起信論疏筆削記 4.18

4.18

In the Commentary, from "unobstructed form" downward, second, clarifying the Buddha's bodily action. The citation from the Avataṃsaka-sūtra and so forth refers to the "Chapter on the Inconceivable": each and every faculty being pervasive is "great"; not destroying the nature of the faculties is "small." "Nature" means the essential nature, because the substance of seeing and hearing is not destroyed, meaning that the eye seeing and the ear hearing do not err with respect to their objects. As for "unmixed" and so forth: when precisely pervasive, the marks of the faculties are vividly distinct, each differentiated and not conflated, as it is said: in measurement, no boundaries are seen; in confronting them, they have never shifted. For this reason, reaching to the peak of the Brahmā heaven, one does not see the crown of the sixteen-foot body; pervading the entire dharmadhātu, he does not rise from the site of tranquil extinction. The non-obstruction of great and small is like this. As for "operating interchangeably": each and every faculty can see, hear, perceive, and know, not like an ordinary person whose eye only sees form, and so on. As for "resplendent": it means clearly distinct and unconfused, which is phenomena; the emptiness of nature is principle. That is, the form seen arises entirely from nature; precisely when arising, it is the arising of nature, so phenomena do not obstruct principle. The Root Commentary further says: "The wondrous principle is constantly tranquil, yet it does not obstruct the vastness of karmic function." This sentence expresses that principle does not obstruct phenomena. This is the arising of nature as marks, where the one and the many are conditioned arising without bound; marks obtain the fusion of nature, so that the myriad differences interpenetrate without obstruction. It is like the image in a mirror or the moon in the water; by reflecting upon it, this can be known. The Avataṃsaka-sūtra says: "The Buddha's body neither goes nor comes; all lands are clearly seen." Also the Diamond Sūtra says: "The thirty-two marks are precisely non-marks." Also the śāstra below says: "The nature of form is precisely cognition; the nature of cognition is precisely form, pervading all places," and so forth; all are this meaning. From "turning all around" downward, this conveys two meanings: first, in a single assembly, each sees the Buddha's face; second, pervading and responding elsewhere simultaneously. From "ten directions" downward, pervasiveness is shown in terms of place, because there is no place where there is no Buddha. From "many capacities" downward, doubts are resolved in terms of capacities: hearing it said that he appears everywhere simultaneously in the ten directions, one might think he divides his body to respond to inclinations. Now it says that many capacities stimulate him at once; although the response is simultaneous, the Buddha's body remains tranquil and unmoving. Just as the shadow of a single moon is seen by thousands of people, each going east or west along with the person: the shadow is not divided, and the Buddha is also like this. Hence the Avataṃsaka-sūtra says: "The Buddha's body fills the dharmadhātu, universally appearing before all sentient beings; responding to inclinations according with conditions, there is nowhere it does not reach, yet he constantly abides on this bodhi-seat."