大乘起信論裂網疏 2.10

2.10

Question: How do the five kinds of three truths subsume each other? Answer: Illusory existence is the conventional, subsumed as before under the defilement associated with attachment. Being empty and not-empty is the ultimate; pointing to this 'not-empty' as the Middle Way: emptiness is a minor fraction of the meaning of emptiness in the aspect of tathatā, and the Middle is merely the meaning of original awakening in the aspect of arising and ceasing. If all dharmas converge into the empty and not-empty, and one points to this 'not-empty' as the Middle Way: emptiness is the meaning of emptiness in the aspect of tathatā, and the Middle is the meaning of not-empty in the aspect of tathatā. If one divides the conventional of illusory existence and illusory existence being empty into the two truths of ultimate and conventional, designating the ultimate of neither existing nor empty as the truth of the Middle: the conventional is subsumed under the defilement associated with attachment, the ultimate is subsumed under approximate awakening, and the Middle is subsumed under original awakening. If all dharmas converge into the Middle: the conventional and the ultimate are subsumed as before, while the Middle is subsumed under the meaning of not-empty in the aspect of tathatā. As for the perfect and wondrous three truths: the ultimate is the meaning of emptiness in the aspect of tathatā, the conventional entirely subsumes the meanings of awakening and non-awakening in the aspect of arising and ceasing, and the Middle is the meaning of not-empty in the aspect of tathatā. Because the one mind and two aspects are mutually inseparable, the one mind and three truths are perfectly integrated and inconceivable. One must understand that the principle fundamentally contains the three truths, but when principle integrates phenomena, there are no phenomena that are not principle, hence collapsing the three into two; phenomena also contain the three truths, but when phenomena manifest principle, there is no principle that is not phenomena, hence collapsing the three into one.