淨名經關中釋抄 2.11

2.11

"I have come for the sake of the Dharma, not for couch or seat": Śāriputra's intention was, as it were, to say, "I originally came from the mango orchard for the sake of the Dharma, not for couch or seat; and yet here, suddenly thinking of a seat, was not my original intention." / "Not by having color, feeling, conception, formations, or consciousness... seeking the Dharma": in this passage, Vimalakīrti shows that because the Dharma-nature is unarisen, there is no dharma that can be sought. Furthermore, Mañjuśrī followed the [Buddha's] command, accompanied by five hundred [śrāvakas] and eight thousand [bodhisattvas] for the sake of the Dharma; yet their longing for the Dharma was earnest, and their clinging attachment was also firm. Since their feelings were earnest and their clinging firm, although the previous chapter briefly explained the three contemplations, only the devaputra aroused the aspiration [for awakening], while they were not yet able to deeply awaken to the forbearance of non-arising dharmas. Now, taking occasion of the thought of the seats, [Vimalakīrti] wishes to manifest the great functioning of the Inconceivable Chapter; therefore, he first dispels their mind that stagnates in dharmas and causes them to forget that intention of seeking and grasping. The various followers who came naturally quieted their mental activities and met with [the truth]... abandoning and losing their stagnation; in the near term, they attained the purity of the Dharma-eye, and in the long term, they were able to enter the Dharma-gate of non-duality. The names and enumerations of aggregates, realms, sense-bases, and so forth are explained at length as in the Lin yuan. / "Without seeking by seeing suffering": there are two kinds of Four Truths. The Hinayāna takes seeing suffering, severing the origination, realizing cessation, and cultivating the path as the four; here, suffering is truly suffering as the profound truth, and it is likewise up to cessation and the path. The Mahāyāna realizes suffering as unarisen, which is called the truth of suffering; and it is likewise up to origination and cessation. These Four Truths are just the one True Truth. These are four in name but one in essence, unlike the former Hinayāna where they are four in name and four in essence. [Master] Si's reply says: "Knowing suffering as unarisen is called the noble truth of suffering; knowing origination as without combination is called the noble truth of the origination of suffering; contemplating with the mark of non-duality is called the noble truth of the path; dharmas originally do not arise and now do not cease—this is called the noble truth of the cessation of suffering." These are the Mahāyāna Four Truths of non-arising. If it is as the Bequeathed Teaching Sūtra says: "The Buddha taught the truth of suffering: it is truly suffering, and cannot be made otherwise; origination is truly the cause..." and so forth—this is the Hinayāna Four Truths. Moreover, the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra says: "Ordinary persons have suffering but no truth (because they give rise to the notion of pleasure); the two vehicles have suffering and have truth (because they are aware that the aggregates are suffering); bodhisattvas understand suffering, having no suffering and yet having the true truth (because they are aware that the aggregates are unarisen)." Therefore, the chapter on Kātyāyana says: "The five aggregates wither and are exhausted, empty with nothing arising—this is the meaning of suffering" (this also means being aware of suffering as unarisen is the meaning of suffering). A subsequent passage also says: "Relying on the meaning of the true mark of all dharmas, clearly declare impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and non-self" (this also means understanding suffering as having no master is the true mark). As cited above, if suffering and so forth are unarisen, then there is no seeking by seeing suffering, up to no seeking by severing origination, and so forth. If one says, "I shall see suffering, sever origination, realize cessation, and cultivate the path," then since one does not understand non-arising, this contradicts the true mark; it is not true discourse, and is called conceptual proliferation. / "Yojana": some say yojana, and some say youyan, yuxun, or yushan'na. Here it is translated as "calculation that should correspond thus," meaning that upon calculation and measurement, it should correspond thus; it is equivalent to the relay stations in this land. A day's journey for an ancient sage king is sixteen li according to the Abhidharmakośa; other sūtras and treatises say thirty, sixty, or eighty, with no fixed number; see Master Ying's Scriptural Sounds. / "These seats are so high and broad that we cannot ascend them": the Tathāgata in former days in the Deer Park preached the Hinayāna Four Truths of arising and ceasing and the twelve links of dependent origination to sever defilements of the three realms and nine stages, reaching the couch of the nine liberations up to neither-conception-nor-non-conception, realizing the knowledge of exhaustion and non-arising, which is called sitting on the couch of liberation. The Tathāgata comforted and received the two vehicles, saying: "I and you three persons sit together on the couch of liberation." These various śrāvakas and others did not understand that the Tathāgata spoke according to appropriateness, [thinking] that the Tathāgata in actual reality sat together with them on this couch of liberation. Therefore, the Lotus Sūtra says: "The Buddha taught the single meaning of liberation; they could not attain this Dharma." Since the two vehicles considered the Buddha to sit together with them, how could they advance and seek further? Now, wishing to strip away the Hinayāna liberation and make them know it is not the true couch, and to cause them to realize the true