止觀輔行傳弘決 1.55

1.55

Next, within citing the proofs proper, it first cites the sūtra. In "like understanding..." and so forth, in the fifth chapter, "The Worthy Head," of the old translation of the sūtra, Mañjuśrī asked the bodhisattva Pure Virtue Worthy Head, who understood the profound meaning, with two verses, and the bodhisattva answered with fifteen five-word verse lines. The present text, from "the bodhisattva in saṃsāra" to "cannot be exhausted in an entire kalpa," abbreviates two lines of text from that verse. "Saṃsāra" mentions the lowest stage, the initial aspiration of an ordinary being; were it not so, how could the profound efficacy of the perfect and sudden be revealed? "Unshakable" means that the principle is ultimate and phenomena are all-pervading, so that one is not shaken by anything; it does not mean non-retrogression is called unshakability. "A single thought" mentions the shortest duration to show that its efficacy is deep and its virtue is vast: plumbed deeply it has no margin, and pervaded broadly it has no boundary. A steep and high place of a cliff is called a margin (ya). Exhausting means reaching the limit. "Even the Tathāgata's preaching cannot exhaust it": since the principle is profound and marvelous, it cannot be exhausted by preaching. When someone of the ultimate rank cannot exhaust it in preaching, how much less could the preaching of any other ordinary being or sage exhaust it? From "this bodhisattva" down to "establishing sentient beings": after those fifteen verse lines in that sūtra, Worthy Head further answered with 692 seven-word verse lines. Within them, some thirty lines explain perfect faith, the next sixty lines explain the marks of cultivation linked together like chain links, and the next explain the marks of the mutual functioning of the six sense faculties and so forth. Here, following that text in an abbreviated manner, it is opened into six passages to establish the perfect cause and effect. What is meant by "perfect hearing"? It is simply hearing that the three obstacles are themselves the three virtues. When reaching the chapter on the ultimate aim and in [the explanation of] the shared virtues, its marks will be explained in full. "Perfect faith" means giving rise to faith by relying on the principle. Faith is the root of practice, as the third fascicle of the *Dharmapada* says: "To the east of the river at Śrāvastī, the water was deep and wide. There were over five hundred households who were stubborn and deceitful. Knowing they could be delivered, the Buddha went beneath a tree; some came to pay homage, and some came to inquire after him. The Buddha transformed himself into a person coming across the water, the water reaching only to his ankles. The crowd was astonished and asked: 'Have you ever seen anyone walk on water? What divine art do you possess?' The transformed person answered: 'I am merely a simple, straightforward person from south of the river. Hearing that the Buddha was here, I longed to see him. I asked others: "Is the water deep or shallow?" Others answered me: "The water only reaches the ankles." Believing their words, I crossed; there is no other art.' The Buddha said: 'Clinging to faith, one crosses the abyss of birth and death; what is so extraordinary about crossing a river of a few leagues?' Hearing this, the villagers all followed the Buddha's transformation." It is the same here: if one believes that the three paths are themselves the three virtues, one can even cross the river of the two kinds of death, not to mention the three realms. These three paths are simply the three truths; since truths are the object, there must be contemplative wisdom. The threefold contemplation is the cause; when the contemplation is fulfilled, it becomes wisdom. It is fully as explained later. The three wisdoms are fully as in the "Three Wisdoms Chapter" of the *Dapin*; the threefold contemplation is fully as the second fascicle of the *Yingluo jing* says: "At that time, the bodhisattva Jingshou said to the Buddha: 'Regarding all the merits, whether causes or effects, whether worthy or holy, that the Buddha has expounded above: who among the 1.4 billion nayutas of people in this assembly can, without rising from this seat, receive, learn, and practice them, and from beginning to end enter the bodhisattva stages?' Then the hair at the Buddha's crown emitted all kinds of light, and he gathered the assemblies of buddhas and bodhisattvas from hundreds of billions of buddha-lands in the ten directions; then, amid the assembly, he told Mañjuśrī, Samantabhadra, Fahui, Guṇadruma, Vajradhvaja, Vajragarbha, and the youth Sudhana: 'Do you see the bodhisattva Jingshou in this assembly asking about the three contemplations, the dharma-dhātu, the inherently pure path of all buddhas, and the contemplation dharma-gate cultivated by all bodhisattvas? Each of you, leading a great multitude of one million, should study and practice such a dharma-gate.'" If so, only those on the higher stages should practice this threefold contemplation; what does it have to do with ordinary, inferior beings? Answer: Since the sūtra text says that all the millions they led should study and practice it, why would it be only the higher stages? As the *Śūraṅgama-sūtra*'s "Middle Way Chapter" says: "Even ordinary beings can faithfully accept that both clarity and ignorance have no three. Because there is no three, they accomplish the absence of the three wisdoms and practice the absence of the three practices." Up to old age and death, it speaks in the same way. Therefore, each of the twelve links is contemplated with the threefold contemplation, extinguishing subject and object; hence it is called "having no three." The eighth fascicle of the *Great Yingluo* says: "Concentrating the mind to enter samādhi and discerning the threefold contemplation, yet not seeing any person who enters samādhi with the mind, traveling in mind through the immeasurable worlds of the ten directions to serve, make offerings, and contemplate all dharmas—this is called fulfilling the perfection of dhyāna." Therefore, one should know that if the threefold contemplation is not perfected, the perfection of dhyāna is not complete. The names are clearly evident, briefly cited as above. If sought according to the meaning, it subsumes all dharmas, fully as explained below under the subsumption of dharmas. Hence, for the wisdom of the threefold contemplation, both text and principle have their basis. Question: In the perfect hearing of the dharma, the names of the three virtues are used, and faith should rely on hearing; why then does perfect faith use the names of the threefold contemplation as well as stopping, illuminating, depth, and breadth? Answer: The three virtues are the object, and the threefold contemplation is the practice; practice must rely on the object, but here it is spoken of from the perspective of practice. Emptiness is prajñā, provisionality is liberation, and the middle is the dharma-body; illuminating is prajñā, stopping is liberation, and neither stopping nor illuminating is the dharma-body; ultimate is the dharma-body, pure is prajñā, and unhindered is liberation; deep is prajñā, broad is liberation, and neither deep nor broad is the dharma-body. Faith must give rise to practice; therefore, its names differ depending on practice. Moreover, the threefold contemplation is from the perspective of cause, stopping and illuminating are from the perspective of function, and depth and breadth are from the perspective of essence.