四教義 12.2

12.2

Third, citing various sūtras and treatises as authenticating proof to clarify the stages of the perfect teaching: The Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra explains, "In the moon-loving samādhi, from the first day to the fifteenth day, the light gradually increases; again, from the sixteenth day to the thirtieth day, the light gradually wanes until exhausted." The moon's light gradually increasing is an analogy for the fifteen [degrees of] virtue of wisdom, mahāprajñā; the light gradually waning until exhausted is an analogy for the fifteen [degrees of] virtue of severance, unburdened liberation, with fundamental ignorance gradually waning until exhausted. As for the fifteen kinds of wisdom and severance: the thirty minds constitute three [degrees of] wisdom and severance, the ten stages constitute ten [degrees of] wisdom and severance, and equal awakening constitutes one [degree of] wisdom and severance, combining to make fifteen [degrees of] wisdom and severance. Hence it runs from the first day to the fifteenth day, and for this reason the moon is used as an analogy. The substance of the moon is an analogy for the dharmakāya: the dharmakāya is one; the light gradually increasing is an analogy for the virtue of prajñā-wisdom arising without arising; the light gradually waning is an analogy for the virtue of liberation-severance ceasing without ceasing. Thus the Nirvāṇa-sūtra explains: From the beginning, [the Buddha] truly establishes all the sons in the secret treasury of the three virtues of nirvāṇa, and afterwards I too shall enter parinirvāṇa in this secret treasury; this final, ultimate nirvāṇa is called "non-arising non-arising." Prajñā is ultimately non-arising and non-ceasing, and there are no further delusions to be eliminated. Question: If the stages of the perfect [teaching] are sudden enlightenment, so that with a single realization one should immediately be ultimate, how can one cite the analogy of the fifteen days of the moon from the moon-loving samādhi? Answer: The assertion of an absolute lack of shallow and deep has already been refuted above. However, the stages of realization are the realm of the Buddhas, which ordinary beings do not yet know—how could one cling to it as fixed? Now, in borrowing the analogy of the fifteen days of the moon, this is merely discussing an analogy within what cannot be analogized. Hence the Nirvāṇa-sūtra states: "Furthermore, liberation is called 'without analogy'. That which is without analogy is true liberation." Just as one might speak of a face being "like the full moon," yet the face is not truly devoid of the five sense organs so as to be identical with that moon. Question: How is it known that the moon analogy is an analogy for the stages of the bhūmis? Answer: The Suvikrāntavikramiparipṛcchā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra sets forth this meaning in full. Question: If, in terms of Buddha-nature and the middle way, [the stages] are explained by being obscured by fundamental ignorance, how can there definitively be forty-two grades? Answer: This meaning was already briefly clarified earlier. Although fundamental ignorance has no real existence, it exists without existing, and is not without shallow and deep gradations; tentatively, it is broadly divided into forty-two grades. Yet when discussing the number of grades, they are in truth boundless, limitless, and beyond expression. Therefore the Dà zhìdù lùn states: "The categories of fundamental ignorance are exceedingly numerous; for this reason the samādhi that shatters fundamental ignorance is spoken of everywhere." It also states: "Attachment to dharmas is difficult to exhaust, so prajñā is spoken of repeatedly everywhere." The Lotus Sūtra states: "The Buddhas appear in the world for one great matter of causes and conditions: to cause sentient beings to open the Buddha's knowledge and vision, to show the Buddha's knowledge and vision, to awaken to the Buddha's knowledge and vision, and to enter the path of the Buddha's knowledge and vision." Explaining these four meanings, the Master of Nanyue said: "Opening the Buddha's knowledge and vision is the ten abodes; showing the Buddha's knowledge and vision is the ten practices; awakening to the Buddha's knowledge and vision is the ten dedications; entering the Buddha's knowledge and vision is the ten stages and the stage of equal awakening. In all saying 'the Buddha's knowledge and vision', they all attain the knowledge of all aspects. In all saying 'the Buddha's knowledge and vision', they all attain the Buddha eye." Furthermore, a verse on the Dharma states: "This is the one great matter of causes and conditions of the Buddhas: entering together into the true mark of the Buddhas of the One Vehicle." It also states: "Only a Buddha together with a Buddha can exhaustively fathom the true mark of all dharmas." Furthermore, in the "Parable of the Burning House" chapter, the children ask for carts outside the gate, and the elder gives each of the children a single great cart; thereupon the children ride these jeweled carts, roaming in the four directions, playing, rejoicing, self-mastering, and unobstructed, going straight to the place of enlightenment. The "four directions" are an analogy for the four stages of opening, showing, awakening, and entering. "Going straight to