淨名經關中釋抄 2.13

2.13

"Sentient beings": The Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa says that because they arise from a multitude of conditions, they are called "sentient beings" (zhongsheng, lit. "multitude-arisen"). This is an explanation based on conditioned arising having no self-nature. The Prajñāpradīpa says that because they are repeatedly born, they are called "sentient beings"; that is, as other sūtras say, pudgala is translated as "frequently taking rebirth", which is an explanation identical to this (this is an explanation based on receiving birth having no self-nature). The Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra says that there is no dharma that can be named a sentient being; it is called a "sentient being" merely as a provisional designation (this is an explanation based on the emptiness of substantial essence having no self-nature). These three explanations from the sūtras and treatises differ in words but are identical in principle. Although the name "sentient being" exists for the conditioned, it is indeed a teaching that turns one toward awakening to non-arising. The various explanations stating "there are sentient beings" seem to posit sentient beings as definite existents. While this seems precise in distinguishing them from the category of insentient things, it is not without minor fault regarding the gate of delivering teachings to awaken to the principle. May those who have reached understanding thoroughly examine the Buddha's intended meaning in depth! / "The fifth great element, etc.": The previous four great elements exist in reality, so they are not taken as metaphors. A fifth great element is fundamentally non-existent; hence it is a metaphor for sentient beings fundamentally lacking arising. / "The sixth aggregate, etc.": The interpretation corresponds to this by extension. Other teachings say that a second head, a third hand, turtle hair, and rabbit horns are all identical to this metaphor of being fundamentally without arising. / "Practicing quiescent loving-kindness": After the bodhisattva contemplates the emptiness of sentient beings and enters the contemplation of non-arising, he turns back to expound this contemplation gate of non-arising for sentient beings. When sentient beings attain the forbearance of non-arising dharmas, this is conferring the bliss of the forbearance of non-arising upon sentient beings; hence it is called "loving-kindness". Below, although the various names such as "quiescent loving-kindness" are different, their essence is solely one. Now, having awakened to the forbearance of non-arising, these various names are broadly established on the basis of this forbearance according to meaning. Why so? It is simply to cause sentient beings to awaken to non-arising. Non-arising is quiescent extinction. Afflictions not arising is absence of feverish heat. Non-arising in the two lifetimes is called "equality". Non-arising is non-origination; because of non-origination, there is no purified dharma. Because of non-arising, internal and external do not meet; not meeting is non-duality. Non-arising is inexhaustible; hence it does not destroy faith in non-arising, and therefore is non-destructive. Because non-arising is undefiled, it is intrinsically pure. Because non-arising is fundamentally non-existent, it is like empty space. Because non-arising destroys dharmas, it is called "arhat". Because non-arising brings about supreme peace for people, it is called "bodhisattva". Because non-arising is the mark of true suchness with neither coming nor going, it is called "Tathāgata". Awakening to the non-arising of dharmas is called the Buddha's loving-kindness. The principle of non-arising is eternal and not born of causes and conditions; hence it is spontaneous. Because non-arising has no right or wrong, bodhi is of one taste. Because non-arising lacks any counterpart, it is matchless. Because non-arising is the Great Vehicle rescuing from great suffering, it is great compassion. Because non-arising is free from self and other, it is without weariness. Causing others to awaken to non-arising, which is the loving-kindness and giving of the myriad practices, is called "unsparing". In non-arising, the offenses of breaking the precepts are extinguished, and because one awakens to non-arising, self and other are forgotten. Because non-arising can forget the delusion of indolence, it is called "vigor". Non-arising means that the taste of absorption does not arise. Non-arising means the two wisdoms shine together; hence it "knows the proper time". Because non-arising can manifest birth in response to beings, it is "manifestation". Because non-arising shatters the views of the two extremes, the straight mind is without concealment. Because non-arising enters deeply into the single mark, it is unmixed. Because non-arising is the true mirror, it is not artificial. Because non-arising is ultimate nirvāṇa, it is called "the Buddha's bliss". It can be said that in a single thought of non-arising, the myriad practices are fully complete: one practice is all practices, one loving-kindness is all loving-kindness. Therefore, the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā says that although prajñā is empty, a single mind is replete with the myriad practices; that is just this matter. / "In the room there was a goddess": Previously, Vimalakīrti's ten-foot-square room held many seats. Why was this room empty? The Buddha lands are also all empty. Thus one knows that Vimalakīrti's ten-foot-square room is neither broad nor narrow; it manifests breadth or narrowness in response to beings to deliver them. Now this goddess is a dharmakāya bodhisattva. The dharmakāya is not female, yet manifests a female body, thereby showing that Vimalakīrti is not male, yet manifests as a male. Therefore the text below says: "The goddess has attained the forbearance of non-arising, and by virtue of her original vows can manifest at will." Furthermore, sentient beings are empty like the fifth [great element], etc., but the assembled listeners did not yet know why they are empty; therefore, by means of the goddess manifesting her body, the signlessness of the