seat of inconceivable liberation—yet principle cannot be awakened to suddenly and must have a gradual progression—he therefore makes use of King of Lamps' seats to discard the provisional and access the ultimate. Therefore the Lotus Sūtra says: "You have merely separated from delusion and call it liberation; in truth, you have not yet attained the liberation of all." Why use the couch as a metaphor? Answer: Because liberation is coming to rest; hence, it is compared to a couch. / "Having spiritual penetrations, yet not inconceivable": the spiritual penetrations of the two vehicles increase the small and decrease the great. Since they have not yet realized that the great and the small are originally one, and hold that things have fixed marks of great and small, they employ supernormal faculties to increase and decrease the great and the small. Since they act with increase and decrease, they see different forms of great and small; therefore, it is called conceivable. The bodhisattva's knowledge exhausts the middle way, provisionally contemplating and ultimately fulfilling the wondrous principle; the forms of great and small and the knowledge merge into the wondrous essence's functioning. Just as a bright mirror has no mind yet the lovely and ugly are naturally discerned, true spiritual penetrations are not operated yet the long and short naturally shift. This is the spiritual penetration inherently possessed by the dharmakāya; how could it be the spiritual penetration of the two vehicles, which relies on effort in preliminary absorption and operates with a deliberate mind? Question: How do the deliberate penetrations of the two vehicles compare with the inherently possessed penetrations of a bodhisattva? Answer: They are vastly different. The two vehicles, upon their conditioned, retributive self-minds, rely on the power of absorption to manifest penetrations: when the mind operates, they exist; when the mind ceases, they are absent. The bodhisattva awakens to and penetrates the Dharma-nature so that essence and functioning are completely fulfilled. The essence of the Dharma-nature is constantly functioning, so how could it arise or cease? The Dharma-nature is inherently possessed, so how could its functioning be accomplished through cultivation? Furthermore, while tranquil and extinguished, it is constantly functioning; functioning, it is constantly tranquil in principle. There is no functioning apart from the essence, nor is there an essence separated from functioning. Since essence is functioning and functioning is essence, how could there be a deliberate mind in operating them? These are the bodhisattva's penetrations of Dharma-nature; how could they be the absorption-power penetrations of the two vehicles? / "Why have we forever severed its roots?": Formerly, hearing the teaching given according to appropriateness, they believed that in reality they sat together with the Buddha on the couch of liberation. Now, hearing that there is a distinct liberation called "inconceivable," they measure that their own external functioning is inferior, and also verify that their inner realization is not real. Furthermore, adding that the practices of the Mahāsattva exceed three asaṃkhyeya kalpas, while my own severing of fetters has a very short span of life, and having no share in advancing cultivation, they thus give rise to the sorrow of being forever severed. Moreover, verifying that one's own realization is not the same as the Buddha's is called the teaching of turning curd into raw curd (in the Avataṃsaka, the vehicles of the initial two fruits have not yet been benefited, called milk; the Āgamas turn the ordinary into the noble, like turning milk into curd; formerly they thought the three vehicles equally realized the ninth liberation, but now they know the Buddha is not the same, and regret their grasping of the small, which is called raw curd; when it comes to the Prajñāpāramitā, the Buddha has the śrāvakas turn the teaching for bodhisattvas, and since they are permitted to transmit the teaching but have not yet received prediction—gathering the teaching without teaching the person—it is clarified butter; when it comes to the Lotus and Nirvāṇa teachings, those who formerly transmitted to others are now bestowed predictions, which is the ghee teaching). Furthermore, hearing that the śrāvakas clung to the fruit of liberation being the same as the Buddha's and on principle did not advance to seek further, this sūtra specifically breaks down liberation being the same, whereupon they harbored the lament of having severed their share; but when it comes to the Lotus and Nirvāṇa, hearing that even the slightest good leads on principle to the fruit of Buddhahood, that what is grown on one earth and moistened by one rain ensures that all sentient beings have Buddha-nature, and all who have minds shall without exception become Buddhas, they then naturally regret having formerly broken down their sameness. / "What the Buddha's sons should attain": if I also attain it, what cause is there for longing and lamentation? The principle is subtle, faculties are coarse, and the teachings differ... thus causing a teaching of one voice to have different understandings. Yet Dharma Masters have failed to grasp the deep intent of the sūtra, and upon hearing the words "severed share," immediately take the two vehicles of fixed nature as forever lacking Buddha-nature. This surely means they have not deeply understood the provisional and ultimate teachings of the Supreme Person. / "Ordinary persons are base and inferior, unable to press upon a bodhisattva like this": "ordinary persons" are common mortals; "base and inferior" refers to those of the two vehicles and pre-bhūmi bodhisattvas, who are persons of base and inferior stages. Hence the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra says: "The inferior stages of ordinary persons are not what they can endure."