華嚴一乘成佛妙義 1.9

1.9

Second is the deva son of Tuṣita. Question: Why did this deva son fall into hell and why was he born in heaven? Answer: The sūtra says, "Merely due to entanglement in inverted delusions and folly, he received the body in hell." It also says, "Because of heedfulness, because of having planted good roots before various Buddhas, because of having met good spiritual friends, and by the power of [Vairo]cana's accomplishment, he was born into this heaven." Question: What benefits did this deva son receive? Answer: Broadly, there are two benefits: first, the benefit in hell; second, the benefit in heaven. Within the first there are two: first, the benefit of having suffering removed; second, the benefit of attaining the tenfold purification of the six sense-faculties. Within the benefit in heaven there are also two kinds: first, the benefit of hearing the teaching; second, the benefit of transmission and dissemination. However, the benefit of birth in heaven subsumes the benefit in hell. Why? Because the body in hell received benefits by being illuminated by the light. Therefore the Commentary states: "Illuminating hell and causing birth in heaven is one benefit." Question: If so, does this benefit of birth in heaven encompass the removal of suffering, or does it encompass the purification of the sense-faculties? Answer: It encompasses both. Why? Because it is on the basis of having removed suffering and purified the faculties that one is then born in heaven. Question: Why is this benefit [said to surpass the others]? The Commentary says: "It surpasses the other benefits." The Commentary says: "Illuminating hell and causing birth in heaven is one benefit, and therefore it surpasses the others." The meaning is that the removal of suffering, birth in heaven, and so on constitute a single benefit, hence it is called surpassing the others. Second, regarding the benefit of hearing the teaching within the benefits in heaven, therein are four: first, the benefit to the other Tuṣita devas; second, the benefit to the desire-realm devas; third, the benefit to the devanīs; fourth, the benefit to the deva son who is the primary recipient. Regarding the first benefit, the sūtra says, "When this Dharma was spoken, the Tuṣita deva sons in world systems as numerous as the dust motes of hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of Buddha-lands all attained the tolerance of the non-arising of dharmas." Regarding the second benefit, "Countless, boundless, asaṃkhyeyas of deva sons of the desire realm all aroused the aspiration for awakening." Regarding the third benefit, "All devanīs in the six heavens of the desire realm renounced female embodiment and attained the mind of non-retrogressing awakening." Regarding the fourth benefit, within it are four benefits: first, the benefit of encompassing stages, which means that upon hearing Samantabhadra dedicate the roots of goodness, they all attained the samādhi endowed with the various powers and adornments of the ten stages. Dedicating the roots of goodness: according to Chapter 55, 'Detachment from the World', it states, "A bodhisattva has ten dedications of roots of goodness: (1) with my roots of goodness to be identical to a good spiritual friend, vowing to accomplish in this way and not accomplish otherwise; (2) identical mind; (3) identical practice; (4) identical roots of goodness; (5) identical equanimity; (6) identical mindfulness; (7) identical purity; (8) identical abiding; (9) identical fulfillment; (10) identical indestructibility (each above and below is fully as in the first text)." The Commentary states: "It is spoken because one's own roots of goodness accord with and become identical to those of good spiritual friends. The first two are identical mind (the abridged commentary says the first two are identical mind of vows); the next one is identical practice; the next two are identical cultivation (identically cultivating phenomena and principle); the next is identical antidote, meaning that right mindfulness can remedy, and manifest purity is that what is to be remedied has already been abandoned (because right mindfulness can remedy, and purity is what has been remedied); the next one is identical stage; the last two are identical realization (the last two are identically attaining culmination)." Regarding 'the adornment of the various powers,' there is no explicit commentary, yet Commentary fascicle 16 says: 'Attaining the power of inexhaustible dhāraṇī is called accomplishing the various powers.' If according to the One Vehicle, it refers to bodhisattvas from the ten faiths onward. If according to the Three Vehicles, those above the eighth stage can receive this Dharma. Conforming to this, one clearly knows that the various powers of the ten stages are spoken in terms of provisional stages. Second, the benefit of completing practice, which means completely accomplishing the good karma of body, speech, and mind equal to the realm of sentient beings; that is the aforementioned text on the repentance of the three karmas of the dharmadhātu. Third, the benefit of extinguishing obstacles, which means extinguishing all obstacles so that all become pure; that is what is called in the following text the extinction of the eighty-four thousand afflictions and so forth upon smelling the offering incense. Fourth, the benefit of seeing Buddhas: seeing seven-jeweled lotuses as numerous as the dust motes of hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of Buddha-lands, and on each flower seeing a bodhisattva sitting cross-legged and emitting great radiant light, and within that radiant light seeing Buddhas equal in number to the realm of sentient