起信論疏筆削記 16.3

16.3

2. Raising and listing. The commentary: 'General mark, etc.': being unable to discern the differentiations of the five aggregates, one merely grasps their general mark as a master. However, the mark of self has four kinds: First, the mark of a sentient being, because it is produced by the coming together of many past conditions. Second, the mark of a living being, because it abides through a single period of lifespan in the present without breaking conditions. Third, the mark of a person, because it repeatedly takes birth in other destinies in the future. Fourth, the mark of a self, because it is the overall master of the three times. Thus now he calls the self the overall mastering ruler. 'This is, etc.' eliminates ambiguities. This refers to ordinary beginners studying the Mahāyāna who, hearing the Mahāyāna teaching, do not understand the Buddha's intent; following their own deluded minds, they distort the sacred scriptures, and having formed this as habit, they develop this view. 'Not non-Buddhists': they have three traditions with different theories, as explained earlier; this does not refer to that category. 'Conceiving all, etc.': conceiving that dharmas such as form each have a substantial essence of their own. Thus the Mahāyānasaṃgraha says: 'If one grasps the substance of dharmas as existent, it is called attachment to dharma-self,' and so forth. Because practitioners of the two vehicles practice reliant on the two coarse object-discriminating consciousnesses, they only comprehend that there is no self within dharmas, but do not know that the substance of dharmas is entirely empty. As said earlier: 'Seeing comes from the outside, grasping the boundaries of form,' and so forth. Grasping that defiled and pure objects possess self-nature is called attachment to dharmas. Just as while cataracts remain in the eyes, how could sky-flowers be extinguished?