四教義 9.8

9.8

Third, the separate explanation in sequence refers to explaining the distinct stages of the seven stages. First, regarding the ten minds of faith: first, the mind of faith; second, the mind of mindfulness; third, the mind of vigor; fourth, the mind of wisdom; fifth, the mind of concentration; sixth, the mind of non-retrogression; seventh, the mind of dedication; eighth, the mind of protecting the Dharma; ninth, the mind of precepts; tenth, the mind of vows. These ten are collectively called 'minds of faith' because faith takes compliance as its meaning. If one hears taught the distinctive teaching's causes, conditions, and provisional designations, the immeasurable four truths, the principle of Buddha-nature, and the eternally abiding Three Jewels, and one's mind complies without doubt, this is called the mind of faith. Now, briefly explaining the meaning of the initial mind of faith, there are two points: first, generating the bodhicitta; second, practicing the bodhisattva path. Generating the mind is the eyes; cultivating practice is the feet. When both eyes and feet are complete, one enters the cool pond, which is the meaning of the upright and virtuous initial worthy of the distinctive teaching. First, regarding generating the bodhicitta: hearing the Mahāparinirvāṇa and Vaipulya sūtras, based on a mind of faithful understanding, great compassion and vows arise. The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra explains that there are five practices: first, holy practice; second, pure practice; third, heavenly practice; fourth, infant-like practice; fifth, sick practice. How does a bodhisattva cultivate holy practice? If one hears this Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra from the Tathāgata, and having heard it, gives rise to faith and reflects thus: 'The Buddhas, the World-Honoured Ones, have the unsurpassed path, have the great correct Dharma, and have the correct practice of the great assembly; furthermore, there are the Mahāyāna Vaipulya sūtras; I should take joyful resolve to renounce attachments and cultivate the path'—this is the mind of faith. Why is that? If one hears the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra and with a mind of faith rejoices, one then believes in the Buddha-nature and the eternally abiding Three Jewels, which means believing in the fruit of great nirvāṇa that is neither cause nor fruit. If one hears of the five practices and gives rise to love and joy in one's mind, this means believing in the holy practice as cause, which is a cause of what is not a cause. If the mind of faith unfolds, this is generating the bodhicitta, desiring to practice the bodhisattva path. Generating the bodhicitta means having kindness and compassion that pities all sentient beings, and therefore, regarding the immeasurable four noble truths, one kindly grants sentient beings the joy of the immeasurable path and cessation, and compassionately rescues sentient beings from the suffering of immeasurable suffering and arising. One gives rise to the immeasurable four universal vows: to cause those who have not crossed the immeasurable truth of suffering to cross over; to cause those who have not understood the immeasurable truth of arising to understand; to cause those who are not settled in the immeasurable truth of the path to be settled; and to cause those who have not attained the immeasurable truth of cessation to attain the permanence, bliss, self, and purity of great nirvāṇa. This is the bodhisattva of the distinctive teaching initially generating the bodhisattva mind based on faithful understanding. Question: Previously it was explained that, based on the four kinds of noble truths in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, the stages of the bodhisattva of the distinctive teaching are delineated in reference to this person; why is it that here one makes the universal vows only in reference to the immeasurable four noble truths, and does not take the other three kinds of four truths to make vows? Answer: Taken collectively within the distinctive teaching, these four kinds of four truths are all named 'immeasurable'. Why is that? The bodhisattva contemplates the immeasurable four truths of arising and ceasing to regulate the mind differently from the two vehicles; contemplates the immeasurable four truths of non-arising and non-ceasing to sever fetters within the realms differently from the two vehicles; and contemplates the principle of the immeasurable four truths of the tathāgatagarbha, which, although not yet the uncreated, its name is not even heard by the two vehicles. When one realizes the uncreated four truths, at that time the uncreated is also named 'immeasurable'. Why is that? Depending on the one real truth, there are four truths, which is named 'uncreated'. The worldly and world-transcending characteristics of cause and fruit are boundless in number, equal to empty space, and are thus also named 'immeasurable'. Generating the bodhicitta with reference to the immeasurable four truths refers indeed to all four kinds of four truths. Question: If the two kinds of four truths—arising and ceasing, and non-arising and non-ceasing—are both named 'immeasurable', why does the Śrīmālā Sūtra call them 'measurable four noble truths'? Answer: Although boundless in number, in the minds of the two vehicles they equally reduce to ashes and extinction, and are therefore named 'measurable'. Question: If there is the uncreated, why does one not generate the mind in reference to the uncreated? Answer: This uncreated is still the immeasurable, because when verifying the fruit through the immeasurable and through the uncreated, it is named the non-inconceivable uncreated. It is like the exhaustion and nonexistence of arising and ceasing, which is not the four truths of non-arising.