宗鏡錄 19.3.5

19.3.5

if they achieved it, they would violate their vow.' That answer is not correct. In the Huayan commentary, it is explained according to the meaning of true reality: All Buddhas have the two approaches of compassion and wisdom. By virtue of great compassion, they exhaust the limits of the future with no time of attaining Buddhahood; therefore bodhisattva icchantikas do not attain Buddhahood. By virtue of great wisdom, they quickly attain it thought-moment after thought-moment. Furthermore, wishing to transform all realms of sentient beings completely, they must themselves quickly attain it, and only then can they extensively transform them; they do not fear violating their past [vows], fully exhausting true words. Furthermore, they understand the original tathatā of sentient beings, and thus they transform without transforming. Thus they constantly achieve it and also constantly do not achieve it; they also constantly transform and constantly do not transform. Compassion and wisdom are unhindered; why cling to limitations? The above explanation is still in terms of both principle and phenomenon being mutually penetrating. If one clarifies it directly according to the source, as the Avataṃsaka-sūtra says: 'When the Tathāgata first realized right awakening, within his own body he saw all sentient beings had already completed Buddhahood and were already in the realm of nirvāṇa.' Another sūtra also says: 'At that time the World-Honoured One, again relying on the marks of all Tathāgatas who sustain the treasury of Dharma, expounded prajñā for the bodhisattvas—the supreme treasury Dharma-gate of the profound principle that sustains and pervades all sentient beings: that is, all sentient beings are the tathāgatagarbha, because Samantabhadra Bodhisattva's own substance is pervasive; all sentient beings are the vajragarbha, because they are sprinkled by the vajragarbha; all sentient beings are the true-Dharma-garbha, because all rely on the turning of right speech; all sentient beings are the wondrous-karma-garbha, because all activities and applications rely upon it.' The Lotus Sūtra says: 'Śāriputra, you should know that originally I made a vow wishing to cause all living beings to be equal to me without difference. What I formerly vowed has now already been fulfilled: I transform all sentient beings and cause them all to enter the Buddha Path.' Thus attaining Buddhahood and delivering sentient beings, the great vow and the great transformation are completely fulfilled. If there are those who do not believe this explanation, they themselves have not yet achieved it; how could they deliver others?