維摩經抄 1.18

1.18

The sūtra says: "Now, one who seeks the Dharma has no seeking for form, feeling, perception, formations, or consciousness (the emptiness of the five aggregates); has no seeking for realms or sense bases (the emptiness of the twelve sense bases and eighteen sensory realms); has no seeking for desire, form, or formlessness (the emptiness of the three realms); does not seek with attachment to the Buddha, does not seek with attachment to the Dharma, does not seek with attachment to the Saṃgha (the emptiness of the Three Jewels); has no seeking to see suffering, no seeking to cut off the origin of suffering, and no seeking to realize cessation through attaining it or to cultivate the path." Commentary: This character *zao* (造) is pronounced in the falling tone (*qusheng*); *zao* means to go toward. "Realizing cessation": the nature of nirvāṇa is empty; when outflows are exhausted and realized, it is called realizing cessation. Since it has no location, where would one go toward? The sūtra says: "Śāriputra said: 'Householder, it is unprecedented! That such a small room could accommodate these high and vast thrones!' up to saying: 'Śāriputra, all the buddhas and bodhisattvas have a liberation named the Inconceivable. If a bodhisattva abides in this liberation, he can insert the height and breadth of Sumeru into a mustard seed without any increase or decrease, and the king of mountains, Sumeru, remains in its original appearance as before, while the Four Heavenly Kings and others are neither aware nor conscious of it. Only those who should be saved see Sumeru enter into the mustard seed. This is named the Dharma-gate of Inconceivable Liberation.'" Commentary: This section directly clarifies the inconceivable. The sūtra states the main theme: the mustard seed is extremely small, and Sumeru is extremely large; both are material phenomena. Mount Sumeru, in accordance with various sūtras and treatises, is eighty thousand yojanas in both width and height. Ancient interpretations of this have had many approaches; now we should follow the essentials in two or three approaches. First, explaining it in terms of the two truths: conventional truth's deluded conceptualization sees their sizes; the two characteristics are vastly disparate and do not accommodate each other. Within the ultimate truth, they are harmoniously unified in a single substance; because they are a single substance, the mustard seed is not small and Sumeru is not large. The small is not determinately small, and the large is not determinately large; for this reason they accommodate each other. Awakening to this principle is inconceivable. Second, explaining it in terms of the two schools of Dharmalakṣaṇa and Dharmatā: in the Dharmalakṣaṇa school, the large and small are distinct in characteristics and do not accommodate each other. In the Dharmatā school, the myriad phenomena [as numerous as] the sands of the Ganges share the same single tathatā and do not maintain their own nature, just as the myriad waters of the great sea share the same single flavor, open, pervasive, and unobstructed; the large can enter the small, and the small also unites with the large: this is inconceivable. Third, in terms of the two gateways of emptiness and existence: within the gate of marvelous existence, large and small are not non-existent; within the gate of true emptiness, small and large do not exist. Their mutual accommodation is inconceivable. Emptiness is not separate from existence, so large and small are fully manifest; existence is not separate from emptiness, therefore they accommodate each other. It may also be explained further in terms of the gateway of vijñapti-mātra: a single thought of the pure mind is subtle and minute, like a mustard seed; the myriad arrayed phenomena, though numerous, must arise through manifestation from the one mind. Outside of the mind, there are ultimately no phenomena; gathering the realm into the mind, they therefore accommodate each other. There are also ancient masters who explained it in terms of various gateways such as the three natures; fearing verbosity, we stop here. From here downward, the pore containing the waters of the great sea and so forth are broadly the same in general meaning as this. The sūtra says: "Why have we permanently severed its roots, being like spoiled seeds regarding this Great Vehicle?" Commentary: These are words of Kāśyapa rebuking the small vehicle. Now, in discussing the Great Vehicle: the bodhisattva does not leave saṃsāra, does not enter nirvāṇa, does not cut off defilements, and does not abandon sentient beings; therefore they enter the three miserable destinies and travel back and forth in the three realms. The mind of great compassion is the root of the Great Vehicle. People of the two vehicles have already left saṃsāra, already realized nirvāṇa, already cut off defilements, and already abandoned sentient beings; their compassionate mind is already dead. Therefore it says "roots are severed" and they are "like spoiled seeds."