起信論疏筆削記 7.17

7.17

[Commentary:] "Verbal teachings are not real...": because they are expediently set up and exist through causes and conditions, the intent is to rely provisionally on having words in order to tally with wordlessness. The principle of wordlessness can be realized and awakened to, but the teachings that have words must not be grasped; grasping them results in recognizing the finger and losing the moon. The Daśabhūmika-śāstra says that grasping meanings following sounds has five faults: 1. lack of correct faith: listening merely by chasing after sounds, one does not understand the profound meaning; 2. retreating from diligence: due to lack of correct faith, there is no superior understanding, and one cannot be decisive; 3. deceiving others: due to not understanding, one may take the profound as shallow or the shallow as profound; 4. slandering the Buddha: grasping expedients as real, or grasping phenomena while bewildered about the principle, one then claims the Tathāgata's words have become false; 5. disparaging the Dharma: taking mistaken understanding as one's nature, hearing the profound one does not value it. Explaining the reason why they are without reality: because all objects are produced from deluded thoughts; thoughts themselves are already without essence, how much more so could the dharmas produced by them be real? Therefore the earlier text says: "All objects have distinctions solely based on deluded thoughts; if one is free from thoughts of the mind, then there are no marks of any objects." From this, all verbal expressions are provisional designations, lacking real essence, and their nature cannot be attained.