大乘玄論 1.12

1.12

Distinguishing the Teachings, the ninth. The conventional masters, arbitrarily positing the sudden and gradual, divide the teachings into three kinds. Within the gradual teaching there are two truths across five periods: in the period of the teaching of the four noble truths, there are the two truths of phenomena and principle. In the period of the Prajñā teaching, there are the two truths of emptiness and existence. In the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa, there are the two truths of praise and censure. In the Lotus Sūtra, there are the two truths of the three and the one. In the Nirvāṇa teaching, there are the two truths of the permanent and impermanent. In our present doctrine, the bodhisattva and śrāvaka piṭakas classify the Buddha's teachings; we now explain that the Hīnayāna clarifies the two truths of phenomena and principle, while all Mahāyāna sūtras comprehensively clarify the two truths of emptiness and existence. Question: If so, then the Nirvāṇa Sūtra clarifies that what is empty is the twenty-five realms of existence, and what is not empty is the great nirvāṇa. Does it take emptiness to be the conventional truth and wondrous existence, being not empty, to be the ultimate truth? Answer: This was addressed to the bhikṣus of the three trainings, who formerly took the reduction of the body to ashes and extinction of cognition to be nirvāṇa without remainder. Today's [teaching of] wondrous existence being not empty is not a classification of the two truths. If it were according to your question, why does the sūtra state, "The city of Kapilavastu is empty, and the great nirvāṇa is also empty"? If "also empty" means both are empty, how could emptiness not be the ultimate and existence be the conventional? Question: Are there textual proofs for the fourfold two truths? Answer: There are very many textual proofs. A sūtra states: "Sometimes the conventional truth is spoken of as the ultimate truth, and sometimes the ultimate truth is spoken of as the conventional truth. Sometimes emptiness and existence are spoken of as the conventional truth, and neither existence nor non-existence is spoken of as the ultimate truth." Question: Was the Avataṃsakasūtra spoken by Śākyamuni? Answer: Śākyamuni has two names: Rocana and Śākyamuni. Rocana means universally pure, which is a name based on virtues; Śākyamuni is a clan name. Furthermore, depending on the perceivers being different, there are two buddhas; therefore Rocana preaches the Dharma in the pure land, and Śākyamuni preaches the Dharma in the defiled land. Thus, in terms of the perceivers, for those who are cultivated he is the saṃbhogakāya buddha, and for those of short [faculties] he is the nirmāṇakāya buddha. Just as Śākyamuni in this realm is the root and the replicated Śākyamunis of the ten directions are the traces, Rocana is spoken of as the root and Śākyamuni as the trace.