beings sitting cross-legged and expounding the Dharma according to what is appropriate to deliver. However, the concluding text states: 'Yet they are still not able to see even a small portion of the samādhi of detachment.' In the Kandinglye, the samādhi benefits are divided into five benefits. Question: Are these four classes all persons who gained benefit in hell? Answer: Not so; only the fourth class is the person who gained benefit in hell. Question: Regarding the persons who gained benefit in hell, there are two benefits: that is, the sentient beings in hell in a thousand-realm dust-mote Buddha-land benefited by the light of the Banner King, and the sentient beings in hell in worlds as numerous as the dust motes of sixty billion nayutas of Buddha-lands benefited by the pure light—to which class do they belong? Answer: They apply to both classes. Question: These two classes of deva sons are called primary recipients, whereas the first three classes are not. Answer: These two classes of persons previously saw and heard the universal Dharma and planted adamantine seeds; therefore now, encountering [Vairo]cana's light, they quickly understand and exhaust the causal stages. Other people are not so; hence these two classes are the capacities for the One Vehicle. Question: If so, what stage of benefit do the first three classes attain? Answer: The Commentary states: this is benefit prior to the two stages. Second, the benefit of transmission and dissemination further has three kinds: first, the benefit of flowers, because of extensively seeing the Buddhas; second, the benefit of incense, because of extensively extinguishing the obstacles of affliction; third, the benefit of canopies, because of extensively accomplishing great practice. The meaning is that from every pore of the primary-capacity Tuṣita deva son, clouds of wondrous flowers, incense, and canopies equal to the realm of sentient beings were manifested to make offerings to Vairocana Buddha; once this deva son had scattered the incense and flowers, within each flower he saw the Tathāgatas. At that time, that incense cloud universally perfumed sentient beings in worlds as numerous as the dust motes of immeasurable Buddha-lands; for those who were reached by the incense, the eighty-four thousand afflictions and karmic obstacles were all eradicated, and they were endowed with the roots of goodness of sovereign light. As for those who saw the canopies, they planted roots of goodness equivalent to those planted by wheel-turning sage kings as numerous as the sands of a single Ganges. It is extensively as spoken in the sūtra. Question: Why is this benefit called transmitting and disseminating to accomplish inexhaustible practices? Answer: Seeing the flowers, incense, and canopies offered by the initial deva son, subsequent benefits become inexhaustible. The meaning is: within each flower offered by the deva son himself he saw Tathāgatas; sentient beings as numerous as dust motes reached by the incense offered by the deva son attained the benefit of extinguishing obstacles; there were sentient beings who saw the canopy clouds offered by this deva son and planted the roots of goodness of wheel-turning kings as numerous as the sands of one Ganges. This wheel-turning king emits the sovereign light of the mandāra flower, and sentient beings who encounter this light all attain the ten stages of a bodhisattva. This wheel-turning king also emits the cūḍā-maṇi light, and those who see it all attain the ten stages of a bodhisattva, completely attain the light of immeasurable wisdom, and attain the samādhi of the pure power of accomplishing the sixteen faculties. This means that the power of a single minor characteristic and a single radiant light is transmitted and disseminated to accomplish such immeasurable practices; other characteristics and lights are also like this. Hence the Commentary states: "Tracing backward from this, it is altogether the power of a single light within a single minor characteristic of the Tathāgata. Since one light is thus, the other lights are also thus. Since one minor characteristic is thus, the other minor characteristics are also thus. Since the minor characteristics are thus, the other oceans of major characteristics and so on are ineffable and ineffable." The meaning of the text is like this; reflect upon it. Saying that sentient beings of the world and so on all previously cultivated goodness clarifies that in past lives they had seen and heard the One Vehicle and cultivated Samantabhadra's roots of goodness. Question: What stage is that stage of wheel-turning kings as numerous as the sands of one Ganges? Answer: The stage of the ten stages. Hence the Commentary states: "The incense, flowers, canopies, and so on emitted from the pores of this deva son again benefit sentient beings, causing them to attain wheel-turning kings, which are also the ten stages." Question: Why does it not speak of wheel-turning kings as numerous as the sands of two or more Ganges, but speaks of one Ganges? Answer: The Commentary states: "It initially clarifies that seeing this canopy of the dharmadhātu dharma gate, one therefore attains the roots of goodness of wheel-turning kings as numerous as the sands of one Ganges, all like the pristine jeweled net and so on. These are wheel-turning kings with upwards of ten thousand sons within world-systems, like King Beloved-Sight-Good-Wisdom and others, not the gold-wheel kings with a thousand sons ruling the four continents and so forth." This means that the roots of goodness of a single Ganges' sands of pristine-jeweled-net wheel-turning kings are suddenly accomplished upon merely seeing this canopy for a moment.