華嚴一乘成佛妙義 1.8

1.8

Within this there are two [parts]: first, explaining the difference in the persons capable of attaining the three kinds of attainment of Buddhahood; second, presenting the diversity of kinds of persons who swiftly attain Buddhahood. In the first [part], among the three attainments of Buddhahood, the persons capable of attaining them may be identical or different. Why is this? If one person's practice relies on the gateway of faith, it is the attainment of Buddhahood according to practice; if it relies on the abodes and so forth, it is the attainment of Buddhahood according to stage. Since this is the mutual identity and interpenetration of principle and phenomena entering into the Buddha, it is called the attainment of Buddhahood according to principle; therefore they are identical. Thus the fourth volume of the Commentary says: "Question: We do not yet know at what stage this [Vai]rocana Buddha is the Buddha? Answer: If one speaks of the Dharma of faith, he is the Buddha within faith; the other stages are also like this. One should understand in accordance with this." However, the attainment of Buddhahood according to principle extends to all ordinary beings, insentient beings, and so forth, so they are different. Next, explaining the kinds [of persons] who swiftly attain Buddhahood, there are four persons in total: First, relying on a body in the ten world-systems, such as world-natures, a wheel-turning king's prince attains Buddhahood in the present body, such as the boy Samantālaṃkāra (Pu Zhuangyan) and others. Second, relying on the superior body of a devaputra, emerging from the three wretched destinies, one attains Buddhahood in the present body in Tuṣita Heaven. Third, relying on a body of superior merit in Jambudvīpa, such as Sudhana and others, one fulfills the practice of Samantabhadra in the present body, and in the next life immediately sees the Buddha. Fourth, relying on the meaning of the dragon girl's body attaining Buddhahood in the south in the Lotus Sūtra, corresponding to a body that retains afflictions swiftly attaining Buddhahood (the text of the fourth fascicle of the Kongmu). The Cheonggu Record says (fascicle 10): Regarding attaining Buddhahood in the present body and so on, question: The boy Samantālaṃkāra traversed aeons as numerous as the dust motes of two Buddha-worlds cultivating to attain Buddhahood; why is this attaining Buddhahood in a single lifetime? Answer: This person attained Buddhahood in this very body of delimited Samsaric existence; therefore it is attaining Buddhahood in a single lifetime. Question: What text serves as evidence? Answer: Master Zang says: "First, in terms of stages, after the stage of superior advancement of the final mind of the ten faiths, entering into the ten understandings, one immediately attains the fruit of Buddhahood, and so on." The explanation states: At the final mind of the ten faiths one immediately attains Buddhahood, and so on; thus we know it is attaining Buddhahood in a single lifetime. As for the Tuṣita devaputra who attained Buddhahood in [this] body, this person, having heard the sūtra in the past, followed into the three wretched destinies, yet by relying on that body of wholesome roots, receiving the radiance of the minor marks, emerged from hell and was born in Tuṣita Heaven. This heavenly body is a body of understanding and practice; in this very body he attained Buddhahood, so it is attaining Buddhahood in a single lifetime. Furthermore, the boy Sudhana traversed spiritual friends in a single lifetime, and upon meeting them immediately attained Buddhahood. As for the dragon girl's body attaining Buddhahood in the south, this person also, relying on the Avataṃsaka teaching, retained afflictions and received a dragon girl's body, which is attaining Buddhahood in that very body; hence it is called attaining Buddhahood in a single lifetime. Now, I consider: What this Record means—that the boy Samantālaṃkāra attained Buddhahood in the present body as a single lifetime of delimited existence—is entirely unaligned with the text. Why? Examining the sūtra text, it was a single manifest lifetime understanding the One Vehicle; this, then, was the aspect of practice during a birth of understanding and practice. The lower fascicle of the Wujiao says: "Moreover, he was able in a single thought-moment to transform ineffably ineffable sentient beings, all at once causing them to reach the stage before the defilement-free samādhi, and in all remaining thought-moments it was likewise; up to, this is the aspect of practice within the stage of understanding and practice among the preceding three births." A birth of delimited existence pertains generally to seeing and hearing and so on; hence it is not this birth. Question: Why is this boy named Samantālaṃkāra (Pu Zhuangyan)? Answer: Virtue pervading the dharmadhātu is called 'samanta' (pu, universal); universal virtue mutually adorning is 'alaṃkāra' (zhuangyan, adornment). Adornment of the universal, the universal being the adornment; the boy of universal adornment, the boy who is universal adornment. The new