the truth and tallies with the principle of suchness; these are the functional activities of the true essence, hence called "sovereign actions." Now in this stage, they have not yet attained this practice, hence they cannot correspond with function; this means that the generated practice has not yet unified with the perfuming function. Because the perfuming function arises from the true essence, and sovereign actions also arise from the truth, if the two functions unite, they share the same essence, which is called "correspondence." Prior to the stages, this is lacking, hence it is said that they have "not yet attained" it. When reaching the stages, they attain correspondence and can then serve as perfuming conditions for persons of the three [levels of] worthies and others. Question: If so, why was it said earlier that the three worthies arouse function and serve as external conditions for the Hinayāna and others? Answer: What was expounded earlier was merely relying on the power of vows and the power of samādhi to be able to arouse differential conditions; in truth, they are not yet able to possess natural functional activities to serve as equal conditions. The commentary states: "subsequent wisdom after realizing the truth" means the wisdom aroused after realizing the truth; or alternatively, this wisdom can also realize the truth, because it can repeatedly reflect and take truth as its object, constituting the path of seeing of signs.