止觀輔行傳弘決 2.16

2.16

From "The sūtra says" below, next the method of contemplation is explained. The sūtra says: "After the Buddha had spoken to Thunder Sound of the past causes and conditions of Flower Heap, he further said: 'In the past there was a Buddha named Candanapuṣpa. That Buddha had passed away long ago, and at that time I was no different from you. That [Buddha] had a bodhisattva named Śreṣṭha (Uttama), who acted as a mendicant and entered a city to beg for food. At that time there was a monk named Gaṅgā, who said to the mendicant: "Where do you come from?" He replied: "I come from the real." He asked again: "What is called the real?" He replied: "Because of the characteristic of quietude and cessation, it is called the real." He asked again: "Within the characteristic of quietude and cessation, is there anything sought, or is nothing sought?" He replied: "Nothing is sought." He asked again: "If nothing is sought, what is the use of seeking?" He replied: "It is within that where nothing is sought that I therefore seek it." He asked again: "Within that where nothing is sought, what is the use of seeking?" He replied: "That which is sought is entirely empty; the attainer is also empty, the one who attaches is also empty, the real is also empty, the seeker is also empty, the speaker is also empty, the asker is also empty, quietude and cessation nirvāṇa, and all divisions and realms of space are also entirely empty. It is for the sake of such successively empty dharmas that I seek the real." He asked again: "Where does the bodhisattva seek?" He replied: "He seeks within the six pāramitās." Having heard this, Gaṅgā sold his own body to make offerings. Śreṣṭha then further expounded the dhāraṇī for him. Having heard it, he asked again: "How does one uphold it?" Śreṣṭha then explained the method of three [periods of] seven days.'" It is fully as the methods set forth in the present text; the present text presents them in brief and one should model it on that extensive [account]. One should also know that in the method of cultivating contemplation, the passage on 'nothing is sought' is brought back to the end in order to conclude all the passages on having nothing to seek. The intention here is to borrow that text on contemplation to establish the present samādhi. 'The seeker' means the person who seeks the samādhi. 'The one who attaches' means the person who produces attachment to the samādhi. 'The real' means positing a self and what belongs to the self regarding that which can practice and that which is practiced. 'The comer' means the one who practices samādhi coming and going, entering and exiting. 'The speaker and the asker' and so forth are understood by analogy with what has been explained. As for 'This is identical with the eighteen emptinesses of the Dapin,' this cites a precedent. For what reason? Coming, going, up to nirvāṇa are all empty. Just as among the eighteen emptinesses in the Dapin, what dharma is not empty? The eighteen emptinesses will be explained in fascicle five. From 'The Great Sūtra' below, it also cites the meaning of emptiness in the Great Sūtra as being identical. Even the Tathāgata's nirvāṇa is entirely empty, how much more so the remaining dharmas? Therefore fascicle twenty-four says: 'The Buddha told King of Virtue: "You speak of seeing emptiness. Emptiness is an unconditioned dharma (non-existent dharma); what is there to see? A bodhisattva truly sees nothing. If someone has something seen, he does not see the buddha-nature, cannot cultivate the prajñāpāramitā, and does not enter nirvāṇa."' A bodhisattva not only sees emptiness because of emptiness, but also sees that prajñā is empty, and the six pāramitās, the five aggregates, the Tathāgata, the Mahānirvāṇa, and so forth are all empty. When the Tathāgata was formerly in the city of Kapilavastu, he said to Ānanda: 'Do not grieve.' Ānanda said: 'Now my relatives have all been destroyed, how could I not grieve? The Tathāgata and I were born together in this city, both belonging to the Śākya clan of kinsmen and relatives; how is it that the Tathāgata alone is not sorrowful and grieved, and your countenance is even more radiant?' I further told him: 'You see the city as existing; I see it as empty and quiescent. You see relatives; because I cultivate emptiness, I have nothing at all that is seen. Due to these causes and conditions, I am even more bright and radiant.' From 'By means of this' below, within the contemplation cultivated in relation to affairs, it first proceeds according to the expedient means of the sūtra title, and next according to the revered figures and ritual implements. First, from 