御注金剛般若波羅蜜經宣演 2.95

2.95

Exposition: Due to giving rise to inversion, one is not a true bodhisattva. This verse generally explains the text on purifying the land. Question: Above, according to this treatise, the dwelling of the path of realization was concluded. Exactly which stage is this path of realization? Answer: There are two explanations. One says this pervades the ten bhūmis, because the wondrous great body is spoken of as pervading the ten bhūmis, and the arrogance abandoned is the jñeyāvaraṇa severed across the various bhūmis. Furthermore, the five equalities and the ten [bhūmis] mutually subsume each other; this mental mode does not belong solely to the first bhūmi, because equality pervades throughout the ten bhūmis. If so, why was it previously said that the bhūmi of pure mind is narrow, while the beginning and end are broad? Answer: The practices and vows before the bhūmis are vast, and the Buddha fruit is likewise so. In the stages of the ten bhūmis, one proximately seeks the subsequent bhūmi and has demarcated practices, practicing one suchness and one conduct; practicing and realizing section by section, it is therefore called narrow. The ultimate bhūmi is solely in the Buddha fruit. Another [explanation] says that the pure mind is only the darśana-mārga. The Tathāgata bhūmi is the bhāvanā-mārga. Taking its name from the fruit, it is called the ultimate bhūmi. Just as complete upholding serves as the path of realization, giving rise to preparatory application and accumulation serves as the ultimate. Practicing the six perfections is like the darśana[-mārga] and bhāvanā[-mārga] both seeing the principle; in the darśana-mārga one attains seeing, which is named as all ten bhūmis being pure mind, only it is the initial bhūmi of pure mind. If all ten bhūmis were pure mind, what further work would there be after the bhūmi of pure mind? Furthermore, the pure mind would have to be broad, because the bhūmi of pure mind in faithful practice is two kalpas, while resolute faith is one kalpa. The breadth and narrowness of the three bhūmis are not merely spoken of as teachings, but also involve practice. Assessment: The latter explanation is superior. Because in the ultimate bhūmi, purifying Buddha lands and so forth are mostly in terms of bodhisattvas to reveal their practice. If it were solely the Buddha fruit, why discuss bodhisattvas? Furthermore, since it is named 'upwardly seeking the Buddha bhūmi,' how could it be said to be subsumed under the fruit stage of Buddhahood? Moreover, according to the three questions, they reside solely in the cause; it would not be fitting in the answer for so much sūtra text to be solely in the Buddha fruit. The Buddha fruit is consummate and is not what is exhorted and transformed; why explain it at length? Therefore, that which is explained at length addresses and guides the ten bhūmis: although discussing the virtues of the fruit, in terms of the persons being addressed, they are indeed situated in the causal stages. If it did not address the cause and solely discussed the fruit, one would give rise to the thought of a precipitous cliff: what could one cultivate? If so, how are the pervasion of equality across the various bhūmis and the discussion of abandoning arrogance reconciled? Answer: Because what is initially realized is identical in substance with the later, it is called attaining equality; it is not that the bhūmi of pure mind can extend to the subsequent ones. That the arrogance abandoned is in the stage of seeing is naturally absent in principle; the sūtra text directly speaks of the darśana-mārga being free from arrogance to cause the bodhisattvas in prior and subsequent stages to equally realize the true stage and not give rise to arrogance. Hence the text is merely subsumed under the stage of the darśana-mārga. Question: Why does this sūtra extensively clarify the pre-bhūmi stages and the Buddha fruit? Since it addresses the ten bhūmis, why does it not extensively clarify the practices of the ten bhūmis? Answer: The main theme of the sūtra is to clarify that the lineage is not severed: the fruit is what is inherited, and from the generation of the mind onward is what can inherit and continue it. Adducing the fruit causes them to seek it; the pre-bhūmi stages are difficult to practice, so it extensively explains them to cause them to learn, thereby establishing the meaning of non-severance. Therefore, it cultivates the ten bhūmis without extensively explaining them. For this reason it is named Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā, because the beginning, middle, and end differ in breadth and narrowness.