釋淨土群疑論 5.3

5.3

Explanation: When the Buddhas teach the Dharma, it is always to adapt to capacities. Capacities have the distinctions of deep and shallow, great and small; delusions have the differences of persons and dharmas, of view and cultivation. Therefore they present the essentials of the Dharma to transform those capacities of living beings, sometimes reproaching existence and praising emptiness, sometimes deprecating emptiness and extolling existence, sometimes causing them to abandon the Small and study the Great, or sometimes causing them to study the Small Vehicle first and then study the Great Vehicle. Thus, capacities have ten thousand paths, and the Dharma amounts to eighty thousand [teachings]; transforming living beings in accordance with conditions is difficult to conceive. Just as this sūtra says, reproaching the mind of apprehension, it is better to commit the sins of the five inexpiables; yet other holy teachings also state: 'It is better to arouse the view of a self as high as Mount Sumeru than to arouse the view of emptiness even as small as a mustard seed.' Moreover, just as the Lotus Sūtra states, 'One must not associate with scholars of the Small Vehicle Tripiṭaka,' while the Daśacakra Sūtra states, 'Lacking the power to drink from ponds and rivers, how could one swallow the great ocean? Without practicing the Small Vehicle Dharma, how could one study the Great Vehicle?' Such Mahāyāna sūtras as these, reproaching existence and reproaching emptiness, praising the Great and praising the Small, have no fixed doctrine; they are all due to adapting to different capacities. Furthermore, the Buddha has the two bodies of the true and the responsive, and practitioners have the two differences of beginners and advanced. The dharmakāya is profound and subtle, free from existence and free from non-existence, with the four propositions both eradicated and the hundred negations entirely extinguished. This is when practitioners of deep study can remain unperturbed in mind regarding the ultimate truth, yet they still dwell upon and cling to characteristics, unable to extinguish the mind of discrimination. Therefore, this sūtra reproaches the mind of apprehension, causing them to eliminate the two attachments to person and dharmas, bringing them to contemplate the Dharma of non-apprehension and practice mindfulness of the Buddha of the dharmakāya. Hence this sūtra text states, 'Seeing non-existence is called buddhānusmṛti.' If beginners abandon the heterodox and return to the orthodox, generate the bodhicitta, and aspire to be born in the pure land, they have not yet understood how to settle their minds in non-apprehension; or if they contemplate emptiness and say that cause and effect are extinguished, they will consequently have no heart to fear sin and will arouse further hindrances and bondages. If one does not expound for them the causes and effects of good and evil, the distinctions of purity and defilement, and the inconceivable physical marks of the Buddhas, how could they generate that good mind, fear these sinful hindrances, loathe this defiled land, delight in that pure realm, focus their thoughts on the white curl between the eyebrows, attentively contemplate the marks, eliminate their accumulation of sins, and accomplish those superior causes? Therefore, contemplating the physical body is encouraged to teach these beginners. Hence, the first fascicle of the Bhadrapāla Sūtra states: 'Bhadrapāla! If monks, nuns, and others purely maintain the precepts and are complete in all practices, thus reflecting on whatever direction, such as the Western Amitābha Buddha, thinking and recollecting thus: "That Buddha, the Perfectly Awakened One, is now in the West." Binding their thoughts, reflecting, and contemplating without ceasing, clear and distinct, they will ultimately succeed in seeing that Amitābha Buddha. In this way they contemplate the physical body.' Further below, the sūtra also states: 'Now Amitābha Tathāgata, the Arhat, the Perfectly Awakened One, possesses such thirty-two marks and eighty minor characteristics, the light of his body color being like a heap of molten gold... in this way, even down to not being mindful of that Tathāgata, nor apprehending that Tathāgata's physical form—in this sequence one attains the samādhi of emptiness. Good son! This is the samādhi of the Buddhas' presence.' Furthermore, the Guanfo sanmei hai jing says: 'The Tathāgata also possesses the dharmakāya's ten powers, four fearlessnesses, three liberations, and various supernatural workings. Such subtle points are not the sphere of study for you ordinary people; you should only generate thoughts of rejoicing with a deep mind. Having generated this thought, you should again bind your mindfulness and be mindful of the Buddha's virtues.' Therefore, we know that beginners contemplate that physical body, while advanced practitioners are mindful of the dharmakāya; hence it says 'in this sequence one attains the samādhi of emptiness.' Furthermore, for those who take joy in contemplating the Buddha of principle, he manifests the formless body; for those who seek to be mindful of the phenomenal body, he expounds the form possessing the physical marks. One must properly comprehend the sūtra's intention and not give rise to a mind of deprecation or praise, marveling at how the Great Sage skillfully adapts to faculties and capacities.