華嚴經內章門等雜孔目章 4.29

4.29

Regarding the ocean of marks: according to the Hīnayāna doctrine, a Buddha has thirty-two marks like a human and eighty minor marks like a god. According to the Triyāna doctrine, the thirty-two marks and eighty minor marks are empty in the initial teaching and tathatā in the final teaching. Question: According to the Triyāna doctrine, the thirty-two marks and eighty minor marks are originally in the transformation body; why does the Mahāyānasaṃgraha subsume them under merits belonging to the dharmakāya? Answer: To know the reason, one must first understand the purpose of positing Buddhas in the teachings. If one takes the Hīnayāna, they only posit two Buddhas: first, the birth-body Buddha; second, the transformation-body Buddha. If according to the Hīnayāna, the thirty-two marks and eighty minor marks belong to the birth-body; the Buddha among humans and gods is also identical with the reward body, differing only in self and non-self. If according to the Triyāna, there is either one Buddha—meaning the Buddha of the sudden teaching, where only the single non-conceptual true nature is itself the Buddha—or two Buddhas are posited, meaning the svabhāva-dharmakāya Buddha and the response-and-transformation dharmakāya Buddha, which corresponds to the final teaching. Why? Because both are the dharmakāya. According to the Brahmajāla Sūtra, only Rocana's reward body and transformation body are differentiated into two Buddhas, without distinguishing the dharmatākāya. Or three Buddhas are spoken of: 1. the dharmakāya Buddha, 2. the saṃbhogakāya Buddha, and 3. the nirmāṇakāya Buddha. This one meaning corresponds to the teaching of turning the mind. Why? Because those of the Hīnayāna do not posit a dharmakāya; this is according to the Mahāyānasaṃgraha. Furthermore, regarding the dharmakāya, the two kinds of twenty-one-phrase merits and so forth belong either to the response body or to the dharmakāya. Or four Buddhas are spoken of, meaning the svabhāvakāya, dharmakāya, saṃbhogakāya, and nirmāṇakāya. This meaning corresponds solely to the teaching of direct advancement, and so forth. Why? Because it seeks to show that the dharmakāya is differentiated merit, whereas the svabhāvakāya is the single pervasive substance. According to this meaning, what the thirty-two marks and eighty minor marks subsume differs: in view of two bodies, they are both the dharmakāya; in view of three bodies, they belong to the transformation body; in view of four bodies, they belong to the dharmakāya and the transformation body. If they belong to the dharmakāya, the thirty-two marks and so on are its meritorious aspects; if they belong to the transformation body, the thirty-two marks are its physical aspects. How this is known is that in the Mahāyānasaṃgraha, when explaining the three bodies, either the originally existent and that born of cultivation are the dharmakāya, the mark of merely manifesting pure lands to enjoy dharma pleasure is the response body, and the marks of achieving awakening through the eight aspects are the transformation body; or the originally existent is taken as the dharmakāya, that which can depend upon cultivation and be born is the response body, and the arising of transformations based on the response is the transformation body. Because of these differences, determining the present meaning cannot be fixed; it should be considered accordingly. Furthermore, based on increasing numbers of Buddhas: a single-number Buddha is the tathāgatagarbha Buddha. Two-number Buddhas are: first, the svabhāva-dharmakāya and the response-and-transformation dharmakāya; second, the response body and the transformation body. Three-number Buddhas mean the dharmakāya, the response body, and the transformation body. The three dharmakāyas are: the originally existent dharmakāya, the dharmakāya transformed and relied upon after cultivation, and the dharmakāya of transformation functions following conditions. The three response bodies are: the response body attained through cultivation, the response body conforming to principle, and the response body. The response body that responds to dharma and conditions of pleasure in pure lands, and the response body of transformative functions following conditions. The three transformation bodies are: the transformation body flowing from the superior merits of the dharmakāya, the body arising from transformations of the response body to guide beings, and the manomaya-transformation body that guides those of lower faculties. The four numbers mean the four Buddhas—the svabhāvakāya and so forth—all free from the four errors and accomplishing the four merits: the existence of the svabhāvakāya corresponds to substance-merit; the non-existence of the svabhāvakāya is the merit of freedom from marks; being both existent and non-existent is the merit of following conditions; being neither existent nor non-existent is the merit of freedom from errors. The remaining bodies should also be understood accordingly. Now in this Avataṃsaka Sūtra's Chapter on Inconceivable Dharmas, Chapter on the Ocean of Marks, and Chapter on Minor Marks, someone determined that they belong to the measure of the three bodies. This is probably not so. This sūtra does not have three bodies, but only two kinds of ten bodies, as explained before and after. Now, among these three chapters, the first chapter is the essence, the Chapter on the Ocean of Marks is the characteristic, and the Chapter on Minor Marks explains the function. As for the meaning of these marks, according to the present text, there are ninety-seven marks, and below in the text they are separately explained in detail as having marks as numerous as the dust motes of ten ocean-worlds adorned by lotus treasuries, and so forth. If one goes by this text, the Triyāna and Hīnayāna do not have this; it is solely the Ekayāna. One should know that the teachings are divided into Triyāna, Hīnayāna, and Ekayāna, and all differ. If one speaks only generally, understanding will not arise at all. The remaining meanings are as in the separate chapter.