御注金剛般若波羅蜜經宣演 2.117

2.117

Sūtra: Subhūti, [...] much merit. The Exposition says: The Tathāgata explains and confirms. The Wei and Zhenguan versions only have the preceding counter-explanation text, and lack the subsequent direct concluding text: "because merit is nonexistent." The treatise says: "Herein it also establishes the ultimate truth. The sūtra says: 'Subhūti, if the accumulation of merit had reality' and so forth." This means that the three wheels are empty in essence, and because one does not see reality, it is said that the merit is much. If one abides in the three wheels and sees giving and so forth as real, it has a limit, and therefore it is not called "much merit." This is termed "establishing the ultimate truth." That treatise means that the contaminated accumulation of merit is inverted; by abiding in the three wheels, one attains contaminated fruit, which is merely a sense of accumulation, not of progress toward [bodhi]. Therefore, the Tathāgata does not say it is an accumulation of merit that progresses toward [bodhi]. Because the signless merit is the root of the Buddhas' wisdom, he calls it an accumulation of merit that progresses toward [bodhi]. Explaining the sūtra according to that [treatise], it can be understood from the text.