translation names him Prince Mahāprabhāvabhāsa (Da Weiguang); in this present translation, the prince is named Puṇyābhyudgata (Gongde Sheng). The present boy is the third prince; the two commentaries offer no explanation, and other texts should be examined. The father king and crown prince correspond to the share of merit, while this boy corresponds to the share of wisdom; hence he is a vessel for the Way. Question: Why is this prince called the son of a wheel-turning king of world-natures? Answer: The third fascicle of the Commentary says: "World-nature here means accumulating worlds to form a nature. Accumulating natures to form an ocean and so forth, as explained in the Zhilun cited above. Furthermore, below this text, within a world-ocean there is a world-nature, within a world-nature there is a world, and so on; hence we know they are formed by accumulation." Why is it called a 'nature'? There are two meanings: First, looking back to the preceding worlds, it gathers the various kinds and condenses them to form a nature, just as prolonged habituation forms a nature; second, looking forward to the ocean and so forth, it functions as a cause; hence it may also be named a 'nature'. Question: If accumulating worlds forms a nature, worlds also have the meaning of being a cause; why are they not called a nature? Answer: Because they lack interfused consolidation; they lack the first meaning. Question: As for the oceans among the ten worlds, looking forward, they also accumulate to form other worlds; why are they not called natures? Answer: The initial accumulated condensation already obtained the name 'nature'; subsequently, opening different meanings, distinct designations were established in turn; hence they are not named natures. The Zhilun cited above says: "If we rely on the Final Teaching, as in the Zhilun, taking a great trichiliocosm as one unit of count, counting up to Ganges sands makes one world-nature; counting these natures again up to Ganges sands makes one world-ocean; counting these again up to Ganges sands makes one world-seed; counting these again up to immeasurable Ganges sands makes the scope of conversion of one Buddha-world." It also says: "Outside the trichiliocosm, there are separately the ten world-nature-ocean wheel-circle divisions, spinning lotus-filament marks; these correspond to the realm of a wheel-turning king with ten thousand sons or more." Question: How does this boy Samantālaṃkāra correspond to the son of a wheel-turning king with ten thousand sons or more? Answer: The sūtra text has already said twenty-five thousand sons; thus we know he is the son of a wheel-turning king with ten thousand sons or more. The third fascicle of the Kanding ji has two explanations: The first says: "Regarding the statement that there were five hundred princes, while another version says twenty-five thousand, examining the Yingluo jing, a gold wheel-turning king has one thousand spokes/sons, up to a bodhisattva of the tenth stage having twenty thousand sons. The explanation says: A bodhisattva of the tenth stage also manifests as a king, but would not have twenty-five thousand. I consider: Xijian was a ruler, and before seeing the Buddha Pāramitā-subocana, had not yet reached the second stage; I fear twenty-five thousand is an error." The second says: "Explained according to teachings, they differ; in principle there is no fault." Now we say: The latter accords with the root commentary, reconciling the former explanation's contradiction with the text by stating that that sūtra was according to the Three Vehicles. The Commentary says: "Question: In the Nirvāṇa [Sūtra], all wheel-turning kings definitely have one thousand sons, neither increasing nor decreasing; why in this sūtra is it different? Answer: That refers to a wheel-turning king ruling the four continents, spoken according to the Three Vehicles; this refers to a wheel-turning king ruling world-natures, and therefore is broader and more subtle than that. Like the pure white Brahmā net and so on, produced by the merit of a wheel-turning king of Ganges sands; this is according to the One Vehicle, hence the statements are not the same." Now, I personally consider: What is stated in the sūtra and the root commentary is exceedingly reasonable. Why? As for the number of wives, both the new and old translations say thirty-seven thousand, and they also agree that human lifespan was two minor kalpas. Regarding 'minor kalpa', Kuiji's Commentary on the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 2, says: "Taking days, months, years, and so forth as a kalpa, it is called minor." Venerable Wonhyo's 'Meaning of Kalpa' says: "The Dālun states: Immeasurable seasons, periods, and years are called a minor kalpa." Having dwelt for so long among more than thirty thousand wives, how could he not have more than twenty thousand sons? Therefore, we know this is completely different from a wheel-turning king appearing in the world when the human lifespan is eighty thousand years in the Three Vehicles. Someone asks: At what stage does the second, the Tuṣita devaputra, attain Buddhahood? Answer: