華嚴一乘教義分齊章 2.9

2.9

First, in terms of the initial teaching, because it establishes gotra within conditioned, impermanent dharmas, it cannot pervade all sentient beings; thus among the five gotras there is a category of sentient beings lacking the nature. Therefore the Prakaraṇāryavācā states: 'What are the five kinds of reasonings for the difference in gotra? Because differences in all realms are obtainable,' and so on, up to: 'Because it is unreasonable for those who are not destined for parinirvāṇa to be so only in the present life,' and so on, extensively. Therefore one should know that by natural law (dharmatā), from beginningless time all sentient beings have five gotras; the fifth gotra lacks the cause for supramundane virtue, and therefore is never liberated. By this reasoning, the virtues of the buddhas in benefiting and bringing joy to sentient beings never come to an end. Regarding those who possess a gotra, the Yogācārabhūmi states: 'Gotra is briefly of two kinds: (1) inherent by nature; (2) accomplished by habituation. Inherent by nature means that the six bases of bodhisattvas have such superior characteristics, transmitted successively from beginningless time and obtained by natural law; accomplished by habituation means obtained from previously habitual wholesome roots.' Here, 'nature' refers to the mental base being the most superior among the internal six bases, which gathers the innate awakening nature of comprehension within the ālayavijñāna as the natural gotra. The Liang Mahāyānasaṃgraha states: 'Perfumed by hearing combines with the nature of comprehension within the ālayavijñāna, and all noble ones take this as cause.' However, since the Yogācārabhūmi states that only those endowed with gotra can generate the mind [of bodhi], one knows that being endowed with both nature and habituation forms a single gotra; therefore these two are non-dual in dependent origination, and lacking either one, it is not accomplished. Nor can it be said that nature comes first and habituation comes later; only when reaching the stage of competence can one speak of having the natural gotra in terms of the root, and the habituated gotra in terms of cultivation. Yet there are two meanings without there being two separate entities; as the Mahāyānasaṃgraha quoted above states, 'two meanings combine to form a single cause,' so we know this is so.