肇論新疏 3.386

3.386

The earlier citation of the sage's teaching clarified that principle and intellect darkly tally as two and yet not two, serving as a definitive measure; only then does it clarify that the utmost person accords with principle through intellect, also quietly and darkly connecting. 'Restrains' means stops, and also collects. 'Profound mechanism' is intellect. 'Before any omen' means that when intellect realizes principle, entire function returns to substance, without preserving any omen. Great Master Qingliang says: 'The substance of intellect has no self; this is realizing suchness.' 'Dark' is still. 'Operation' is motion. This is the combined name for suchness and intellect. 'Transformation' refers to the myriad transformations. 'Within' means approaching. The meaning is: the substance of dark operation is identical to the being of the myriad transformations; phenomena are manifest while principle is hidden, which is meant by 'conceals'. Great Master Qingliang says: 'Darkening the true substance in the realm of the myriad transformations.' 'Six directions' refers to the being of conventional truth taken as function. It means taking the phenomena of the six directions as the mind of the spiritual mirror; there has never been a single dharma that is not mind. From 'unifies departure and arrival' onward: 'departure' means the past, that is, antiquity; 'arrival' means the future, and also implicitly includes the present. Since it blends and fuses the three times into one substance, what antiquity is not connected? The former unifies the six directions and pervades the ten directions; this subsumes the three times and connects present and antiquity. 'Forms the substance' is said provisionally of sage intellect: initially true and conventional fuse, and mind and object converge, which is what is meant by 'forms'. Guishan says: 'Neither departing nor arriving, darkly connecting the three periods of time.' Question: The Buddha used the speech of Somana (India); why did the author of the treatise use literary style? Answer: Because of expedient skillful means adapting to the capacities of Chinese people. Those who cling to texts say the words are identical to the worldly; Zanning ridiculed his use of literary embellishment, and Huida explained it as rash. In my humble, trifled view, I rather seek the intention behind the established words; as Master Da noted, they do not harm the text. Therefore, the present definitive explanation merely uses the inner meaning to explain the elegant words, enabling one to know that the treatise master's text was lodged in the former, while its meaning belongs to the latter.