大乘入道次第 1.37

1.37

8. Superior virtues, fruits, and benefits: As for "superior virtues," the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra and the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra state: Every perfection each has four kinds of supreme dignity and virtue: 1. When correctly practicing, one can abandon the counteracted dharmas of stinginess, precept-breaking, anger, indolence, distraction, and dogmatic inclinations. 2. When correctly practicing, it serves as the provisions for unexcelled bodhi. 3. When correctly practicing, in the present life one can gather and benefit sentient beings oneself. 4. When correctly practicing, in future lives one can attain vast, inexhaustible, and pleasant fruitional karmic retributions. As for "fruits and benefits," by practicing the six perfections as superior causes, one can induce various wonderful fruits in the future: distantly, bodhi; proximately, [rebirth among] humans, devas, and the like. Therefore, fascicle 5 of the Avataṃsaka-sūtra contains the verse: / "In the past, having aroused great compassion for sentient beings, / He cultivated the perfection of giving. / Because of this, his body is most supreme and wonderful, / Able to make those who see it give rise to joy. / In the past, throughout an ocean of boundless great kalpas, / He cultivated and purified the perfection of pure precepts. / Hence he obtained a pure body pervading the ten directions, / Universally extinguishing the heavy sufferings of the world. / Formerly he cultivated forbearance to purity, / With faithful understanding of the real, devoid of conceptual discrimination. / Therefore his bodily forms and marks are completely perfected, / Universally radiating light that illuminates the ten directions. / Formerly he vigorously cultivated through an ocean of many kalpas, / Able to transform the deep and heavy obstructions of sentient beings. / Hence he can divide his body to pervade the ten directions, / Appearing everywhere beneath the kings of bodhi trees. / The Buddha cultivated for a long time across immeasurable kalpas, / The great ocean of dhyāna meditation being universally pure; / Hence he makes those who see him feel deep joy, / With the defilements of afflictive hindrances completely eradicated. / When the Tathāgata cultivated all practices in the past, / He was fully endowed with the perfection of wisdom; / Therefore he spreads forth light universally illuminating, / Resolutely annihilating all darkness of ignorance." / This is the fruition of the Buddha's qualities through the cause of practicing the six perfections. Furthermore, the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra and the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra state: "World-Honoured One! For all such perfections, what are the fruitional retributions?" "Good son! One should know that these also briefly comprise six kinds: 1. Attaining great wealth. 2. Rebirth in wholesome destinies. 3. Being free from enmity and destruction, having abundant joy and pleasure. 4. Becoming a lord of sentient beings. 5. Having a body free from affliction and harm. 6. Having a great sovereign domain and retinue. These correspond to the six perfections according to their sequence. This encompasses the fruits obtained while in the stage of causes." Now, the meanings of the six perfections are boundless; here, eight gates have been roughly shown, and the remainder are omitted without discussion.