goddess is broadly demonstrated. / "These flowers have no distinctions": The goddess is a dharmakāya bodhisattva who contemplates the flowers as signless, not seeing clinging to the body as a transgression or falling from the body as an avoidance. Therefore she says, "These flowers have no distinctions; you, venerable sir, generate distinctions yourself." Śāriputra belongs to the Small Vehicle and does not understand that the nature of flowers is non-arisen; thus he sees clinging to the body as violating precepts and shedding them from the body as upholding precepts. / "Has already severed all marks of distinction": The five aggregates are empty by nature; one does not see clinging to them as a violation or avoiding them as upholding [precepts]. As it is with precepts, so it is with concentration and wisdom. In the Small Vehicle, entering concentration is concentration, and emerging from concentration is distraction. In the Great Vehicle, concentration and distraction are of a single mark, likewise without distinction. Moreover, in the Small Vehicle, entering contemplation and taking reality as an object is called wisdom, while emerging from contemplation and taking the saṃgha as an object is not wisdom. In the Great Vehicle, contemplation of reality and saṃgha is non-dual; the mind being non-arisen is itself wisdom, and therefore there is no distinction of different objects. / "Residual habituations not yet exhausted": Regarding the remaining delusions of the śrāvakas, in the teaching of the Small Vehicle it is said that the principal defilements are already severed and only habituations remain. If compared to the Great Vehicle, the remaining afflictions of the śrāvakas are simply fettering defilements, not mere habituations. How is this known? Therefore the Lotus Sūtra says that the followers of the two vehicles have only left the burning house and sit on the open ground; they have not yet mounted the jewelled vehicle, and remain far from the Way. Formerly, they took the fundamental suffering of the three realms as pleasure; now, departing from falsehood, it is called liberation. Only when one gives rise to the bodhisattva mind and cultivates the ten abodes up to wonderful awakening and the jewelled vehicle of the white bull is it first called complete liberation. Therefore, one knows that the delusions severed by the śrāvakas are merely a departure from falsehood, not called the severing of the principal fetters. Only when one attains the complete liberation of a bodhisattva does one first sever the principal defilements. The Renwang jing also says: "From the forbearance of habituation to the summit samādhi, all are called subduing; all afflictions are suddenly resolved only by the Buddha." As for that not being called the gradual subduing through faith, according to this, even on the stage of coronation in the tenth bhūmi it is said to be subduing; how could what is left over from the śrāvaka's severing of delusion be all mere habituation? The Tathāgata, using skillful means to restrain the distant and bring it close, therefore taught that what is severed is the defilement and what is unsevered is habituation. In reality, what they severed was falsehood, whose delusion is very slight; the unsevered ignorance has encumbrances that are exceedingly heavy, hence it is called a fetter. / "Liberation has nothing that can be spoken of": Small Vehicle liberation departs from the conventional to realize the real; hence it is said that the realizer forgets words. The Great Vehicle identifies the conventional with the real; hence words themselves are without words. Therefore, names, words, and expressions are all marks of liberation. / "Arrogance" (abhimāna): There are seven kinds of pride, of which this is one. First is pride (māna): considering oneself superior to an inferior, or equal to an equal. Second is overweening pride (atimāna): considering oneself superior to an equal. Third is excessive pride (mānātimāna): considering oneself superior to a superior. Fourth is pride of attachment (asmimāna): clinging to a self with respect to the five grasping aggregates. Fifth is arrogance (abhimāna): superior dharmas free from outflow are called "superior"; claiming to have attained what has not yet been attained is arrogance. Sixth is pride of inferiority (ūnamāna): considering oneself only slightly inferior to those vastly superior. Seventh is wrong pride (mithyāmāna): claiming to possess what in reality has not been attained. Now, the liberation of the śrāvakas is not the liberation of the buddhas; considering oneself equal to the buddhas is precisely arrogance of claiming what has not yet been attained. / "All women will also be able to transform": The dharmakāya of the Great Being is neither male nor female; responding to beings, it manifests as female. Śāriputra's retribution body is fundamentally not female; transformed by supernatural powers, it became female. The dharma-nature of sentient beings is fundamentally not female; afflictions and deluded karma transform it into female. If Śāriputra understands that his female [form] is not female, he also understands that all women, being non-arisen as female, are also not female. Therefore it says, "Not female, yet manifesting as female." Using this wonderful awakening, one speaks to demonstrate it to people. Now, awakening to the fact that female is not female is transforming into the dharmakāya; it is not like the two vehicles transforming female into male. / "Those who have attained and those who will attain are like the sands of the Ganges": Of the two periods—future and past—why is the present period not mentioned? One explanation says: The Small Vehicle only knows one Sahā world and does not know of the Buddha lands of the ten directions. Cumulatively, past and future buddhas can be said to be like the sands of the Ganges; now, there is only one present buddha, which does not fit the text's mention of "sands of the Ganges", so it is not brought up. Another explanation says: The text mentions future and past, and the present is included by analogy; it only raises the difficulty of attaining, so why must there be the count of the three periods?