法界圖記叢髓錄 1.27

1.27

The Great Record says: "The two hundred and ten characters represent the five cycles of cause and effect: setting aside the initial cause and effect, within the subsequent four cycles the fruitions are excluded and the causes are taken; in the causes of the four cycles there are fifty stages each, thus making two hundred. All the fruition stages within those four cycles are combined into one, wishing to show that this fruition is identically the fruition of the ten Buddhas, hence it is called 'one ten.' Question: Why is the initial cause and effect excluded? Answer: Because it is merely what is believed, not the practice that is accomplished. Question: Why are the fruition stages combined into one? Answer: Since the causal stages have distinctions, because what is explained with equal validity has distinct characteristics, the fruitions should also be like this. However, wishing to show that they are identically the fruition of the ten Buddhas, they are simply grouped into one. It is also said: these are the ten gates and ten dharmas of the three realms manifested within the ocean seal. That is, the ten-coin simile and the ten universal dharmas mentioned below make twenty; each of the twenty discusses the ten mysteries, combining to make two hundred; together with the original ten mysteries, it is therefore called two hundred and ten. Furthermore, this seal is the universal, and the seventy-three seals are the particulars. In terms of the particular seals, taking the seventy seals and applying them across the seals of the three times, each time has seventy, thus combining to make two hundred and ten. Therefore, combining the two hundred and ten seals forms the single universal characteristic seal of the ocean seal samādhi. Regarding the thirty lines of seven characters: the preceding ten dharmas and ten similes, together with the original ten mysteries, combine to make thirty; these thirty lines do not go beyond the seven characters of the sutra's title, so the poem was composed in seven-character lines. Therefore, although the phenomena of the dharmadhātu are said to be inexhaustible, they do not go beyond the two hundred and ten characters. Synthesizing these yields thirty lines; synthesizing these again, they do not go beyond the seven characters; synthesizing these again, they do not go beyond principle and wisdom; synthesizing these again, they do not go beyond the single, most pure dharmadhātu. For this reason, it is titled the Dharmadhātu Diagram of the One Vehicle."