華嚴經內章門等雜孔目章 4.61

4.61

As for the meaning of redirecting the mind, it has two major divisions: first, explaining the redirection of mind based on not yet having entered the Buddha-Dharma; second, determining the redirection of mind based on having entered the wholesome factors leading to liberation at the verge of the outflow-free realm of the Buddha-Dharma. First, based on not yet having entered refers to the stage of the icchantika and their semblance practice. Such practitioners possess person and dharma, meaning and letter, faults in understanding and practice, down to principle and phenomena, etc.; having cultivated distorted wholesome causes over many kalpas, they later unfailingly culminate in the retribution of the inexhaustible Avīci hell, and so forth. The Tathāgata, out of great compassion, devises methods specifically to rescue them; all the details are fully contained in the sūtra text. Now, asking briefly about the essentials: by universal reverence, they acknowledge evil dharmas, coalesce with those icchantikas, and cause them to enter the Ekayāna. The method for this is fully delineated as in the catechism. When they ultimately attain birth in the pure land, obtain the irreversible stage, and are able to constantly see the Buddha, they immediately dedicate [themselves] toward the Ekayāna. Second, based on having entered the wholesome factors leading to liberation at the verge of the outflow-free realm of the Buddha-Dharma: the Tathāgata skillfully established two gateway principles. First, regarding the initial gate: it relies on the parable of the prodigal son and so forth in the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra, which by meaning refers to the Dharma-deluded śrāvakas who, having arisen from past kalpas long ago, entered the Śrāvaka vehicle from the stage of the icchantika. Based on this doctrinal division, this is because formerly, while at the stage of the icchantika, they had not cultivated the understanding and practice of a single thought of the wholesome factors conducive to bodhi; hence the text judges it as toilsome poverty. Yet the body of the prodigal son was originally the son of the wealthy elder; by meaning this corresponds to the aspect of the tathāgatagarbha of the real mark of dharma-nature that is 'not defiled yet defiled'. Down to the buddha-nature having various tastes according to the places to which it flows, such is their stage; because it is 'not defiled yet defiled', it is therefore not called by an exalted name. Later, if they redirect their minds, this in meaning corresponds to attuning to that dharma-nature; its principle then accords with being 'defiled yet undefiled', and is called the nobility of royal lineage. Based on this principle, the parable of the prodigal son is spoken with regard to the stage of the Dharma-deluded śrāvaka, and in meaning extends to the stage of the icchantika and so forth. Question: Among śrāvakas who redirect their minds, do all of them redirect? Answer: If regarding the śrāvaka, after their own irreversible stage they do not redirect. If regarding the initial teaching, those who redirect, redirect, and those who do not redirect, do not redirect. If regarding the final teaching, all of them redirect. If regarding the sudden teaching, there is neither redirecting nor not redirecting. If regarding the separate teaching, it is as stated above. 'All of them redirect' is as the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra says: 'Relishing the joy of samādhi, / they abide peacefully in the outflow-free realm. / There is no ultimate destination, / nor do they regress. / Attaining the bodies of various samādhis, / they are unawakened even for kalpas. / Like a drunken person, / who awakens only after the wine wears off, / their awakening to the Dharma is also like this: / they will attain the unsurpassed body of the Buddha.' Second, determining the redirection of mind regarding the final meaning: as in the sūtra text below, the Greatly Wise Śāriputra and five hundred bhikṣus redirect their minds toward Mañjuśrī, and all say that their past-planted roots of goodness have appeared. The six thousand bhikṣus reveal long co-cultivation, becoming genuine retinues. The person of Śāriputra, within the Buddha-Dharma, in meaning corresponds to the stage of brilliance; now being cited as one who redirects reveals that his practice finally possesses the characteristics of wisdom. Now redirecting his mind once more, at the very time of redirection he immediately attains the ten kinds of great dharmas, the bounds of the ten eyes and ten ears, and so forth, as fully present in the text of the Gaṇḍavyūha Sūtra. One should know that its meaning is final, not initial; its stage lies in the mature teaching of sudden awakening, and its meaning extends to the initial teaching and so forth. Citing these two stages of initial and final as the model, the various meanings in between may be known by analogy. Furthermore, the dharma of redirecting the mind, when juxtaposed with those five vehicles, also has initial and final disparities. Just as for the single person of the prodigal son, the elder sent messengers to skillfully give wages, etc., which in meaning corresponds to [the stages] from humans, devas, and the Mahāsāṃghika onward, down to the initial teaching. Just as for Śāriputra's stage of redirecting the mind and so forth, it in meaning corresponds to [the stages] from the initial teaching onward, down to the sudden teaching. And from the final teaching on down, the demarcations of redirecting the mind still have many varieties of disparities: there are those who enter the śrāvaka from the icchantika; those who from the śrāvaka redirect toward the pratyekabuddha and the initial teaching; there are śrāvakas who redirect toward the direct-advancing and the final teaching; there are those who redirect their minds toward the sudden teaching and the Ekayāna. In this way, because the capacities and natures of the five vehicles are hierarchically different, the redirection of mind is also distinct; such meanings may be understood by analogy. The various differences within them concerning doctrinal divisions, understanding and practice, principle and phenomena, persons and dharmas, teachings and meanings, etc., guide the preceding capacities; such meanings can also be known by analogy. Question: Below, the sūtra clarifies redirecting the mind, where the Greatly Wise Śāriputra and others, after the Buddha appeared in the world, were in another country, and only at a different time and different place entered the Buddha-Dharma together with Maudgalyāyana and others. Why is it that at the Avataṃsaka Sūtra assembly on the second seven-day period, when the Buddha had not moved, there were already the Greatly Wise Śāriputra and five hundred other śrāvakas, together with Śāriputra's disciples, the six thousand bhikṣus? Since neither the Jetavana Grove nor the Hall of Universal Radiance had yet been erected, why are they fully related in the sūtra text? Answer: Because the Tathāgata established the Ekayāna based on the virtue of liberation. A lower passage of the sūtra says: 'Within a single dust mote, the turning of the dharma wheel by all buddhas of the three periods of time is established.' One should know that what is presently constituted as the Ekayāna teaching is precisely this matter. Relying on the cognition that enters the nine periods of time, fusing the dharmas of the nine periods of time constitutes the ten periods of time—namely, the past of the past, the present of the past, the future of the past, the past of the present, the present of the present, the future of the present, the past of the future, the present of the future, the future of the future, together with the three periods of time mutually identical and mutually entering, forming the ten periods of time. At the time of the second seven-day period, such dharmas were all fully manifested, as expounded at length in the sūtra's 'Chapter on Leaving the World.' If one wishes to recognize the inexhaustible doctrinal meaning of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, one should know it by relying on the subtle Indra cognition of the six characteristics and the dharma-cognition of dhāraṇī mastery. The remaining points are as in the separate chapter.