止觀輔行傳弘決 2.2

2.2

Next, in explaining the cultivation of the great practice, first, to clarify the reason for its introduction: if one arouses the aspiration without practice, there are no stages to discuss; hence it says "cultivating practice." "Entering the bodhisattva stages, this is explained as the calming and contemplation of cultivating the great practice" is the heading. From "Now" onward is the explanation. From "Well-versed" onward sets forth an analogy. Curd must be made by churning, and butter requires shaking to mature. Thus the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra, scroll twenty-six, says: "Just as milk requires human effort, a water jar, and a churning rope before it becomes curd and butter, and once the two kinds of butter are formed, clarified butter can be obtained." The practices prior to the stages of abiding are like churning and shaking. The five grades of ordinary persons are together likened to milk, the six sense faculties are like curd and raw or cooked butter, and the first stage of abiding and above is called obtaining clarified butter. If one can skillfully harmonize the four kinds of samādhi, one should know that the six sense faculties and the first stage of abiding can be attained; speaking in terms of superiority, it is therefore called "clarified butter." The cited proof is as in the text. From "Methods of practice" onward, the broad is subsumed under the brief to list the four names. From "Commonly termed" onward explains the names: samādhi is the general, while sitting and so forth are the particular. From "The Dazhidulun" onward cites proof. The treatise says: "All minds in dhyāna concentration are called samādhi. In Qin language, it is the 'place where the correct mind travels.' This mind has from beginningless time always been crooked and not upright; when it enters the place of correct practice, the mind becomes straight, just as a snake's crawling is always crooked, but when it enters a tube it becomes straight." The present text keeps it brief, hence it says "the wholesome mind abiding in a single place," and so forth. The initial explanation is also brief, merely saying "regulated and straightened." The treatise also says: "Samādhi is the general, the one hundred and eight [samādhis] are the particular." Here it merely distinguishes the general and the particular with respect to the four. From "Dharma-dhātu" onward explains the treatise text: the four practices all rely equally on the single place of the dharma-dhātu. Furthermore, among the particular names, what is called "constantly sitting" up to "neither walking nor sitting" is named in terms of bodily deportment. If named in terms of dharma: constantly sitting is called the single practice; constantly walking is called the standing Buddha (pratyutpanna); half walking and half sitting is called the Vaipulya and the Lotus; neither walking nor sitting is called following one's own thought, and so forth.