維摩經疏卷第三．第六 3.26

3.26

Second, within the teaching and reprimand, he first reprimands and then teaches. From "Then, my Bhagavat" onward, Kāśyapa heard the Dharma and gave rise to the mind [to seek it]. In the reprimand, having a compassionate mind that is not universal: by abandoning the rich to follow the poor, he wishes to cause the poor to obtain wealth, not realizing that the rich would return to poverty; therefore it is not universal. Within the direct teaching, there are two major divisions in the text: first, directly teaching by overturning the faults to reveal the gains; second, from "Eating in this manner" onward, because of their virtues, both donor and recipient obtain supreme benefit. In the former, first overturn those four faults, which then become the four gains; then the single phrase "one may eat" concludes the whole. In the former, as for the "four faults": first, grasping the characteristic of food; second, dreading sensory fields; third, seeing the deviant and the correct; fourth, the mind being non-universal. Within the first, grasping the characteristic of food, there are intrinsically four faults: first, non-equality; second, not acting for the sake of non-eating; third, not acting for the sake of destroying the compounded characteristics; fourth, not acting for the sake of non-receiving. "Dwelling in the equal Dharma, one should go on begging rounds": this overturns his first fault. Desiring to eat, it causes practitioners to go begging for the sake of realizing the pure and equal dharmakāya. The phrases following "Then one may eat" are explained analogously to this. Alternatively, equality has four aspects: first, equality of persons, viewing sentient beings universally; second, equality of phenomena, the tathatā and Buddha-nature; third, equality of mind, necessarily generating a universal mind and regarding the noble and base equally; fourth, equality of practice, necessarily generating a universal practice and begging equally from both poor and rich. Here in this text, it is defined in terms of equality of practice. "For the sake of non-eating, one should go on begging rounds": Tan says this overturns the second fault. The true essence is free from conditions; nirvāṇa is equal and does not depend on food. One should go on begging rounds with this mind. If so, then eating all day is nirvāṇa all day; their Way is not two. Zhuang says: The former masters explained that non-eating is nirvāṇa, and one goes begging for the sake of nirvāṇa; this explanation ends up adopting an external doctrine. When Hīnayāna practitioners go begging, it is all for seeking nirvāṇa with an urgency like fire. If one makes this reprimand, it does not succeed as a reprimand. Now the meaning of this text is entirely to break down that clinging mind through the equality of dharmatā. Now it clarifies that eating itself is non-eating. Only if you can have nothing that is eaten may you take food. "For the sake of destroying the compounded characteristics, one should take morsel food": Tan says this overturns the third fault. The aggregates, sensory bases, and realms are called compounded characteristics. Although taking morsel food, it is for the sake of destroying the samsāric body of five aggregates; begging is undertaken solely for seeking the pure bodhisattva free from characteristics. Zhuang says: The provisional combination of three dusts forms morsel food, called compounded. If you can realize that food has nothing that is eaten, that is destroying compounding. Therefore the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra says: "For the sake of wishing to destroy their clinging to food, one should go begging." "For the sake of non-receiving, one should receive that food": Tan says this overturns the fourth fault. The dharmakāya is eternally abiding and does not receive a samsāric body. One should receive that food with this mind. If so, then receiving food all day long, one has never received it. Zhuang says: As when receiving food, one understands the nature of food to be empty, so in receiving there is nothing received. Therefore the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra says: "Wishing to receive food given by others, one should go begging from them."