肇論新疏 3.79

3.79

This demonstrates the conduct of benefiting sentient beings. "Climbing up" means going upward. "Reaching down" means bending downward. "Profound root" is a metaphor for principle. "Those who lost their way in youth" means those who, being young, lost their native land, a metaphor for turning one's back on enlightenment to unite with the defilements of dust. The meaning here is that just as someone rescuing a drowning person grasps upward onto a tree and reaches down to pull up the drowning one so that their own person does not sink, so too is the Tathāgata: fundamental wisdom illumines the real, and subsequent wisdom saves beings, so that he is not bound by birth and death. The next two sentences explain transcendence. "Three domains" refers to the triple realm. Beyond the realms is called "vast domain," which is also the principle of the two types of emptiness; the Buddha alone walks upon it, because the Lesser Teaching states that only Siddhārtha alone possesses the nature of universal awakening. "Eightfold Correct [Path]" refers to right view, right thought, and so forth. "Multitudes" refers to illegitimate offspring, namely, the heterodox non-Buddhists of deviant views. It means opening wide the Eightfold Correct Path to level all deviance; because deviant paths are uneven, by leveling them they become flat. "Spurring" means galloping; a swift steed is called a "divine steed." Supernormal powers transform beings with swiftness responding to their capacities, hence the metaphor of a divine steed. In Sanskrit it is called yāna, which here is translated as vehicle, namely the teachings of the five vehicles, which refers to morality, wholesomeness, the truths, conditions, the six perfections, and so on. Regarding "peaceful carriage," Yun'an says: "The three vehicles depart the triple realm, and humans and gods depart the three lower realms, hence it is called 'peaceful.' The general outline of transformative conduct is opening what is correct and crushing what is deviant, wielding supernormal powers and preaching the Dharma."