起信論疏筆削記 17.26

17.26

Second, the specific [practices]. The Śāstra states: "Being without stinginess or greed": "Stinginess" refers to begrudging one's own possessions and not readily giving them to others. "Greed" refers to desiring the wealth of others in order to take it into oneself. Knowing that in the dharmatā such things do not originally exist, the commentary says "understanding." The Śāstra states: "Dāna-pāramitā": In full it is dāna, which here is translated as "giving" (dāna). Pāramitā is translated here as "reaching the other shore." The other shore is nirvāṇa, and nirvāṇa is the principle of tathatā. Now, practicing giving while being free of marks accords with the principle; this is the meaning of "reaching the other shore." The rest should be understood accordingly. However, giving up what is one's own to bestow it on others is called giving; this merely accords with being without stinginess, but by this it also accords with the meaning of being without greed. Why is this? If one gives one's own possessions to others, one will certainly not take the possessions of others; this uses the deeper to illustrate the shallower. "Free from..." below clarifies the marks that are abandoned. The "three wheels" are the giver, the recipient, and the gift given. Realizing that the essence of these three marks is ungraspable is called "freedom [from marks]." If one can be free from marks, the cause becomes anāsrava and the fruit realizes bodhi. It has the meaning of rolling onward, hence it is called a "wheel"; furthermore, it can crush all afflictive hindrances, and having the meaning of crushing, it is termed a "wheel." "By the ten..." below explains the reason for freedom from marks. "Attaining the emptiness of dharmas" refers only to deeply entering this contemplation, not yet to actual realization. Yet this is spoken according to the pedagogical path; if spoken in terms of actual reality, one can already deeply enter it in the stage of the ten faiths. As stated below, how could cultivating the tathatā samādhi through faith not be the emptiness of dharmas? That upon which the arousal of the mind relies: understanding belongs to the ten abodes, and practice belongs to the ten practices. Thus the ten dedications are that which relies, and the abodes and practices are that upon which it relies. Moreover, the abodes and practices are that which arouses, and the ten dedications are that which is aroused, meaning that relying on this understanding and practice, one arouses the mind of dedication. "Because defilement..." below explains the reason for according with the true: stinginess and the like are hindrances that constantly contradict nature. Nature originally has no stinginess or the like and is never combined with hindrances. Therefore, practicing deeds such as giving outwardly opposes hindrances like stinginess, and inwardly accords with the nature that is free of stinginess and the like.