'Vaipulya' below, it cultivates contemplation according to the sūtra title. From 'Cause to seek' below, it next cultivates contemplation according to the expedient means. Since in the ritual procedures one first seeks the dream kings, in practicing contemplation one also first cultivates emptiness and provisionality. Relying on affairs to perform contemplation, it temporarily speaks of cultivating first. Not distinct yet distinct, this is precisely the superior distinctive. That is to say, one first cultivates unapprehendable emptiness as well as the provisionality of ritual affairs, and by means of this expedient means enters dhāraṇī. The arena is that which is relied upon, hence it represents the pure object. In the mundane world, the place where grain is processed and the place where sacrifices are made are both called 'arenas' (cháng). The Shuowen says: 'Unplowed land is called an arena.' The Book of Songs says: 'In the ninth month they make arenas and gardens to process grain.' Now, relying on the pure object to process the five entrenchments, it is called the 'arena of the path' (bodhimaṇḍa). As for 'It is also...', the arena is that which is adorned; although that which can adorn is manifold, it does not go beyond samādhi and wisdom, and although the articles of offering are numerous, they do not go beyond the moving and the unmoving. The ultimate fragrance of the precepts universally smears the real principle, and contemplating that the aggregates are originally empty is to 'escape the fetters of children'. The shade of causeless compassion thus 'pervades the dharma-dhātu'. Overturning the three delusions of confusing the contemplation of the dharma-dhātu of delusions, delusion is precisely the dharma-dhātu, hence it is called 'not separate'. The fragrance of precepts universally perfumes, and the lamp of wisdom fully illuminates; equaling the pure object, only then is it said to be universal. The Buddha of awakening wisdom abides in the empty principle-object; contemplating the forward and reverse twenty-four branches, based on the object the number is established as 'twenty-four'. Just as in the Lotus, contemplating ignorance up to old age and death, and contemplating the cessation of ignorance up to the cessation of old age and death, these are all the forward contemplation of causes and conditions. Fascicle fifty-four of the Madhyama Āgama says: 'Old age and death are conditioned by birth, up to ignorance; ignorance conditions karmic formations, up to old age and death—this is the forward and reverse contemplation of the arising of causes and conditions. The cessation of old age and death up to the cessation of ignorance; the cessation of ignorance up to the cessation of old age and death—this is the forward and reverse contemplation of the cessation of causes and conditions.' Thus, both the arising and cessation of forward and reverse causes and conditions possess twenty-four rounds of awakening wisdom. Although the object is lodged in the past, the wisdom must rely on the perfect. 'Delicacies' are the numerous flavors, like the salt and vinegar in the Lotus Sūtra. That text metaphorizes the provisional, while here they assist the real. Quiescent and conforming to the essence, it is like clothing on the body. Named in contrast to forbearance, the designation 'anger' is established. Anger contains all delusions; overturning them entirely is called 'new'. For seven days contemplating dhāraṇī is like using the seven wisdoms to contemplate the real. That which is eliminated is like delusion; that which can wash is called contemplation; because the body has no defilement, both the agent and object are pure. The master is also that which is relied upon, hence sharing the meaning of the truth. Also relying on the number of the forward and reverse that are contemplated, the twenty-four unconditioned morality of the path is established. Matching and responding is called dhāraṇī (spell); this name is established in terms of meaning. The dharmas arranged are not mistaken, hence it is called matching and responding. Spells destroy the three paths; being without error is called matching. 'The ten kinds in the Yingluo': in the contemplation of the dependent origination of dharmas in the Benye yingluo [jing], contemplating the twelve links has ten kinds: first, non-duality of the view of self; second, mind as cause; third, ignorance; fourth, conditioning each other; fifth, assisting in completion; sixth, three karmas; seventh, three times; eighth, three sufferings; ninth, inherent emptiness; tenth, conditioned arising. That sūtra explains them fully and they cannot be recorded in detail.