維摩經抄 1.2

1.2

Now, regarding the broad outline of the Buddha-Dharma, one must understand its principal tenets [… to] state them in full. Broadly, they constitute two traditions: the Great Vehicle (Mahāyāna) and the Lesser Vehicle (Hīnayāna). Furthermore, the Great Vehicle is divided into three: First, the Dharmalakṣaṇa school. In its sūtras and treatises, it extensively establishes dharmas boundlessly and measurelessly: the five aggregates, twelve sense bases, eighteen sensory realms, twelve links of dependent origination, six pāramitās, and so forth, […] eighty-four thousand gateways. That is to say, the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra, Yogācārabhūmi Śāstra, and others mostly explain dharmalakṣaṇa. All explanations in the sūtras and treatises concerning the distinctions, names, and enumerations of characteristics are subsumed under this school. Second, the School of Refuting Characteristics. That is to say, the various Prajñāpāramitā sūtras, the Dvādaśanikāya Śāstra, and so forth explain that all dharmas are empty of both nature and characteristics, simultaneously discarding existence and non-existence. Third, the Dharmatā school. That is to say, sūtras such as the Avataṃsaka, Mahāparinirvāṇa, Vimalakīrti, and Laṅkāvatāra, as well as the Awakening of Faith and so forth, explain that all dharmas are neither empty nor existent, both existent and empty. That is, straying from the real to give rise to the deluded, everything exists; gathering the deluded to return to the real, everything is empty. In terms of conventional truth, they exist; in terms of ultimate truth, they are empty. In sleep and dreams, they exist; upon awakening, they are empty. All dharmas are without self, meaning they are empty; causes and effects are not destroyed, meaning they still exist. Emptiness is not separate from existence: existence is emptiness; existence is not separate from emptiness: emptiness is existence. Thus emptiness and existence are extensively explained without limit. Therefore, out of compassion, the Buddhas and bodhisattvas enter into existence; out of wisdom, they contemplate emptiness. Because they contemplate emptiness, though entering existence they are not defiled; because of compassion, though realizing emptiness they do not cling. Ordinary beings mostly cling to existence; the two vehicles mostly cling to emptiness. Relinquishing both of these is the true Great Vehicle. Second, the Lesser Vehicle has twenty schools with different tenets; […] therefore it is omitted. Now, this Vimalakīrti Sūtra is subsumed under the third, the Dharmatā school. Because in this sūtra a mustard seed contains Sumeru, and a ten-foot square accommodates the world—all expressing the meaning of the perfect interpenetration and unobstructedness of dharmatā. If one can awaken to and enter this third school, one will have no obstruction regarding the Buddha-Dharma. As treatises say: When the Buddhas speak of existence, existence does not obstruct emptiness; when the Buddhas speak of existence, existence does not obstruct emptiness; when the Buddhas speak of emptiness, emptiness does not obstruct existence. Thus the verse of the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā says: / Neither arising nor ceasing, / neither permanent nor annihilated, / neither identical nor different, / neither coming nor going; / able to preach this dependent origination, / skillfully extinguishing all prapañca: / I bow my head in homage to the Buddha, / the foremost among all who speak.