出三藏記集 6.26

6.26

The twelve gates are the titles of the essential samādhis, the passes and paths of the six pairs. Samādhi has three senses: dhyāna, equanimity, and emptiness. They are used to cure the severe and complicated diseases of the three poisons. Plunged into these dark plights, the affliction has grown deep with each day. The prison of greed, the jail of anger, and the castle of ignorance are exceedingly firm; people of the world roam within them like going up a terrace in spring, happily dwelling in delight as if in a splendid palace, amusing and entertaining themselves without knowing it to be suffering. Tasting bitterness and hastening disaster, they are exhausted in the five destinies; only the Perfectly Awakened One recognizes their errors. Pitying the suffering of inverted views and grieving at the pain of drifting like tumbleweed, he established expedient means to prevent the sprouts and stop the beginnings, opening these wise concentrations to let them cleanse themselves, blunting sharpness, unraveling entanglements, and returning the spirit to the mysterious path. Truly, without utmost virtue, this Way does not crystallize. Now, the perverted mind inevitably has subtle and manifest aspects; therefore, the methods of dhyāna are graduated by four. The prison of greed and lust means running wild with sensual desire, rebelling against propriety without distinguishing the noble from the lowly, confounding the mind in debauchery, becoming mad through habit; the ruin of states and the destruction of persons never fail to stem from this. Deluded by vanity and intoxicated with emptiness, they do not know it is an illusion. Hence, by contemplating corpses scattered in decay, they gradually cut it off through self-awakening, from subtle thoughts reaching quietude, relishing the tasteless; therefore they are called the four dhyānas. The jail of anger and hatred means contending over trifles of empty reputation, tying knots of severe faults across lifetimes; familial love is severed for momentary gratification, and friendships rot through indulging rage, bearing grudges to the marrow and destroying clans without remorse. The sages saw that the violent do not die a natural death, and thus instructed them with equanimity, being sincere toward enemies and kin alike, rendering the intention utmost gentle, enduring defilement and bearing suffering, subduing it before it erupts into disorder. When mellow virtue is deep and rich, even incantations cannot plant their horns—how much less can human harm affect them! Therefore they are called the four equanimities. The castle of ignorance means slandering ancient sages, vilifying the ultimate truth, disrespecting both parents, and looking down on teachers and masters; this disease is especially grave. Using wisdom to probe the root, one knows that it derives from ignorance and craving; distinguishing the subsidiary branches, one understands them to be confusion. Refining the mind and driving out evil, the madness is cured; therefore they are called the four emptinesses. When practitioners draw from the deep nectar of the ocean of dhyāna, it waters the raging fire of bewilderment; when they stir the deep currents of pure emptiness, it washes away the filthy grime of the dust of ignorance, and thereupon they become purely and brightly aligned with the great simplicity. Practicing these three, one knows how to govern the body; knowing how to govern the body, one knows how to settle the spirit; knowing how to settle the spirit, one knows how to deliver people. Now then, sūtras, whether grand or subtle, emerge from the Buddha's mouth; composed by his divine mind, his words are treasures for the world. After the sun of wisdom sank, the three realms lost their eyes. Although the treasury of sūtras remains, its profound words are hard to fathom; unless one is of utmost refinement, who can reach its subtleties? Thereupon the various bodhisattvas and arhats each composed explanations and glosses, elucidating the hidden mysteries and distinguishing the degrees and coherence, so that it became brilliantly clear and easy to see. Exhausting the spirit and knowing transformation—what could be added to this? From the twelve gates onward, it is indeed an explanatory commentary. In general, when students practice the twelve gates, they eliminate supernatural powers and extinguish external coarse stops; this is called completing the five paths. Advancing along the faculties of the three aspirants, they melt away inner fetters; this is called exhausting all contaminations. When one first enters the exhaustion of contaminations, one is named non-retrogressing. The Buddhas praise them and prophesy their titles of fruition; profoundly unfathomable, they alone see and comprehend; immeasurably divine, they alone can master it. Rising above the clouds and ascending lightly, their pure light illumines the obscure; moving oceans and flying peaks, they issue like wind and enter like lightning. If this is so for the shallow ones, how much more so for attaining Buddhahood! This is indeed the great highway of the three vehicles; what does not stem from this samādhi? From the first setting forth of footsteps to the state of uncontaminated purity, all, without exception, go round and begin anew, practicing this concentration. If practitioners wish to exalt their virtue and expand their tasks without advancing in this method, it is like seeking to chop down a tree without an axe-handle, or seeking fullness without eating: it will be difficult to attain. Is it not wonderful for awakened gentlemen to hear of this essential concentration? Dao'an was naturally unperceptive, born after the Buddha, and situated in a foreign land. Standard models are largely lacking; looking up in longing to the achievements of the ancients, blocked and not yet having penetrated, waking and sleeping I am anxious and startled, as if suffering a headache, constantly lamenting that the dhyāna practice of this country has fallen into decay. I have ventured to write a commentary at the ends of the phrases; although it is not sufficient to illuminate the sacred canon, it may enlighten the ignorant, and perhaps make it easier to read. An Shigao was skilled at opening up the categories of dhyāna; this sūtra seems to be what he produced, so I have recorded it at the end.