肇論新疏 1.272

1.272

連引二經，依言說相以顯中道。初即《淨名經》長者子寶積歎佛偈也。初句歎如來說法與實相相應故，有說無說皆雙絕也。後句意云：有無既絕，何故現一切言說？答云：以俗諦因緣故諸法生也。後經即彼第十一卷中文。初句牒說，次二句亦有無雙絕，後句明說即無說。二經義同。非轉而轉，三百餘會不捨穿針；轉而不轉，四十九年不說一字。豈謂舌覆三千即成有說，身默丈室便謂無談？

It cites two sūtras in succession to reveal the middle way based on the characteristics of spoken discourse. The first is the verse praising the Buddha by the elder's son Ratnakāra in the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa. The first line praises the Tathāgata's expounding of the Dharma as corresponding to dharmatā, so that both having spoken and not having spoken are dual-eliminated. The meaning of the latter line is: since existence and non-existence are eliminated, why manifest all spoken discourses? The reply is: through conventional truth causes and conditions, all dharmas arise. The latter sūtra is a passage in its eleventh fascicle. The first line restates the discourse; the next two lines likewise eliminate both existence and non-existence; the last line clarifies that speaking is itself non-speaking. The meaning of the two sūtras is the same. Turning without turning, across more than three hundred assemblies he did not abandon threading a needle; turning yet not turning, for forty-nine years he did not speak a single word. How could it be that his tongue covering the three thousand [worlds] constitutes having spoken, and his body silent in the ten-foot room means having no discourse?