起信論疏筆削記 3.17

3.17

The words from 'According to this' onward speak based on the five spiritual natures. The doctrine of the five natures appears in both provisional and real teachings. In the previous section on doctrinal tenets, it was judged as not yet definitive because they rigidly grasped that three lacked and two had [the nature], and hence it was called provisional. Now, speaking of those addressed by the teaching, we must consider nature. Although natures are spoken of as five, all are addressed; it is not like the provisional school's rigid grasping of presence and absence. The words from 'Primarily addressed' onward are readily understood. 'Secondarily addressing the remaining natures' refers to the two vehicles and those without spiritual family. Because those of the two vehicles truly have no fixed nature, although they have eliminated samsaric death in portions, they still have the body of inconceivable transformation death; as long as they hear this teaching, they will definitively turn their minds around. The *Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra* states that the four fruits and pratyekabuddhas, taking at the slowest eighty, sixty, forty, or twenty thousand kalpas, turn their minds around in that sequence, just as drunkards awaken with varying speeds; awakening from the wine of samādhi is also like this. Hence the *Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra* states: 'Intoxicated by the wine of samādhi, they do not awaken for kalpas; when the wine dissipates they then awaken, attaining the unsurpassed body of the Buddha.' Those without spiritual family merely lack a wholesome nature; if they hear this teaching, wholesome seeds will naturally form, and when meeting conditions they will arise, so they will certainly become Buddhas. The *Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra* speaks of two kinds of icchantikas: first, great compassion bodhisattvas; second, those who have severed wholesome roots. The Buddha said that of the two, the one who never enters is only the great compassion bodhisattva; one should know that those who have severed wholesome roots, upon hearing the sūtras and gaining awakening, will certainly enter later. This explanation is fully present in the *Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra*. Now this treatise states: 'It indicates the cultivation of calm abiding and insight in order to remedy the mental faults of ordinary beings and the two vehicles.' Within this, the meaning implicitly includes those of fixed nature and those without nature; hence a later passage states: 'Remedying the two vehicles' fault of a narrow and inferior mind that does not give rise to great compassion, and staying far from ordinary beings who do not cultivate wholesome roots.' Now, not giving rise to great compassion—is that not one of fixed nature? Not cultivating wholesome roots—is that not one without nature? One should know that although the Real Teaching speaks of five natures, they are not rigidly five; all are addressed.