四教義 8.4

8.4

Second, briefly explaining the opening of the three vehicles according to the shared teaching: this shared teaching divides into the three vehicles according to the principle that causes and conditions are identical to emptiness. The three types of persons equally receive the shared teaching and see paramārtha-satya, equally sever the delusions of view and thought of the three realms, attain the knowledge of all phenomena, and equally seek the two kinds of nirvāṇa, with remainder and without remainder. Since this meaning is identical, the stages are distinguished according to the meaning of the shared teaching. As for their division into three vehicles: śrāvakas, through collective reflection, embody dharmas as entering emptiness; their power of wisdom is weak, and they sever only the active afflictions. Their faculties and natures differing, there are also two kinds of liberation, as distinguished earlier under the Tripiṭaka teaching. Pratyekabuddhas have meritorious virtue and sharp faculties, are able to make minor distinctions, and through separate reflection embody dharmas as entering emptiness; born in an era without a Buddha and not relying on hearing the Dharma, when the time arrives and the path matures, they spontaneously comprehend and see the paramārtha, ending the fetters of the three realms and eroding their habit-energies; this is called the pratyekabuddha vehicle. Their faculties and natures differing, there are also two kinds: first, the lesser pratyekabuddha, and second, the great pratyekabuddha, as already stated earlier. As for the bodhisattva, they fully cultivate the wisdom of both collective reflection and separate reflection, embody causes and conditions as identical to emptiness, give rise to the vows of great compassion, and by cultivating all practices see paramārtha-satya and sever afflictions within the realms; using vows to support habit-energies, they are reborn into the three realms, and using the knowledge of the aspects of the path, they sport in supernormal powers, purify Buddha lands, and mature sentient beings. When the wholesome roots of the three vehicles are fully matured, they sit at the site of awakening, use wisdom associated with a single thought-moment to completely sever afflictions and habit-energies, attain the knowledge of all aspects, and are named a Buddha. Turning the two kinds of Dharma-wheels—of arising and ceasing, and of non-arising and non-ceasing—they transform sentient beings of the three vehicles to enter nirvāṇa without remainder; this is the Great Vehicle. Therefore the Dàpǐn jīng says: 'Persons of the three vehicles equally use the ineffable path of paramārtha-satya to sever afflictions; it is only in whether the habit-energies of afflictions are ended or not ended that they differ.' Furthermore, the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā says: 'The Buddhas teach and transform sentient beings with the taste of amṛta; the true nature of all dharmas is the true taste of amṛta.' The Buddha expounded the true nature in three divisions: if one attains the true nature of all dharmas and eliminates all afflictions, it is called the śrāvaka vehicle; if one gives rise to great compassion and generates the unexcelled resolve, it is called the Great Vehicle; if after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, in an era where there is no Buddha, one gives rise to wisdom on the basis of seclusion, it is called the pratyekabuddha vehicle. Question: If so, how does this differ from the three vehicles explained earlier in the Tripiṭaka teaching? Answer: It was already stated everywhere earlier that seeing paramārtha-satya is no different; however, in terms of teaching gateways there is the distinction between clumsy conveyance and skillful conveyance, and in terms of contemplation gateways there is the difference of seeing the true through analysis versus through embodiment. That [teaching] explained that from first giving rise to the mind up to the stage of succession to buddhahood, the bodhisattva is not spoken of as severing the fetters and drives; this [teaching] explains that from first giving rise to the mind, the bodhisattva severs the fetters and drives, up to succession to buddhahood, where the active afflictions have long been ended and the residual habit-energies are faint and thin—this is a great difference. Furthermore, the Tripiṭaka teaching divides into three vehicles according to the three dharmas of the four noble truths of arising and ceasing, the twelvefold dependent origination, and the six pāramitās. The shared teaching explained now is not like this: that the three vehicles equally contemplate the four truths of non-arising to see paramārtha-satya and yet are differentiated into the three vehicles, is as explained earlier; that the three vehicles equally embody the conventional as entering emptiness and contemplate the twelvefold dependent origination to see paramārtha-satya and yet are differentiated into the three vehicles, is as elucidated earlier; that the three vehicles equally contemplate the six pāramitās to see paramārtha-satya and yet are distinguished into the three vehicles, is as distinguished earlier. How could this be identical to the three vehicles of the Tripiṭaka teaching? Question: Bodhisattvas may cultivate the six pāramitās, but how can the two vehicles also equally cultivate the six pāramitās? Answer: The Nirvāṇa Sūtra says: 'Adornment with meritorious virtue, conditioned, tainted, and untainted, is the dharma of śrāvakas.' Where is there an arhat or pratyekabuddha who is a stingy and greedy śrāvaka, or who breaks the precepts, has anger, is indolent, distracted, or deluded? It is merely that persons of the two vehicles cannot universally practice those activities to mature sentient beings; how could they have ever not cultivated the six pāramitās and the ineffable path of paramārtha-satya to be able to sever the fetters? Question: What was explained in the citation from the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā above—should those then be Mahāyāna śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas? Answer: Not so. Although these generally enter through the gateway of the Great Vehicle, the two vehicles take the realization of nirvāṇa and attain extinction right in their current bodies. Therefore the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā distinguishes: attaining the true nature of all dharmas and eliminating all afflictions is called the śrāvaka vehicle; giving rise to great compassion and generating the unexcelled resolve is called the Great Vehicle; if a Buddha does not appear in the world, pratyekabuddhas give rise to wisdom on the basis of seclusion. Since these two lack great compassion, how could they be called Mahāyāna śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas? Thus the Lotus Sūtra says that Śāriputra sighed to himself, saying: 'We equally entered the dharmatā; why did the Tathāgata use the Hīnayāna Dharma to deliver us? Yet this was our fault, not the World-Honoured One's fault.' This was his own account of having attained the true nature of dharmatā, not of being a Mahāyāna śrāvaka. It is like Kāśyapa's expression of understanding when hearing the Lotus Sūtra open the expedient and reveal the ultimate: 'Today we have truly become śrāvakas, causing all to hear the sound of the Buddha path.' Therefore one cannot say that seeing the true nature of all dharmas makes one a Mahāyāna śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha.