華嚴經內章門等雜孔目章 2.83

2.83

"Non-Buddhists" are outside the Buddha's Dharma, hence called non-Buddhists. Among the ninety-six, the first four are separately distinguished as one gate. Why is this? Because these four paths mutually acknowledge one another and perform illegitimate acts in the worlds. The subsequent ninety-two each lead their own assemblies and retinues, whether ghosts or spirits, differing in their numbers. Their numbers are not just one; each gives rise to deviant views that confuse the Buddha's Dharma, as explained in detail in the Sūtra on the Ninety-Six Kinds of Non-Buddhists. These ninety-six kinds of non-Buddhists all claim to be the path; ninety-five are false Buddhas, and one is the true Buddha. False Buddhas delude people, appearing similar but not true; the true Buddha is without deceit, correct and not deviant. As the Bodhisattvabhūmi states: "Nāḍa-Kātyāyana stayed in the same room with a guest monk. In order to observe the guest, when Kātyāyana entered samādhi, the guest monk also entered samādhi. Relying on the power of samādhi concentration, the guest monk observed Kātyāyana's mind, but did not know what dhyāna he was relying upon. Later, emerging from concentration, he asked: 'On what dhyāna does the Venerable rely?' Kātyāyana replied: 'I rely on the samādhi of emptiness.'" Now, these ninety-six kinds of heterodox paths all have spirits and ghosts possessing or accompanying them because they reside in the Hīnayāna. In the initial provisional means of the Triyāna, wherever there is conceptualization following the verbal teaching, there are still such similar possessions and accompaniments in the Hīnayāna; if one definitely accords with the mind of the truth of principle and the correct non-conceptualization of the Triyāna, there are no such possessions by spirits and ghosts as described above. In the meaning of the Ekayāna, since within seeing and hearing there is universal truth and universal correctness, the various spirits and ghosts also gain no vantage. Now, saying that ninety-five are deviant and one is correct does not mean that only one is correct by itself; they are all mutually viewed as one kind, corresponding to the initial entry into provisional means in the Buddha's Dharma, hence called one.