釋淨土群疑論 4.25

4.25

Explanation: These two scriptural passages do indeed run contrary to each other. However, since the realms of the pure land and the defiled land are different, and the faculties and capacities of those born here and born there are also distinct, the judgments of high and low regarding the collection of certainty and the like are not the same, and the shallow and deep of avaivartika are also distinct. In the Sahā defiled world, noble ones are few and ordinary people are many, faith is rare and slanderers are numerous; those whose faculties and practices are shallow often encounter conditions for retrogression, and blown about by evil winds, they all regress. According to various sūtras and treatises, there are four kinds of retrogression: first, retrogression of faith; second, retrogression of stage; third, retrogression of realization; fourth, retrogression of practice. Retrogression of faith: within the stages of the ten faiths, in the stages of the first five minds, there is still retrogression that gives rise to wrong views, the severing of wholesome roots, and the like; in the subsequent stages it is not so. Retrogression of stage: within the stages of the ten abidings, in the stages of the first six minds, one can still regress and fall to become the two vehicles and the like; in the subsequent stages it is not so. Retrogression of realization: in all the ordinary person stages prior to the ten bhūmis, there is still retrogression and loss regarding what was previously realized; in the ten bhūmis it is not so. Retrogression of practice: prior to the seventh bhūmi, regarding the practices one has heard, one still produces cowardice and weakness, being unable to cultivate and learn them, and being unable to constantly cultivate superior practices in thought after thought; in the intervals, there arise various minds of defiled afflictions and the two graspings of person and dharmas—this is called retrogression of thought. Bodhisattvas of the eighth bhūmi enter the third asaṃkhyeya and have none of the four kinds of retrogression; among all practices they fully cultivate all practices, and at all times, continuous in thought after thought, they constantly give rise to the uncontaminated contemplation of the emptiness of person and dharmas, without a single thought giving rise to an uncontaminated mind that is wholesome, evil, or neutral. Because bodhisattvas of the eighth bhūmi and above possess the four non-retrogressions, they are called avaivartika bodhisattvas; those of the other seven bhūmis and below do not have the four non-retrogressions, so they entirely do not get the name avaivartika. If following another meaning: a bodhisattva of the prathamā bhūmi enters the second asaṃkhyeya. Because they join the noble stream, sever the two obstacles of discrimination on the path of seeing, realize the omnipresent tathatā, attain the hundred gates of the illumination of dharmas, and abide on the Joyous Ground, they possess the two kinds of non-retrogression of realization and practice, and may also be called avaivartika. Up to the seventh bhūmi, there is still the active manifestation of the obstacle of attachment to the Buddha and attachment to bodhi, and intermittently defiled minds arise; they do not attain non-retrogression of practice, and are also said to be non-avaivartika. Yet according to a partial sense, they are also called avaivartika bodhisattvas. According to sūtras such as the Bodhisattva Benye Yingluo [Jing], 'The sixth abiding is called the abiding of the correct mind; a bodhisattva in this stage can still regress from the bodhicitta and become the two vehicles and the like, as was the case with Śāriputra and others. From the seventh abiding onward there is no such retrogression.' Therefore, among the four non-retrogressions, they have only the three non-retrogressions of stage, realization, and practice, and lack the first non-retrogression; according to their portion, they are also called avaivartika. If relying on the Awakening of Faith and the like, from the abiding of the initial arousal of the mind they are collectively called entering the non-retrogression of stage; prior to the ten abidings, bodhisattvas of the ten faiths are called outer ordinary persons and also called light-feather ordinary persons—like a light feather blown east and west by the wind, they therefore have retrogression. Bodhisattvas of the ten abidings are not light feathers; because their wholesome roots are firm and not moved by evil winds, they enter the stage of inner ordinary persons and have no retrogression of stage, being called avaivartika bodhisattvas. In this defiled land, bodhisattvas of the ten faiths are scattered and moved by evil winds, regress from the bodhicitta and from bodhisattva practices, and transmigrate in the three evil destinies, not being avaivartika. In the pure land, if one enters the first five minds of the ten faiths, or is among all sentient beings who have not yet entered the ten faiths, speaking of their stage of faith, although it is not yet firm and is like a light feather, there are no evil winds to blow and move them to cause them to regress from the bodhicitta, create many grave offenses, and transmigrate in the evil destinies. Because conditions for retrogression are absent and instruments of retrogression are lacking, there are only superior conditions for progressing on the path; thus, although they have not entered the stage of avaivartika, they may also be called avaivartika. Moreover, regarding [the six types of arhats]: those of retrogression dharma, deliberation dharma, protection dharma, abiding dharma, and attainment dharma—although these noble ones of training and non-training are of dull faculties, they are all collectively called susceptible to retrogression. If born among humans, they encounter the five instruments of retrogression—namely, prolonged illness, distant travel, settling disputes, saṃgha duties, and recitation; although they have attained the noble path and severed afflictions, when encountering these conditions for retrogression, they again regress and give rise to afflictions. If born in the heavens, they do not have the five conditions for retrogression; although they have not refined their faculties to reach the immovable lineage, because of the absence of conditions for retrogression they do not regress to give rise to afflictions. Looking from the perspective of their lineage, although they differ from the immovable lineage, in terms of not regressing in the afflictions of cultivation, they do not differ from that sixth immovable lineage. It is also like this there: because those born in the pure land have no conditions for retrogression, even nominal bodhisattvas of the ten faiths and the like may all be called avaivartika. In the defiled land, the Hinayāna [stages of] warmth and peak, the Mahāyāna ten faiths, and so forth, because their faculties are indeterminate, may encounter evil conditions and regress to commit the five heinous offenses, entering the collection of wrongness. 'Wrongness' refers to the fruits of the three evil destinies; 'certainty' refers to the karmic cause of the five heinous offenses. If a person creates the causes of the five heinous offenses, they will definitely fall into the three evil destinies without interval; this is called the collection of wrongness. If they encounter superior conditions and cultivate the path, being able to enter the stage of non-retrogression, this is called the collection of certainty. 'Correctness' is nirvāṇa, freedom from bondages, the fruit of analytical cessation; 'certainty' is the uncontaminated noble path of the two emptinesses of person and dharmas. When one cultivates and attains the noble path, definitely destined to realize the correct fruit of nirvāṇa, freedom from bondages, and analytical cessation, this is called the collection of certainty. The remainder are called the indeterminate collection: because they may either create the collection of wrongness or cultivate the collection of certainty, being indeterminate between the two, they are called the indeterminate collection. Since the number of these three classes of sentient beings is not singular, they are called 'collections.' Now, being born in the Western [Land], there are no evil conditions to cause one to create the offenses of the uninterrupted [hell] and enter the collection of wrongness; although one's stage and practice are shallow, one encounters only superior conditions and in thought after thought progresses in cultivating the Mahāyāna noble path, definitely without retrogression; therefore, one can be called [belonging to] the collection of certainty. One must not equate it in every respect with that Sahā place of retrogression, evaluating the heights of the stages of avaivartika and the collection of certainty so as to make the pure land's place of non-retrogression identical to this realm. Because there is a difference in the presence or absence of conditions for retrogression and non-retrogression between the pure and defiled lands, those who here are not in the stage of avaivartika and not in the stage of the collection of certainty are, upon being born in that Western [Land], all entitled to be called avaivartika and of the collection of certainty. This is because born in that land, there are no conditions for retrogression, and they are determined not to create the collection of wrongness.