金剛般若經旨贊 2.181

2.181

Sūtra: "Subhūti... 'I shall save sentient beings'..." / Commentary: Next is establishing instruction on the ultimate truth, revealing the thirty-first doubt, that 'the Buddha is able to save sentient beings,' causing them to practice the practice of true benefit and happiness. That is, when establishing Dharma benefit to save sentient beings, one gives rise to ordinary conceptions of beings. Based on the instruction on the ultimate truth, the class of bodhisattvas on the grounds should, like the Tathāgata, save sentient beings without any mark of actual beings. Yet bodhisattvas are unable to learn from the Buddha to save beings based on the ultimate truth; hence they conversely doubt whether the Tathāgata actually saves beings, not basing it upon the ultimate truth. If one says that tathatā is the equality of dharmas, why would there be saving of sentient beings? Since there is saving of beings, it clearly is not equal. Due to delusion, although they save, they do not accomplish true benefit; due to doubt, they do not wish to save beings at all. Wishing now to reveal that mind of doubt and attachment and cause them to save beings based on the true [nature], it is therefore said that there are no actual sentient beings to be saved. Asaṅga, in terms of dispelling delusion and truly saving, calls this 'instruction on the ultimate truth'; Vasubandhu, with respect to revealing doubt and realizing the true, calls this 'revealing the doubt that the Buddha can save sentient beings.' The text below has four parts: question, prohibition, demand, and explanation. This is the first: conceiving whether in the true principle there is saving of beings.