二諦義 2.35

2.35

問：難他如此。今作若為解釋耶？今明世與俗是橫竪之名。何者？俗名則橫，世名則竪。俗橫者，俗是風俗義，處處皆有風俗之法。故云「君子行禮，不求變俗」。一切國土各有風俗，故俗名即橫也。世名竪者，世是代謝隔別、三世遷異，豈非是竪？內外具明。經云「生生世世」，書云「三十年為一世」。雖然，終以代謝隔別為世，故世是竪名也。然此二名，竝是當體。俗當體是浮虛，世當體代謝。不有世而已有世，即是代別；不有俗而已有俗，即是浮虛。當體是浮虛代謝，豈有褒貶於其間哉？故不可也。次望真釋之。論云「世俗諦者，一切法性空，世間顛倒虛妄謂有，諸賢聖真知性空。」俗諦既顛倒虛妄謂有，當知俗諦虛妄顛倒。俗既然，世亦爾。此則望聖，世與俗皆虛妄顛倒。就顛倒中，自有俗有世、有橫有竪也。此有差別、無差別義。以聖望之，同是顛倒，故無差別；而不無世俗橫竪，故有差別也。

Question: Having challenged others like this, how do you explain it now? We now explain that 'worldly' and 'conventional' are names of the horizontal and the vertical. Why? The name 'conventional' is horizontal, while the name 'worldly' is vertical. The conventional being horizontal means: 'conventional' has the meaning of custom; everywhere there are customs and conventions. Hence it is said: "The exemplary person practices ritual propriety and does not seek to alter customs." All countries have their respective customs; therefore, the name 'conventional' is horizontal. The name 'worldly' being vertical means: 'worldly' is succession and differentiation, the shifting and changing across the three periods of time—how could this not be vertical? Both internal and external [texts] fully clarify this. The sūtras speak of "life after life, age after age (śeṣa)", and secular books say, "thirty years make one generation (se)." Even so, ultimately it is succession and differentiation that constitute the worldly; therefore, 'worldly' is a vertical name. However, both of these two names refer to intrinsic nature. The conventional's intrinsic nature is insubstantial; the worldly's intrinsic nature is succession. Before the world exists, the world already exists—this is succession and differentiation; before the conventional exists, the conventional already exists—this is insubstantiality. Since their intrinsic natures are insubstantiality and succession, how could there be praise and dispraise between them? Therefore, that is unacceptable. Next we explain them in relation to the ultimate. The treatise says: "Regarding conventional truth, all phenomena are empty of nature; worldly inverted delusion claims they exist, whereas the noble ones truly know that their nature is empty." Since conventional truth is an inverted delusion claiming existence, one should know that conventional truth is delusion and inversion. Since the conventional is like this, the worldly is also like that. In this case, in relation to the noble, both the worldly and the conventional are delusion and inversion. Within inversion, there are naturally the conventional and the worldly, the horizontal and the vertical. This contains both differentiation and non-differentiation. Viewed from the perspective of the noble, they are equally inversion, hence there is no differentiation; yet this does not negate the horizontal and vertical of worldly and conventional, hence there is differentiation.