法苑珠林 98.42

98.42

Furthermore, the New Mahāvibhāṣā-śāstra asks: 'To what extent can the saddharma be said to remain?' It answers: 'When those who practice the Dharma remain.' 'To what extent can the saddharma be said to have disappeared?' It answers: 'When those who practice the Dharma have disappeared.' Question: 'Why is this treatise composed again?' Answer: 'In order to distinguish the meaning of the sūtra. As the sūtra says: "Kāśyapa, you should know that the Dharma and Vinaya realized and taught by the Tathāgata cannot be destroyed or submerged by the earth element, water element, fire element, or wind element. Yet there is a class of pudgalas who will appear in the world, having evil desires and evil conduct, fully endowed with evil dharmas. What is not the Dharma they will declare to be the Dharma; what is the Dharma they will declare not to be the Dharma; what is not the Vinaya they will declare to be the Vinaya; and what is the Vinaya they will declare not to be the Vinaya. They will be able to extinguish without remainder my saddharma, which was gathered over three incalculable kalpas." Although the sūtra speaks thus, it does not distinguish to what extent the saddharma can be said to remain, or to what extent the saddharma can be said to have disappeared. That sūtra is the fundamental basis on which this treatise relies; what was not distinguished there must now be distinguished, and hence this treatise is composed. Herein there are two kinds of saddharma: first, conventional saddharma; second, ultimate saddharma. Conventional saddharma refers to collections of names, phrases, and syllables—that is, the sūtra, vinaya, and abhidharma. Ultimate saddharma refers to the noble path—that is, the undefiled faculties, powers, limbs of awakening, and limbs of the path. Those who practice the Dharma are also of two kinds: first, those who uphold the Dharma of the teaching; second, those who uphold the Dharma of realization. Those who uphold the Dharma of the teaching are those who recite and explain the sūtras and so forth. Those who uphold the Dharma of realization are those who can cultivate and realize the undefiled noble path. If those who uphold the teaching continue in unbroken succession, they can cause the conventional saddharma to remain long. If those who uphold realization continue in unbroken succession, they can cause the ultimate saddharma to remain long. When they disappear, the saddharma will disappear. Therefore the sūtra says: "My saddharma does not abide relying upon walls, pillars, or the like; it abides solely relying upon the continuity of sentient beings who practice the Dharma." Question: 'Why did the World-Honoured One not decisively state the duration of the Dharma's persistence?' Answer: 'Because he wished to show that the saddharma's long or short duration depends on those who practice the Dharma. That is, if those who practice the Dharma always practice the saddharma as during the Buddha's lifetime and not long after the Tathāgata's extinction, then the Buddha's saddharma will abide perpetually in the world without disappearing. If there are no such practitioners of the saddharma, then that saddharma will quickly disappear. If women had been permitted to go forth without being made to practice the eight strict rules (garudharma), then the persistence of the Buddha's saddharma would have been reduced by five hundred years. Because the Buddha caused them to practice the eight strict rules, the saddharma's remaining in the world will still complete a full thousand years.'