止觀輔行傳弘決 3.37

3.37

Regarding 'planting the marks for a hundred kalpas': after passing beyond the three [asaṃkhyeya] kalpas, for a hundred kalpas [the bodhisattva] plants the marks. 'Planting' means cultivating; that is, during the hundred kalpas cultivating the karma for the marks. Question: In what place and circumstances are they planted? Answer: In the human realm of the desire realm, in a male body in the Southern Continent when a Buddha appears in the world; this is because [the marks] cannot be planted in connection with other beings, and one employs the sixth consciousness of mental karma. Question: Which mark is planted first? Answer: Some say the level soles of the feet are planted first because they are the foundation first established, and after that the remaining marks are planted. Some say the dark blue eyes are planted first because one first views sentient beings with great compassion. Although there are these sayings, the meaning is not necessarily so; when the conditions coincide, they are planted, and in principle there is no before and after. Question: Is it one thought-construction or many thought-constructions? Answer: One thought-construction plants one mark, and one mark requires a hundred merits. Question: How much constitutes one merit? Answer: Some say that a wheel-turning king having sovereignty over the four continents constitutes one merit. Some say that being like Śakra having sovereignty over the two heavens constitutes one merit. Some say it extends up to the six heavens. Some say that all the [merit] possessed by all people, except for those in the position of succession, constitutes one merit. Some say that all sentient beings of a great trichiliocosm together constitute one merit. Some say that being able to cure all the blind sentient beings of a great trichiliocosm constitutes one merit. Some say that being able to cure a great trichiliocosm of people who have taken poison constitutes one merit. Some say that being able to rescue a great trichiliocosm of people from death constitutes one merit. Some say that being able to preach the Dharma to make all people who have broken precepts and views abandon these things constitutes one merit. Some say there is no comparison; because a bodhisattva enters the third asaṃkhyeya kalpa and with mental reflection on great practices plants the causes and conditions for the marks, their merit is immeasurable, and only a Buddha can know it. Fascicle twenty-two of the treatise also says: 'When a bodhisattva cultivates the ten wholesome deeds, each has five mental states, namely low, medium, high, superior-high, and superior-medium-high. From first arousing five mental states up to completing the five mental states, such a hundred mental states are called a hundred merits, which accomplish one mark. In this way, reaching thirty-two [marks], it is called the purity of the body.' Fascicle twenty-two of the Great Sūtra has the same text. Regarding 'obtaining the five supernormal knowledges': because defilements have not yet been severed, there is no outflow-free supernormal knowledge. The five supernormal knowledges are as explained in the aids to the path. Regarding the 'thirty-four mental states': taking the meaning of the treatise here, it differs slightly from the explanation of severing in various sūtras and treatises. In the Dazhidulun it says: 'The defilements of the lower realms were not severed during the causal stage; when reaching beneath the tree, the nine grades of emotional defilements across the nine realms are collectively termed as one nine-grade, which is why it is said that the rank of a Tripiṭaka bodhisattva is identical to that of an ordinary person. Combining the nine unhindered and nine liberation [paths] makes eighteen. In the path of seeing, the eight patiences and eight knowledges combine into sixteen mental states; adding these to the preceding makes thirty-four mental states in total.' The intended meaning in the Kośa and the Vibhāṣā is: the defilements of the lower eight realms have already been severed beforehand when first cultivating dhyāna, and only the nine grades of defilements of view and thought of the realm of neither-perception-nor-non-perception remain entirely intact, for which the nine unhindered and nine liberation [paths] are used. Because their faculties are superior, they do not further cultivate the absorptions of the lower eight realms; they are not like the voice-hearers, nor are they like the pratyekabuddhas. The pratyekabuddha, having previously departed from the defilements of the eight realms, realizes awakening in a single sitting, further cultivating sequentially through the nine realms and further giving rise to the two paths of uninterrupted and liberation. Although they do not sever defilements in the lower eight realms, this is because of the natural order of contemplative practice. Each realm has eighteen mental states, so nine realms make one hundred and sixty-two mental states, which combined with the sixteen of the path of seeing make one hundred and seventy-eight mental states. A bodhisattva is not like this, and therefore has only thirty-four mental states. This differs from the Kośa. Neither Kumārajīva's translation nor Nāgārjuna's intention should be mistaken. As for the difference in meaning, we can now reconcile them with one interpretation so that the principles of both treatises are aligned. The Kośa takes [the position that] the defilements were already severed when cultivating dhyāna and are not severed again. The Zhilun relies on another school: although severed through outflows, it is not called [true] severing; when reaching the bodhi tree, one only severs [the defilements of] neither-perception-nor-non-perception, and all eight realms can be termed outflow-free. This is merely a difference in terminology following different schools, which causes the two treatises to differ in their applied meaning. Below, where it says 'The sūtra also says', it cites the six hundred arisings and ceasings in a single thought-moment from the Great Sūtra, as well as the varying explanations of the numbers by the Chengshi masters, merely to clarify that a single thought-moment still contains many thought-moments, so as to prove that the thirty-four uninterrupted mental states do not constitute an obstacle. Next, from 'previously already' onward, it distinguishes difference and establishes the middle. Illuminating the conventional for three asaṃkhyeyas and illuminating the real beneath the tree is, looking back to what preceded, doubly different from both the two vehicles and the bodhisattva. Because the two vehicles and the bodhisattva are in the position of disciples, it says 'different from the disciples', and provisionally establishes the three truths. Below, where it says 'The bodhisattva only illuminates', it explains the characteristic of provisionally establishing the middle way. Since it inherently has no substance of its own, the designation 'middle' is merely provisionally established based on illuminating both; since the designation 'middle' is provisional, the eye and wisdom that illuminate the middle are also provisionally established, which is why it says 'further adding'. Below, where it says 'When separated', it distinguishes separation and combination. If distributed among the disciples, or as the Buddha's own portion, these already pertain to before and after, and hence there are only two. If it resides entirely in the Buddha and does not exist in any other person, therefore in the Buddha the name of the three truths is obtained. The reason why the Tripiṭaka [teaching] is absent among the fivefold three truths is that its middle way has no substance.