the place of enlightenment" is the ultimate, supreme stage of wondrous awakening that exhausts the true mark of all dharmas. All such [expressions] are alternate names that clarify the stages of the perfect [teaching]. The Dàpǐn jīng clarifies the forty-two syllabic entrances, beginning with the letter "A". The Master of Nanyue explained: "These are the secret words of the Buddhas, signifying the stages of the forty-two minds." If scholarly persons largely doubt this statement, saying that the Dà zhìdù lùn contains no such interpretation—yet Nāgārjuna's treatise interpreting the Dàpǐn jīng originally had a thousand fascicles, which Master Kumārajīva entirely abridged; why must it be that he did not have this interpretation? Now I hold that this explanation accords deeply and matches implicitly. Why is this so? The sūtra states that "A" is at the beginning and "Ṭha" at the end, with forty-two letters in between. The initial syllabic entrance "A" also contains all forty-two letters, and the final syllabic entrance "Ṭha" also contains all forty-two letters. The Avataṃsaka-sūtra states: "From the initial first stage, the virtues of all the stages are fully possessed." Examining the intention of this meaning, it seems exceedingly interconnected. Furthermore, the Dàpǐn jīng states: "If one hears the initial syllabic entrance 'A', one understands all meanings, because all dharmas are originally unproduced." How could this not be the stage where the bodhisattva of the perfect teaching first attains the endurance of the non-arising of dharmas? "Beyond 'Ṭha' there are no syllables to be spoken"—how could this not be the supreme, unsurpassed, peerless ultimate stage of wondrous awakening, beyond which letter there are no dharmas that can be spoken? Furthermore, in the Dàpǐn jīng's "Broad Vehicle Chapter," after finishing the exposition of all Dharma entrances, it immediately speaks of the forty-two letters; how could this not mean that the bodhisattva of the perfect teaching, from first generating the mind, attains the true mark of all dharmas and is endowed with all Buddha-dharmas, and hence it is called the letter "A"; and upon reaching the stage of wondrous awakening, exhaustively fathoms the source and depth of all dharmas, and hence it is called the letter "Ṭha"? Interpreted in this manner, the stages of the perfect teaching appear exceedingly clear. Furthermore, immediately after the forty-two syllabic entrances, the ten stages are expounded; this reveals the sequential stages of the expedients of the distinctive teaching. Then next to the ten stages, the ten stages shared by the three vehicles are expounded; this reveals the expedient stages of the shared teaching. These three places in the sūtra text are distinctly manifest, comparing and determining the three teachings—perfect, distinctive, and shared—as clearly shown in the text of the Dàpǐn jīng. Hence the Dàpǐn jīng states: "This vehicle goes forth from the three realms and abides in sarvajñatā." Again, the "Three Wisdoms Chapter" states: "The bodhisattva, from first generating the mind, cultivates the three wisdoms until sitting at the place of enlightenment." The Benevolent King Prajñā Sūtra states: "The three worthies and ten sages practice within endurance; only the Buddha alone can exhaust the source." The sūtras previously cited, such as the Viśeṣacintibrahma-paripṛcchā and the Laṅkāvatāra, in clarifying that quiescence and suchness have no sequence of stages, refer precisely to the sequence of stages without sequence. Furthermore, the Yingluo jing states: "The bodhisattvas of the three worthies, thought after thought quiescent, naturally flow into the ocean of sarvajñatā." The Avataṃsaka-sūtra clarifies the forty-one stages; since it is the teaching of the perfect and sudden, its intention in clarifying the stages of the perfect [teaching] is self-evidently clear, yet at times it opens the expedient exposition of the distinctive teaching, where the phenomenal characteristics are separated, appearing as if shallow and proximate. Therefore the masters of the Daśabhūmika Treatise formulate the two paths of the teaching path and the realization path to clarify the meaning, or formulate the two kinds of stage characteristics and stage reality to clarify the meaning, which are precisely texts addressing the phenomenal characteristics of the expedients for practicing the distinctive teaching. It also states: "All unobstructed persons emerge from birth and death along all paths." The Zhìdù lùn states: "The bodhisattva, from first generating the mind, contemplates nirvāṇa and practices the path, up until sitting at the place of enlightenment." It also states: "The wisdom with which a bodhisattva, from first generating the mind, contemplates the true mark of all dharmas is called prajñāpāramitā; upon reaching the mind of a Buddha, its name transforms to the knowledge of all aspects. For example, regarding entering the ocean: there are those who have just entered, those who have entered later, those who have reached the halfway point, and those who have reached the other shore—all are called 'entering the ocean'. The bodhisattva is also like this: from first generating the mind, contemplating the true mark of all dharmas, although the true mark is one, the wisdom of contemplation is not without the distinctions of shallow and deep."