華嚴經內章門等雜孔目章 1.24

1.24

According to the Hīnayāna doctrine, there is no separate pure land. According to the Triyāna doctrine, there are separate pure lands, which briefly may be taken as four: first, the transformed pure land, which refers to the pure lands manifest by transformation in various directions; second, the phenomenal pure land, which refers to the pure lands in various directions constituted of various jewels; third, the real retribution pure land, which refers to that constituted by various principles, practices, and so forth, where the three emptinesses are the gates and the various pāramitās and so forth are the pathways for entry and exit; fourth, the dharmatā pure land, which is the so-called tathatā, meaning that all phenomena are established based on the unestablished root. The Ekayāna pure lands are taken to be ten, which teach and transform all within the various four continents of this Sahā world: 1. having diverse bodies; 2. having diverse names; 3. having diverse locations; 4. having diverse shapes and colors, as well as diverse lengths; 5. having diverse lifespans; 6. having diverse attainments and entrances; 7. having diverse faculties; 8. having diverse birthplaces; 9. having diverse karmas; 10. having diverse retributions. Diverse in these ways, what is seen by sentient beings also differs. Question: If one wishes to elucidate the pure lands, why does one distinguish the diverse demarcations of sentient beings? Answer: The Buddha-lands are inherently interfused and equal to the dharmadhātu, having no distinct separation that could be distinguished. Why is this? Because a Buddha-land accords with the dharmadhātu. If one wishes to identify differences and know their demarcations, it is based on the increase or decrease of the mental karmic practices of sentient beings, the rise or sinking in the waters of concentration, and the differences of purity and defilement, which stamp and establish the differences in the Buddha-lands as well. Therefore, Mañjuśrī praised the profound difference of the lands, using those sentient beings to express the characteristics of the lands. Question: Regarding the Ekayāna pure lands' differences of size, quantity, defilement, and purity, how is one to know the identity and difference of their demarcations? Answer: In the Ekayāna pure lands, the one is the many and the many is the one, fully as expounded at length in the Daśabhūmika-śāstra. If one wishes to know their proportions, one can know them by matching them to the ten Buddhas. Their proportions of width and breadth are not like the pure lands elucidated in the Triyāna, and they are also distinct and different from the ocean of worlds. If it is the ocean of worlds, it exists within time, in the places seen and heard by those sentient beings, speaking of the different designations of the pure lands of the various Buddhas; hence they are not the same. The distinctive characteristics of the Triyāna pure lands recorded above only exclude the Hīnayāna of those who are foolish regarding phenomena. Question: If so, why does the treatise state: "There is a marvelous pure land; arhats will be born in it"? One should know that the Hīnayāna also has pure lands. Answer: The Hīnayāna has no pure lands. The reason this is known is that whoever is born in a pure land must possess the practice of habitual karmic tendencies, whereas the Hīnayāna is weary of rūpa and citta and delights in the remainderless [nirvāṇa]; by what cause could they be born in a pure land? What is now spoken of as "being born" cites Hīnayāna terminology to elucidate that those arhats previously possessed the seeds of a pure land, and hence having attained arhatship, they will be born in it; or alternatively, the great arhats are themselves bodhisattvas who will be born in it—this should be understood accordingly.