金剛般若經旨贊 2.21

2.21

Sūtra: Subhūti, [...] can one see the Tathāgata? / Commentary: Next below is the seventh, abandoning the obstacle of lacking the merit provision, which is the eleventh abode, that of making offerings to and serving the Tathāgata. Within the comparative assessment of material gifts, it corresponds to the fourth, subduing defiled merit and cultivating the true practice of making offerings as the merit provision. In order to proceed toward bodhi, the bodhisattvas cultivate the two provisions on the ground of faith-practice; like a bird's wings or a cart's wheels, neither can be missing. If one wishes to accomplish the provision of merit, nothing surpasses making offerings to and serving the Buddha, because this is the most supreme among the fields of merit. If one practices making offerings, one should contemplate the Dharma-body, because it is the boundless, unobstructed, and real essence; thus practicing service accomplishes the merit provision. Previously, although they were caused to abandon the obstacle of lacking expedient means within the shadow-images of the aggregates and consciousnesses and arouse spiritual penetrations, they had still not yet abandoned dharma-grasping, and greedily grasped at form, dividing food-portions to offer to the Tathāgata; thus they could not complete vast merit, which is the obstacle of lacking the merit provision. Now the Buddha wishes them to contemplate the Dharma-body and render service, shattering their grasping and obstacle; therefore he says that the Tathāgata cannot be seen by means of marks. Since through the sūtra one accomplishes the merit provision and will naturally realize the formless true essence of the Dharma-body, the merit of upholding the sūtra surpasses the merit of giving. To reveal these two intents, this passage is spoken. Therefore, the two treatises each rely on one meaning: Asaṅga relies on abandoning the obstacle and calls it "abandoning the obstacle of lacking the merit provision"; Vasubandhu relies on the comparative assessment and calls it "upholding the sūtra attains a pure, superior recompense". The text is divided into four: question, answer, challenge, and explanation. This is the first. Since the Dharma-body is the formless true essence, he asks Subhūti whether one can contemplate the thirty-two marks of the physical body as the Tathāgata's true Dharma-body.